From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Areas I enjoy working in and/or know a little about: sociology of religion; quality management methods; tropical plants; dinosaurs; languages; popular music.
Whose Beard?
Nasrudin dreamt that he had Satan's beard in his hand. Tugging the hair he cried: "The pain you feel is nothing compared to that which you inflict on the mortals you lead astray." And he gave the beard such a tug that he woke up yelling in agony. Only then did he realize that the beard he held in his hand was his own.
– Idries Shah
[edit] The NPOV policy explained
Nasrudin was a judge and arbitrator in a dispute. First the advocate of the first side gave an eloquent discourse advancing his claims. Nasrudin, who had been listening intently, agreed and said, "That's right."
Next, it was the other advocate's turn, and he was just as erudite. Once more Nasrudin agreed, adding, "That's right."
Listening to Nasrudin's pronouncements, his clerk commented, "They can't both be right." To which Nasrudin agreed by saying, "That's right!"
One day the King decided that he would force all his subjects to tell the truth.
A gallows was erected in front of the city gates. A herald announced, "Whoever would enter the city must first answer the truth to a question which will be put to him."
Nasrudin was first in line. The captain of the guard asked him, "Where are you going? Tell the truth – the alternative is death by hanging."
"I am going," said Nasrudin, "to be hanged on that gallows."
"I don't believe you."
"Very well, if I have told a lie, then hang me!"
"But that would make it the truth!"
"Exactly," said Nasrudin. "YOUR truth."
[edit] Wisdom
- The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.—H. L. Mencken (Mencken at Wikiquote)
- If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl.—Mencken's epitaph
[edit] Wikipedia is not a battleground
The Wikipedia philosophy can be summed up thusly: "Experts are scum." For some reason people who spend 40 years learning everything they can about, say, the Peloponnesian War – and indeed, advancing the body of human knowledge – get all pissy when their contributions are edited away by Randy in Boise who heard somewhere that sword-wielding skeletons were involved. And they get downright irate when asked politely to engage in discourse with Randy until the sword-skeleton theory can be incorporated into the article without passing judgment.
– Lore Sjöberg, from "The Wikipedia FAQK", via user:Giano and user:DreamGuy
[edit] Music (largely courtesy of M's expert research and passion for music)
[edit] Guinea pigs
[edit] Statistics
[edit] Articles
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This user has been on Wikipedia for
3 years, 2 months, and 23 days. |
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Articles I started or have made significant contributions to:
[edit] Images
| Some of the images I uploaded, taken either by myself or my wife |
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[edit] Travels
[edit] Awards
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The Special Barnstar |
| Awarded for your constant effort in promoting understanding and fellowship at the Prem Rawat articles.Momento (talk) 03:40, 19 April 2008 (UTC) |
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The Barnstar of Diligence |
| For making the effort to locate a difficult to find and out-of-print source. If only more editors would go beyond Google in their research! ≈ jossi ≈ (talk) 17:40, 21 April 2008 (UTC) |
[edit] Useful tools
1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack
Idries Shah
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