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Hi, My edits are constantly being reverted on the above article by a specific user. In his last revert he claimed that the Cochrane review source I used did not was not related to the article. The review was of Yoga "Pranyama" (breath control) techniques. Breathwork is the new age term for "Pranayama" and so they are the same thing. He did not know this and reverted my edit (again).As I pointed out to him I don't believe that he has sufficient knowledge on the topic to be able to add any meaningful contributions to the page. Please review the talk page on the Breathwork article for more details. Can I please get an admin to take a look. Thanks Darwin3881 ( talk) 01:28, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
Don't know if this is the right place but British Israelism. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 18:38, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
See Talk:The 10,000 Year Explosion#Pattern of edits where an IP is saying that User:Grayfell's edits are attracting (inadvertently) supporters of the hereditarian perspective. An eye on recent edits by the IP at Henry Harpending would be useful. Doug Weller talk 17:09, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
Can people comment either here Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard#Robert Schoch or on the article talk page about the issues raised, remembering it's a BLP. (Please don't comment here as a split discussion will just be confusing.) Nil Einne ( talk) 05:54, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
This report is in reference to /info/en/?search=Sphinx_water_erosion_hypothesis and sub-reference to /info/en/?search=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons/Noticeboard?fbclid=IwAR3MJbZ9DGOCcx2a8fuHnJJbpgsMa5Ladws-lQv-T8JitJ4icoXawy-Dfgg#Robert_Schoch
This content of this page is being used to justify the term "fringe theory", which is a pejorative term to prejudice readers ( /info/en/?search=Fringe_theory)
The content of this page is misleading in inaccurate, yet it is being used an internal reference to label the work of Dr. Robert Schoch as "fringe claims"
Incorrect/misleading claims made on this page
1) Hawass replied: "Of course it is not possible for one reason …. No single artifact, no single inscription, or pottery, or anything has been found until now, in any place to predate the Egyptian civilization more than 5,000 years ago. Response: The iconography of a couchant lion/ess clearly predates dynastic Egypt and can be found in protodynastic grave goods in Abydos in tomb Uj and B 1/2 (see Dreyer/DAI)
2) A different argument used by Egyptologists to ascribe the Sphinx to Khafra is the "context" theory, which notes that the Sphinx is located in the context of the funerary complex surrounding the Second Pyramid, which is traditionally connected with Khafra. Response: Were the hundreds of mastabas in the western and eastern cemeteries of G1 made in the "Khufu context" during the time of this king? No. By far most date to much later times and from the 103 mastabas made during Khufu's time, most stayed empty. The context theory has us believe that adjacent monuments must have been built in the same time. Far from!
3) Apart from the Causeway, the Pyramid and the Sphinx, the complex also includes the Sphinx Temple and the Valley Temple, both of which display the same architectural style, with 100-tonne stone blocks quarried out of the Sphinx enclosure Response: Where in Schoch's model does he dispute that the temples and Sphinx were made in different times? On the contrary.
4) A diorite statue of Khafra, which was discovered buried upside down along with other debris in the Valley Temple, is claimed as support for the Khafra theory. Response: This sort of evidence is actual fringe. Intrusive burials and usurpation of statuary are well known in ancient Egypt.
5) Reader agrees that the Sphinx Temple and Valley Temple are closely associated with the Sphinx, as is the Causeway and even part of the Khafra Mortuary Temple, but suggests this evidence merely indicates these structures also predate Khafra and does not link the Sphinx in any way to Khafra Response: The only link between causeway and temples is the drain channel from causeway into the Sphinx ditch. The inference is that the causeway came before the Sphinx. What is being left out here completely is what Melinda Hartwig, Rainer Stadlemann, and others have long noticed: The causeway avoids the Sphinx suggesting it came later. This debate in other words hinges on the drain channel versus the strange direction of the causeway.
6) Rainer Stadelmann, former director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo suggests Khufu, Khafra's father, was the builder of the Sphinx [20] and contends Khafra's Causeway was built to conform to a pre-existing structure which he concludes, given its location, could only have been the Sphinx.[12] Lehner's official website also offers a similar argument based on an Archaeological sequence of structures built in the area. Lehner points to the way several structures in the area incorporate elements from older structures, and based on the order in which they were constructed concludes that the archaeological sequencing does not allow for a date older than the reign of Khafra. Response: No. This is incorrect. Lehner like Lacovara believe the causeway came before the Sphinx because the builders would not have made a drain channel for rain run-off to flow into the Sphinx ditch. Lehner and Stadelmann are at odds. If Stadlemann is correct, the entire Khafre Theory built on "context" collapses.
7) Hawass points to the poor quality of much of the Giza limestone as the basis for the significant erosion levels. He has concluded, from the present-day rapid rate of erosion on the Member II surface of the Sphinx, that "[t]he eleven hundred years between Khafre and the first major restoration in the Eighteenth Dynasty, or even half this time, would have been more than enough to erode the Member II into the deep recesses behind Phase I restoration masonry" Response: Modern day erosion is distinct from the erosion of the Sphinx and its enclosure. Modern day erosion is caused by salting which has two main causes" rising ground water and air pollution. Salting is a modern era process which cannot explain the vertical erosions. For reference see: http://www.stone.rwth-aachen.de/limestone_cairo.pdf
8) Peter Lacovara, an Egyptologist and curator at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, Atlanta, assigns "some of the erosional features" on the enclosure walls to quarrying activities rather than weathering, and states that other wear and tear on the Sphinx itself is due to groundwater percolation and wind erosion Response: Wind erosion does not cause vertical channels, where is the proof of this? Where is Lacovara's photographic evidence of wide-spread quarry marks in the vertical erosion channels of the enclosure walls? Why is this process not seen on the walls of the mastaba of Kai and Khentkaws and the rock-cut tombs on the west end of the central field? Where are the positive and negative controls for this opinion?
Omissions: 1) Schoch states that other structures and surfaces on the Giza Plateau are made from the same band of limestone as the Sphinx enclosure, but they do not show the same erosion as the walls of the Sphinx enclosure Response: Specifically, the rock-cut tombs at the west end of the central field and the mastabas of Kai and Khentkawes for example. Same rock, different decay.
2) The seismic refraction data collected by Thomas Dobecki and Robert Schoch which corroborate the Water Erosion Model of the Sphinx.
3) Textual evidence of an older Sphinx: Seyfzadeh, M., Schoch, R. (2018). The Inventory Stele: More Fact than Fiction. Archeological Discovery, Vol.6 No.2, PP. 103-161. Seyfzadeh, M., Schoch, R., Bauval, R. (2017). A New Interpretation of a Rare Old Kingdom Dual Title: The King’s Chief Librarian and Guardian of the Royal Archives of Mehit. Archeological Discovery, Vol.5 No.3, PP. 163-177.
Conclusion: This entire page was stitched together based on incomplete and inaccurate information by editors who do not know the details of the evidence. Yet, the "fringe" label is being used right at the top to bias readers from the get-go against a model they are thus not allowed to evaluate on its scientific merits, but based on opinions by those we are supposed to trust, the scholars. If there is a fringe standard satisfied here, it is being presented by the other side, the trusted scholars. This page, in turn, is then used to label Schoch's claims as "fringe".
This is what should be done: If Wikipedia cannot procure an adequate evidential base for this page, then drop the "fringe" label. There is absolutely no need for it and it only reflects poorly on the higher level editors whose ostensible intention then appears to be the squelching of an honest debate out of the gate.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.194.237.169 ( talk) 18:18, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
Response: No that's not how the editors are using fringe. By your definition, Rainer Stadelmann, Vassil Dobrev, and Melinda Hartwig all support fringe theories since they don't agree that Khafre built the Sphinx. The term "fringe" is purposefully used to taint contrarian evidence and prejudice readers. If Wikipedia is not interested in debating who is correct then why is Wikipedia taking sides by applying labels to positions taken in a scientific debate? Makes no sense.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.194.237.169 ( talk) 22:14, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
User talk:Nudge squidfish/twinkleoptions ( | user page | history | links | watch | logs)
In the very least, WP:NOTHERE. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 02:35, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
Area 51 ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Some new additions to article regarding the latest
Internet phenomenon:
As of July 14, 2019, more than 844,000 people signed up to attend the Facebook event, “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us“, in an attempt to “see them aliens”. Another 740,000+ people said they were interested in the event. The spokes women of the United States Air Force, Laura McAndrews stated that government officials knew about this particular event. She stated in a press release to The Washington Post: "(Area 51) is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces. The U.S. Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets".
Cited to WaPo, however IMO, this could be
WP:NOTNEWS and
WP:RECENTism. -
LuckyLouie (
talk) 18:21, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
This is about [1]. Source seems pretty WP:FRINGE and WP:SPS. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 10:37, 22 July 2019 (UTC)
Seed cycling ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Most of the sources are about menstrual cycles in general and not about "seed cycling". However, there's enough search results that I don't feel comfortable AFD-ing based on notability. Thoughts on how to repair this article? power~enwiki ( π, ν) 16:21, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
This has large numbers of references to New Energy Times (newenergytimes.com), which is definitely not a WP:RS. I propose to remove these references unless anyone objects. Guy ( Help!) 14:05, 24 July 2019 (UTC)
There is a dispute about this on Abby Martin. See [2]. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 22:05, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
This[ [3] is totally undsourced, (and copied from a 2005 source, the "Academic Kids Encyclopedia" [4] whose contact, about, and discliamer links take you to blank pages. Its home page was updated in 2013. A new article, Mai Mari da Ashtan has no sources at all. Some of it is copied from here or [5] and I've deleted it. I also reverted User:Medz here [6] today. Doug Weller talk 10:53, 25 July 2019 (UTC)
Talk:Israel Shamir#RFC: should we include claims by Shamir that he was a paratrooper and worked for the BBC and Haaretz which originate from his personal website could interest this board. Icewhiz ( talk) 05:11, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
Graeme Park ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
It strikes me that the existence of ghosts must be the longest running fringe theory around. What is a ghost any way but a dead person walking or flying around who(?) can't be observed by any normal means?
In any case I usually delete ghost stories attached to articles on historic houses. Quite often these seem to be promotional material for "ghost tours" (at $40 per ticket in this case). Sources can exist, e.g. in local newspapers, but often they have their tongues firmly in cheek or are simply promotional.
The specific case is here. Would somebody take a look at this and revert the reversion if I'm not mistaken that the existence of ghosts is a fringe theory?
Smallbones( smalltalk) 11:56, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
Fresno nightcrawler ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Article claiming alien creature seen in Fresno, CA — cited to a crowdsourced website called Odyssey online and The Sun tabloid. Likely an AfD candidate? - LuckyLouie ( talk) 15:39, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
The REAL reason for the Iraq war? Saddam Hussein 'had stargate portal to alien world' -- Guy Macon ( talk) 23:32, 28 July 2019 (UTC)
Our Lipozene article need some attention. This fat burning pill is heavily advertised on TV with claims like...
...but the fine print says "RESULTS NOT TYPICAL. ENDORSER USED LIPOZENE IN COMBINATION WITH DIET AND EXCERCISE AND WAS RENUMERATED". -- Guy Macon ( talk) 03:54, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
Craniosacral therapy is under attack at the moment. Medical editors needed? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 18:34, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
Potentially of interest to the community here: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Paul Dunbavin. XOR'easter ( talk) 15:21, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
The lede to Global Warming Policy Foundation is largely self-sourced self-serving gibberish, and fails to clarify to readers that the organization pushes fringe views on the matter of climate change. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 13:12, 2 August 2019 (UTC)
Probably a load of WP:FRINGE and WP:NOT issues. Could uses eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 12:09, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
Law of attraction (New Thought) - maybe somebody else than me should revert IP fringe edits now and then. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 18:54, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
These seem to be mainly from an inhouse persepctive. I'm not sure if anything at Criticism of the Book of Mormon#Relation to the Book of Abraham can help. -- Doug Weller talk 15:39, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
I've just realised I have no idea how to wikilink something that starts
WP:STONEWALLING and WP:IDONTHEARYOU by User:Paul Siebert at Talk:Pontius Pilate then
then
so I'll just give the url. [7] It's about this edit [8] where Carrier is being called "a leading supporter of the fringe[4][bote 1] Christ myth theory" - the word "fringe" seems to be the main issue. I'm posting here because it's possible there's a general issue involved. -- Doug Weller talk 18:16, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
Various sources, eg [9] [10] and it's starting to show up in some articles. -- Doug Weller talk 18:42, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
Interesting one this. The BBC ran a story on this clinic in March [11] and this was followed-up by David Gorski. A WP:SPA is now cleansing the article and claiming the BBC piece was "retracted" and indeed the original URL now returns a 404, but so far as I can see the BBC has made no comment. Gorski has commented on Twitter (threaded version here). More eyes/views on how to handle this, welcome. Alexbrn ( talk) 16:19, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
Gorski himself writes on http://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1149635497767010306.html that he contacted the journalist. In case we use Gorski as a reliable source in this article so often, than this piece should not be ignored. Neutrality. Checkpoint18 ( talk) 16:45, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
There are now two discussions at Talk:Cryonics where editors are invoking WP:FRINGE.
One is about whether or not Cryonics is a "Pseudoscience".
The other is about whether the procedure is performed on "corpses", "dead bodies", or "legally dead bodies".— Preceding unsigned comment added by ApLundell ( talk • contribs) 00:07, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
"Thankfully, it was reverted," you say? "Thankfully"? Else the dire consequence for WP would have been WHAT?? A needed clarification of policy? It's not exactly an assumption of good faith to accuse somebody who adds a "please clarify" template to a policy statement, of "forum shopping." To me, doing that looks like the encouraged WP:BRD, as it gets quickly to a goal. In fact, it doesn't even look very bold, which the B in BRD is supposed to stand for. So, we're working on a chilling effect around all this BRD stuff, I gather? Also the templating and different rules for "pseudoscience" stuff are meant to get around WP's usual process for insertion of material, as in mind uploading? How else to explain it? Do we have any instances of mind uploading? No. Are there believers that mind uploading will come to pass? Yes. So, is it a pseudoscience to argue for mind uploading? Should we BAN them? Or just topic ban them? It's so delicious to think about banning.
Let's have a closer look at this instance, shall we? Since you brought the matter up, after all. The policy statement in question is this (no cite): "Pseudoscience, however, is something that is not scientific but is incorrectly characterised as science." To which I added by whom?. The reason is quite frankly that we need to know by whom! If a practice is characterized as a "pseudoscience" by its enemies, should they even count? Or should they be allowed to perpetrate a straw-man? Ken Storey, a critic, says cryonics is "more or less a theology." And scrubbing away the niceties of definition between theology and religion: "there is really no difference between cryonics and any other religious organization." here. Which if WP accepted his expertise on the matter, would put Wikipedia into the same category as Roman Catholicism and we shouldn't be having this conversation (if we believed Storey, anyhow). Of course, he's not content, as he's not quite sure what he's dealing with. "According to Cryobiologist Dr. Kenneth Storey, when discussing cryonics, the line between religion and science becomes blurred and rational thought processes sometimes go out the window." So don't we need the answer to that template I added? The critics don't like it, but we knew that. The advocates and practitioners have varying degrees of confidence, sometimes zero (I gave the example of J. Bedford, the first cryonics practitioner, who didn't think it would work at all). So now what?
