text:
Wikiversity talk:Community Review/Status of Moulton

Note: this Wikiversity community discussion was censored.

Setting an exemplary precedent on the use of real names
SBJ, why did you choose to name this page "Status of Barry Kort" rather than "Status of User:Moulton"?

Did I grant you license to use my real name in lieu of my Wikimedia Unified Login Name (that being the name that most people in the Wikisphere would recognize).

It occurs to me that if the issue of using real names is so important and so sacrosanct, why would you set the opposite example here?

Are you not aware that most people naively imitate the practice of those most prominent in a culture? Many will see your example of using real names, assume that is normative practice, and adopt it without giving it a second thought.

Let me point out that long before the issue of using real names came up, FeloniousMonk, and Dave Souza linked my Wikimedia Login Name to my real name, thereby violating the very practice they were simultaneously expressing alarm about. Similarly, you long ago began to use my real name in your postings here without bothering to ask if I minded and (more importantly) without bothering to reckon what kind of example that sets for others in terms of acceptable normative practices in that regard.

Moulton 14:28, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * ✅ - page is renamed, and redirects have been deleted. --mikeu talk 14:38, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Mike, notice the difference in the way Dave Souza and SBJ are treated when they engage in the same practice that they condemn me for. You come in, oversight their erratic postings, and resume normal operations without so much as note of distress.  But in my case, the pitch-fork wielding hordes are noisily calling for blood.  This is the kind of asymmetrical governance practice that reveals WikiCulture to be lacking in fair play for all.  Insiders get a pass on their conduct, outsiders get burnt at the stake.  Don't you think it's time to upgrade WikiCulture to 21st Century Ethical Best Practices?  —Barsoom Tork 14:54, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * You've been using that as your signature, Barry, so it seemed appropriate. The people you were naming were not doing that. --SB_Johnny talk 14:55, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I began doing that after Cary, Jimbo, the goons of IDCab, and their sychophantic lieutenants swept into Wikiversity to unceremoniously disrupt the Course on Applied Ethics. Rather than blow the whistle on those who, long ago, violated the very rule they were simultaneously waving in my face, I mooted their violation by acknowledging their controversial research to dig up my real name.  But the point remains, Johnny, that many here have blithely engaged in the same controversial practice that they would use as a pretext for burning me at the stake.  What I mind, more than others using my real name, is the double standard, wherein it's fine if official does it, but it's justification for Kristalnacht if I do it.  —Moulton 15:07, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Fair enough, sorry for the misunderstanding. I was under the impression that you wanted to "stand and be counted", so I used the name you've been signing with most often of late. --SB_Johnny talk 15:19, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Fair enough? I don't think so. This seems to be a misrepresentation to me, if not an outright fiction. I'm going digging in histories - but right now I can say that Moulton has used his real name, many, many times, and so far as I know none of these people he has been, and continues, to address by what he believes to be their real names has ever done so:Myself, FeloniousMonk, Guettarda. There are almost certainly more. So this is a double standard of the worst sort, which Moulton is pretending is quid pro quo. KillerChihuahua 16:02, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Here is a quote: "Barry Kort 22:44, 11 January 2009 (UTC)" from Status of user:Moulton in the context of a project of mine and I don't see a single instance in that page where he uses anything other than the quoted name.  It is perfectly reasonable to refer to someone by the text that they use as a sig.  --mikeu talk 16:15, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Ok, here is what I found, which shows clearly he has been publicly using both names together since 1993 at least: Now, he can request he be called Moulton here, no doubt. But to claim he's being "outed" is nonsense, and is, I am sorry to say, an outright lie. KillerChihuahua 16:17, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
 * page titled "Moulton's Home Page", which begins "Barry Kort (Moulton) ... Barry Kort is a founding Director of..." The Internet Archive shows it has had that since at least 1999 (it didn't go back further)
 * Mudconnect article, date unknown: "1992 or early 1993...the infamous Dr. Barry Kort, "Moulton,""
 * 1993 interview
 * Jul 12, 1999 - signs multiple posts with "Barry Kort (moulton) "
 * 2003 microMUSE
 * knol page uses Moulton and Barry Kort
 * Barry (Moulton) Kort

