View source for Vero - Wikipedia:Wikipedia NEWS/June 13 19 2001

Archived news entries from June 13-19 2001.

'''Matteo Carcassi'''
: Posted June 19
: A biography on a famed classical [[Guitar]]ist, introduced to us by [[User:MarkVdB]], is augmented by images of the sheet music for one of his most famous works, [[25 Etudes op.60]]. Looks like Larry's got some work resolving the license issues, though...
: ([[Matteo Carcassi | Read more...]] | [[Matteo Carcassi/Talk | Talk]])

'''American English, Yeah Okay'''
: Posted June 19
: A page on the "uncivilized" amalgalm that is American English is starting to emerge, filled with the many idiosyncracies of the Language of the Yanks. Many of us ain't too aware of how what we talk is so different from thems fellows overseas. But we sure do talk funny, you betcha. And here's a page where ya can realize English the way we all learned. Of course, we all know English is originally just a deviant form of the [[German language]]. 
: ([[English language/American English | Read more...]] | [[English_language/Talk | Talk]]) 

'''Chinese History'''
: Posted June 18
: [[User:Xiemaisi]] brings us the history of [[China]] for Wikipedia, providing us with an excellent summary of one of the longest lasting imperial cultures on our planet. This fills in the thousands of years prior to our section on the of modern China, and provides an excellent 15 minute background on how China came to be as it is today. Such an epic history begins, appropriately enough, with a heroic battle: ''In the 220s BCE, the duke Zheng of Qin managed to overwhelm the state of Chu, the biggest of the Warring States. This victory impressed the other dukes so much they surrendered without further fighting. Zheng proclaimed himself First Emperor of the [[Qin Dynasty]] (Qin Shi Huangdi). Though his reign lasted only 11 years, he managed to subdue great parts of what constitutes present-day China and to unite them under a tight centralized government seated in Xianyang (near Xi'an). His sons, however, weren't as succesful...''
: ([[Chinese history | Read more...]] | [[Chinese history/Talk | Talk]])

'''Topic-oriented Wikipedia'''
: Posted June 18
: [[User:Larry Sanger]] has put together a useful alternative categorization scheme, that is more strongly topically oriented than our homepage. It would be a good idea for you to look this over and chip in your thoughts, because this could be the vision of Wikipedia's future structure.
: ([[Wikipedia:Historical archive/Wikipedia arranged by topic | Read more...]] | [[Wikipedia talk:Historical archive/Wikipedia arranged by topic| Talk]])
 
'''Listing Poetically'''
: Posted June 18
: Our list of Poets has doubled in size - from 26 to 58, over the last four days. Is your favorite Poet listed? If not, add him (or her). If so, then see if you can add something to their description. For [[William Shakespeare]], Wikipedia even has one of his plays included: [[Alls Well That Ends Well--Text | All's Well That Ends Well]]. There is also pages for [[Latin poets]], [[Polish poets]] and [[Spanish language poets]].
: ([[Poets | Read more...]] | [[Poets/Talk | Talk]])

'''Prisoner's Dilemma'''
: Posted June 18
: [[User:Sjc]] posts an article on one of my favorite Game Theory strategies - the "Prisoner's Delimma". I've often wondered at the way this theory could help explain the successfulness of online projects like Wikipedia. ''...the likelihood of cooperation and trust developing between two partners is related to the likelihood of there being other encounters in the future. ''
: ([[Prisoner's dilemma | Read more...]] | [[Prisoners dilemma/Talk | Talk]])

'''Bobby Fischer'''
: Posted June 16
: Another excellent entry in Wikipedia's Chess Grandmaster's series is brought to us by [[User:Isofarro]]:  ''Nobody gave the young Fischer much of a chance of qualifying from the Interzonal (the top four places qualified for the Candidates Tournament), so it was a surprise, and a good finish that Fischer qualified, and with it he was awarded the title of Chess Grandmaster in 1958.''
: ''It was at this stage, during the Candidates tournament, Fischer came face to face with the Russian Chess juggernaut...''
: ([[Bobby Fischer | Read more...]] | [[Bobby Fischer/Talk | Talk]])

'''World War II's Great Leaders'''
: Posted June 16
: Two meaty bio's have recently been posted to add to Wikipedia's impressive collection of [[World War II]] articles, thanks to WojPob, Isofarro, and others:
: [[Benito Mussolini]] ''created a very, very unfair and anti-democratic version of Italy, he forced the people to believe in ?[[Fascism]]? as the way of the future through his total control of the media, he had complete control of the country of [[Italy]] after he disassembled the existing democratic government system. He used corrupt and unfortunate means to keep his [[dictatorship]].''
: [[Winston Churchill]] ''Churchill came to the fore of British politics during the cumulation of World War Two. He was a heavy critic of [[Neville Chamberlain]]'s political handling of [[Adolf Hitler]]. On Chamberlain's resignation in early 1940, Churchill formed the next coalition government. ''
: ([[World War II | Read more...]] | [[World War II/Talk | Talk]])

