User talk:Ibn Battuta

Welcome!

Hello, Ibn Battuta, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! Melchoir 02:25, 28 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DYK

On 30 September, 2006, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Marcelo Piñeyro, which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Moving pages

Hi Ibn Battuta (that sounds funny considering he died 7 centuries ago :-). Please read the procedure outlined at WP:MOVE for moving a page, instead of cutting and pasting the page contents. —Mets501 (talk) 18:42, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your reply. As I said, yes, I know now that I should've started that whole thing differently, but I didn't know that (i.e. that it's possible to move pages) when I started out... and now I'm simply trying to cover up my own mess as best as I (or a helpful administrator) can. From what I see, the best way to go from here would be to move the old page over the newly created one. That, however, would in fact require administrator rights. If you think another step should be taken, I'll be happy to hear it. At any rate: Thanks for your help!! --still-alive-and-kicking Ibn Battuta 19:16, 5 November 2006 (UTC) ... - PS: You're a professional violinist and a high school student? Isn't that a contradiction in terms? Just curious... --Ibn Battuta 20:32, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Great! It's all fixed now, I was just letting you know for the future. And professional just means getting paid to do something, and yes, I get paid to perform the violin and am a high school student :-) —Mets501 (talk) 21:19, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Maps

Others may have already asked you (sorry, I didn't check each of your discussions), but then let me be another one who asks you: Do you still have the original that you've used for several race and circumnavigation maps? I'm looking for a map to show how much further south Cape Horn is compared to Cape of Good Hope, South East Cape and South West Cape, possibly even including the "Roaring Fourties" & "Roaring Fifties". The maps that I've found already sported some information that didn't belong into my article (Cape-Horners), and in addition that information was in English (the article isn't)... but apart from that I haven't found anything as nice-looking and/or well-fit. So I'm wondering if you might still have the original--or even a version including the Fourties & Fifties and the Capes (be it in English :o))? Thanks in advance, and great work! --Ibn Battuta 01:10, 23 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You'll find the source for the global route maps on Commons: Commons:Image:Sailing routes map - Gimp source.xcf. Various other maps were produced using GMT. Cheers, — Johan the Ghost _seance 18:41, 23 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Which file format is that/ which program do you use to edit it? Thanks! --Ibn Battuta 00:35, 24 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's The Gimp. — Johan the Ghost _seance 11:01, 24 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Great, I can open it now! (And yes, I've figured out by now that this is leading me ways beyond my non-existing computer abilities ;o)) Anyway, the map we're talking about (Commons:Image:Sailing routes map - Gimp source.xcf) seems to contain already quite a number of marks, labels, etc. Do you happen to have a more "basic" map (so I wouldn't have to undo all the prior edits), or am I just not understanding some of the tools that the Gimp offers? Thanks, and sorry about my clueless questions. --Ibn Battuta 22:19, 24 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm afraid that's a multi-layer image -- this is how we use a "basic" image to make multiple product images. So you're going to have to be familiar with how layers work to manage it. For example, to turn off the parts you don't want, just turn off those layers. You'll find some good tutorials at the Gimp web site. — Johan the Ghost _seance 10:55, 25 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like it's interesting enough to figure it out one day when I have more time... Thanks for your help, and thanks for getting me interested!! --Ibn Battuta 03:14, 28 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia as a Source

cited from J Milburn's discussion page:
== Referencing other Wikipedias ==
Hi J Milburn, I happened to see that you mentioned to another user that other Wikipedias are not valid sources for the English Wikipedia. I'd love to hear more as this rule seems to be diametrically opposed to other Wikipedias' rules (for example the German Wikipedia). Is there something I could read up to find out when it is and when it is not allowed to source another Wikipedia? BTW, how about articles that are just plainly drawing from other Wikipedia articles? Wouldn't it rather violate the GNU license not to mention that such articles are actually using other people's work? Curious to find out more. --Ibn Battuta 00:07, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
end of quotation from J Milburn's page.

