Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

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Re: Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

Post by Anyone » Tue Aug 27, 2019 5:57 am

2. The Portage County UFO Chase

Wikipedia has a list of UFO sightings in the United States. Oddly, the most famous incident of all is red-listed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_sight ... ted_States

Image

The chase -- 86 miles at speeds of more than 100 mph -- took two deputies from Ohio to Pennsylvania on a cold morning back in April 1966. It was massive news at the time. And if you think this is bullshit, take a look at the photo below. It's a still from Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters. The scene was inspired by the Portage County UFO Chase.

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The incident could easily be written up as a high quality Featured Article. It's got everything you could ask for: police, guns, car chases, UFOs, Steven Spielberg and Project Blue Book. Here's a newspaper article that gives a decent overview of what happened:

https://www.timesonline.com/news/201810 ... xplanation

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Re: Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

Post by Anyone » Thu Aug 29, 2019 11:47 am

3. A Yacht for Al Capone

A piece of history worth exploring concerns the Acania -- a 136-foot yacht commissioned by Arthur E Wheeler and built in 1930 by the Consolidated Shipbuilding Corporation in New York. The yacht's first two letters were AC. Curiously, these letters were also the initials of Chicago mobster Al Capone. And this is where things get interesting.

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Arthur E Wheeler was a Wall Street banker who survived the crash of 1929 and remained both successful and solvent. He had business connections with Chicago mobsters and it's widely believed he commissioned the Acania on behalf of Al Capone.

The yacht's history is very interesting, but I don't have time to go into detail. What I can say is that its restoration earlier this century was unusual insofar as 90% of the yacht had retained original fixtures and fittings from the 1930s.

With a lot of research -- and an interest in American history -- this could be written up as a pretty good Wikipedia article.

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Re: Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

Post by Graaf Statler » Thu Aug 29, 2019 1:04 pm

I love, i love American history! We know in Europe soooooo little about it.
Also the story of Brinkley was new for me, Eric ones brought up with Steln here. Interesting because l'histoire se répète.

A new medium and no one understood it's power. And Brinkley latterly made it more powerful, no regulation and see how it ended up! Special something for Jimmy to keep in mind, but there is always a choice, beter then halve gekeerd, dan ten hele gedwaald.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Brinkley

This is also a nice story, once brought up by our own Dutch Drmies on WP-Nl:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light


Wonder who Wikipedia ends up, what choices are made now. Ends it up at the long run as Brinkley's goat gland project or as the Centennial Light........?

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Re: Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

Post by ericbarbour » Thu Aug 29, 2019 6:39 pm

Wikipedia has nothing about Bill Ninke and his GRAPHIC 1 project. It was a functional graphical user interface, that was working three years before Englebart gave his 1968 demo. It is NOT mentioned in either the GUI article or the GUI history articles.

http://120years.net/graphic-1-max-mathe ... -usa-1968/
https://www.musicainformatica.org/topic ... ic-1-2.php
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/08 ... searchers/
For instance, in the early '60s, Bill Ninke, a researcher in acoustics, had demonstrated a rudimentary graphical user interface with a DEC PDP-7 minicomputer.


There's even TWO videos on YouTube. But nothing on the "sum of all human knowledge".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llnzK2H_HZo
https://youtu.be/iwVu2BWLZqA

It's briefly mentioned in Max Mathews, which claims Mathews and Rosler "developed" it. And is a red link. No mention of the actual developer....

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Re: Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

Post by Anyone » Fri Aug 30, 2019 3:10 am

Graaf Statler wrote:I love American history!

Yay! Good for you. Some of it is very interesting.

I may try to add some more ideas over the weekend.

How about you? Any ideas for missing articles?

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Re: Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

Post by Graaf Statler » Fri Aug 30, 2019 9:03 am

Today I realised myself we Europeans know much more about life is North Korea than in America. Because on a regulair base you find reportages how the people are living in North Korea, travel reports, political analyse but about America never. And I have found out in the time of my stay on the American critical fora the cultural difference between continental Europe and America is immense.

Let's go back to the past, the time when I was young. The war had just ended and America and the Americans had a almost holy status here in Holland. Because they had been the liberators in that terrible war. (Others too of course) Our family, my parents where much more focused on England because my father was raised there, had studied there, had been a translator after the war most times for the English army, but for most of the Dutch people special the Americans where there herros.

Then the Vietnam war was there with all it's cruelties and the protest against it. But, in the same time came the California hippie mouvement to our country and was extreem populair in Holland and has developed itself to some Euro hippie culture. Special in the region where I was raised because there was a strange mix of the close by American base and American boys who avoid military service and deserters. The ex Vietnam boys where the ones who introduced the drugs, the others the hippie culture and they all wanted to fuck the Dutch girls so it was a melting pot. A strange bevy in short.