Skeptic (U.S. magazine) which ran the Storey article above, has had opinions on baloney detection and (helpfully) how to tell science from pseudoscience (full disclosure-- I myself have in the past published a number of articles for SKEPTIC, including a very long one on HIV/AIDS denialism, which I accused of being.... a pseudoscience. That is, I took the orthodox line.) I can't quote Shermer's full article, but it is here. After giving 10 ways to help tell science from pseudoscience, Shermer says at the end that it's not always perfectly clear: Clearly, there are no foolproof methods of detecting baloney or drawing the boundary between science and pseudoscience. Yet there is a solution: science deals in fuzzy fractions of certainties and uncertainties, where evolution and big bang cosmology may be assigned a 0.9 probability of being true, and creationism and UFOs a 0.1 probability of being true. In between are borderland claims: we might assign superstring theory a 0.7 and cryonics a 0.2. In all cases, we remain open-minded and flexible, willing to reconsider our assessments as new evidence arises. Wups, Shermer thinks cryonics a bit more plausable than UFOs and creationism. So now what? Is Shermer, the expert on Skepticism, to be our litmus? Or Storey who knows about hibernation? Or Hayworth who knows about brain preservation? For this, we need a policy clarification and some people willing to put in some thought, and some words, and some citations. Not Gerard, whose idea is that BRD is forumshopping and baliff, gag all the defendent's arguments in case one makes sense.
And finally, yes, Alexbrn I know it bugs you that sometimes they cut corpses' heads off. In the 1960's it bugged people that they cut corpse's hearts out (for transplant into priviledged middle-aged businessmen). At the same time, I suspect it would make no difference at all in your arguments or complaints if they didn't. So why bring it up? It's not germaine to the main problem of whether cryonics is mutton sold as lamb. Do they lie about the decapitation? That would be important. Pseudo means something. Again, it does not mean weird as in mind uploading. "Pseudo" means that what they tell you they do, is not what they actually do. S B H arris 01:03, 25 July 2019 (UTC)
We can all agree that cryopreserving people, whether legally living or dead, in anticipation of possible future revival is a fringe idea that is only endorsed by a very few scientists. However not everything that's fringe is pseudoscientific. The San Diego Frozen zoo was established in 1972 ("At the time there was no technology available to make use of the collection, but Benirschke believed such technology would be developed in the future."). Physicist Gregory Benford endorsed the idea of a frozen "Library of Life" in 1992. Animals from some cryopreserved extinct species have since been recovered by cloning, although much of what is being collected is still being done in anticipation of future technology. The initiative was very speculative 1972, but surely not pseudoscientific because the hypothesis that cryopreserving tissue could help save species was not inconsistent with physical law and is testable over long time scales. The field of De-extinction remains controversial, but is not tagged as pseudoscience. Noted expert on fringe ideas, Michael Shermer called cryonics a protoscience, not pseudoscience, in his book Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseuodoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of our Time. If in lieu of analysis based on pseudoscience definition, we are to rely on citations of authoritative sources to make a WP article classification, wouldn't Shermer carry high weight as a source? Shermer has spent more time investigating cryonics than anyone I've seen quoted calling cryonics a pseudoscience, as evidenced by the many times that Shermer has written about cryonics, and not kindly either. Is not the cleanest way to resolve the inconsistency between the cryonics article and the mind uploading article to classify both as Protoscience? Certainly cryonics raises many more contemporary ethical concerns because people are actually paying for it, but that's separate from the intellectual status of the intrinsic idea. Would the cryonics article be classified differently than the mind uploading article if it was merely a theoretical proposition? Cryobiologist ( talk) 23:48, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
Pretend for a minute that nobody ever started freezing anybody. What if instead an Ivy League neuroscientist just speculated that if a preservation method good enough to preserve the neural connectivity of the brain could be developed then that might be sufficient for future revival of that brain. Then what if a top expert in organ cryopreservation published a paper in the journal Cryobiology, the actual journal of the Society for Cryobiology, showing that this could be done in mammalian brains. He/she would even show that it could be done in large brains, completely avoiding ice formation in the process. Any expert opinions, whether prior to or in ignorance of this work, expressing skepticism at the possibility of such preservation would be rendered irrelevant. Like Mind uploading, some transhumanists then begin to speculate whether human brains preserved by such or similar methods could be "uploaded" or otherwise revived in the future, consistent with what the Ivy League neuroscientist originally said. In this hypothetical scenario nobody is actually being cryopreserved. People are just speculating, proposing the idea. Is the pure idea of cryopreserving brains with contemporary technology and scanning/uploading or reviving them in the future, as just an idea, intrinsically pseudoscientific? Was it pseudoscientific from the moment the Ivy League neuroscientist first proposed it? If so, then why isn't Mind uploading as an idea also tagged as pseudoscientific? Can we agree that as a matter of philosophy of science that if an idea is proposed that's consistent with known physics, especially if proposed by noted scientists and supported by experiments by other noted scientists, that this by itself is not pseudoscience? What people do in the name of an idea, and charge large sums of money for, is a philosophically separate question. It's the difference between a scientific conference on exobiology and a UFO convention. Cryobiologist ( talk) 01:37, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
Latest forum-shop: Wikipedia:Dispute resolution noticeboard#Talk:Cryonics#Quackery_or_not. Note this is substantially the same DRN as the one from a month or so ago - David Gerard ( talk) 12:02, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
See here]. Doug Weller talk 19:00, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
I removed some self-sourced / self-published material including books on lulu.com. Someone thinks this is bad because being in-universe is not a thing unless you're talking about comic books. Guy ( Help!) 21:54, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
See recent edits and talk page. I don't have the energy or time (new young dog) for this. Doug Weller talk 14:29, 24 July 2019 (UTC)
An editor is arguing that that this is not a FRINGE issue, and has asked that Paul H remove his comments to make way for a THIRD opinion.
I've done some rough cleanup of the article, but it needs a great deal of work. -- Ronz ( talk) 15:37, 9 August 2019 (UTC)
The Medical Medium's article could use some additional eyes, I think. He learns about medicine from spirits and then shares that magical knowledge with the world with the help of friends like Gwyneth Paltrow. Now a bestselling author. Came to WP for more information after hearing a bit about some celery juice fad he's apparently responsible for. The article seems, to my eye, rather too charitable in describing his various claims. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 04:16, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
"He learns about medicine from spirits and then shares that magical knowledge with the world"– well, it worked for Rudolph Steiner ... Alexbrn ( talk) 05:45, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
Someone keeps deleting appropriate categories such as Category:Pseudohistorians. More watchful eyes? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 19:45, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
This is about [20]. What Barok777 wants from us is that we should teach the controversy about alternative historical facts, based upon pseudoscholarship. Hint: it's a history article (as in "historical facts"), not a theology article. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 13:12, 8 August 2019 (UTC)
More hammering at [21]. It seems that the socks drawer has been opened. It seems a complete mockery to poo on the historical method and then call your papers history writing. Since the Enlightenment the supernatural has been purged from history, yet some Wikipedia editors seem unaware of this fact. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 13:44, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
Empathizing–systemizing theory ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs) and Empathy quotient ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (and redirects like Extreme male brain) look like fringe science to me, but I am not an expert. The phrase "Empathizing-systematizing theory has faced some criticism on ideological grounds" jumped out at me as being particularly POV pushing. Is this theory mainstream psychology, or fringe medicine?
(Also being discussed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine#Empathizing–systemizing theory -- Guy Macon ( talk) 21:44, 9 August 2019 (UTC)
A recent edit added "Similar claims have been made based on interpretations of carvings from the Bharhut Stupa (2 BC) and Jambukeswarar Temple, Thiruvanaikaval (2 AD) that are claimed to represent the fruits of Anacardium occidentale. [1] Some translators of ayurvedic texts in Sanskrit have also associated certain plant names to Anacardium occidentale. [2]"
I can't find any discussion of these in mainstream sources. Doug Weller talk 15:36, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
References
Dubious sourcing - all from various Mormon authors, no suggestion that mainstream scholars don't agree. Doug Weller talk 16:03, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
Deletion discussion regarding a fringe topic. Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Annie's Coming Out -- Wikiman2718 ( talk) 16:14, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
Have you done a thorough search for sources about the film and the book upon which it is based? I find multiple mentions of it in various skeptical literature. I'm not sure why you think it hasn't been noticed. jps ( talk) 19:35, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
The fringyness comes from the fact that one of the listed "authors" could not possibly be an author unless we accept fringe science as fact. However, I don't see any valid deletion reason. ApLundell ( talk) 19:43, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
Don't despair! Merging the three articles seems like a good way to start achieving the (laudable) goals you have in mind for autism content at Wikipedia. I can see a very strong case for merging these designates since the best and most reliable sources no longer contend there is a clear diagnostic demarcation available. As far as your concern about FC "steps", as it were, the best thing to do is to make sure to focus on the steps that are verifiable beyond any FC sources. For example, if there are particular autism advocates who had FC intervention in their childhood but now verifiably produce communication that is unaided, it's best to stick with the stuff that is verifiably attributable. jps ( talk) 14:34, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
FYI Firstly, the AFD was SNOW closed as Keep. Secondly, please use WP:WikiProject Autism to work out the issues concerning how Autism is covered in WP. Roger (Dodger67) ( talk) 10:49, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
Regulars here might be more able than I am to determine if there's any validity to the edit request made at Talk:Misogyny#Semi-protected edit request on 15 August 2019, and what exactly to do about it. Thanks, – Deacon Vorbis ( carbon • videos) 13:44, 15 August 2019 (UTC)
The contributor who wrote the Charles Darwin section on Misogyny is now blocked for copyright violations, but I suspect in the contribution history we might find a lot of problematic fringe content that needs to be removed or recouched:
Special:Contributions/Shootingstar88
jps ( talk) 13:55, 15 August 2019 (UTC)
There is an ongoing RFC that may be of interest to editors with background in WP:FRINGE materials. The RFC concerns how to handle non-academic critics who argue that the academic research on campus sexual assault is methodologically flawed. Please comment here. Nblund talk 17:16, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
Two new editors on the article have been removing information from International Chiropractors Associations articles page about their anti-vaccine views. There is sourced information including that the organization invited Andrew Wakefield to one of their annual conferences. They also screened Vaxxed at the same conference. They also have other anti-vaccine views but I want to see if others agree that it should be included in the information on their organization. -- VViking Talk Edits 01:52, 17 August 2019 (UTC)
Lust came across this. Looks like a big of a POV fork of Placebo, especially since it's rich in Ted Kaptchuk sources. Alexbrn ( talk) 19:50, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
Jenny McCarthy ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
User retaining comments making accusations of bias while collapsing my shorter response to those comments. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 07:25, 17 August 2019 (UTC)
/info/en/?search=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Kimball_Atwood#Kimball_Atwood Roxy, the dog. wooF 10:02, 18 August 2019 (UTC)
Effects of blue light technology ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I’m not familiar with the topic, but recent changes by SPAs have altered the article’s POV significantly. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 22:53, 18 August 2019 (UTC)
Another edit war at Hydrogen water and related pages by spa who has been editing for two days. Eyes needed. Xxanthippe ( talk) 06:26, 20 August 2019 (UTC).
Notorious chemophobes the Environmental Working Group have paid someone to try to buff up the article. So far they are sticking to Talk, but they aren't going away any time soon. More eyes would be appreciated. Thanks. Guy ( Help!) 08:39, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
-- Guy Macon ( talk) 00:29, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
FYI: Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement#CMTBard -- Guy Macon ( talk) 01:46, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
There is a discussion at talk:Unplanned regarding the inclusion of sources critiquing the anti-abortion film's factual accuracy, and indeed its status as an anti-abortion film. Guy ( Help!) 09:38, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
Judging from the legal threat I just received off-wiki it looks like Gary Null's people are about to mount yet another attempt to whitewash the article. Guy ( Help!) 09:28, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
Someone has liovingly linked tot he source (usually full text PDF or YouTube video) of every single bonkers thing G. Edward Griffin has ever said. Almost all of it is self-published through his own company American Media, which has no other obvious clients. Is this large section on bibliography and filmography WP:UNDUE? Do YouTube videos count under "filmography"? Some of this material is hosted on Freedom Force International, a websuite that has inspired at least one mad bugger to go out with a gun. Guy ( Help!) 18:37, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
Unsourced article about a book by Alastair Crowley. -- Doug Weller talk 18:17, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
This is a terrible article. I removed some junk and replaced some tags. His books are self-published by his "Church of the Seven Rays". [23] -- Doug Weller talk 18:22, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
Denialists trying to pathologize science - I deleted two paragraphs [24] but I guess they will come back. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 07:20, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
An interesting theory has been added to the Dyatlov Pass incident article.
Apparently it's possible that "Arctic Madness" contributed to the accident. It's sourced, but given the article's tendency to attract wacky theories, I'd appreciate it if someone familiar with Russian could evaluate the reliability of the source.
Thanks. ApLundell ( talk) 21:39, 26 July 2019 (UTC)
I ran into this article (again, I seem to have visited it in 2010) when I found its creator using him as a source. At the moment it's just a promotional stub for a fringe authorl. Doug Weller talk 19:00, 15 August 2019 (UTC)
New ref and content added here: Given the apparent quality of the ref, I've left it in for now. Anyone know who Chase Kloetzke and Kerry McClure are, and if they'd be considered experts for this content? -- Ronz ( talk) 22:54, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
I was skimming the new physics articles report and noticed Draft:Avicenna-Bohm Theory, which looks like promotion of a fringe idea that was just published (and is a copy-and-paste that would be a copyvio if the original weren't technically CC licensed). This led me to Quantum mind, where I cut a section that had been added by an IP which geolocates to the institution of the authors themselves. I guess that (a) keeping an eye out for COI violations would be good, and (b) this is as opportune a time as any to try improving the quantum mind page a bit. For starters, having two not-so-short quotes in the lead seems vaguely essay-like and not quite encyclopedic in tone. Any thoughts? XOR'easter ( talk) 04:02, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Hey, folks. So, while I'm used to getting threats from cryptozoologists, climate change deniers, and Young Earth creationists and whatever, this is a first for me:
- Added important unique entry for Völva, I will put this up every day of my life if I have to and I will be unable to update information and sources if I am at war with you. Practicing Svartur Völva here, I will death curse you.
Basically, this particular user demands that we maintain a separate page for völva complete with a bunch of WP:SYNTH, WP:OR, and you name it, rather than have the article redirect to its main article, referenced with very solid sources throughout, which is Seeress (Germanic). As Seeress (Germanic) makes clear (as does every work of scholarship on this topic), Old Norse völva is one of several different synonyms for seeresses in the North Germanic record.
