User talk:DanielDemaret/Archives/Archive 7

Cartoon case

Hi Daniel, Thanks for the update in the cartoon case. I am, from time to time, trying to see what people are talking there but I am tired of the same strict ideas and intolerance. People are so determined to have the article in their form and very close to listen any objectives.

I am also very commited with other things in my real life and hardly find some time for this new policy thing. Once it is done, I will try to deal with some other issues, maybe back to the cartoon case see if I can find some democratic people and people with some empathy. Best Resid Gulerdem 19:28, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

It is a bit like a tug-of-war between several factions. The article can not move in any direction while all are tugging in different directions. I have several ideas for restructuring and analysis, but the talk can not seriously discuss too many things at once. I am hoping for some 100% concensus on the image inclusion question, but it may take months. Personally, I think that a compromise should have been reached, like the one you and I, and a few others agreed on. I do not think that putting the cartoons in on a sub-page, and keeping just the cartoonist drawing a cartoon would have really been censorship, and I am a die-hard non-censorship kinda guy. Perhaps the few of that agreed to that compromise could talk about this in a months time? DanielDemaret 20:14, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

I also hope that it ends up with a happy ending and a compromise. It may take some time as you suggested. Will you wait things settle down to discuss your ideas regarding the restructuring, etc.? Resid Gulerdem 09:05, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Interpretations

Perhaps there's little conflict ? They were nice caves, though :-) Varga Mila 20:39, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Less beautiful

When I was a child, I was told a story by a man who had travelled the desert, and one night discovered light from the ground ahead. There was a subterranean town, dug into the sand. Its always mesmerized me, but I forgot the name of the place. They probably sell T-shirts and camel rides today Varga Mila 21:00, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

I must be having 'blond days'. I thought the cave was reference to Plato. In which case I may well be innit. Varga Mila 21:31, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Oh, you have been living in Plato's cave. I see. If you are out of it now, you must have become gnostically enlightened by now. Congratulations.

I was rather thinking of either the town that I happened to literally stumble upon while taking a walk outside... Elche, I think it was... when I suddenly and totally unexpectedly saw antennas sticking out of the ground... this was in the 70s, so no parabolas at the time. Or the german town whose only claim to fame was that Napoleon decided to take it, but he had to give up when none of his scouts could actually find the d*m place. Both places are such that one does not even see them until one is right on top, or inside it, and in both places people seemed to be very private, and not really interested in visitors or tourists. They were just as private as the people I talked to in the Azores. They answered politely, and then promptly turned away, as if the conversation had never taken place. DanielDemaret 21:51, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Evolution Evolved

Since humans where 10% taller and 10% brainier 30,000 years ago, by Paul Pierre Broca called Cro-Magnon, this picture seems more appropriate than the old one etched into our senses.

http://loom.corante.com/evolve.jpg DanielDemaret 23:14, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Well... we didn't necessarily evolve for maximum intelligence...

Perhaps social intelligence relies on less space consuming connections, rather than simply neurons ? Varga Mila 09:17, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Faith is believing what you know aint so (Mark Twain)

I'm aching to read this book by one of my old favourites - and your namesake - ... but I wont have time... for a very long time... so I'll just pass it on

Daniel Dennett (2006) Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/02/08/dennett/print.html) Varga Mila 09:24, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Hands down. Thank 'undivine coincidence' that I make my money teaching and not unraveling mysteries of elusive persons ~ all the usual .net .com and .se attempted : (

Why does religious insult carry more weight than democratic insult?

I haven't read it before, but heard him speak the words. He is a very clear voice (and in matters other than this one, the equivalent of a smiling Buddah : ). Striking a stance for the plurality of Muslim voices, he is, true to form, throughly criticized by the imams ~ and of course the host of people vying for the power of representing the Muslim voice (bizarre but predictable). If Denmark were to hold a election today, I really suspect that he could give the right-wing Pia Kjærsgård a run for her money. Varga Mila 19:08, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

By the way, would the article not 'stand' under 'Opinions of Muslims' ? With a sentence or two relating to the quotation above ? Varga Mila 19:12, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Best practices

By the way, *Best Practices* for apologies are laudable. Crystallizes the paradox of of devoutees demanding the death penalty, irrespective of repent, Bible or Koran in hand. 19:09, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Your Two Questions

Hi Daniel, thanks for your messgae at my talk page. I'm glad to hear you have not had direct troubles recently with Rahael. To answer your two questions:

1. To me, being an administrator means two things. The first is that sometimes some people will look up to administrators and treat what they say with just a little more consideration. I'm not saying this is good or bad, or that we deserve it, or that we shouldn't be given even more respect, or anything other than to observe that this is the case. Therefore, we have an opportunity and also an obligation to try to use that to help people adjust to Wikipedia, to find their way around, and to contribute productively. The second thing being an administrator means is that we do have a few "special powers". These include the ability to "roll-back" a mischeveous edit with only 1 click instead of the several that it takes a regular user. It also includes the ability to block a user temporarily, and to protect a page temporarily from editing if things are really out of hand. You can read all about this at: Wikipedia:Administrators.
2. As far as my mentoring with Raphael, I hope I didn't give you the impression I have taken him on as some sort of full-time understudy or something. I've left several messages for him, which he does seem to have heeded. But this help is very informal. It's been about about a week since I last worked on the cartoon article, and consequently, its been that long since I've had any contact with Raphael. I am sure I will be back before too long, and I'll try to help him again if I can, but I have been working on other things recently. If you think additional eyes are needed on Raphael's actions, you can point me to something specific, or you can go to Wikipedia:Requests for administrator attention and ask another admin to look into it.

I hope this is helpful. Best, Johntex\^talk 15:55, 15 March 2006 (UTC)