So, the popularity of America in general didn't drop because of the Vietnam war. The protest where against American politics, not against America..
And that Euro hippie mouvement has changed the complet mindsetting of Holland, because it was not only embraced by the young people but also by older. Our culture contain still many, many hippie elements because my generation introduced them in the whole society. Special in Holland, much more than other European country's. Holland is still some hippie state and must be in the eyes of Americans be a kind of formal sovjet satellite with it's strict state controlled political system. And on the other hand there is a extreem free moral and are we very open minded. Except Dutch wikipedians, but that is a very special kind of Dutch peeps because you find them only in wikipedia land and for the rest nowhere.

Because Europe is a very closed system so we only hear her from..... Europe. (And North Korea :mrgreen: )
All the news, television, info, it is pan Europa. Basically I know the same about America as form China. Nothing. It is a weird situation, America still has it's old very good reputation in Holland, bu t the man or woman in the street has not even te slightest idea how Americans are living.

And sometimes I notice very strange things, little things. If someones place where he is living is public I have a look with Google maps there. I was where Aggie is living, where Abd is living, and where Eric is living in Lakeport digital. I had a look around in the streets, looked inside the fire department next to Eric's firm, saw a old fire truck inside there, I like that. Because I will probably never leave Europe, I never did.
And on of the strangest thing for me was all streets are absolute symmetrical. All streets are drawn with a ruler. And if you are in Europe you find bend's in the streets. .I think this is a great example of very small differences what got your eye.

https://gooiland.50plusser.nl/?page=art ... WjgMi2iHOQ

Het Spiegel in Naarden for instance. Before there was navigation a nightmare to find a street. If you was lost you was really lost! Look at Lakeport, not one bent in the road.

So anything about America is welcome.

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Re: Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

Post by ericbarbour » Sat Sep 07, 2019 3:12 am

Anyone wrote:Any ideas for missing articles?

Somebody just pointed out one today: Day of Discovery, one of the longest running religious TV shows in history.
It's listed here, but there is no article.

Because it was deleted in 2018 by a patroller admin who claimed "non notable". He spends incredible amounts of time pushing obscure South Korean singers and musicians. And is a good candidate for an administrator who may be a paid editor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... _Discovery

I've also seen some evidence that a biography of the show's longtime host Jimmy DeYoung existed back in January 2006. Who started the 2006 deletion? Guy Chapman! Have yourself a first-rate example of Guy abusing his authority over material about a religious TV show, which (being an atheist) he hates. (Is there a note on Wikipedia's front page that makes an "exception" for religious information?) And AS USUAL, Guy had plenty of fellow assholes available to help him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... my_DeYoung

The show ended in 2016 (it appears another group took it over) but there is still a "broken" website
https://dod.org/
plus this, which I expect the Nits will claim is 'inadequate sourcing". Remember: this is a syndicated TV show that ran for 48 YEARS.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840085/
http://stg.joytv.ca/shows/day-of-discovery/

There you are: TWO articles you can recreate if you want to "help Wikipedia". I guarantee that Guy will show up and try to fuck with you.

Something similar almost happened to the article for The World Tomorrow. Surely SOMEONE must remember Herbert W. Armstrong and his ministry. They ran a radio and TV empire for EIGHTY YEARS. No matter, Guy Chapman tried to blow the article away two years ago---and failed. Despite support from other fuckheads like Guy Macon and Baseball Bugs. As usual, if you can't Google it easily, it doesn't exist. And they obviously don't have much love for religious broadcasting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... television)

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Re: Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

Post by Anyone » Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:17 am

ericbarbour wrote:
Anyone wrote:Any ideas for missing articles?

Somebody just pointed out one today: Day of Discovery, one of the longest running religious TV shows in history.
It's listed here, but there is no article.

Because it was deleted in 2018 by a patroller admin who claimed "non notable".

This sounds quite unusual. In general Wikipedia is pretty good with American TV series. I've used the site recently to check out a fair few shows I've watched:

1. Breaking Bad
2. Lost
3. The Leftovers
4. Rome
5. Justified [per Vigilant's former avatar]
6. Fargo

Next, I'll write a detailed, academic overview of another missing article. It's about this sexy little number:

Image

PS. On page 7 of this thread I discussed the classic superyacht Talitha. Since then I've written it up for one of my clients:

http://www.pinnaclemarine.co.nz/talitha ... ryacht.php

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Re: Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

Post by ericbarbour » Tue Sep 10, 2019 1:13 am

So....why isn't there an article about Wilderness Watch? I could not even find a mention of it anywhere on en-wiki. Is it just an oversight, or are the Wikioids embarrassed by WW's extremist stance?