Now, even the user's lack of familiarity with the topic is evident and chances are at worst they'll accidentally turn the milk in their fridge sour or whatever, nonetheless it'd be nice to get some more eyes on this stuff. I'm not exactly keen on the prospect of being stalked by yet another threat-tossing edit-warrior for the foreseeable future. (@ Haukurth:, @ Yngvadottir:, @ Ermenrich:, @ Katolophyromai:). :bloodofox: ( talk) 15:55, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
As pointed out in a New Yorker article today about Amy Wax, our article on General knowledge heavily cites work by disgraced professor Richard Lynn, who seemingly should be considered a fringe source. Quoting New Yorker:
Wax sent links to two studies whose lead author is Richard Lynn, a British psychologist who is known for believing in racial differences in intelligence, supporting eugenics, and associating with white supremacists. (She also shared the Wikipedia page for “general knowledge,” which cites several of Lynn’s studies.)
Need some eyes on the article. -- Krelnik ( talk) 21:39, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
See [26] Doug Weller talk 07:54, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
Postbiological evolution ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
This looks like WP:SYNTH to me. Is this SYNTH?
jps ( talk) 19:03, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
The dictionary definition of Evolution is any process of formation, growth or development.This isn't an encyclopedia article; it's a school report that somebody put off until the last minute. I don't see anything in it really worth saving. XOR'easter ( talk) 01:37, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
AfD initiated: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Postbiological evolution. jps ( talk) 11:09, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
This is about [27], which two editors want to get it undone at the talk page. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 18:48, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
... This page is for notifying people who are interested in fringe topics that something fringey is going on somewhere. ... -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 06:33, 19 April 2018 (UTC)Quoted by Tgeorgescu ( talk) 19:09, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
Some comments are requested here:
/info/en/?search=Talk:Copulation_(zoology)#Questions_for_FTN
Issues involved are the definition of a fringe theory/theorist, possible use of Wikipedia by a fringe theorist to promote their ideas, and whether or not that theorist's material is a reliable source or whether the content should be trusted. -Crossroads- ( talk) 16:26, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
Non notable cryptozoologist. Also being publicized at Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp and Fouke Monster.- LuckyLouie ( talk) 20:32, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
It continues. See Talk:Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 12:39, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
An editor thinks White privilege is violating WP:NPOV by giving insufficient attention to people who don't believe white privilege exists. This is, frankly, very deep into WP:PROFRINGE territory based on current social science. Any editors with a background in social sciences and an interest in fringe who want to help out would be welcome. Simonm223 ( talk) 12:51, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
I'm sorry, what scholarship is there that indicates that white privilege does not exist? jps ( talk) 15:26, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
Long quote from article
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Looks fringe and COI-ful. XOR'easter ( talk) 21:55, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
I got a response to my essay at WP:GOODBIAS in my email.
Here is is (with the identity of the sender removed -- newly created username, zero edits):
I am certain that we are all relieved that that has been cleared up... :) -- Guy Macon ( talk) 20:29, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
LessWrong ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) - advocates of the site want to remove the section on LessWrong's links to the neoreactionary movement, which have been exhaustively cited. There's an editor who comes by every few days to blank it under various spurious claims, and refuses to discuss it. More eyes would be appropriate - David Gerard ( talk) 16:31, 15 August 2019 (UTC)
Did you know that 200,000 or possibly even 400,000 non-Jewish Poles were killed in a giant gas chamber in road tunnel under Warsaw as part of a huge Warsaw concentration camp complex? (for scale - would rank in top-5 in Extermination camp#Death toll). Well, the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 (which covers the camp in Volume I, part B, pages 1511-1515) saw fit to devote precisely zero space to this conspiracy theory, and describes the camp (part of the time as a sub-camp) as operating for approx. a year (clearing the ruins of the ghetto) - with a total of 8,000-9,000 inmates (mostly Jews from outside of Poland) of which 4,000-5,000 died as victims.
The conspiracy theory is covered in this recent piece in London Review of Books - Under the Railway Line, Christian Davies, 9 May 2019. According to LRB this is advanced by proponents of "Polocaust" who try to create a parity or even "greater victimhood" of Poles in the Holocaust - Per LRB this related to the
"standard trope on the Polish nationalist right that Jews have exaggerated their victimhood in order to extort money from the Poles and obtain global power and influence"
LRB also notes:
"But the more Trzcińska’s claims were challenged, the more determined her supporters became. Marches, demonstrations, public meetings and religious ceremonies were held, bogus maps circulated, false testimonies promoted, Wikipedia entries amended. Worst of all, plaques and monuments bearing false witness to the secret genocide started to appear around the city."
Our Warsaw concentration camp contained this hoax for 15 years and 3 days. It has spread to other articles - for instance on German camps in occupied Poland during World War II it lasted for 13 years 3 months and 27 days ( 2006 diff, 2019 removal). This (will) top the list at Wikipedia:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia (current maximum is 13 years, 3 months).
I have rewritten the camp article based on mainstream sources. Credit here also goes to @ K.e.coffman: who cut some of the un-sourced garbage (the whole article was mostly missing citations) in May 2019, and to an IP and @ Paven1: who alerted in 2006 (see [30], [31], [32], [33]). I have also removed this from several articles throughout the English Wikipedia.
However, I am sure I missed some spots on English Wikipedia with this. Also - while the Polish Wikipedia is in a fairly good state (the Polish Wikipedia generally is in a fairly good state on this topic - often more mainstream than the English Wikipedia), this drivel has spread to other language Wikipedias - for instance the French, Dutch, Finnish, Chinese - all seem based on what was present on the English Wikipedia (the Chinene and French seem to be straight one to one translations). On English Wikipedia this got into more top-tier pages - e.g. German camps in occupied Poland during World War II and Extermination camp. Help checking where else this got to on English Wikipedia as well as spreading the word to other language Wikipedias would be appreciated. Icewhiz ( talk) 09:15, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2019 August 24#Category:Scientific racism and User:Johnpacklambert's removal of that category and Category:White supremacy from articles. Doug Weller talk 09:34, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
Science is and has always been a detached and objective pursuitone sentence after invoking Lysenko. XOR'easter ( talk) 16:02, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
Is quoting David Gelernter appropriate here? See recent history. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 10:12, 31 August 2019 (UTC)
according to this new article. Doug Weller talk 15:04, 31 August 2019 (UTC)
The classic notion of an encyclopaedia and ‘universal knowledge’ needs to be discarded. Having top priority content about any group of people, nation,... is in this direction. The idea of encyclopedic knowledge feels problematic. What is a “universal knowledge”? Who gets to decide what is “universal”? We need to focus on moving from a single center to multiple ones."is about to be written into formal WMF policy, we're fairly soon not going to be allowed to label crank theories as "fringe", let alone refuse to give them equal billing with actual demonstrable facts. ‑ Iridescent 18:59, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
2011 -
Fear mongering claims about FC and false sexual abuse allegations have been a staple of anti-FC rhetoric for years
2018 -I admit that I had criminal sexual contact with a disabled man who was unable to speak and express his will.
I found this addition today to the main article on Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories: "Adenostemma viscosum This plant, native to the Americas, was found in Hawaii by Hillebrand in 1888 who considered it to have grown there before Europeans arrived, because it was growing throughout the low-elevation woods on all the islands of the archipelago within 75 years after Capt. Cooks arrival. A legitimate native name and established native medicinal usage confirmed the pre-Cookian age. [1]"
And then I found "Origins of the Hawaiian flora: Phylogenies and biogeography reveal patterns of long‐distance dispersal" [36] which lists its dispersal, by adhesion to birds, as "W(AU + EA + I + P)" - the W "indicates a lineage that arrived from a widespread species" and the regions are " Au = Australasian, I = Indo‐Malayan, EA = East Asian, NT = Neotropical, NA = North America." Plus our article on Adenostemma shows it is a widespread genus. I'm always concerned when it appears that someone is trying to make an argument but only uses sources that back their argument. I'm sorry, User:Geneva11, but your edits appear to be searching for proof of trans-oceanic contact without looking to see if anything contradicts it. See also this [37] - you haven't read that paper, right? And as it isn't published, how can it meet WP:VERIFY. I don't have time right now but there seem to be other similar edits.
I haven't reverted it because it may be better to leave it in with the evidence that it's wrong than remove it. Doug Weller talk 19:13, 28 August 2019 (UTC)
References
Differential K theory misleadingly implies that a fringe, racialist theory has academic legitimacy, and it seems to be getting worse. AndewNguyen ( talk · contribs) recently added several obscure studies to the article, to flattering affect.
To briefly explain the topic, J. Philippe Rushton attempted to apply r/K selection theory to humans and human racial categories (specifically "Mongoloid", "Caucasoid", and "Negroid") starting in 1985. Rushton's version of this theory has been dismissed by biologists for multiple reasons. As one example, Joseph L. Graves describes Rushton's grasp of life history theory as "rudimentary", "amateurish", etc. As Graves explains, his work was rejected by evolutionary scientists on methodological grounds, which Rushton misrepresented as being ideologically motivated. [41] To put it more bluntly, when scientists began looking at Rushton's work, they found sloppy assumptions, not good scholarship. [42] Rushton's work on this theory is, however, still cited in some papers and textbooks, although these almost always either criticize the theory, or gloss-over Rushton's explicitly racialist conclusions.
Two of the recently added studies were published in Personality and Individual Differences, which is one of the very few legitimate journals that continued to published on the theory. These sources seem to make minute adjustments to a grossly flawed theory. None of them appear to be particularly significant, especially weighed against the many more substantial criticisms on a broader range of publications. The authors of the studies include Richard Lynn, Michael Woodley, Edward Dutton (twice), and Aurelio José Figueredo. All of these are contributors to Mankind Quarterly, among other fringe outlets. As one example of this walled garden, Figueredo's support for Rushton's theory has been specifically described as an example of scientific racism in academia. Dutton distanced himself from Rushton in 2019, although I don't think he's reliable either way, so I'm not sure if this matters. Grayfell ( talk) 22:26, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
AndrewNguyen has already received the {{
subst:alert|r-i}}
notice. That should suffice for now. I hereby additionally warn them to use the talk page to generate consensus for any disputed sources before reverting any removal of disputed material. Please return here if there are further problems. Please be patient and polite to one another. If the next person agrees this is enough, please close this thread.
Jehochman
Talk 02:04, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
Iamsnag12 ( talk · contribs), an eight-year-old account with less than 100 edits, has repeatedly added the same non-reliable source to multiple articles. The first four times on 14 August: [43] [44] [45] [46]
Upon removal as a non-RS, user promptly readded without discussion on 15 August: [47] [48] [49] [50].
User was reported to ANI and alerted to discretionary sanctions [51], and on 20 August, the material was removed from the four pages by admin User:JzG as a non-RS. [52] [53] [54] [55]
On 31 August, the user re-added the same source for a ninth and tenth time.
In addition to other issues, the source has a reputation for financial entanglements with the objects of their study. In particular, the source (CENSUR) reportedly had financial ties to Aum Shinrikyo which led its members in 1995 to giving a public press conference, erroneously arguing that the group could not have manufactured the Sarin gas (which the group did in fact use in the Tokyo attacks). CENSUR had instead publicly claimed that the group was merely the victims of religious persecution. [1] [2] Also posted to ANI and RSN Feoffer ( talk) 07:04, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
References
[56] I'm just saying. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 14:39, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
This should be of interest here. Doug Weller talk 13:29, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
New editor, eyes needed. I don't think it's another sock. Doug Weller talk 21:18, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
Potentially of interest to the community here: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Varadaraja V. Raman. XOR'easter ( talk) 19:20, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
Hinduism also asks a different set of questions and frames those questions in a different perspective. V.V. Raman, a physicist with a long-running interest in questions of science and religion, explicitly takes this on in his essay "Science and the Spiritual Vision: The Hindu Perspective." Using the Vedantic System to describe Hindu thought, Raman says: "What makes the Vedantic System unique is that, unlike doctrines in some other religious systems, Vedanta is not simply based on the sacredness of this book or that. The Vedantic vision is not a theology or philosophy or even metaphysics. Rather, it is a formulation of a worldview arising from a unique mode of exploration."
Have rewritten the article. You’d be surprised. If V.V. Raman were on this noticeboard he’d be joining in with those defending science against superstition. Hyperbolick ( talk) 03:41, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
Someone who doesn’t understand our policies is contending on the Talk page that Benjamin Radford is an unreliable source for facts. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 18:42, 7 September 2019 (UTC)
I've reverted and warned User:Olatunji Mwamba twice. I'm not sure that they are going to be reading their talk page but I'm obviously stopping at two reverts. A sample edit, added just in front of a citation from a reliable source:"These 'Meso-American' scholars act as if they have a monopoly on scholarship. The only thing necessary to this task on History is a command of the various Scientific disciplines necessary to the task. Those sciences are Archaeology, Anthropology, Linguistics, Etymology, Radio-Carbon Dating, and other scientific research. And last I checked, the mastery of these scientific disciplines are all that is necessary to the task of speaking with confidence on this topic." I may have to take him to ANI. Doug Weller talk 13:13, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
Both these articles were largely sourced to sens.org, which can hardly be considered independent. Every reality-based commentary in the main article had a rebuttal from sens.org or the Methuselah foundation or both.
I have redirected the SENS Research Foundation article to the main article. The small amount of content that wasn't self-sourced, is essentially there already, with better context. It was mainly added by a now-departed WP:SPA, Otvaltak ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), and by a series of IPs. This is normal for anything to do with life extension, of course.
The Methuselah Foundation article is a wonderful advertisement for them, but looks very fringey to me. Guy ( help!) 17:15, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
(This is not the type of fringe usually dealt with here but . . . .) Most royal candidate theory is about a genealogical/historical proposition conjured up by a self-promoting bond trader who became a media go-to genealogy expert by purchasing a prominent publication on the English Peerage. It proclaimed that every US presidential election up to the year 2000 was won by the candidate with the best/most-royal bloodlines in their ancestry. The theory itself has all the hallmarks of fringe (including made-up data, hand-waving, retrospective discovery of 'better' descents when the picked candidate lost, plus being demonstrably false) but it got reported in several successive election cycles by British and American news sources as a 'different take' on picking who was going to win the latest tedious American election campaign, along the lines of the octopus picking the winner of the World Cup.
A paragraph has been in the article for a while referring to a 2012 Daily Mail article about a tweenager who used online genealogies (which are of notoriously abysmal quality) to trace all US presidents to King John of England. The Mail story does not mention the 'most royal candidate theory' at all, but an editor is insisting that it is relevant because it deals with presidents and royal descents and thus cannot be removed, and if erroneous (which it is) it can only be countered by a WP:RS that addresses its accuracy. I would suggest that scholars don't take the work of 12-year-olds seriously just because the Daily Mail reported it, and neither should Wikipedia. Am I off base here? Agricolae ( talk) 08:53, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
Newspapers are not the epistemic communities where the political science analysis of who does or does not win elections is discussed. WP:FRINGE applies when a topic is ignored by experts. Self-proclaimed doesn't count. jps ( talk) 01:10, 31 August 2019 (UTC)
Regulars here may be interested in this new article, which seems especially fringey. There's probably some inappropriate claims being made in Wikipedia's voice. I'm also unsure of the notability – some of the sourcing is questionable, including at least three cases of churnalism (phys.org, EurekAlert, and one other all republishing the same press release). – Deacon Vorbis ( carbon • videos) 03:49, 11 September 2019 (UTC)
New editor adding huge table and what looks like OR about health properties. Doug Weller talk 20:19, 11 September 2019 (UTC)
Editor adding OTZ(I think I must have meant OR), first as IP, twice with account. I've reverted twice myself and warned him. Doug Weller talk 17:52, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
User:Anacarolina13 is heavily promoting someone's PhD in both articles (and es.wiki). Here's the text: "Diógenes Silva completely denies the existence of Phoenicians in Brazil in his thesis [1], defended before 5 PhD members of the Thesis Tribunal in Madrid, Spain, at Complutense University of Madrid, on 15 January 2016, having as director: Carlos González Wagner. It received unanimous maximum qualification, “cum laude”, and recommended for publication. The text was previously approved by the Deptº. of History of the University of São Paulo - USP. And officially revalidated in Brazil by the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ, in 2018.