'''Threepenny Opera'''
: Posted June 16
: [[User:Sjc]] brings us an article on a very revolutionary piece of theater.  ''The play challenges conventional notions of property, and, to paraphrase from the play, asks the central rhetorical question: "Who is the bigger criminal? He who robs a bank or he who founds one?" ''
: ([[Threepenny Opera | Read more...]] | [[Threepenny Opera/Talk | Talk]])

'''Bruce Sterling'''
: Posted June 16
: Wikipedia's [[Science fiction]] author collection grows with an article by [[User:Malcolm Farmer]] on Bruce  Sterling.  ''In the late 1970s onwards, Sterling wrote a series of stories set in a `Mechanist/Shaper' universe: the solar system is colonised, with two major warring factions. The Mechanists use a great deal of computer-based mechanical technologies, the Shapers do genetic engineering on a massive scale.''
: ([[Bruce Sterling | Read more...]] | [[Bruce Sterling/Talk | Talk]])

'''Today in the News'''
: [[June 15]], [[2001]]
: [[NASA]] astronauts on the space station [[Alpha]] rehearse to fix a malfunctioning robotic arm.  Worldwide controversy over the U.S. [[National Missile Defense]] system grew today, as [[China|Chinese]] President [[Jiang Zemin]] and [[Russia]] President [[Vladimir Putin]] condemned the missile system during a meeting at the newly named [[Shanghai Cooperation Organization]] (SCO).  [[FBI]] agent and convicted Russian spy [[Robert Hanssen]] is in negotiations with U.S. federal prosecuters to avoid suffering the [[death penalty]].  The anticipated ''[[Lara Croft: Tomb Raider]]'' film is released, starring [[Angelina Jolie]] as [[Lara Croft]], and [[Noah Taylor]] as her sidekick and brilliant engineer Bryce (yay!)  And [[farmer]]s in [[Zentsuji]], [[Japan]] have developed a clever technique to grow square [[watermelons]] by inserting the melons into glass cases the exact dimension of Japanese [[refrigerator]]s; they cost four times as much as regular watermelons, though.
: ([[June 15 | Read more...]] | [[June 15/Talk | Talk]])

'''Michael Moorcock'''
: Posted June 15
: [[User:Sjc]] brings us knowledge of a prolific British [[Science fiction]] author, [[Michael Moorcock]], who ''is considered one of the founders of the so-called `New Wave' movement in science fiction: his serialisation of [[Norman Spinrad]]'s `Bug Jack Barron' was notorious for causing a British MP to condemn the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.''  He is author of such books as 'Universal Champion', 'Mother London' and 'Byzantium endures'.
: ([[Michael Moorcock | Read more...]] | [[Michael Moorcock/Talk | Talk]]) 

'''Two Chess Grandmasters'''
: Today [[User:Isofarro]] posts two articles to introduce us to two of the grand masters of [[Chess]].
: ''[[Anatoly Karpov]] Russian chess player who started off his playing career by annexing the Junior World Championship (not won by a Russian since [[Boris Spassky]]), everything sky-rocketed from there. ''
: ''[[Gary Kasparov]]'s rise up the FIDE ranking order is nothing short of phenomenal. Starting with an oversight by the Russian chess federation, Gary Kasparov participated in a Grandmaster tournament in [[Banja Luka]] whilst still an unknown...''
: ([[Chess | Read more...]] | [[Chess/Talk | Talk]])

'''John Cabot'''
: Posted June 15
: [[User:Andre Engels]] posts an interesting article about an [[Explorer]] from [[Genova]] who searched for a route to the Indies, yet ran into North America, instead.  ''[John] Cabot went to [[Bristol]] to make the preparations for his voyage. Bristol by then was the second-largest seaport of England, and during the past years (from [[1480]] onwards) several expeditions had been sent out to look for [[Hy-Brasil]], an island that would lay somewhere in the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] according to [[Celtic]] legends....  Cabot left with only one vessel, the ''Matthew'', a small ship (50 tuns), but fast and able. The crew consisted of only 18 people.''
: ([[John Cabot | Read more...]] | [[John Cabot/Talk | Talk]]) 

'''Column:  Disambiguating parenthesis'''
: Posted on June 15
: [[User:Larry Sanger]] posts a new column to introduce to us a new feature coming with the next release and installation of our Wiki code:   ''Soon, we will be able to disambiguate topics by using parentheses.  It's worth starting to think about some general principles about when to use parentheses, and what to put in the parentheses. ''
: ([[User:Larry Sanger/Disambiguating parentheses | Read more...]] | [[User:Larry Sanger/Disambiguating parentheses Talk | Talk]]) 