In response to your question about citing other Wikipedia articles as a source, Wikipedia:Sources, under the heading of 'Why sources should be cited', says 'Note: Wikipedia articles may not be cited as sources.' I have also read it elsewhere, but I do not know where. As for the GNU Free Documentation liscence, I honestly don't know, but I was under the impression that the information and text could be freely copied, as it is by sites such as answers.com. However, I may be wrong there. I have seen other articles with text copied directly from an open source Encyclopedia, I can't remember what it was, and it had a tag at the bottom saying that it was from the encyclopedia. Perhaps there is something like that available? As I say, I do not know, I am no expert in copyright law! Do tell me if you find any of what I have said to be wrong, or I have misunderstood something. J Milburn 18:47, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your reply! Good to know that Wikipedia shouldn't be used as a source... (though I sort of wonder why--i.e. as long as the cited article makes a compelling case and gives references itself... after all, citing other encyclopedias is not a problem. But well...) As for the copyright, no, you may certainly not just copy (and publish) Wikipedia, neither for verbatim copies nor for derivative work; there are few, but important requirements, see here. Thanks again. --Ibn Battuta 01:46, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

hello...

I think I can help you with the descriptions ,and with the translation of the article ja:海王丸.for the article translation please give me a week a so ,as I'm loaded with school work these days and hardly have any time to do other stuff.But the picture descriptions can be done ASAP since they wont eat much time. I had a look at the pictures and they just only the name and the a place name only.

2kaioumaru21.JPG .. name of the ship: Kaiomaru 2 name of the dockyard : メリケンパーク中突堤にて, Meriken Park nakatottei. actually tottei,突堤　means jetty,dock or pier.

ja:画像:Nihonmaru_1.jpg description: This is the picture of Nipponmaru at the maritime museum at Minato mirai 21, Yokohama. Picture was taken in 2004.6.27 by the user Glean.

P:s; Both these names are not correct.First, it should be kaiomaru2 instead of 2kaiomaru.Also image name nihonmaru should be Nipponmaru as Ancient japanese always used term "Nipponmaru".

hope this will help you.Let me know if you need any further help in Japanese related articles --Iwazaki 14:33, 17 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sailiong Harness

Sorry, I've been away from Wikipedia for awhile. Generally we call the safety device a "harness" or "suspenders", but more commonly the former. Please look at the link below for some descriptions of products at West Marine a large chain chandlery in the US.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SiteSearchView?catalogId=10001&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&keyword=harness&Ntt=harness&N=0&y=13&x=15&storeId=10001&Ntk=All_2&ddkey=SiteSearch —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kevin Murray (talk • contribs) 22:56, 22 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

My sailing friend usually calls it a sailing harness. By chance, do you know the spanish translation for "centerboard" (the bottom one)? Yrac09 00:33, 30 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Yrac09, unfortunately I've never sailed with Spanish speakers (well, one, but he didn't knew the terminology either), but it seems to be orza. At least that's what I've found in one decent dictionary (PONS) and, e.g., in this picture. Though the RAE gives a rather strange definition of it... --Ibn Battuta 14:36, 3 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, at second look it gets even stranger: Apart from the fact that another decent dictionary translates it as a mix of keel and centreboard (not sure what it would be in English), the number of google hits is just not particulary impressive. The Spanish Wiktionary is not too helpful either... And given that "orzar" seems to be Inclinar la proa hacia la parte de donde viene el viento (and orza is also the acción y efecto de orzar), it seems rather odd that it should mean centreboard. I'd recommend to ask at the Spanish Wikipedia. Sorry. --Ibn Battuta 14:59, 3 October 2007 (UTC) PS: If you find out, I'd be curious to know.[reply]

My image

Feel free to upload it yourself, so long as your source me properly. :p Staxringold _talk^contribs 05:05, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tunnel or underpass in NYC

Hi ChrisRuvolo, I'm currently trying to identify which tunnel or underpass in New York City this is. Is that the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive? (Sorry, I've no idea, I'm just trying to nail down a description of the United Nations Plaza, NYC...) Or in case you don't know that exit, could you recommend any other user for that question? Thanks a lot in advance, Ibn Battuta 20:06, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. Yes, that is a portion of the FDR Drive. I'm not sure if the tunnel/underpass section is named. It is more like a half-tunnel. When you drive through it, you can see out to the East River. Hope this helps. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 20:28, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! --Ibn Battuta 01:56, 3 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This caught my eye on my watchlist, and if I can tell from the picture, it's the covered portion of First Avenue (Manhattan) in front of the United Nations called the First Avenue Underpass that runs from 42nd to 47th Streets. The cars turning right in the picture are turning on to the 48th Street ramp to the Northbound FDR Drive. Alansohn 00:32, 4 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, okay. You are looking on the west side of the UN plaza. I was looking on the east side, sorry. The Google aerial map doesn't show the entrance at 42nd St. (blocked by a building), but Microsoft Local shows it: [1] --ChrisRuvolo (t) 05:14, 4 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a lot, both of you! And thanks as well for introducing me to Microsoft Local--pretty interesting! --Ibn Battuta 11:19, 4 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

images of the MIT

Hi Daderot, I've come across your pictures of the MIT and would like to upload them to the Commons to make them available for other Wikipedias. (Otherwise they're not.) I just thought I'd ask before if you want to do that yourself. Any preferences? --Ibn Battuta 01:55, 3 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'd be delighted if you did it! And a tip of the hat to your great namesake, Ibn Battuta. Daderot 12:19, 3 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Self closing HTML tags