Its 418-page text, containing figures, maps, photos, and transcripts, analyzes the reasons for the origin and permanence of the false theory of alleged Phoenician navigators of Brazil from the fifteenth century to the present. By explaining the true economic and political interests that false assumption has been able to cover up and perpetuate among Brazilian, American, and European intellectuals. From Christopher Columbus to the Internet. Involving to: Catholic Church; the Portuguese-Spanish dispute for control of the colonies; the missions of the Naturalist Travelers; the demarcations of the South American borders; the independence of Brazil; the reign of Peter II and slavery; advertising during the 1930 Revolution; the brazilian carnival; your songs; and popular movies. In addition to publications in world newspapers and magazines, fraudulent discoveries, fake rock inscriptions, and imagined abandoned cities plated with gold. As a result of fake news, the thesis proves that the Phoenicians never trod America."
He's right of course, but this doesn't belong in the article for various reasons including NPOV and WP:UNDUE and she's editwarring without any discussion. Doug Weller talk 14:43, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
References
A newcomer called ProfZeit has claimed in a number of articles that Marxism influenced the philosophy of science as well as science studies. The only sources I can find to back this up come from Marxist authors. We could use some help to determine if this viewpoint is fringe. -- Wikiman2718 ( talk) 15:24, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
Postmodernism has made great contributions to astrophysics, as noted in the Sokal paper.... Wait. Wut. GMG talk 17:22, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
Marxism is not a fringe theory. It is a major intellectual tradition with an elaborate body of adherents and respected texts. Its contribution to various disciplines, including science studies, is acknowledged by many who are not Marxists, such as Professor Loren Graham of MIT and Harvard, mentioned above. He does not reduce Marxism to Lysenkoism, which was definitely a complex, tragic and prolonged episode in this history. In mainstream encyclopedias, there are many entries documenting this. For example, the Encyclopedia of Science Technology and Ethics has a number of articles on Marxism and Marxists and their positive contributions to this field. Why should the status quo be Wikiman2718's dogmatic denial of this rather than my informed assertion of this? ProfZeit ( talk) 09:40, 6 September 2019 (UTC)ProfZeit
a seminal eventand
a major forceare likely overselling and POV-pushing, but
Among those influenced by a Marxist approach to science were J.D. Bernal, J.B.S Haldane,...is justifiable. We cover who influenced whom, without making a final judgment about whether that influence led to truth or error. XOR'easter ( talk) 14:50, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
[T]he excitement surrounding early STS fed off the frisson of radical critique associated with the rhetoric of 'alienation', which tapped into the rediscovery of the 'young' or 'humanist' Karl Marx, whose unpublished manuscripts were translated into English in the 1960s. [... Marxism] came back to haunt STS after the collapse of Communism and the onset of the Science Wars. [...] Bernal explicitly followed Marx in believing that something like a Lakatosian rational reconstruction of the history of science could provide guidance on science's future trajectory ]...] His Social Function of Science (1939) written at the peak of Western enthusiasm for the scientific promise of the Soviet Union, followed by the most comprehensive Marxist history of science ever written, the four-volume Science in History (1971), are worthy precursors of social epistemology and are among the earliest works in the sociology and social history of science.Sokal and Bricmont, neither Marxists nor sympathizers to most "science studies" practice, discuss Marxism and reactions thereto in Fashionable Nonsense (1998)'s exploration of how the political left embraced postmodernism. The influence has often been indirect; as Karen Barad said somewhere,
New materialisms are of course deeply indebted to Marx, and to others indebted to Marxism, including Foucault and a generation of feminist engagements with Marxist insights that travel under the names “materialist feminisms”, “feminist science studies”, to name a few.Marxism indirectly influenced STS via Latour being upset with it, and Marxists of various stripe then being upset with Latour; the rabbit hole is arbitrarily deep.) XOR'easter ( talk) 16:39, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
It is not fair to assert that Marxists are unreliable in writing about Marxism and therefore cannot be cited. Are the authors I have cited unreliable? How? Are citations of Marxist texts to be be banned on wikipedia? How far to go with this? Are logical positivists unreliable when writing about logical positivism? Are members of the Edinburgh School unreliable writing about the strong programme? By the way, most Marxists were not born Marxists. They came to it in a search for truth. Many were eminent scientists: Bernal, Haldane, Langevin, Joliot-Curie and they wrote about science from a Marxist point of view. Is anybody with a world view banned from writing about it or only Marxists? -- ProfZeit ( talk) 09:52, 9 September 2019 (UTC)ProfZeit
So how to proceed with this? I propose that I reinstate my edits on the entries on philosophy of science and science studies. My one on philosophy of science is only one sentence. I can delete the word 'rich'. On both, I can add non-Marxist sources. It would not be a good idea to delete the Marxist ones I have chosen, because they survey the field in a relatively comprehensive way and lead on to many other sources. Otherwise, I'll take it to dispute resolution. I don't yet know how to do that, because I am new to Wikipedia editing and was only intending to make a few strategic edit, but I regard this as a matter of principle. -- ProfZeit ( talk) 09:50, 10 September 2019 (UTC)ProfZeit
strive to treat each aspect with a weight proportional to its treatment in the body of reliable, published material on the subject(emphasis added). That last bit, "on the subject" means a lot when you are dealing with broad overarching topics.
On the due weight issue, I have, if anything, erred on the other side, in writing so few sentences about such an elaborate intellectual tradition. As to whether it belongs in a general article on philosophy of science or science studies, I argue that it does. Marxists have taught in mainstream universities, presented at mainstream conferences, published in mainstream journals and publishing houses for decades now. They have interacted with and been respected by non-Marxists. There are many academics, who are not Marxists, who have nevertheless been influenced by Marxism, some knowingly, but others through the evolution of their disciplines, even if they are not knowledgeable about their disciplinary histories. I am for reinstatement of my edit, although I agree that the overall article is very poor, with or without it. -- ProfZeit ( talk) 09:41, 13 September 2019 (UTC)ProfZeit
Parental alienation ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
This caught my eye because it makes a bunch of what look like medical claims without anyh WP:MEDRS-compliant sources to back them up.
So, has this crossed the line into being a fringe theory? -- Guy Macon ( talk) 03:10, 11 September 2019 (UTC)
-- Guy Macon ( talk) 22:02, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
There is a content dispute at this article in relation to material mostly from Rindermann. A few SPAs and IPs appear to insist for inclusion while some regulars object. I think one of our very experienced editors also argues for inclusion although he has not edited the article yet about this ( DGG's comment on the talk page invites to reason, pinging as a courtesy). I'll personally stop reverting there as I lack the time and already shared my impression; an IP address editor still insists for more discussion, so more participation welcome. — Paleo Neonate – 21:47, 15 September 2019 (UTC)
This just in: English language "is just a dialect of Chinese" say academics
Bonus info:
Related: [58] -- Guy Macon ( talk) 19:41, 9 September 2019 (UTC)
May I discuss Wikiversity:Motivation and emotion/Book/2015/Masturbation motivation here? Seems like total WP:FRINGE/PS. I proposed it for deletion there. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 12:30, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
According to this (New?) article
I'd PROD it, but some charlatan would deprod, so I'd like some comment from here? It actually needs Jytdog to take a big fat red pen to it, nevertheless ... - Roxy, the dog. wooF 10:06, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
[ https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/09/18/malicious-bots-and-trolls-spread-vaccine-misinformation/ ] -- Guy Macon ( talk) 06:39, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
Howdy hello! I got into this debate as a result of a
WP:3O (see
Talk:Walter_Russell#Additional_Information_Regarding_the_Doctorate_from_American_Academy_of_Sciences for the original discussion), but one of the original participants left, leaving just myself and
User:WikipediansSweep. The article in question is
Walter Russell, a purported polymath of the early 20th century. At issue is whether Russell's theories are fringe, whether he has a doctorate in science, and whether he discovered Neptunium and Uranium before
Niels Bohr. I believe it is very much pseudoscience, and that Russell was a quack. That's evidenced by this statement in the lead derived from Russell's own book: He claims his mastery in many fields to mystical experience starting from the age of 7 years culminating every 7 years until a 39 day cosmic illumination experience in his 49th year where he claims to derive all of his scientific knowledge.
Some feedback, or at least another voice in the debate, would be much appreciated.
Captain Eek
Edits Ho Cap'n!
⚓ 06:17, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
Hello, I am the other participant in the discussions. Im glad that you admit it as a belief. Since you have admited that a change of the page is necessary to, at least, show its solely an opinion as of now. Can you explain how that statement is evidence for your claim? There are many people who have received powerful information in the form of visions. Nicola Tesla was one, in which he saw the AC generator still in use today. I never find it mentioned that he was a psuedoscientist, also he was a follower of Russells and told him to bury his work for 1000 years in the Smithsonian because humanity wasn't ready for it. His first sculpture was at 56 and commissioned by Thomas Edison, and it was a masterpiece. Surrounded by Tesla, Einstein, Edison, and debating scientist in the New York Times there has yet to be one incident of crank-calling. Hopefully, if you stand corrected, you will be able to say so.
Sidenote: Its odd how one can call someone a quack indirectly but if i would call you a quack that would be inappropriate. Its a very degrading term if i might add, along the lines of retard, idiot, fool, babboon, joke, etc. In essence you're saying this man is dumb yet have trouble explaining it. It should be fairly simple. Also saying or calling someone a derogatory term only furthers the division and lessens your ability to comprehend their position, whether it be lunacy or fundamentally different views. WikipediansSweep ( talk) 09:18, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
Einstein was very fringe in 1924, as his views were not accepted by the mainstream at all. The coming years validated his work afterwards, nevertheless he was a fringe scientist.— Preceding unsigned comment added by WikipediansSweep ( talk • contribs) 11:22, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
Can someone please warn User:WikipediansSweep of the DS on pseudoscience? Thanks. jps ( talk) 16:09, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
Impressed my correction comment was deleted leaving only my atrociously wrong statement intact... I corrected it to 1904 whenever it took academia quite a while to adjust to Einstein, which i was using as essentially an educational pointer that not confirming to the mainstream is actually the means in which science progresses. WikipediansSweep ( talk) 08:26, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
Also check the talk page as i have listed many sources, albeit poorly(format wise not content) , under the modern leonardo, if anyone of you is in New York you can access the herald tribune online through a library card to get genuine confirmation on the modern leonardo claim, even though i have it additionally being sourced after his death, there are definitely more claims of it nonetheless i doubt one can separate it from the herald article. WikipediansSweep ( talk) 08:49, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
I can now see that Kepler's mention of a single focus, and his failure to mention the other, coupled with Newton's single attribute of matter to attract matter without mentioning its equally apparent power to repel, deprived science of a possible solution to the universal riddle— it's like GeoCities in newsprint. Historical inaccuracy is the least of its problems. XOR'easter ( talk) 18:31, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
I looked at one of Russell's books, A New Concept of the Universe (1953), and there is clear evidence of pseudoscience (e.g. arguing that God can be proved in the laboratory) and a form of quackery (confidently proclaiming knowledge/expertise one does not have) in the introductory section. He describes hydrogen as being an octave, and isotopes as being octave based. He also claims there are 21 elements before hydrogen, and that carbon can be split into isotopes by a gyroscopic method, in a similar sense to musical octaves being split into sharps and flats. Then he says hydrogen is 'weightless fuel' and can be transmuted from the atmosphere to avoid the need of storage containers. None of this makes any sense, from a basic science (chemistry) standpoint, and I think this would have been obvious as of its publication date. The weight of hydrogen was established in the 1700s by Cavendish, hydrogen cannot be transmuted from nitrogen (as Russell clarifies his meaning on p. 124) except by expensive fission, isotopes aren't "sharps and flats" (mass and atomic number are distinct and correspond to proton and neutron counts, so overlapping mass number is not an identical element, unlike sharps and flats in music), and there really can't be 21 atomic elements before hydrogen because that would imply less than one proton. Lsparrish ( talk) 18:29, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
The recent contributions of single-purpose account Bonvi-a to our article on climate-denial organization Friends of Science could use wider attention. (For past discussion here of this organization, see Wikipedia:Fringe theories/Noticeboard/Archive 44#Friends of Science) — David Eppstein ( talk) 19:55, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
Actually, the recent blatant denial of facts by Eppstein is what needs wider attention. Sadly the automatic rejection of my edits to a Wikipedia page wreaking of alarmist propaganda is proof that Wikipedia is nothing more than a disinformation tool for climate alarmism. I had been warned that trying to correct the misinformation on this page would be a waste of time... My friends are correct, you are a waste of time. Bonvi-a ( talk) 05:34, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
If you are right dont give in. They cant win if you are truly right. WikipediansSweep ( talk) 16:37, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
Elitzur–Vaidman bomb tester: Sometimes the real science is weirder than the fringe science. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 14:55, 21 September 2019 (UTC)
Maybe not quite the best board, but there doesn't seem to be any that quite fits as I'm not sure BLPN is the best place for dealing with this. Can editors take a look at Mary Higby Schweitzer? I noticed this due removal of content for questionable reasons. But looking at the article, it does seem to to have a fair amount content sourced exclusively to published papers, so I'm not sure if it's clear all the content is significant or properly presented. It sounds like her work has received attention from creationists in the past. Nil Einne ( talk) 04:56, 20 September 2019 (UTC)
A search on his name and Usenet is interesting. Besides being a climate change denier he has other conspiracy theories about science. Note his signature on his Usenet posts. Doug Weller talk 17:42, 21 September 2019 (UTC)
Does this article seem excessively positive to anyone else, especially the lead, and especially in not explaining his "College" is not an accredited educational facility, but, as far as I'm aware, an auditorium. Adam Cuerden ( talk)Has about 6.9% of all FPs—Preceding undated comment added 21:28, 22 August 2019
Agree. de Ruiter is notorious in the Edmonton area for erratic behaviour and potentially leading a cult. I will work to find local sources and revise. Worrypower ( talk) 19:52, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
This page is an archive. Do not edit the contents of this page. Please direct any additional comments to the current main page. |
Hi, My edits are constantly being reverted on the above article by a specific user. In his last revert he claimed that the Cochrane review source I used did not was not related to the article. The review was of Yoga "Pranyama" (breath control) techniques. Breathwork is the new age term for "Pranayama" and so they are the same thing. He did not know this and reverted my edit (again).As I pointed out to him I don't believe that he has sufficient knowledge on the topic to be able to add any meaningful contributions to the page. Please review the talk page on the Breathwork article for more details. Can I please get an admin to take a look. Thanks Darwin3881 ( talk) 01:28, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
Don't know if this is the right place but British Israelism. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 18:38, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
See Talk:The 10,000 Year Explosion#Pattern of edits where an IP is saying that User:Grayfell's edits are attracting (inadvertently) supporters of the hereditarian perspective. An eye on recent edits by the IP at Henry Harpending would be useful. Doug Weller talk 17:09, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
Can people comment either here Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard#Robert Schoch or on the article talk page about the issues raised, remembering it's a BLP. (Please don't comment here as a split discussion will just be confusing.) Nil Einne ( talk) 05:54, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
This report is in reference to /info/en/?search=Sphinx_water_erosion_hypothesis and sub-reference to /info/en/?search=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons/Noticeboard?fbclid=IwAR3MJbZ9DGOCcx2a8fuHnJJbpgsMa5Ladws-lQv-T8JitJ4icoXawy-Dfgg#Robert_Schoch
This content of this page is being used to justify the term "fringe theory", which is a pejorative term to prejudice readers ( /info/en/?search=Fringe_theory)
The content of this page is misleading in inaccurate, yet it is being used an internal reference to label the work of Dr. Robert Schoch as "fringe claims"
Incorrect/misleading claims made on this page
1) Hawass replied: "Of course it is not possible for one reason …. No single artifact, no single inscription, or pottery, or anything has been found until now, in any place to predate the Egyptian civilization more than 5,000 years ago. Response: The iconography of a couchant lion/ess clearly predates dynastic Egypt and can be found in protodynastic grave goods in Abydos in tomb Uj and B 1/2 (see Dreyer/DAI)
2) A different argument used by Egyptologists to ascribe the Sphinx to Khafra is the "context" theory, which notes that the Sphinx is located in the context of the funerary complex surrounding the Second Pyramid, which is traditionally connected with Khafra. Response: Were the hundreds of mastabas in the western and eastern cemeteries of G1 made in the "Khufu context" during the time of this king? No. By far most date to much later times and from the 103 mastabas made during Khufu's time, most stayed empty. The context theory has us believe that adjacent monuments must have been built in the same time. Far from!