 * Do any of those pages associate the "Moulton" of those off-wiki pages to User:Moulton of Wikipedia? How does KC establish that association?
 * "Moulton" is a very common surname in New England, as it's the name of a family of early settlers. How do you know that the "Moulton" on MicroMuse from 1993 is the same person as User:Moulton on Wikipedia?  Did you scour the Internet looking for concordances?  If that is a normative practice that's perfectly fine for you to do, then it's a normative practice for anyone here to do.  As I recall, that's how Daniel Brandt found pages you had posted, associating your rather distinctive avatar name to your real life identity.  That's also what FeloniousMonk did, when he compiled a dossier on User:Moulton in his WP user space to use at RfAr.  And that was the first time anyone on WP published a concordance linking the User:Moulton on WP to any other instance of Moulton on the Web.  Note that WP has a page listing dozens of uses of the name.  Who did the research to pick out which person corresponded to User:Moulton on WP?  And if that research is a normative and acceptable practice for FM or you to employ with total impunity, then it's a normative practice for anyone to employ with equal impunity.  —Barsoom Tork 16:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Perhaps now you better appreciate how normative practices all of a sudden become capital offenses when an adversarial editor does it. I don't much care what normative practices are agreed upon in a community's culture, but the lunatic drama of defining a common practice as a hanging offense only when someone else does it is utterly ludicrous.  —Moulton 15:49, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Moulton, until you stated an objection, I was also under the impression that you did not mind the use of your name. Please state your preference, if you have one, so the community is clear on how they should refer to you.  For example, I prefer mikeu, mike, or Mu301.  I also prefer that my last name not be used, and I insist that it be spelled correctly if it is used (against my wishes.)  --mikeu talk 15:36, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * My preference is for symmetrical and reciprocal practices, full stop. —Moulton 15:49, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * It is your prerogative to change your mind about how you would prefer to be called and I'm sure than people will respect your wishes. But you must make clear how we should address you.  Signing edits with multiple names   causes confusion, and you have only yourself to blame if others are uncertain about what name to use.  I ask again, if you have a preference for a name to be used (or not used) you need to clarify that.  Just ask if you'd like to see the name removed from the quote above and/or if you'd like others to refrain from using it in the future.  But knock off the crap arguments.  You have no right to expect that any reasonable person would know that they should refrain from using a name that you choose to use as a sig on wiki. --mikeu talk 17:02, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * There is a difference between one's time-varying preferences and what others are keen enough to remember and disciplined enough to honor. The confusion over what to call me arose when Jimbo decided to obliterate the name "Moulton" from the pages of Wikiversity.  Now there is nothing especially sacred about the name itself.  It's just the name of the street where I was working in 1990.  I had logged into a new kind of social networking site from my office at BBN on 10 Moulton Street, and the site prompted me to choose a handle.  I stared out the window at the intersection of Moulton Street and Concord Avenue for a minute or two, decided I didn't want to be known as "Concord Avenue" and typed in Moulton.  So that became the avatar name that most people became familiar with.  But since I am an educator, I also use half a dozen other character voices, just as many educators have done since Aesop first gave voice to educational characters in animal costumes.  The only right I expect, Mike, is to be treated the same way officials are treated when they engage in the same commonplace practices as me.  —Moulton 17:57, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Currently, the practice is to use the person's real name if he has previously used it, or currently uses it, and it is therefore made public by the contributor. The practice is to not use a contributors real name in other cases. You already have symmetrical and reciprocal practices, which you are ignoring and behaving unethically about. KillerChihuahua 15:56, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * At the time FM and Dave Souza used my real name on WP, I had not used it myself, on-wiki. The first time SBJ called me by my real name on my talk page here on Wikiversity, I had not used it here myself.  —Moulton 16:40, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * That's not exactly the whole story. I asked if I could address you by your name, and you said yes. Remember? --SB_Johnny talk 16:45, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Can you remind me of the conversation you are recalling? Was that on the telephone, or here on Wiki?  I wonder if you are remembering how we addressed each other during private phone calls.  —Moulton 17:04, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * It was definitely on the wiki, after the phone calls. Probably on your talk page, but it was a while ago and my memory is not encyclopedic. I clearly remember asking you though, since it felt off to call you "Moulton" after we'd been chatting via phone, irc, email, etc. :-). --SB_Johnny talk 17:16, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * If it was on-wiki on my talk page, then we should be able to find it. Even though Jimbo, Mike and others have baleeted my talk pages, there remain backup copies to look at.  Do you remember the approximate time frame?  Or better yet, just restore them all.  —Moulton 17:28, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Can't do that without consensus, sorry. It was right after we talked on the phone, iirc. Or you could just trust me on that and save the trouble :-).
 * And Barry, please chill. I started the review because you and John have been demanding it (right?), and almost everyone else and their dogs have been giving me crap for even talking to you. You should know by now where I stand, eh? --SB_Johnny talk 17:41, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I found it. That collegial exchange dates back to July 26-27 of last year, long before all the unruly brouhaha got started. As to being chilled, if I were any more laid back, I'd be in a coma.  It takes a lot more than this to get me riled.  I see this as a "teachable moment" if you recall that meme.  I reckon you stand in the path of lot of crap being thrown in your general direction.  It occurs to me that flinging fecal matter is not the kind of demeanor one would expect of scholars in an authentic learning community.  —Moulton 18:24, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Yeah, it stinks. Pun intended :-). --SB_Johnny talk 18:59, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Moved from review page