Hi, thanks for your question. Basically, tags that don't have pairs - like <p> and </p> for defining paragraphs - are known as self-closing tags. They are self-closed by placing a slash before the closing chevron - like <br/>. With paired tags, the slash sits in front of the opening chevron in the closing (second) tag. This is part of the more recent HTML standards that website designers like me have to know about! If you want to know more, there is a good explanation at W3schools.com. Every website tells a user's browser which HTML standard is being used, and it interprets it accordingly. It's not essential to use the correct tags for a given standard, because modern browsers have pretty good fault tolerance, but it helps. The self-closing tags weren't used in older standards, so browsers can still recognise them. Regards, Adrian M. H. 16:09, 4 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

South East Cape Tasmania Photo

I've added a photo - Image:South_east_cape_tasmania.jpg

I hope that's what you wanted. KeresH 12:54, 14 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a map of the coast (exerpted from the tas. listserve site, so not something I can post on the wiki)[2]. I've put red arrows on the two capes that form the outer points of the south cape bay panorama. Note that the edge of the South Cape seen on the right side of the photo is actually called "Soldier Bluff". The Blue arrow is the un-named promontory that you asked me about (I checked several maps, and none has it named). The green arrow marks where I was standing to take the panorama.

And yeah, Tasmania is georgous. Plus, it's small enough to get from one beautiful bit to another in only a few hours. For example, from Hobart you can drive to the far south (Cockle Creek) in about an hour and a half, and from there walk to South Cape Bay in about two hours. KeresH 23:41, 17 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Leeuwin

I put up a sound file at the Cape Leeuwin article - hope this answers your question re pronunciation (it is not at all what you'd expect from the written spelling! I suspect a measure of laziness is involved :) Orderinchaos 10:01, 10 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, that's a great idea! Thanks a lot! --Ibn Battuta 19:53, 13 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

My concern about your username (Ibn Battuta)

Hello, Ibn Battuta, and welcome to Wikipedia!

I hope not to seem unfriendly or make you feel unwelcome, but I noticed your username, and am concerned that it might not meet Wikipedia's username policy. After you look over that policy, could we discuss that concern here?

I'd appreciate learning your own views, for instance your reasons for wanting this particular name, and what alternative username you might accept that avoids raising this concern.

You have several options freely available to you:

If you can relieve my concern through discussing it here, I can stop worrying about it.
If the two of us can't agree here, we can ask for help through Wikipedia's dispute resolution process, such as asking for a "third opinion", or requesting comments from other Wikipedians. Wikipedia administrators usually abide by agreements reached through this process.
You can keep your contributions history under a new username. Visit Wikipedia:Changing username and follow the guidelines there.