3) Apart from the Causeway, the Pyramid and the Sphinx, the complex also includes the Sphinx Temple and the Valley Temple, both of which display the same architectural style, with 100-tonne stone blocks quarried out of the Sphinx enclosure Response: Where in Schoch's model does he dispute that the temples and Sphinx were made in different times? On the contrary.
4) A diorite statue of Khafra, which was discovered buried upside down along with other debris in the Valley Temple, is claimed as support for the Khafra theory. Response: This sort of evidence is actual fringe. Intrusive burials and usurpation of statuary are well known in ancient Egypt.
5) Reader agrees that the Sphinx Temple and Valley Temple are closely associated with the Sphinx, as is the Causeway and even part of the Khafra Mortuary Temple, but suggests this evidence merely indicates these structures also predate Khafra and does not link the Sphinx in any way to Khafra Response: The only link between causeway and temples is the drain channel from causeway into the Sphinx ditch. The inference is that the causeway came before the Sphinx. What is being left out here completely is what Melinda Hartwig, Rainer Stadlemann, and others have long noticed: The causeway avoids the Sphinx suggesting it came later. This debate in other words hinges on the drain channel versus the strange direction of the causeway.
6) Rainer Stadelmann, former director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo suggests Khufu, Khafra's father, was the builder of the Sphinx [20] and contends Khafra's Causeway was built to conform to a pre-existing structure which he concludes, given its location, could only have been the Sphinx.[12] Lehner's official website also offers a similar argument based on an Archaeological sequence of structures built in the area. Lehner points to the way several structures in the area incorporate elements from older structures, and based on the order in which they were constructed concludes that the archaeological sequencing does not allow for a date older than the reign of Khafra. Response: No. This is incorrect. Lehner like Lacovara believe the causeway came before the Sphinx because the builders would not have made a drain channel for rain run-off to flow into the Sphinx ditch. Lehner and Stadelmann are at odds. If Stadlemann is correct, the entire Khafre Theory built on "context" collapses.
7) Hawass points to the poor quality of much of the Giza limestone as the basis for the significant erosion levels. He has concluded, from the present-day rapid rate of erosion on the Member II surface of the Sphinx, that "[t]he eleven hundred years between Khafre and the first major restoration in the Eighteenth Dynasty, or even half this time, would have been more than enough to erode the Member II into the deep recesses behind Phase I restoration masonry" Response: Modern day erosion is distinct from the erosion of the Sphinx and its enclosure. Modern day erosion is caused by salting which has two main causes" rising ground water and air pollution. Salting is a modern era process which cannot explain the vertical erosions. For reference see: http://www.stone.rwth-aachen.de/limestone_cairo.pdf
8) Peter Lacovara, an Egyptologist and curator at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, Atlanta, assigns "some of the erosional features" on the enclosure walls to quarrying activities rather than weathering, and states that other wear and tear on the Sphinx itself is due to groundwater percolation and wind erosion Response: Wind erosion does not cause vertical channels, where is the proof of this? Where is Lacovara's photographic evidence of wide-spread quarry marks in the vertical erosion channels of the enclosure walls? Why is this process not seen on the walls of the mastaba of Kai and Khentkaws and the rock-cut tombs on the west end of the central field? Where are the positive and negative controls for this opinion?
Omissions: 1) Schoch states that other structures and surfaces on the Giza Plateau are made from the same band of limestone as the Sphinx enclosure, but they do not show the same erosion as the walls of the Sphinx enclosure Response: Specifically, the rock-cut tombs at the west end of the central field and the mastabas of Kai and Khentkawes for example. Same rock, different decay.
2) The seismic refraction data collected by Thomas Dobecki and Robert Schoch which corroborate the Water Erosion Model of the Sphinx.
3) Textual evidence of an older Sphinx: Seyfzadeh, M., Schoch, R. (2018). The Inventory Stele: More Fact than Fiction. Archeological Discovery, Vol.6 No.2, PP. 103-161. Seyfzadeh, M., Schoch, R., Bauval, R. (2017). A New Interpretation of a Rare Old Kingdom Dual Title: The King’s Chief Librarian and Guardian of the Royal Archives of Mehit. Archeological Discovery, Vol.5 No.3, PP. 163-177.
Conclusion: This entire page was stitched together based on incomplete and inaccurate information by editors who do not know the details of the evidence. Yet, the "fringe" label is being used right at the top to bias readers from the get-go against a model they are thus not allowed to evaluate on its scientific merits, but based on opinions by those we are supposed to trust, the scholars. If there is a fringe standard satisfied here, it is being presented by the other side, the trusted scholars. This page, in turn, is then used to label Schoch's claims as "fringe".
This is what should be done: If Wikipedia cannot procure an adequate evidential base for this page, then drop the "fringe" label. There is absolutely no need for it and it only reflects poorly on the higher level editors whose ostensible intention then appears to be the squelching of an honest debate out of the gate.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.194.237.169 ( talk) 18:18, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
Response: No that's not how the editors are using fringe. By your definition, Rainer Stadelmann, Vassil Dobrev, and Melinda Hartwig all support fringe theories since they don't agree that Khafre built the Sphinx. The term "fringe" is purposefully used to taint contrarian evidence and prejudice readers. If Wikipedia is not interested in debating who is correct then why is Wikipedia taking sides by applying labels to positions taken in a scientific debate? Makes no sense.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.194.237.169 ( talk) 22:14, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
User talk:Nudge squidfish/twinkleoptions ( | user page | history | links | watch | logs)
In the very least, WP:NOTHERE. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 02:35, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
Area 51 ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Some new additions to article regarding the latest
Internet phenomenon:
As of July 14, 2019, more than 844,000 people signed up to attend the Facebook event, “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us“, in an attempt to “see them aliens”. Another 740,000+ people said they were interested in the event. The spokes women of the United States Air Force, Laura McAndrews stated that government officials knew about this particular event. She stated in a press release to The Washington Post: "(Area 51) is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces. The U.S. Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets".
Cited to WaPo, however IMO, this could be
WP:NOTNEWS and
WP:RECENTism. -
LuckyLouie (
talk) 18:21, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
This is about [1]. Source seems pretty WP:FRINGE and WP:SPS. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 10:37, 22 July 2019 (UTC)
Seed cycling ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Most of the sources are about menstrual cycles in general and not about "seed cycling". However, there's enough search results that I don't feel comfortable AFD-ing based on notability. Thoughts on how to repair this article? power~enwiki ( π, ν) 16:21, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
This has large numbers of references to New Energy Times (newenergytimes.com), which is definitely not a WP:RS. I propose to remove these references unless anyone objects. Guy ( Help!) 14:05, 24 July 2019 (UTC)
There is a dispute about this on Abby Martin. See [2]. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 22:05, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
This[ [3] is totally undsourced, (and copied from a 2005 source, the "Academic Kids Encyclopedia" [4] whose contact, about, and discliamer links take you to blank pages. Its home page was updated in 2013. A new article, Mai Mari da Ashtan has no sources at all. Some of it is copied from here or [5] and I've deleted it. I also reverted User:Medz here [6] today. Doug Weller talk 10:53, 25 July 2019 (UTC)
Talk:Israel Shamir#RFC: should we include claims by Shamir that he was a paratrooper and worked for the BBC and Haaretz which originate from his personal website could interest this board. Icewhiz ( talk) 05:11, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
Graeme Park ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
It strikes me that the existence of ghosts must be the longest running fringe theory around. What is a ghost any way but a dead person walking or flying around who(?) can't be observed by any normal means?
In any case I usually delete ghost stories attached to articles on historic houses. Quite often these seem to be promotional material for "ghost tours" (at $40 per ticket in this case). Sources can exist, e.g. in local newspapers, but often they have their tongues firmly in cheek or are simply promotional.
The specific case is here. Would somebody take a look at this and revert the reversion if I'm not mistaken that the existence of ghosts is a fringe theory?
Smallbones( smalltalk) 11:56, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
Fresno nightcrawler ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Article claiming alien creature seen in Fresno, CA — cited to a crowdsourced website called Odyssey online and The Sun tabloid. Likely an AfD candidate? - LuckyLouie ( talk) 15:39, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
The REAL reason for the Iraq war? Saddam Hussein 'had stargate portal to alien world' -- Guy Macon ( talk) 23:32, 28 July 2019 (UTC)
Our Lipozene article need some attention. This fat burning pill is heavily advertised on TV with claims like...
...but the fine print says "RESULTS NOT TYPICAL. ENDORSER USED LIPOZENE IN COMBINATION WITH DIET AND EXCERCISE AND WAS RENUMERATED". -- Guy Macon ( talk) 03:54, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
Craniosacral therapy is under attack at the moment. Medical editors needed? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 18:34, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
Potentially of interest to the community here: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Paul Dunbavin. XOR'easter ( talk) 15:21, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
The lede to Global Warming Policy Foundation is largely self-sourced self-serving gibberish, and fails to clarify to readers that the organization pushes fringe views on the matter of climate change. Snooganssnoogans ( talk) 13:12, 2 August 2019 (UTC)
Probably a load of WP:FRINGE and WP:NOT issues. Could uses eyes. Alexbrn ( talk) 12:09, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
Law of attraction (New Thought) - maybe somebody else than me should revert IP fringe edits now and then. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 18:54, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
These seem to be mainly from an inhouse persepctive. I'm not sure if anything at Criticism of the Book of Mormon#Relation to the Book of Abraham can help. -- Doug Weller talk 15:39, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
I've just realised I have no idea how to wikilink something that starts
WP:STONEWALLING and WP:IDONTHEARYOU by User:Paul Siebert at Talk:Pontius Pilate then
then
so I'll just give the url. [7] It's about this edit [8] where Carrier is being called "a leading supporter of the fringe[4][bote 1] Christ myth theory" - the word "fringe" seems to be the main issue. I'm posting here because it's possible there's a general issue involved. -- Doug Weller talk 18:16, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
Various sources, eg [9] [10] and it's starting to show up in some articles. -- Doug Weller talk 18:42, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
Interesting one this. The BBC ran a story on this clinic in March [11] and this was followed-up by David Gorski. A WP:SPA is now cleansing the article and claiming the BBC piece was "retracted" and indeed the original URL now returns a 404, but so far as I can see the BBC has made no comment. Gorski has commented on Twitter (threaded version here). More eyes/views on how to handle this, welcome. Alexbrn ( talk) 16:19, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
Gorski himself writes on http://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1149635497767010306.html that he contacted the journalist. In case we use Gorski as a reliable source in this article so often, than this piece should not be ignored. Neutrality. Checkpoint18 ( talk) 16:45, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
There are now two discussions at Talk:Cryonics where editors are invoking WP:FRINGE.
One is about whether or not Cryonics is a "Pseudoscience".
The other is about whether the procedure is performed on "corpses", "dead bodies", or "legally dead bodies".— Preceding unsigned comment added by ApLundell ( talk • contribs) 00:07, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
"Thankfully, it was reverted," you say? "Thankfully"? Else the dire consequence for WP would have been WHAT?? A needed clarification of policy? It's not exactly an assumption of good faith to accuse somebody who adds a "please clarify" template to a policy statement, of "forum shopping." To me, doing that looks like the encouraged WP:BRD, as it gets quickly to a goal. In fact, it doesn't even look very bold, which the B in BRD is supposed to stand for. So, we're working on a chilling effect around all this BRD stuff, I gather? Also the templating and different rules for "pseudoscience" stuff are meant to get around WP's usual process for insertion of material, as in mind uploading? How else to explain it? Do we have any instances of mind uploading? No. Are there believers that mind uploading will come to pass? Yes. So, is it a pseudoscience to argue for mind uploading? Should we BAN them? Or just topic ban them? It's so delicious to think about banning.
Let's have a closer look at this instance, shall we? Since you brought the matter up, after all. The policy statement in question is this (no cite): "Pseudoscience, however, is something that is not scientific but is incorrectly characterised as science." To which I added by whom?. The reason is quite frankly that we need to know by whom! If a practice is characterized as a "pseudoscience" by its enemies, should they even count? Or should they be allowed to perpetrate a straw-man? Ken Storey, a critic, says cryonics is "more or less a theology." And scrubbing away the niceties of definition between theology and religion: "there is really no difference between cryonics and any other religious organization." here. Which if WP accepted his expertise on the matter, would put Wikipedia into the same category as Roman Catholicism and we shouldn't be having this conversation (if we believed Storey, anyhow). Of course, he's not content, as he's not quite sure what he's dealing with. "According to Cryobiologist Dr. Kenneth Storey, when discussing cryonics, the line between religion and science becomes blurred and rational thought processes sometimes go out the window." So don't we need the answer to that template I added? The critics don't like it, but we knew that. The advocates and practitioners have varying degrees of confidence, sometimes zero (I gave the example of J. Bedford, the first cryonics practitioner, who didn't think it would work at all). So now what?