 * Note how Killerchihuahua refers to Moulton by his real first name, whilst damning him for treating her in the identical manner. —Barsoom Tork 14:38, 27 January 2009 (UTC
 * Since you have made it public knowledge that Barry Kort is Moulton, having it on your own home page its not the same, let alone "identical". Note how Moulton evades blocks to make attacks and snide comments and continues to "out" editors in his single-minded pursuit of attacking those he perceives as having "wronged" him. Please also note that at the time I wrote the above, this page was at /Status of Barry Kort and has since been moved so I was using the terminology of the page itself. To use another name would have introduced needless confusion. This does not prevent Moulton from painting it as an "outing" however, pretending it is equal to his repeated attempts to harm others in their r/l jobs and lives. KillerChihuahua 15:31, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
 * And you similarly published pages linking your real name and various horticultural interests to your highly distinctive avatar name on Wikipedia and elsewhere. How do you think it became known? Similarly, FeloniousMonk signed his real name on messages to the Foundation mailing list, and simultaneously maintained several professional pages associating his real name with his Wikipedia roles. This whole thing about real names is a disingenous pretext, especially since FM and Dave Souza had both published concordances linking User:Moulton to outside pages (just as you have done here). You see, the practice of associating avatar names with real names is quite common. What is bizarre is excusing it with a mere shrug when an official does it, but making it a hanging offense when an adversarial editor does it. —Moulton 16:12, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Note: Moulton keeps posting a lie about me claiming I posted certain information on Wikipedia. I did not. He is also including "clues" to help people stalk me. I would appreciate it if his harassment of me were prevented or removed, thanks. KillerChihuahua 17:52, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Where did I claim you posted information on Wikipedia? Just as you easily found off-wiki pages about "Moulton" dating back to 1993, one can easily find off-wiki pages about "KillerChihuahua" dating back to 2003.  But whereas you posted a list of such pages, I have not done so here.  But by your example, I would be within my rights to do, if you are within your rights to post a concordance of off-wiki pages of mine. —Moulton 18:09, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Abolishing the Wikipedia Bans As a Governance Tool
 ''The following article originally appeared as an add-on comment in the P2P Foundation's blog. Michael Bauwens, the editor of the site, elevated the comment to a main article in its own right.''  The governance model of Wikipedia was so anachronistic that it took me over a year to place it in the timeline of historic governance models adopted at various times in the annals of human history.

The thing that stymied me was the prominence of blocking and banning as the primary tool of governance. I simply couldn’t place that among the recognized tools of governance in any historic context.

And then I happened to take a look at the oldest surviving account of secular law — the Code of Hammurabi of 1760 BC.

Of the 282 laws that Hammurabi of Mesopotamia carved into the stone tablets, take note of the very first one:  1. If any one ensnare another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death.  Evidently, banning (ostracism) was a common practice in the tribal cultures in the Middle East some 4000 years ago, at the dawn of civilization. Capricious and spurious banning was evidently such a common and egregious abuse of tribal overlords that Hammurabi made it a capital offense to ban someone without proving just cause.