Let me reassure you that my writing here means I don't think your username is grossly, blatantly, or obviously inappropriate; such names get reported straight to Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention or blocked on sight. This is more a case where opinions might differ, and it would be good to reach some consensus — either here or at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User names. So I look forward to a friendly discussion, and to enjoying your continued participation on Wikipedia. Thank you! Webkami 11:14, 10 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Webkami, thanks for your message. I guess that this is not a message that you've phrased exactly for the question at hand (i.e. for my name), so I assume that's why it's so little specific. On the other hand, that's why I have a hard time understanding your exact doubts or concerns. Could you please explain to me what exactly you find troubling? I guess I am open to discussion (though I'm rather surprised since I'm using this same name in approximately 20 different Wikipedias without ever having had any problems with it...), I just don't quite see the problem at all. I'd appreciate if you could help me to understand it. :o) --Ibn Battuta 18:26, 10 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your reply. Yes that was a template generated message. My only concern is that in my opinion names of legendary figures fail WP:U. Since your name is exactly as Ibn Battuta and sounded strange when I read your comments I thought I will ask you :) , let me know what do you think. --Webkami 11:15, 11 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Webkami, Thanks for your reply. I've looked at that page (again... after all this time ;o)), but I'm not sure which rule you're pointing at: I'd assume it's neither confusing (I hope... given that it's a perfectly normal Arab name) nor misleading (nobody will really expect me to be the reincarnation or ghost of Ibn Battuta or be Battuta's son, or if the latter, I hope you'll forgive me the sex confusion) nor disruptive (as of my knowledge, but of course my linguistic abilities fall somewhat short of all profanities worldwide :o)) nor promotional (or are we talking about the shopping mall in Dubai?) nor offensive (see above). I guess the closest that might apply to a non-offensive legendary figure (though I'd like to stress Ibn Battuta is viewed as a historic figure (!)) would be the rule refering to Usernames that match the name of a well-known living or recently deceased person though, hm, I guess 600 years do not exactly count as "recent" in my mind. :o) And as I wrote, that "sub-rule" is intended to rule out misleading user names, which in this case should not be a problem. So I guess I'm back to asking: Could you help me out, telling me more specifically what your concerns refer to? Thanks, Ibn Battuta 19:36, 13 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry I wasn't clear enough. Yes I was talking about well-known living or recently deceased person along with the clause that says including but not limited to in title of above policy. I know Ibn Battuta isn't a recently deceased personality but was unsure if your user name makes any confusion about it. Thats why I thought of asking you. Since your comments that it is quite common name I think I don't have any concern any more. Just a question if you do not mind. "Why you pick this name?". Have fun. --Webkami 10:34, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again for the clarification! Yes, as I said, I hope that nobody would confuse it. I did not mean to say that it is a "common name" meaning "a frequent name" (like, say, Thomas Miller), rather that it is not extraordinarily difficult (something like, hm, Harold Shackleton junior? :o)) as called for by the user name rules. If that "renews" your concern, please let me know. As I said, I don't think the name should be problematic since the only well-known person bearing it has been dead for more than 600 years, so he (or someone in his name) wouldn't be assumed to contribute to Wikipedia. But again, let me know if you have concerns.

As for why I chose the name, well, it's just a tiny tribute (if that's the right word?) by some random 21st century person to one of the greatest and most unusual travelers. There are other people in history who would also merit tributes, so why him? Apart from having picked interesting, "off-beat" areas, he's just not as famous as he would likely be if he had been from a "Western culture", or at least Christian or Jewish, and yes, if he had picked to travel the US or some place. (Besides, even if the claim that he just made up all his stories were true--and today that is not assumed anymore--, I would find that rather likeable...) So without being an uncritical "fan" or anything, I like overall what this man stands for and thus identify with his name more than with some other random user name... (and I think it also gives other users a better idea about "me"...) Cheers, Ibn Battuta 19:04, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have no concerns at all as it is a tribute. Happy editing. Wish I could travel like Ibn Battuta --Webkami 15:45, 15 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, same to you... and yes, let's at least dream of some of the great places he visited... e.g., Sonargaon looks great, doesn't it? Or Kilwa Kisiwani... or... ~dream...~ --Ibn Battuta 02:03, 16 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I like your comment. I guess I'll nonetheless move it from this discussion as the user name started with a bit of an idea of being more "neutral" than some alternatives. This isn't meant to cut short the discussion (sorry if it should sound so), see my e-mail. --Ibn Battuta (talk) 04:52, 21 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Copy from Aodhdubh's Talk Page

Hallo, Ibn. I'm copying from my talk page as I don't know if you'll receive notice of my reply, there:

puzzled...

Hi Aodhdub, I've seen the interesting Image:Bermudian sloop-of-war Flying Fish.jpg that you've uploaded. I'd like to use it in an article, but I'm pretty confused by the caption. You seem to be calling it both a Bermudian sloop and a Baltimore clipper. Could you clarify? And possibly also with respect to the Navy history? Thanks a lot, Ibn Battuta 03:33, 11 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Quick reply