Skeptic (U.S. magazine) which ran the Storey article above, has had opinions on baloney detection and (helpfully) how to tell science from pseudoscience (full disclosure-- I myself have in the past published a number of articles for SKEPTIC, including a very long one on HIV/AIDS denialism, which I accused of being.... a pseudoscience. That is, I took the orthodox line.) I can't quote Shermer's full article, but it is here. After giving 10 ways to help tell science from pseudoscience, Shermer says at the end that it's not always perfectly clear: Clearly, there are no foolproof methods of detecting baloney or drawing the boundary between science and pseudoscience. Yet there is a solution: science deals in fuzzy fractions of certainties and uncertainties, where evolution and big bang cosmology may be assigned a 0.9 probability of being true, and creationism and UFOs a 0.1 probability of being true. In between are borderland claims: we might assign superstring theory a 0.7 and cryonics a 0.2. In all cases, we remain open-minded and flexible, willing to reconsider our assessments as new evidence arises. Wups, Shermer thinks cryonics a bit more plausable than UFOs and creationism. So now what? Is Shermer, the expert on Skepticism, to be our litmus? Or Storey who knows about hibernation? Or Hayworth who knows about brain preservation? For this, we need a policy clarification and some people willing to put in some thought, and some words, and some citations. Not Gerard, whose idea is that BRD is forumshopping and baliff, gag all the defendent's arguments in case one makes sense.
And finally, yes, Alexbrn I know it bugs you that sometimes they cut corpses' heads off. In the 1960's it bugged people that they cut corpse's hearts out (for transplant into priviledged middle-aged businessmen). At the same time, I suspect it would make no difference at all in your arguments or complaints if they didn't. So why bring it up? It's not germaine to the main problem of whether cryonics is mutton sold as lamb. Do they lie about the decapitation? That would be important. Pseudo means something. Again, it does not mean weird as in mind uploading. "Pseudo" means that what they tell you they do, is not what they actually do. S B H arris 01:03, 25 July 2019 (UTC)
We can all agree that cryopreserving people, whether legally living or dead, in anticipation of possible future revival is a fringe idea that is only endorsed by a very few scientists. However not everything that's fringe is pseudoscientific. The San Diego Frozen zoo was established in 1972 ("At the time there was no technology available to make use of the collection, but Benirschke believed such technology would be developed in the future."). Physicist Gregory Benford endorsed the idea of a frozen "Library of Life" in 1992. Animals from some cryopreserved extinct species have since been recovered by cloning, although much of what is being collected is still being done in anticipation of future technology. The initiative was very speculative 1972, but surely not pseudoscientific because the hypothesis that cryopreserving tissue could help save species was not inconsistent with physical law and is testable over long time scales. The field of De-extinction remains controversial, but is not tagged as pseudoscience. Noted expert on fringe ideas, Michael Shermer called cryonics a protoscience, not pseudoscience, in his book Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseuodoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of our Time. If in lieu of analysis based on pseudoscience definition, we are to rely on citations of authoritative sources to make a WP article classification, wouldn't Shermer carry high weight as a source? Shermer has spent more time investigating cryonics than anyone I've seen quoted calling cryonics a pseudoscience, as evidenced by the many times that Shermer has written about cryonics, and not kindly either. Is not the cleanest way to resolve the inconsistency between the cryonics article and the mind uploading article to classify both as Protoscience? Certainly cryonics raises many more contemporary ethical concerns because people are actually paying for it, but that's separate from the intellectual status of the intrinsic idea. Would the cryonics article be classified differently than the mind uploading article if it was merely a theoretical proposition? Cryobiologist ( talk) 23:48, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
Pretend for a minute that nobody ever started freezing anybody. What if instead an Ivy League neuroscientist just speculated that if a preservation method good enough to preserve the neural connectivity of the brain could be developed then that might be sufficient for future revival of that brain. Then what if a top expert in organ cryopreservation published a paper in the journal Cryobiology, the actual journal of the Society for Cryobiology, showing that this could be done in mammalian brains. He/she would even show that it could be done in large brains, completely avoiding ice formation in the process. Any expert opinions, whether prior to or in ignorance of this work, expressing skepticism at the possibility of such preservation would be rendered irrelevant. Like Mind uploading, some transhumanists then begin to speculate whether human brains preserved by such or similar methods could be "uploaded" or otherwise revived in the future, consistent with what the Ivy League neuroscientist originally said. In this hypothetical scenario nobody is actually being cryopreserved. People are just speculating, proposing the idea. Is the pure idea of cryopreserving brains with contemporary technology and scanning/uploading or reviving them in the future, as just an idea, intrinsically pseudoscientific? Was it pseudoscientific from the moment the Ivy League neuroscientist first proposed it? If so, then why isn't Mind uploading as an idea also tagged as pseudoscientific? Can we agree that as a matter of philosophy of science that if an idea is proposed that's consistent with known physics, especially if proposed by noted scientists and supported by experiments by other noted scientists, that this by itself is not pseudoscience? What people do in the name of an idea, and charge large sums of money for, is a philosophically separate question. It's the difference between a scientific conference on exobiology and a UFO convention. Cryobiologist ( talk) 01:37, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
Latest forum-shop: Wikipedia:Dispute resolution noticeboard#Talk:Cryonics#Quackery_or_not. Note this is substantially the same DRN as the one from a month or so ago - David Gerard ( talk) 12:02, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
See here]. Doug Weller talk 19:00, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
I removed some self-sourced / self-published material including books on lulu.com. Someone thinks this is bad because being in-universe is not a thing unless you're talking about comic books. Guy ( Help!) 21:54, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
See recent edits and talk page. I don't have the energy or time (new young dog) for this. Doug Weller talk 14:29, 24 July 2019 (UTC)
An editor is arguing that that this is not a FRINGE issue, and has asked that Paul H remove his comments to make way for a THIRD opinion.
I've done some rough cleanup of the article, but it needs a great deal of work. -- Ronz ( talk) 15:37, 9 August 2019 (UTC)
The Medical Medium's article could use some additional eyes, I think. He learns about medicine from spirits and then shares that magical knowledge with the world with the help of friends like Gwyneth Paltrow. Now a bestselling author. Came to WP for more information after hearing a bit about some celery juice fad he's apparently responsible for. The article seems, to my eye, rather too charitable in describing his various claims. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 04:16, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
"He learns about medicine from spirits and then shares that magical knowledge with the world"– well, it worked for Rudolph Steiner ... Alexbrn ( talk) 05:45, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
Someone keeps deleting appropriate categories such as Category:Pseudohistorians. More watchful eyes? -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 19:45, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
This is about [20]. What Barok777 wants from us is that we should teach the controversy about alternative historical facts, based upon pseudoscholarship. Hint: it's a history article (as in "historical facts"), not a theology article. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 13:12, 8 August 2019 (UTC)
More hammering at [21]. It seems that the socks drawer has been opened. It seems a complete mockery to poo on the historical method and then call your papers history writing. Since the Enlightenment the supernatural has been purged from history, yet some Wikipedia editors seem unaware of this fact. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 13:44, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
Empathizing–systemizing theory ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs) and Empathy quotient ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (and redirects like Extreme male brain) look like fringe science to me, but I am not an expert. The phrase "Empathizing-systematizing theory has faced some criticism on ideological grounds" jumped out at me as being particularly POV pushing. Is this theory mainstream psychology, or fringe medicine?
(Also being discussed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine#Empathizing–systemizing theory -- Guy Macon ( talk) 21:44, 9 August 2019 (UTC)
A recent edit added "Similar claims have been made based on interpretations of carvings from the Bharhut Stupa (2 BC) and Jambukeswarar Temple, Thiruvanaikaval (2 AD) that are claimed to represent the fruits of Anacardium occidentale. [1] Some translators of ayurvedic texts in Sanskrit have also associated certain plant names to Anacardium occidentale. [2]"
I can't find any discussion of these in mainstream sources. Doug Weller talk 15:36, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
References
Dubious sourcing - all from various Mormon authors, no suggestion that mainstream scholars don't agree. Doug Weller talk 16:03, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
Deletion discussion regarding a fringe topic. Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Annie's Coming Out -- Wikiman2718 ( talk) 16:14, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
Have you done a thorough search for sources about the film and the book upon which it is based? I find multiple mentions of it in various skeptical literature. I'm not sure why you think it hasn't been noticed. jps ( talk) 19:35, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
The fringyness comes from the fact that one of the listed "authors" could not possibly be an author unless we accept fringe science as fact. However, I don't see any valid deletion reason. ApLundell ( talk) 19:43, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
Don't despair! Merging the three articles seems like a good way to start achieving the (laudable) goals you have in mind for autism content at Wikipedia. I can see a very strong case for merging these designates since the best and most reliable sources no longer contend there is a clear diagnostic demarcation available. As far as your concern about FC "steps", as it were, the best thing to do is to make sure to focus on the steps that are verifiable beyond any FC sources. For example, if there are particular autism advocates who had FC intervention in their childhood but now verifiably produce communication that is unaided, it's best to stick with the stuff that is verifiably attributable. jps ( talk) 14:34, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
FYI Firstly, the AFD was SNOW closed as Keep. Secondly, please use WP:WikiProject Autism to work out the issues concerning how Autism is covered in WP. Roger (Dodger67) ( talk) 10:49, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
Regulars here might be more able than I am to determine if there's any validity to the edit request made at Talk:Misogyny#Semi-protected edit request on 15 August 2019, and what exactly to do about it. Thanks, – Deacon Vorbis ( carbon • videos) 13:44, 15 August 2019 (UTC)
The contributor who wrote the Charles Darwin section on Misogyny is now blocked for copyright violations, but I suspect in the contribution history we might find a lot of problematic fringe content that needs to be removed or recouched:
Special:Contributions/Shootingstar88
jps ( talk) 13:55, 15 August 2019 (UTC)
There is an ongoing RFC that may be of interest to editors with background in WP:FRINGE materials. The RFC concerns how to handle non-academic critics who argue that the academic research on campus sexual assault is methodologically flawed. Please comment here. Nblund talk 17:16, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
Two new editors on the article have been removing information from International Chiropractors Associations articles page about their anti-vaccine views. There is sourced information including that the organization invited Andrew Wakefield to one of their annual conferences. They also screened Vaxxed at the same conference. They also have other anti-vaccine views but I want to see if others agree that it should be included in the information on their organization. -- VViking Talk Edits 01:52, 17 August 2019 (UTC)
Lust came across this. Looks like a big of a POV fork of Placebo, especially since it's rich in Ted Kaptchuk sources. Alexbrn ( talk) 19:50, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
Jenny McCarthy ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
User retaining comments making accusations of bias while collapsing my shorter response to those comments. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 07:25, 17 August 2019 (UTC)
/info/en/?search=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Kimball_Atwood#Kimball_Atwood Roxy, the dog. wooF 10:02, 18 August 2019 (UTC)
Effects of blue light technology ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I’m not familiar with the topic, but recent changes by SPAs have altered the article’s POV significantly. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 22:53, 18 August 2019 (UTC)
Another edit war at Hydrogen water and related pages by spa who has been editing for two days. Eyes needed. Xxanthippe ( talk) 06:26, 20 August 2019 (UTC).
Notorious chemophobes the Environmental Working Group have paid someone to try to buff up the article. So far they are sticking to Talk, but they aren't going away any time soon. More eyes would be appreciated. Thanks. Guy ( Help!) 08:39, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
-- Guy Macon ( talk) 00:29, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
FYI: Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement#CMTBard -- Guy Macon ( talk) 01:46, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
There is a discussion at talk:Unplanned regarding the inclusion of sources critiquing the anti-abortion film's factual accuracy, and indeed its status as an anti-abortion film. Guy ( Help!) 09:38, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
Judging from the legal threat I just received off-wiki it looks like Gary Null's people are about to mount yet another attempt to whitewash the article. Guy ( Help!) 09:28, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
Someone has liovingly linked tot he source (usually full text PDF or YouTube video) of every single bonkers thing G. Edward Griffin has ever said. Almost all of it is self-published through his own company American Media, which has no other obvious clients. Is this large section on bibliography and filmography WP:UNDUE? Do YouTube videos count under "filmography"? Some of this material is hosted on Freedom Force International, a websuite that has inspired at least one mad bugger to go out with a gun. Guy ( Help!) 18:37, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
Unsourced article about a book by Alastair Crowley. -- Doug Weller talk 18:17, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
This is a terrible article. I removed some junk and replaced some tags. His books are self-published by his "Church of the Seven Rays". [23] -- Doug Weller talk 18:22, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
Denialists trying to pathologize science - I deleted two paragraphs [24] but I guess they will come back. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 07:20, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
An interesting theory has been added to the Dyatlov Pass incident article.
Apparently it's possible that "Arctic Madness" contributed to the accident. It's sourced, but given the article's tendency to attract wacky theories, I'd appreciate it if someone familiar with Russian could evaluate the reliability of the source.
Thanks. ApLundell ( talk) 21:39, 26 July 2019 (UTC)
I ran into this article (again, I seem to have visited it in 2010) when I found its creator using him as a source. At the moment it's just a promotional stub for a fringe authorl. Doug Weller talk 19:00, 15 August 2019 (UTC)
New ref and content added here: Given the apparent quality of the ref, I've left it in for now. Anyone know who Chase Kloetzke and Kerry McClure are, and if they'd be considered experts for this content? -- Ronz ( talk) 22:54, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
I was skimming the new physics articles report and noticed Draft:Avicenna-Bohm Theory, which looks like promotion of a fringe idea that was just published (and is a copy-and-paste that would be a copyvio if the original weren't technically CC licensed). This led me to Quantum mind, where I cut a section that had been added by an IP which geolocates to the institution of the authors themselves. I guess that (a) keeping an eye out for COI violations would be good, and (b) this is as opportune a time as any to try improving the quantum mind page a bit. For starters, having two not-so-short quotes in the lead seems vaguely essay-like and not quite encyclopedic in tone. Any thoughts? XOR'easter ( talk) 04:02, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Hey, folks. So, while I'm used to getting threats from cryptozoologists, climate change deniers, and Young Earth creationists and whatever, this is a first for me:
- Added important unique entry for Völva, I will put this up every day of my life if I have to and I will be unable to update information and sources if I am at war with you. Practicing Svartur Völva here, I will death curse you.
Basically, this particular user demands that we maintain a separate page for völva complete with a bunch of WP:SYNTH, WP:OR, and you name it, rather than have the article redirect to its main article, referenced with very solid sources throughout, which is Seeress (Germanic). As Seeress (Germanic) makes clear (as does every work of scholarship on this topic), Old Norse völva is one of several different synonyms for seeresses in the North Germanic record.
