Joined Wikipedia on June 2, 2005, after making several anonymous edits over the prior year.
Formal education
edit- B.S. Chemistry, University of Illinois, 1993
- B.S. Biochemistry, University of Illinois, 1993
- M.A. Library and Information Science, University of Wisconsin, 1998
Memberships
editMorphy Number
editMy Morphy number is (at most) 6, by virtue of a game I played in an online simul against Alexandra Kosteniuk. She has played at least once against Anatoly Karpov, who has a Morphy Number of (at most) 4.
Collection of long-lived misinformation in Wikipedia
editWhile I find much of value in Wikipedia, I remain skeptical that errors are usually quickly caught, as alleged in Wikipedia:Replies to common objections. As a demonstration, I am cataloging misinformation which persists for a lengthy time (say, 30 days or more) in Wikipedia. If you have additions, please mention them on my talk page. However, I am excluding misinformation which was deliberately added as misinformation (possibly, but not necessarily, to test how quickly it's discovered) as that is contrary to the spirit of Wikipedia, unethical, and I will not encourage it.
| Article | Misinformation | Entered | Correction | Corrected | Days | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bible | Catholic Bible has 76 books | December 27, 2001 [1] | Catholic Bible has 73 books | January 3, 2005 [2] | 1103 | [3] |
| Chrome yellow | Lead chromate is PbO4 | May 16, 2005 [4] | Lead chromate is PbCrO4 | July 14, 2005 [5] | 59 | [6] |
| Nobel Prize | When awarded to multiple winners, prize money is split evenly | March 2, 2005 [7] | When awarded to three winners, prize may be split 50/25/25 | October 12, 2005 [8] | 224 | [9] |
| Palindromic number | If stripping the first and last digit of a number leaves a palindromic number, the original number is palindromic | July 14, 2005 [10] | Only if the first and last digits are equal | October 14, 2005 [11] | 92 | Other defs in Palindromic number |
| Plutonium | Ions in aqueous solution are Pu3+, Pu4+, PuO2+, and PuO+. | March 9, 2004 [12] | Pu3+, Pu4+, PuO22+, and PuO2+ | February 15, 2006 [13] | 708 | [14] |
| Howard Martin Temin | Reverse transcriptase important to PCR | June 1, 2005 [15] | Only in RT-PCR; not used in ordinary PCR | October 11, 2007 [16] | 862 | polymerase chain reaction |