Hallo...sure, but I must be brief, at the moment. The Navy began buying up Bermudian sloops from trade (note the Sting, which became HMS Pickle), as well as having some built to its requirements by Bermudian builders. As it was making a lot of effort at introducing standardised designs as classess, the Flying Fish design resulted partly from the desire for a commonality in these small ships. There was a lot of undeserved displeasure in the Navy with many of the Bermuda sloops due to their small size and lack of armament, and some scathing reports. These were unjustified as most were never intended to be fighting vessels, merely communications vessels, relying on their speed and maneouvrability both to quickly deliver communications, and to evade enemy vessels. In fact, the first three built for the navy (Hunder, Dash, and Driver) were built as fighting vessels, and were larger and better armed than vessels like the Pickle and the Whiting. There was some complaint that some of the shortcomings of later Bermudian-built vessels oredered by the navy were due to the Navy's attempts to design its own Bermuda sloop and have the Bermudian builders build it. It was suggested that, in future, the Navy out to simply issue specifications and allow Bermudian builders to create their own designs. Partly due to the misplaced dissatisfaction in some quarters with Bermudian designs, and partly as a result of the success of American privateers, it was decided to copy a captured Baltimore schooner which had had some success, the Flying Fish (the design of the American vessels had been strongly influenced by Bermudian traditions and boat builders in the preceding century, but were generally optimised for shallower, coastal waters) and the drawings made up from this vessel were issued to builders in both Bermuda and England. That's me writing from the top of my head, but I'll do a bit of reading up and amend/expand this later.

Aodhdubh 05:45, 11 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Charlestown

Hiya. Um, well the photos I took myself. The text is a mixture of things I remember or know from my local knowledge and info I dredged up online. But back in 2004 I thought documenting my sources was not particularly important, so I didn't. This is probably not all that helpful for you, sorry! fabiform 20:00, 11 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ah ha. I definately wrote it from scratch, so the external site you linked to has copied wikipedia and not the other way around. I particularly remember writing the bit about walking between St Austell and Charlestown off the top of my head and thinking it sounded a bit unencyclopedic, as it was just an observation I'd made myself, but leaving it in anyway. In fact the whole (original) article reflects me and my experience of the harbour rather than a decent neutral point of view! Hope this helps. fabiform 20:31, 13 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Junaid Jamshed

Hi, just to thank you for reverting vandalism on the article.--Isles Cape^Talk 23:48, 12 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You're more than welcome, I'm sure you'd have done the same. Cheers, Ibn Battuta 02:05, 16 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Image:ShipPamirFalklandIslandStamp.jpg

Hallo. Das ist so lange her, da war die Copyright situation noch in ganz anderem Licht. Ob das Fair use jetzt noch zutrifft bin ich mir nicht sicher. Gruß, -- Chris 73 | Talk 21:11, 25 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Kein problem, für das Schiff war ein Request auf Wikipedia:Requested pictures, und das war das beste, das ich finden konnte. Wenn es jetzt was besseres gibt, no problem, delete the old one. -- Chris 73 | Talk 10:29, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Amherst College

Hola che, I've re-inserted the comment into the article text. I fully agree that this comment belongs onto a talk page, but the specific author seems to ignore talk pages (including his very own). So I'd rather keep the comment in the article until he deletes it--so there's no discussion later about "did he really see it? Shouldn't he have been given the chance to discuss? blablabla...". I'd rather have a crystal clear procedure: He knew what was going to happen, didn't object... and so there's no reason to fuss later on. (And yes, if he shouldn't ever delete it, eventually I will. Or you can, of course.) Does that make sense? - Cheers, Ibn Battuta 01:32, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I hadn't realized that you had already tried contacting him on his talk page. I've seen a lot of people new to WP do stuff like this, so I didn't realize what exactly you were getting at. My apologies. - Che Nuevara 16:14, 9 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject Argentine cinema

Your contribution is invaluable. pLease join Wikipedia:WikiProject Films/Argentine cinema task force and help improve/add articles related to Argentine cinema. Your article such as Cenizas del paraíso , beleive me you don't know how much of blessing articles like this are. The Wild West guy 16:03, 7 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Antwort von Kils

moved here from my user page

hallo ibn das Schiff heisst Kleine Freiheit und gehoert mir. Es ist 75 Jahre alt, aus dicker Eiche und segelt zur Zeit unter Daenischer Flagge

user kils

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Kils (talk • contribs) 15:43, 14 December 2007 [this template was added by Ibn Battuta (talk) 17:36, 25 March 2008 (UTC)][reply]

Commons

HI, thanks for your note. I plan on looking into moving the photos I've already ploaded into Engligh wiki to the Commons when I have the chance. As for why I haven't engaged in that directly, I've been editing hard and have felt pressed for time. . .I often have a number of browser windows open at the same time; adding yet another, distinct interface felt a little overwhelming. Sorry; I know that sounds selfish and lazy, and it is, but, for the moment, until I get a chance to investigate and play with the Wikicommons a bit, that's where I'm at. --Pgagnon999 (talk) 15:53, 4 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

DYK nomination

Hi, I've nominated an article you created, Douglas C. Gordon, for consideration to appear in the Wikipedia:Did you know section of the Main Page. You can see the hook I created for the article at Template talk:Did you know#Articles created/expanded on September 16 where you can improve it if you'd like to. --Bruce1ee^talk 08:48, 16 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've revised the hook, leaving out the waterfall completely. The article is still in the running! It generally takes about five to six days before becoming eligible for selection, so keep an eye on Template talk:Did you know. --Bruce1ee^talk 05:53, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

DYK congratulations!