Now, even the user's lack of familiarity with the topic is evident and chances are at worst they'll accidentally turn the milk in their fridge sour or whatever, nonetheless it'd be nice to get some more eyes on this stuff. I'm not exactly keen on the prospect of being stalked by yet another threat-tossing edit-warrior for the foreseeable future. (@ Haukurth:, @ Yngvadottir:, @ Ermenrich:, @ Katolophyromai:). :bloodofox: ( talk) 15:55, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
As pointed out in a New Yorker article today about Amy Wax, our article on General knowledge heavily cites work by disgraced professor Richard Lynn, who seemingly should be considered a fringe source. Quoting New Yorker:
Wax sent links to two studies whose lead author is Richard Lynn, a British psychologist who is known for believing in racial differences in intelligence, supporting eugenics, and associating with white supremacists. (She also shared the Wikipedia page for “general knowledge,” which cites several of Lynn’s studies.)
Need some eyes on the article. -- Krelnik ( talk) 21:39, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
See [26] Doug Weller talk 07:54, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
Postbiological evolution ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
This looks like WP:SYNTH to me. Is this SYNTH?
jps ( talk) 19:03, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
The dictionary definition of Evolution is any process of formation, growth or development.This isn't an encyclopedia article; it's a school report that somebody put off until the last minute. I don't see anything in it really worth saving. XOR'easter ( talk) 01:37, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
AfD initiated: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Postbiological evolution. jps ( talk) 11:09, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
This is about [27], which two editors want to get it undone at the talk page. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 18:48, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
... This page is for notifying people who are interested in fringe topics that something fringey is going on somewhere. ... -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 06:33, 19 April 2018 (UTC)Quoted by Tgeorgescu ( talk) 19:09, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
Some comments are requested here:
/info/en/?search=Talk:Copulation_(zoology)#Questions_for_FTN
Issues involved are the definition of a fringe theory/theorist, possible use of Wikipedia by a fringe theorist to promote their ideas, and whether or not that theorist's material is a reliable source or whether the content should be trusted. -Crossroads- ( talk) 16:26, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
Non notable cryptozoologist. Also being publicized at Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp and Fouke Monster.- LuckyLouie ( talk) 20:32, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
It continues. See Talk:Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 12:39, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
An editor thinks White privilege is violating WP:NPOV by giving insufficient attention to people who don't believe white privilege exists. This is, frankly, very deep into WP:PROFRINGE territory based on current social science. Any editors with a background in social sciences and an interest in fringe who want to help out would be welcome. Simonm223 ( talk) 12:51, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
I'm sorry, what scholarship is there that indicates that white privilege does not exist? jps ( talk) 15:26, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
Long quote from article
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Looks fringe and COI-ful. XOR'easter ( talk) 21:55, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
I got a response to my essay at WP:GOODBIAS in my email.
Here is is (with the identity of the sender removed -- newly created username, zero edits):
I am certain that we are all relieved that that has been cleared up... :) -- Guy Macon ( talk) 20:29, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
LessWrong ( | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) - advocates of the site want to remove the section on LessWrong's links to the neoreactionary movement, which have been exhaustively cited. There's an editor who comes by every few days to blank it under various spurious claims, and refuses to discuss it. More eyes would be appropriate - David Gerard ( talk) 16:31, 15 August 2019 (UTC)
Did you know that 200,000 or possibly even 400,000 non-Jewish Poles were killed in a giant gas chamber in road tunnel under Warsaw as part of a huge Warsaw concentration camp complex? (for scale - would rank in top-5 in Extermination camp#Death toll). Well, the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 (which covers the camp in Volume I, part B, pages 1511-1515) saw fit to devote precisely zero space to this conspiracy theory, and describes the camp (part of the time as a sub-camp) as operating for approx. a year (clearing the ruins of the ghetto) - with a total of 8,000-9,000 inmates (mostly Jews from outside of Poland) of which 4,000-5,000 died as victims.
The conspiracy theory is covered in this recent piece in London Review of Books - Under the Railway Line, Christian Davies, 9 May 2019. According to LRB this is advanced by proponents of "Polocaust" who try to create a parity or even "greater victimhood" of Poles in the Holocaust - Per LRB this related to the
"standard trope on the Polish nationalist right that Jews have exaggerated their victimhood in order to extort money from the Poles and obtain global power and influence"
LRB also notes:
"But the more Trzcińska’s claims were challenged, the more determined her supporters became. Marches, demonstrations, public meetings and religious ceremonies were held, bogus maps circulated, false testimonies promoted, Wikipedia entries amended. Worst of all, plaques and monuments bearing false witness to the secret genocide started to appear around the city."
Our Warsaw concentration camp contained this hoax for 15 years and 3 days. It has spread to other articles - for instance on German camps in occupied Poland during World War II it lasted for 13 years 3 months and 27 days ( 2006 diff, 2019 removal). This (will) top the list at Wikipedia:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia (current maximum is 13 years, 3 months).
I have rewritten the camp article based on mainstream sources. Credit here also goes to @ K.e.coffman: who cut some of the un-sourced garbage (the whole article was mostly missing citations) in May 2019, and to an IP and @ Paven1: who alerted in 2006 (see [30], [31], [32], [33]). I have also removed this from several articles throughout the English Wikipedia.
However, I am sure I missed some spots on English Wikipedia with this. Also - while the Polish Wikipedia is in a fairly good state (the Polish Wikipedia generally is in a fairly good state on this topic - often more mainstream than the English Wikipedia), this drivel has spread to other language Wikipedias - for instance the French, Dutch, Finnish, Chinese - all seem based on what was present on the English Wikipedia (the Chinene and French seem to be straight one to one translations). On English Wikipedia this got into more top-tier pages - e.g. German camps in occupied Poland during World War II and Extermination camp. Help checking where else this got to on English Wikipedia as well as spreading the word to other language Wikipedias would be appreciated. Icewhiz ( talk) 09:15, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2019 August 24#Category:Scientific racism and User:Johnpacklambert's removal of that category and Category:White supremacy from articles. Doug Weller talk 09:34, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
Science is and has always been a detached and objective pursuitone sentence after invoking Lysenko. XOR'easter ( talk) 16:02, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
Is quoting David Gelernter appropriate here? See recent history. -- Hob Gadling ( talk) 10:12, 31 August 2019 (UTC)
according to this new article. Doug Weller talk 15:04, 31 August 2019 (UTC)
The classic notion of an encyclopaedia and ‘universal knowledge’ needs to be discarded. Having top priority content about any group of people, nation,... is in this direction. The idea of encyclopedic knowledge feels problematic. What is a “universal knowledge”? Who gets to decide what is “universal”? We need to focus on moving from a single center to multiple ones."is about to be written into formal WMF policy, we're fairly soon not going to be allowed to label crank theories as "fringe", let alone refuse to give them equal billing with actual demonstrable facts. ‑ Iridescent 18:59, 29 August 2019 (UTC)
2011 -
Fear mongering claims about FC and false sexual abuse allegations have been a staple of anti-FC rhetoric for years
2018 -I admit that I had criminal sexual contact with a disabled man who was unable to speak and express his will.
I found this addition today to the main article on Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories: "Adenostemma viscosum This plant, native to the Americas, was found in Hawaii by Hillebrand in 1888 who considered it to have grown there before Europeans arrived, because it was growing throughout the low-elevation woods on all the islands of the archipelago within 75 years after Capt. Cooks arrival. A legitimate native name and established native medicinal usage confirmed the pre-Cookian age. [1]"
And then I found "Origins of the Hawaiian flora: Phylogenies and biogeography reveal patterns of long‐distance dispersal" [36] which lists its dispersal, by adhesion to birds, as "W(AU + EA + I + P)" - the W "indicates a lineage that arrived from a widespread species" and the regions are " Au = Australasian, I = Indo‐Malayan, EA = East Asian, NT = Neotropical, NA = North America." Plus our article on Adenostemma shows it is a widespread genus. I'm always concerned when it appears that someone is trying to make an argument but only uses sources that back their argument. I'm sorry, User:Geneva11, but your edits appear to be searching for proof of trans-oceanic contact without looking to see if anything contradicts it. See also this [37] - you haven't read that paper, right? And as it isn't published, how can it meet WP:VERIFY. I don't have time right now but there seem to be other similar edits.
I haven't reverted it because it may be better to leave it in with the evidence that it's wrong than remove it. Doug Weller talk 19:13, 28 August 2019 (UTC)
References
Differential K theory misleadingly implies that a fringe, racialist theory has academic legitimacy, and it seems to be getting worse. AndewNguyen ( talk · contribs) recently added several obscure studies to the article, to flattering affect.
To briefly explain the topic, J. Philippe Rushton attempted to apply r/K selection theory to humans and human racial categories (specifically "Mongoloid", "Caucasoid", and "Negroid") starting in 1985. Rushton's version of this theory has been dismissed by biologists for multiple reasons. As one example, Joseph L. Graves describes Rushton's grasp of life history theory as "rudimentary", "amateurish", etc. As Graves explains, his work was rejected by evolutionary scientists on methodological grounds, which Rushton misrepresented as being ideologically motivated. [41] To put it more bluntly, when scientists began looking at Rushton's work, they found sloppy assumptions, not good scholarship. [42] Rushton's work on this theory is, however, still cited in some papers and textbooks, although these almost always either criticize the theory, or gloss-over Rushton's explicitly racialist conclusions.
Two of the recently added studies were published in Personality and Individual Differences, which is one of the very few legitimate journals that continued to published on the theory. These sources seem to make minute adjustments to a grossly flawed theory. None of them appear to be particularly significant, especially weighed against the many more substantial criticisms on a broader range of publications. The authors of the studies include Richard Lynn, Michael Woodley, Edward Dutton (twice), and Aurelio José Figueredo. All of these are contributors to Mankind Quarterly, among other fringe outlets. As one example of this walled garden, Figueredo's support for Rushton's theory has been specifically described as an example of scientific racism in academia. Dutton distanced himself from Rushton in 2019, although I don't think he's reliable either way, so I'm not sure if this matters. Grayfell ( talk) 22:26, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
AndrewNguyen has already received the {{
subst:alert|r-i}}
notice. That should suffice for now. I hereby additionally warn them to use the talk page to generate consensus for any disputed sources before reverting any removal of disputed material. Please return here if there are further problems. Please be patient and polite to one another. If the next person agrees this is enough, please close this thread.
Jehochman
Talk 02:04, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
Iamsnag12 ( talk · contribs), an eight-year-old account with less than 100 edits, has repeatedly added the same non-reliable source to multiple articles. The first four times on 14 August: [43] [44] [45] [46]
Upon removal as a non-RS, user promptly readded without discussion on 15 August: [47] [48] [49] [50].
User was reported to ANI and alerted to discretionary sanctions [51], and on 20 August, the material was removed from the four pages by admin User:JzG as a non-RS. [52] [53] [54] [55]
On 31 August, the user re-added the same source for a ninth and tenth time.
In addition to other issues, the source has a reputation for financial entanglements with the objects of their study. In particular, the source (CENSUR) reportedly had financial ties to Aum Shinrikyo which led its members in 1995 to giving a public press conference, erroneously arguing that the group could not have manufactured the Sarin gas (which the group did in fact use in the Tokyo attacks). CENSUR had instead publicly claimed that the group was merely the victims of religious persecution. [1] [2] Also posted to ANI and RSN Feoffer ( talk) 07:04, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
References
[56] I'm just saying. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 14:39, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
This should be of interest here. Doug Weller talk 13:29, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
New editor, eyes needed. I don't think it's another sock. Doug Weller talk 21:18, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
Potentially of interest to the community here: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Varadaraja V. Raman. XOR'easter ( talk) 19:20, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
Hinduism also asks a different set of questions and frames those questions in a different perspective. V.V. Raman, a physicist with a long-running interest in questions of science and religion, explicitly takes this on in his essay "Science and the Spiritual Vision: The Hindu Perspective." Using the Vedantic System to describe Hindu thought, Raman says: "What makes the Vedantic System unique is that, unlike doctrines in some other religious systems, Vedanta is not simply based on the sacredness of this book or that. The Vedantic vision is not a theology or philosophy or even metaphysics. Rather, it is a formulation of a worldview arising from a unique mode of exploration."
Have rewritten the article. You’d be surprised. If V.V. Raman were on this noticeboard he’d be joining in with those defending science against superstition. Hyperbolick ( talk) 03:41, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
Someone who doesn’t understand our policies is contending on the Talk page that Benjamin Radford is an unreliable source for facts. - LuckyLouie ( talk) 18:42, 7 September 2019 (UTC)
I've reverted and warned User:Olatunji Mwamba twice. I'm not sure that they are going to be reading their talk page but I'm obviously stopping at two reverts. A sample edit, added just in front of a citation from a reliable source:"These 'Meso-American' scholars act as if they have a monopoly on scholarship. The only thing necessary to this task on History is a command of the various Scientific disciplines necessary to the task. Those sciences are Archaeology, Anthropology, Linguistics, Etymology, Radio-Carbon Dating, and other scientific research. And last I checked, the mastery of these scientific disciplines are all that is necessary to the task of speaking with confidence on this topic." I may have to take him to ANI. Doug Weller talk 13:13, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
Both these articles were largely sourced to sens.org, which can hardly be considered independent. Every reality-based commentary in the main article had a rebuttal from sens.org or the Methuselah foundation or both.
I have redirected the SENS Research Foundation article to the main article. The small amount of content that wasn't self-sourced, is essentially there already, with better context. It was mainly added by a now-departed WP:SPA, Otvaltak ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), and by a series of IPs. This is normal for anything to do with life extension, of course.
The Methuselah Foundation article is a wonderful advertisement for them, but looks very fringey to me. Guy ( help!) 17:15, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
(This is not the type of fringe usually dealt with here but . . . .) Most royal candidate theory is about a genealogical/historical proposition conjured up by a self-promoting bond trader who became a media go-to genealogy expert by purchasing a prominent publication on the English Peerage. It proclaimed that every US presidential election up to the year 2000 was won by the candidate with the best/most-royal bloodlines in their ancestry. The theory itself has all the hallmarks of fringe (including made-up data, hand-waving, retrospective discovery of 'better' descents when the picked candidate lost, plus being demonstrably false) but it got reported in several successive election cycles by British and American news sources as a 'different take' on picking who was going to win the latest tedious American election campaign, along the lines of the octopus picking the winner of the World Cup.