'''Electronic Music'''
: Posted on June 15
: Several people have been working on the page about a form of music that has been around since the 60's yet only recently has reached the mainstream in significant measure.  Today, two duplicate pages on electronic music were combined to form a nicely detailed unified article.  There's a wealth of links to interesting bands, origin history, and influence theory to help fill in.  ''Examples of early adopters in this field are bands like [[Deep Purple]] and [[Pink Floyd]], and although their music is not thought of as being primarily electronic, much of their resulting sound was dependant upon the synthesised element. In the 1970s, this style was mainly popularised by [[Kraftwerk]], who used electronics and robotics to symbolise the alienation of the modern world; to this day their music remains uncompromisingly electronic.''
: ([[Electronic music | Read more...]] | [[Electronic music/Talk | Talk]])

'''Attack of the Patent Nonsense '''
: Posted on June 15
: Some idiot hit the site today defacing pages, putting up [[wikipedia:patent nonsense]] and generally giving us a chuckle at his immaturity.  Once again, the wikipedians rose to the challenge to restore pages almost as quickly as they were broken.  Larry advises:  "Restore pages by clicking on "Edit revision N" of the last intact version of the page..."  You can do this by clicking on "View other revisions" at the bottom of the page, selecting the last "clean" version, picking "Edit revision N of this page" at the bottom, and then "Saving".  Wiki will overwrite the current version with this update.
: ([[wikipedia:patent nonsense|Read more...]] | [[wikipedia talk:patent nonsense| Talk]])

'''Cannabis'''
: Posted on June 14
: A lively discussion is underway on a newly written article on Cannabis, as well fits this most controversial of topics.  :-)  ''When prepared for smoking, the top, tender leaves are dried. The visible effects of smoking marijuana include "mellow" good feelings as well as giggling, and the frequent short-term side-effect of increased appetite. There is controversy over the nature and extent of marijuana's addictiveness and over many of its alleged side effects...''  The most interesting reading is in the Talk section.
: ([[Cannabis | Read more...]] | [[Cannabis/Talk | Talk]])

'''LZW Data compression'''
: Posted on June 14
: A contributor of an article on one of the most influential compression algorithms writes: ''LZW compression provided a better compression ratio, in most applications, than any well known method available up to that time. It became the first widely used general purpose data compression method on computers. On large English texts, it typically compressed to about half original size. Other kinds of data were also quite usefully compressed in many cases...  There are many legal issues surrounding this method which I hope someone in a country with free speech will write up (it would be illegal for me to mention many of the basic legal facts). ''
: ([[LZW | Read more...]] | [[Data compression/LZW Talk | Talk]])

'''World War II:  The Battle of Britain'''
: Posted on June 14
: [[User:RedMabuse]] and [[user:Rmhermen|Rmhermen]] have posted a very readable summary of the important air war between Britain and Germany. ''The Battle of Britain began on August 1940. After the [[Fall of France]] in June, the Germans were not exactly sure what to do next.  Adolf Hitler (and the German people) believed the war was over and the Britons would come to terms very soon.  Stubborn as they are, Albion refused to give in....  So, the onus of the task lay on the German Luftwaffe.''
: ([[Battle of Britain| Read more...]] | [[World War II/Battle of Britain Talk | Talk]])

'''Games:  Stone, Paper, Scissors'''
: Posted on June 13
: As part of the [[Game]] section, the rules of the game [[Stone, Paper, Scissors]] was added.  Several other games, such as [[Go (board game)|Go]] have been written up, but there's still many more yet to do.
: ([[Stone, Paper, Scissors | Read more...]] | [[Stone, Paper, Scissors/Talk | Talk]])

'''New Homepage'''   
: Posted on June 13
: [[User:Hornlo]] created a new, much more nicely organized homepage for the project, and [[User:LMS|Larry]] put it into use.  Perhaps it would be worthwhile to replicate this look on other "portal pages", to give a sense of consistency.
: ([[Main Page | Read more...]] | [[Main Page/Talk | Talk]])

'''Wikipedia Weblog News Page Added'''
: Posted on June 13
: As an experiment, I'm adding a weblog-like system, as an alternative to other similar pages, in the hope that it could be a more valuable way to obtain up-to-date info about the site and pages worth reviewing.  Either this will be successful, and will be able to replace one or more of the other places, or it not, and we will revert to the existing mechanisms and just redirect this page to Announce.  At issue is the fact that this page must be updated by hand, whereas the others are updated automatically.  Will people be good about adding a few new items each day, or is it just too much typing to expect of the community?  Will it encourage the populus din endemic to other weblogs or provide a useful way to hook casual visitors into the community?
: ([[Wikipedia:Wikipedia NEWS | Read more...]] | [[Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia NEWS| Talk]])

:''See also :'' [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia NEWS|Wikipedia NEWS]]