On 24 September, 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Douglas C. Gordon, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

-- Congrats on the article! Alansohn (talk) 05:05, 24 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations --Bruce1ee^talk 05:49, 24 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

moving an article

Hi Zanimum, I'd need the help of an administrator to move List of film noir to List of films noirs (because "list of ..." article names do use plurals, and "film noir" is not a plural). I've suggested the move on the talk page of the article, and nobody's voiced any objections. So I tried asking for an admin at the helpdesk, but to no avail. The article seems to have been copy-pasted originally from some an alternative article name--maybe that's why it's more work now (merging the article history rather than just moving it), and people didn't want to do it? I've honestly no idea. Could you help, either by finally moving the article or by telling me whom else to ask about it? Thanks, Ibn Battuta (talk) 17:05, 14 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Ibn, I tend to agree with you, that noirs is the proper way of putting it. I've moved it for you. Let me know if anyone objects, which hopefully they don't, I'm willing to help defend your decision. -- Zanimum (talk) 17:46, 14 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a lot! ... and here we go! ... I've already asked the reverter to explain, so let's see what happens. --Ibn Battuta (talk) 23:49, 14 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

mount holyoke

Hello Ibn. Regarding Mount Holyoke I haven't heard of it being called Mt. Skinner and suspect that people are confusing the name of the park Skinner State Park with the mountain. I don't see any evidence of Skinner Mountain on any maps, but check the US board on geographic names to be sure; it could be an uncommon alternate name for the mountain. Note that J.A. Skinner, a hotelier associated with the Mt. Holyoke Summit House, occurs later than Elizur Holyoke the pioneer/puritan for whom the range and mountain are named.--Pgagnon999 (talk) 01:52, 11 November 2008 (UTC) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Pgagnon999"

Yep, US board on geographic names shows no Skinner Mountain in MA.--Pgagnon999 (talk) 02:01, 11 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, well, the UMass Outing Club is...the UMass Outing Club. If they were the UMass Geography club, then I'd be a little disappointed. --Pgagnon999 (talk) 02:35, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Israelis comparing Jews to anti-semits

Greetings, iB! Am hailing you here, rather than continue the dialogue that seems to be developing on the Humanities RD. I'm far too close to the Czarist-thru-Holocaust instances of the term pogrom to be objective about its more casual contemporary usage, which I generally deplore. A recent instance on the Israeli scene (and reflected in the press, though I was visiting overseas at the time of the events) was the language used to describe violent Jewish-Arab clashes of October 2008. Similar are the occasional outbreaks of the epithet Ashke-Nazi, though I can't clearly recall by-whom/about-whom. In general, given the volatile polemics on the Israeli political scene and how this appears in the press (in Hebrew or in translation), I'd advise taking a speculative view of it all. We can continue our dialogue here, or perhaps on Skype or similar channel of communication? By the way, that's a pretty classy User name :-) Cheers, Deborahjay (talk) 21:11, 9 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Poverty gap in Israel/Palestine; Jews & Palestinians

Greetings, iB! I'm unfortunately off WP duty today (really should have resisted opening the RDs, too...) and have nil time for non-work-related searches, but just to confirm what I can recall off the top of my head: yes, there was an article within the last week or two on this topic. The headline may have included the word "still" or "again"! I noticed it in Hebrew, so it would've been in Yedioth Ahronoth (we subscribe to the daily print version, also to the IHT and Haaretz English edition). You can try its (poorly translated) English web version, Ynetnews. That's it for now, and I'll try to add something on the thread later. Meanwhile, if you lack background on this topic, consider that the demographic is usually Israel proper (i.e. without the Palestininan territories) and is skewed sharply downward by the inverse ratio between income and family size, i.e. a large bubble—populated notably by the ultra-orthodox and Arab inhabitants—of one-income households with many children, the one income being low due to poor education (among the Haredi, by choice as they reject secular subjects, etc.) and sociopolitical discrimination. -- Deborahjay (talk) 09:05, 20 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Follow-up: posted on the RD/H thread. Also, check this page's History for the other comment I left about your User name, above :-) Now, back to work! -- Deborahjay (talk) 12:55, 20 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Deborah, Thanks so much for your answers, they're a treat every time! Yes, I'm exactly curious about the income gap for Jewish non-ultra-Orthodox Israelis and Arab Israelis (as compared to other developed countries) and for Palestinians (from one statistic I've seen, the gap is rather low, apparently because there aren't so many rich Palestinians, compared to other areas and countries??). --Ibn Battuta (talk) 17:50, 20 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