Read these for examples. AND references.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/scie ... oring.html
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/rocky ... onitoring/
https://orionmagazine.org/article/handle-with-care/
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politic ... 105465.php
https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/08/07 ... wsuit-too/
https://www.abc4.com/news/national/cons ... ka-refuge/

In short, WW is an environmentalist organization (one of many but also one of the most extreme), that fights like hell to keep seismological stations (and anything else) out of U.S. federal wilderness areas. Even bicycle trails or old cabins are intolerable to WW's leadership. And they have joined in numerous lawsuits to maintain an absolutist position on the Wilderness Act. So it is quite possible that someday, WW policies will result in a death toll from unpredicted volcanic eruptions.

Most other such groups have Wikipedia articles. Why not Wilderness Watch?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenders_of_Wildlife
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_ ... ssociation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends_of_the_Earth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... anizations

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Re: Articles Wikipedia should have--but doesn't.

Post by Anyone » Tue Sep 10, 2019 4:33 am

4. The Mayflower

The Mayflower was one of these. You can refer to them as Mississippi steamboats, side-wheelers or paddle steamers. They plied the route from St Louis to Memphis and then down to New Orleans.

Image

4.1 Structure
At the top of the boat is the pilothouse. This is where Mark Twain worked on board the Philadelphia as an apprentice pilot in 1857. Below the pilothouse is the so-called "texas" -- the area reserved for crew. Next is the boiler deck, which was composed of staterooms and an often surprisingly elegant saloon. At the bottom is the main deck. This was used for cargo and steerage passengers.

With these design considerations in mind, take a look at the Mayflower. Notice her two boiler decks. When she entered service in May 1855, she was one of only two "triple deckers" operating on the Mississippi.

Image

The Mayflower measured 310 feet in length, had a 47-foot beam, displaced 890 tons and was described as having "more good points than any other steamboat of her day". Total construction costs were 286,000 USD.

4.1.1 Sources
Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads [pp. 24-27]
https://books.google.com/books?id=19vCD ... &q&f=false

Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters [p. 34]
https://books.google.com/books?id=oDBzB ... &q&f=false

4.2. Lithograph
Pics for the Mayflower are easy to find. Google "mayflower 1855" and you'll get tons of hits for a lithograph published by the New York printmaking firm, Currier & Ives. The image I've used above is cropped from a full-sized TIFF downloaded gratis from Yale University.

4.2.1 Sources
Yale University Art Gallery
https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/157217

American Library of congress
https://www.loc.gov/item/2002695868/

4.3. Destruction
The United States Postal Service has a page on its website about steamboats. The article refers to the Mayflower and notes:

The average lifespan of an antebellum steamboat on the Mississippi River was five to six years. Daily hazards included explosions, fires, collisions and the submerged, hull-piercing deadwood called "snags."

Explosions and fires were very real hazards. Shortly before quitting his post on the Pennsylvania in early June 1958, Mark Twain manged to get a job on board for his brother. Just over a week later the ship's boiler exploded and Twain's brother was killed. And in December 1855 -- seven months after entering service -- the Mayflower was destroyed by a fire that broke out in Memphis. Lloyd's has the details:

Between the hours of 12 and 1 o'clock, on Monday morning, December 3d, 1855, a fire broke out on board the George Collier, lying at the lower landing, Memphis, Tenn. The male passengers and some of the officers and crew were compelled to save themselves by jumping off, some into the river and some on the lower deck of the wharf boat, which lay near the Collier. This fine wharf boat, called the Mary Hunt, together with the steamer Mayflower, which lay on the other side, was soon involved in the fate of the George Collier, and the three burning vessels are said to have presented one of the most magnificent and terrible spectacles ever witnessed in that locality. A flood of light, even at that dreary midnight hour, made every object distinctly visible for a great distance around the conflagration. Crowds of people rushed to the wharves, all in the most intense excitement and anxiety for the fate of the many people who were known to be on board the blazing steamer.

4.3.1. Sources
United States Postal Service
https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/posta ... mboats.htm

Lloyd's Steamboat Directory
https://archive.org/details/lloydssteam ... y/page/326

4.4. Lawsuit
What happened next is a wee bit boring. The boat's owners claimed insurance but got turned down. So they went to court to seek recompense. The hearing took place at the Supreme Court of Missouri in March 1860, and the judge ruled in favor of the insurers. The deal here is, well, read the court case if you're interested.

Do note, however, that a fully-fledged Wikipedia article would need to include this court case. It's actually a very important part of the Mayflower's brief history and sheds light on how policies were issued to boats plying the Mississippi and Cumberland Rivers.

Upon the facts found by the court, our opinion is that the Mayflower was engaged in the cotton trade at the time of the loss, and therefore the underwriters were not responsible. The proviso in the policy was not an engagement simply against taking cotton on board the boat, but it was a stipulation that the boat would not, without the consent of the underwriters, engage in the cotton trade.

4.4.1. Sources
Caselaw Access Project
https://cite.case.law/mo/30/56/

5. Conclusion
Done properly, treated sympathetically and given appropriate context, this would be an easy Featured Article to write.

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