A paragraph has been in the article for a while referring to a 2012 Daily Mail article about a tweenager who used online genealogies (which are of notoriously abysmal quality) to trace all US presidents to King John of England. The Mail story does not mention the 'most royal candidate theory' at all, but an editor is insisting that it is relevant because it deals with presidents and royal descents and thus cannot be removed, and if erroneous (which it is) it can only be countered by a WP:RS that addresses its accuracy. I would suggest that scholars don't take the work of 12-year-olds seriously just because the Daily Mail reported it, and neither should Wikipedia. Am I off base here? Agricolae ( talk) 08:53, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
Newspapers are not the epistemic communities where the political science analysis of who does or does not win elections is discussed. WP:FRINGE applies when a topic is ignored by experts. Self-proclaimed doesn't count. jps ( talk) 01:10, 31 August 2019 (UTC)
Regulars here may be interested in this new article, which seems especially fringey. There's probably some inappropriate claims being made in Wikipedia's voice. I'm also unsure of the notability – some of the sourcing is questionable, including at least three cases of churnalism (phys.org, EurekAlert, and one other all republishing the same press release). – Deacon Vorbis ( carbon • videos) 03:49, 11 September 2019 (UTC)
New editor adding huge table and what looks like OR about health properties. Doug Weller talk 20:19, 11 September 2019 (UTC)
Editor adding OTZ(I think I must have meant OR), first as IP, twice with account. I've reverted twice myself and warned him. Doug Weller talk 17:52, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
User:Anacarolina13 is heavily promoting someone's PhD in both articles (and es.wiki). Here's the text: "Diógenes Silva completely denies the existence of Phoenicians in Brazil in his thesis [1], defended before 5 PhD members of the Thesis Tribunal in Madrid, Spain, at Complutense University of Madrid, on 15 January 2016, having as director: Carlos González Wagner. It received unanimous maximum qualification, “cum laude”, and recommended for publication. The text was previously approved by the Deptº. of History of the University of São Paulo - USP. And officially revalidated in Brazil by the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ, in 2018.
Its 418-page text, containing figures, maps, photos, and transcripts, analyzes the reasons for the origin and permanence of the false theory of alleged Phoenician navigators of Brazil from the fifteenth century to the present. By explaining the true economic and political interests that false assumption has been able to cover up and perpetuate among Brazilian, American, and European intellectuals. From Christopher Columbus to the Internet. Involving to: Catholic Church; the Portuguese-Spanish dispute for control of the colonies; the missions of the Naturalist Travelers; the demarcations of the South American borders; the independence of Brazil; the reign of Peter II and slavery; advertising during the 1930 Revolution; the brazilian carnival; your songs; and popular movies. In addition to publications in world newspapers and magazines, fraudulent discoveries, fake rock inscriptions, and imagined abandoned cities plated with gold. As a result of fake news, the thesis proves that the Phoenicians never trod America."
He's right of course, but this doesn't belong in the article for various reasons including NPOV and WP:UNDUE and she's editwarring without any discussion. Doug Weller talk 14:43, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
References
A newcomer called ProfZeit has claimed in a number of articles that Marxism influenced the philosophy of science as well as science studies. The only sources I can find to back this up come from Marxist authors. We could use some help to determine if this viewpoint is fringe. -- Wikiman2718 ( talk) 15:24, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
Postmodernism has made great contributions to astrophysics, as noted in the Sokal paper.... Wait. Wut. GMG talk 17:22, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
Marxism is not a fringe theory. It is a major intellectual tradition with an elaborate body of adherents and respected texts. Its contribution to various disciplines, including science studies, is acknowledged by many who are not Marxists, such as Professor Loren Graham of MIT and Harvard, mentioned above. He does not reduce Marxism to Lysenkoism, which was definitely a complex, tragic and prolonged episode in this history. In mainstream encyclopedias, there are many entries documenting this. For example, the Encyclopedia of Science Technology and Ethics has a number of articles on Marxism and Marxists and their positive contributions to this field. Why should the status quo be Wikiman2718's dogmatic denial of this rather than my informed assertion of this? ProfZeit ( talk) 09:40, 6 September 2019 (UTC)ProfZeit
a seminal eventand
a major forceare likely overselling and POV-pushing, but
Among those influenced by a Marxist approach to science were J.D. Bernal, J.B.S Haldane,...is justifiable. We cover who influenced whom, without making a final judgment about whether that influence led to truth or error. XOR'easter ( talk) 14:50, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
[T]he excitement surrounding early STS fed off the frisson of radical critique associated with the rhetoric of 'alienation', which tapped into the rediscovery of the 'young' or 'humanist' Karl Marx, whose unpublished manuscripts were translated into English in the 1960s. [... Marxism] came back to haunt STS after the collapse of Communism and the onset of the Science Wars. [...] Bernal explicitly followed Marx in believing that something like a Lakatosian rational reconstruction of the history of science could provide guidance on science's future trajectory ]...] His Social Function of Science (1939) written at the peak of Western enthusiasm for the scientific promise of the Soviet Union, followed by the most comprehensive Marxist history of science ever written, the four-volume Science in History (1971), are worthy precursors of social epistemology and are among the earliest works in the sociology and social history of science.Sokal and Bricmont, neither Marxists nor sympathizers to most "science studies" practice, discuss Marxism and reactions thereto in Fashionable Nonsense (1998)'s exploration of how the political left embraced postmodernism. The influence has often been indirect; as Karen Barad said somewhere,
New materialisms are of course deeply indebted to Marx, and to others indebted to Marxism, including Foucault and a generation of feminist engagements with Marxist insights that travel under the names “materialist feminisms”, “feminist science studies”, to name a few.Marxism indirectly influenced STS via Latour being upset with it, and Marxists of various stripe then being upset with Latour; the rabbit hole is arbitrarily deep.) XOR'easter ( talk) 16:39, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
It is not fair to assert that Marxists are unreliable in writing about Marxism and therefore cannot be cited. Are the authors I have cited unreliable? How? Are citations of Marxist texts to be be banned on wikipedia? How far to go with this? Are logical positivists unreliable when writing about logical positivism? Are members of the Edinburgh School unreliable writing about the strong programme? By the way, most Marxists were not born Marxists. They came to it in a search for truth. Many were eminent scientists: Bernal, Haldane, Langevin, Joliot-Curie and they wrote about science from a Marxist point of view. Is anybody with a world view banned from writing about it or only Marxists? -- ProfZeit ( talk) 09:52, 9 September 2019 (UTC)ProfZeit
So how to proceed with this? I propose that I reinstate my edits on the entries on philosophy of science and science studies. My one on philosophy of science is only one sentence. I can delete the word 'rich'. On both, I can add non-Marxist sources. It would not be a good idea to delete the Marxist ones I have chosen, because they survey the field in a relatively comprehensive way and lead on to many other sources. Otherwise, I'll take it to dispute resolution. I don't yet know how to do that, because I am new to Wikipedia editing and was only intending to make a few strategic edit, but I regard this as a matter of principle. -- ProfZeit ( talk) 09:50, 10 September 2019 (UTC)ProfZeit
strive to treat each aspect with a weight proportional to its treatment in the body of reliable, published material on the subject(emphasis added). That last bit, "on the subject" means a lot when you are dealing with broad overarching topics.
On the due weight issue, I have, if anything, erred on the other side, in writing so few sentences about such an elaborate intellectual tradition. As to whether it belongs in a general article on philosophy of science or science studies, I argue that it does. Marxists have taught in mainstream universities, presented at mainstream conferences, published in mainstream journals and publishing houses for decades now. They have interacted with and been respected by non-Marxists. There are many academics, who are not Marxists, who have nevertheless been influenced by Marxism, some knowingly, but others through the evolution of their disciplines, even if they are not knowledgeable about their disciplinary histories. I am for reinstatement of my edit, although I agree that the overall article is very poor, with or without it. -- ProfZeit ( talk) 09:41, 13 September 2019 (UTC)ProfZeit
Parental alienation ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
This caught my eye because it makes a bunch of what look like medical claims without anyh WP:MEDRS-compliant sources to back them up.
So, has this crossed the line into being a fringe theory? -- Guy Macon ( talk) 03:10, 11 September 2019 (UTC)
-- Guy Macon ( talk) 22:02, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
There is a content dispute at this article in relation to material mostly from Rindermann. A few SPAs and IPs appear to insist for inclusion while some regulars object. I think one of our very experienced editors also argues for inclusion although he has not edited the article yet about this ( DGG's comment on the talk page invites to reason, pinging as a courtesy). I'll personally stop reverting there as I lack the time and already shared my impression; an IP address editor still insists for more discussion, so more participation welcome. — Paleo Neonate – 21:47, 15 September 2019 (UTC)
This just in: English language "is just a dialect of Chinese" say academics
Bonus info:
Related: [58] -- Guy Macon ( talk) 19:41, 9 September 2019 (UTC)
May I discuss Wikiversity:Motivation and emotion/Book/2015/Masturbation motivation here? Seems like total WP:FRINGE/PS. I proposed it for deletion there. Tgeorgescu ( talk) 12:30, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
According to this (New?) article
I'd PROD it, but some charlatan would deprod, so I'd like some comment from here? It actually needs Jytdog to take a big fat red pen to it, nevertheless ... - Roxy, the dog. wooF 10:06, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
[ https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/09/18/malicious-bots-and-trolls-spread-vaccine-misinformation/ ] -- Guy Macon ( talk) 06:39, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
Howdy hello! I got into this debate as a result of a
WP:3O (see
Talk:Walter_Russell#Additional_Information_Regarding_the_Doctorate_from_American_Academy_of_Sciences for the original discussion), but one of the original participants left, leaving just myself and
User:WikipediansSweep. The article in question is
Walter Russell, a purported polymath of the early 20th century. At issue is whether Russell's theories are fringe, whether he has a doctorate in science, and whether he discovered Neptunium and Uranium before
Niels Bohr. I believe it is very much pseudoscience, and that Russell was a quack. That's evidenced by this statement in the lead derived from Russell's own book: He claims his mastery in many fields to mystical experience starting from the age of 7 years culminating every 7 years until a 39 day cosmic illumination experience in his 49th year where he claims to derive all of his scientific knowledge.
Some feedback, or at least another voice in the debate, would be much appreciated.
Captain Eek
Edits Ho Cap'n!
⚓ 06:17, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
Hello, I am the other participant in the discussions. Im glad that you admit it as a belief. Since you have admited that a change of the page is necessary to, at least, show its solely an opinion as of now. Can you explain how that statement is evidence for your claim? There are many people who have received powerful information in the form of visions. Nicola Tesla was one, in which he saw the AC generator still in use today. I never find it mentioned that he was a psuedoscientist, also he was a follower of Russells and told him to bury his work for 1000 years in the Smithsonian because humanity wasn't ready for it. His first sculpture was at 56 and commissioned by Thomas Edison, and it was a masterpiece. Surrounded by Tesla, Einstein, Edison, and debating scientist in the New York Times there has yet to be one incident of crank-calling. Hopefully, if you stand corrected, you will be able to say so.
Sidenote: Its odd how one can call someone a quack indirectly but if i would call you a quack that would be inappropriate. Its a very degrading term if i might add, along the lines of retard, idiot, fool, babboon, joke, etc. In essence you're saying this man is dumb yet have trouble explaining it. It should be fairly simple. Also saying or calling someone a derogatory term only furthers the division and lessens your ability to comprehend their position, whether it be lunacy or fundamentally different views. WikipediansSweep ( talk) 09:18, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
Einstein was very fringe in 1924, as his views were not accepted by the mainstream at all. The coming years validated his work afterwards, nevertheless he was a fringe scientist.— Preceding unsigned comment added by WikipediansSweep ( talk • contribs) 11:22, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
Can someone please warn User:WikipediansSweep of the DS on pseudoscience? Thanks. jps ( talk) 16:09, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
Impressed my correction comment was deleted leaving only my atrociously wrong statement intact... I corrected it to 1904 whenever it took academia quite a while to adjust to Einstein, which i was using as essentially an educational pointer that not confirming to the mainstream is actually the means in which science progresses. WikipediansSweep ( talk) 08:26, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
Also check the talk page as i have listed many sources, albeit poorly(format wise not content) , under the modern leonardo, if anyone of you is in New York you can access the herald tribune online through a library card to get genuine confirmation on the modern leonardo claim, even though i have it additionally being sourced after his death, there are definitely more claims of it nonetheless i doubt one can separate it from the herald article. WikipediansSweep ( talk) 08:49, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
I can now see that Kepler's mention of a single focus, and his failure to mention the other, coupled with Newton's single attribute of matter to attract matter without mentioning its equally apparent power to repel, deprived science of a possible solution to the universal riddle— it's like GeoCities in newsprint. Historical inaccuracy is the least of its problems. XOR'easter ( talk) 18:31, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
I looked at one of Russell's books, A New Concept of the Universe (1953), and there is clear evidence of pseudoscience (e.g. arguing that God can be proved in the laboratory) and a form of quackery (confidently proclaiming knowledge/expertise one does not have) in the introductory section. He describes hydrogen as being an octave, and isotopes as being octave based. He also claims there are 21 elements before hydrogen, and that carbon can be split into isotopes by a gyroscopic method, in a similar sense to musical octaves being split into sharps and flats. Then he says hydrogen is 'weightless fuel' and can be transmuted from the atmosphere to avoid the need of storage containers. None of this makes any sense, from a basic science (chemistry) standpoint, and I think this would have been obvious as of its publication date. The weight of hydrogen was established in the 1700s by Cavendish, hydrogen cannot be transmuted from nitrogen (as Russell clarifies his meaning on p. 124) except by expensive fission, isotopes aren't "sharps and flats" (mass and atomic number are distinct and correspond to proton and neutron counts, so overlapping mass number is not an identical element, unlike sharps and flats in music), and there really can't be 21 atomic elements before hydrogen because that would imply less than one proton. Lsparrish ( talk) 18:29, 19 September 2019 (UTC)
The recent contributions of single-purpose account Bonvi-a to our article on climate-denial organization Friends of Science could use wider attention. (For past discussion here of this organization, see Wikipedia:Fringe theories/Noticeboard/Archive 44#Friends of Science) — David Eppstein ( talk) 19:55, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
Actually, the recent blatant denial of facts by Eppstein is what needs wider attention. Sadly the automatic rejection of my edits to a Wikipedia page wreaking of alarmist propaganda is proof that Wikipedia is nothing more than a disinformation tool for climate alarmism. I had been warned that trying to correct the misinformation on this page would be a waste of time... My friends are correct, you are a waste of time. Bonvi-a ( talk) 05:34, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
If you are right dont give in. They cant win if you are truly right. WikipediansSweep ( talk) 16:37, 18 September 2019 (UTC)
Elitzur–Vaidman bomb tester: Sometimes the real science is weirder than the fringe science. -- Guy Macon ( talk) 14:55, 21 September 2019 (UTC)
Maybe not quite the best board, but there doesn't seem to be any that quite fits as I'm not sure BLPN is the best place for dealing with this. Can editors take a look at Mary Higby Schweitzer? I noticed this due removal of content for questionable reasons. But looking at the article, it does seem to to have a fair amount content sourced exclusively to published papers, so I'm not sure if it's clear all the content is significant or properly presented. It sounds like her work has received attention from creationists in the past. Nil Einne ( talk) 04:56, 20 September 2019 (UTC)
A search on his name and Usenet is interesting. Besides being a climate change denier he has other conspiracy theories about science. Note his signature on his Usenet posts. Doug Weller talk 17:42, 21 September 2019 (UTC)
Does this article seem excessively positive to anyone else, especially the lead, and especially in not explaining his "College" is not an accredited educational facility, but, as far as I'm aware, an auditorium. Adam Cuerden ( talk)Has about 6.9% of all FPs—Preceding undated comment added 21:28, 22 August 2019
Agree. de Ruiter is notorious in the Edmonton area for erratic behaviour and potentially leading a cult. I will work to find local sources and revise. Worrypower ( talk) 19:52, 25 September 2019 (UTC)