RE: American Whitewater

You'll find a copy of the deleted article at User:Ibn_Battuta/American Whitewater - HTH HAND, and sorry it took so long! —Sean Whitton / 09:07, 17 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Arabian horse

Say, if you could put in the Arabic for the specific breed of horse (whether it is called an Arabian, Asil or whatever, the pure horse of the desert however named), that would be helpful, and avoid someone else putting the word "horse" back in later. If there is any amgibuity, the equivalent article in Arabia wiki is: here And by the way, unbeknownst to me, I have a wiki talk page in Arabic, but have no clue what it says (though formatted like a generic welcome message.) here. Can you provide enlightenment? Any help appreciated! Montanabw^(talk) 18:22, 19 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Montanabw, I've added the term that the Arabic Wikipedia uses (which simply means "Arab horse"). I've once tried to find out what "asil" translates/transcribes to and got some interesting reply by a German Wikipedian... but no answer to the actual question of the spelling/use of the word in Arabic (let alone: today). I guess if you're interested, it'd be easiest simply to ask at the Arabic Wikipedia... and hope they have some horse-savy person on duty.

BTW, don't let my user name fool you: I wish I could just fluently read your Arabic talk page, but I can only feed it into one of those automated translaters, too. I don't give up though that that might change one day... ;o) Anyways, the Kraken claims it's a message from Obama. I suppose if you add to your user page that you prefer English, the next message might be different... :o) --Ibn Battuta (talk) 06:32, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

LOL! Well, you are ahead of me because you at least found the right word there. And oh dear, the Europeans and their "Asil" designation! They are as obsessed as the Al Khamsa (organization) in the USA. And as for the talk page, I think we have one in every language wiki if we signed up properly to have a universal login across wikimedia foundation projects, I think I have a page in Slovenian too! LOL! Montanabw^(talk) 07:10, 21 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No idea how important "Asil" is in Europe... I just asked because I was curious about the language side to it, so I guess they had to reply no matter whether they thought it important or not. :o) ... And sorry, I've sadly no idea about Slovenian. Well, I suppose it can't be so different from Russian or Polish, but still... Anyways, it seems odd that the universal login should create pages (or anything else) on Wikipedias which we have never before visisted... but who knows, maybe it's some glitch where the system makes believe we did visit it? ... --Ibn Battuta (talk) 23:17, 23 January 2010 (UTC) PS: I've just realized that maybe my initial description of the "asil answer" as "interesting" was misleading--I actually meant it. Apparently the original term for "pure" degenerated over the centuries to mean "not pure," and eventually "asil" developed. I'm just disappointed because I still have no idea what "asil" really means or to which Arabic root it is related. Not that it makes me have sleepless nights, but it'd have been fun to know. --Ibn Battuta (talk) 23:22, 23 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yup, you've got talk pages on every wiki in the world too, probably! LOL! I need to look up some of my older Arab horse books, I know that when Homer Davenport went to what today is Syria to get his desertbreds, they used a different word, I have to look up the way he spelled it, something like "shabba", which he Anglicized to "chubby" because that was as close as he could pronounce the word. (But at least was good enough to admit it!) I have a certain amount of amusement that he would as his Bedouin translators, "Is this horse chubby?"(My horses ARE "chubby" but that's because they are sitting around eating their heads off and not being ridden right now! LOL!) Montanabw^(talk) 02:54, 24 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's interesting!... and funny... I'm just imagining Davenport trying to keep a straight face talking about chubby top-fit first-class Arabians, and being scared that his twitching facial muscles might be interpreted by someone as lack of respect for the horse... or possibly worse, its owner... oh dear! ...

Anyways, the word I refered to was atiq (aatiq, atik, atq). It was apparently not used for pureblood horses anymore since the 17th century. (Arabian halfbloods had originally been called hagin/hajjin.) The pureblood now became kuhaylan, nagdi/nejdi and arabi. BTW, the earliest source for asil (which was a Western source, so I'm not sure it is really the earliest "ever") in that article was from 1760. And the article author was a Dr. Dr. Karin Thieme, a researcher in classical literature (all unearthed by said German Wikipedia, chapeau!). Now I'm curious to hear Davenport's word, which seems to be yet another word. Too bad they all don't provide the Arabic spelling, that'd make it easier to look up the general meaning/connotation of the word today or even allow a rough guess from 100 years ago... --Ibn Battuta (talk) 04:52, 25 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You're quite welcome

Glad to be of help. :-)

Regarding your question: at the head of Category:Men, it says: "This is a category for concepts related to men and masculinity, not for individual men." I believe the decision was taken some time ago because of the potential scope of a category of that nature - it would be so massive as to be almost unmanageable. I know it's different in the German-language wiki, and I believe it's different in the Swedish one as well - why the decision was taken there, the way it was, I don't know. I think it's decided on a per-Wiki basis.

If you've got any other questions, please let me know - keep up the good work, and happy editing! --Ser Amantio di Nicolao^{Che dicono a Signa?}_{Lo dicono a Signa.} 21:56, 28 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

DYK for David Stout

On March 7, 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article David Stout, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits your article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Materialscientist (talk) 00:03, 7 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Hello, Ibn Battuta. You have new messages at Wikipedia:Help_desk.
Message added 08:27, 14 March 2010 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

▒ ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ ▒ _―Œ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 08:27, 14 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

ClueBot NG

Glad to provide you with some entertainment on ClueBot NG's talk page... You're totally right too. :) -- SnoFox^(t|c) 07:08, 1 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed, it was quite funny to read and hence had to chip in - Rich(MTCD)^{Talk Page} 11:16, 1 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

David Stout (disambiguation)

Hello, just letting you know this has been nominated for deletion. It meets the criteria for speedy deletion under Template:db-disambig, but I've WP:PRODded it. Best wishes, Boleyn (talk) 21:39, 25 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi

I recently noticed your comment at Wikipedia talk:Service awards. While I do not share your perception of pervasive ethnocentrism, I can understand your point of view and appreciate your efforts to make articles like Essay more neutral.

I was amused to read the concerns of one editor who felt your username was controversial somehow. It would seem to me that they meant to say that they would prefer usernames not include the names of any person living or dead unless it was your own name; of course, the policy doesn't read that way. I was impressed the first time I read about the accounts of Ibn Battuta; that he explored Africa hundreds of years before any white man. It's a shame his exploration isn't more commonly known.

An AFANAAT that may interest you is Rihla. It's not a very good-looking article and could use more work, but it focuses on ar-Rihla as a journey as well as a form of travel literature describing those journeys. I don't read/speak Arabic and I haven't studied Morocco specifically, but I am a history major and am always interested in finding out what I don't know. In any case, I look forward to stalking your talk page in the future. Chris Troutman (talk) 04:47, 27 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please see here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Service_awards#A_modest_proposal_for_better_consistency

Many thanks! Mootros (talk) 06:42, 2 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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Oh yeah, dear DPL bot, another disambiguation link I intentionally used. But I wait for the day that you're of help pointing out an error of mine, so I'll patiently let you clutter my discussion page until then. :o) --Ibn Battuta (talk) 12:38, 1 February 2015 (UTC) PS: Talking to a bot... how does that differ from talking to myself? Hey, should I be concerned about my mental health? Tell me! ;o) --Ibn Battuta (talk) 12:38, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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List of ongoing conflicts listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect List of ongoing conflicts. Since you had some involvement with the List of ongoing conflicts redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. Steel1943 (talk) 20:03, 5 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

List of fugitives from justice who disappeared

I see you added a case to Fugitives who are no longer sought on the List of fugitives from justice who disappeared. Could you please add this one Fidel Urbina to that list. I would add it myself, but I don't know that format. Davidgoodheart (talk) 20:33, 14 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, Davidgoodheart, I did not add anything, I just moved something. So I don't know about the criteria when to include someone or not. Maybe just ask on the discussion page? --Ibn Battuta (talk) 22:50, 17 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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Elizabeth Holmes' voice

Hi there Ibn Battuta .. glad you asked, that anecdote comes from page 97 of Bad Blood, in which a new hire at Theranos recalled her saying "I'm really glad you're here" in a voice that sounded more like that of a typical twentysomething woman than the baritone she used in public. Hope that helps. HangingCurve^{Swing for the fence} 23:54, 7 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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