And yet, on Wikipedia, indefinite blocks and bans without due process are a common occurrence. That is to say, the prevailing governance model of Wikipedia corresponds to a pre-Hammurabic tribal ochlocracy that is so anachronistic, it predates the advent of the Rule of Law.

When Thomas Jefferson and the other Founders drafted the US Constitution, one of the provisions they put in Article One was a prohibition against Bills of Attainder. A Bill of Attainder is the technical term in the law for declaring a person to be an outlaw (without respect to having violated any specific law that applies equally to everyone). The Founders excluded Bills of Attainder from the tools of governance because 4000 years of political history had demonstrated that such a toxic practice is corrosive and ridden with corruption, and invariably sinks any government that comes to rely on it.

The irony here is that Wikipedia purports to be the “sum of all knowledge” with an educational mission that reaches out to students, teachers, and scholars around the world. And yet those exercising power in Wikipedia have not yet learned the oldest and most profound lessons in the annals of human history — lessons enshrined in the first written law and in the first article of the US Constitution.

The consequence of adopting such an anachronistic governance model is that Wikipedians are fated to relive and reify the long-forgotten lessons of history. They relive those lessons by reprising the same kind of political dramas that fill the history books since the dawn of civilization.

The anachronistic governance model which Jimbo Wales foolishly and mindlessly introjected into Wikipedia is simply not a sustainable model in this day and age. Summary and capricious banning wasn’t even a sustainable model some 3768 years ago when Hammurabi first singled it out as an unacceptable practice in a civilized culture.

So what to do about it? The answer can be found in the second law of Hammurabi’s Code. As Hammurabi advises, the solution is to tell them to go jump in the lake.

Or as they say in Yiddish, “Nem zich a vaneh!“  ''Further comments by readers of the P2P Foundation may be found here. Additional comments by participants of Wikipedia Review may be found here.''

complaints
Re: "There is majority support for filing an abuse complaint, but it is technically not possible for the community to do this. Abuse complaints must be made by an indivual through the OTRS system." Does anyone know of a link that explains how complaints are filed through OTRS? --mikeu talk 15:33, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Have you viewed OTRS? DarkObsidian @en.Meta-Wiki 18:29, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Kangaroo Court
The following response to a post in the Discussion section by SB_Johnny lacks the attached response. [Source]

Discussion
This isn't a court, it's a discussion of options to be taken by a community that's rapidly shrinking and seriously needs to move on. It is completely inappropriate for you to accuse the people participating in this discussion of acting in bad faith.

You've already made it clear that you don't like the process. Point taken, so please respect people's right share their views, and to have their views taken seriously. --SB_Johnny talk 21:07, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

 * It's a sham Parliamentary Bill of Attainder, Johnny. And you should be ashamed of yourself for convening such an outrage to 21st Century education. —Montana Mouse 21:47, 29 January 2009 (UTC)


text:
User:Egm6322.s09/Report table/Best of report R1

 Under construction; not final (but close to being stable after a couple of weeks). The intention here is to document the best features in any report for the readers (including you); if you see any excellent features in any of the reports (including your team's) that I may have missed noticing, don't hesitate to let me know. I don't have time to read all reports in detail. Due to time constraint, I would only selectively looked at a few important features. I also added some annotations (e.g., related to errors, improvements, etc.) where I looked through for the benefit of everyone. Egm6322.s09 13:16, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Latest archived version (possibly with comments): Team Bit Team Mafia Team Three

 * classnotes (including simple HW problems), graded over 100%
 * course overview, syllabus, course topics, wiki reports, software tools (for writing wiki articles, latex equation editor, drawing)
 * wikiversity, opening accounts, writing wiki articles (shortcuts, links, wiki text, math latex equations, etc.), team formation
 * introduction
 * independent variables, examples
 * dependent variables, examples
 * partial derivatives
 * nonlinear PDEs, general definition
 * $$\displaystyle n$$ independent variables
 * number of arguments (independent variables, 1st-order partial derivatives, 2nd-order)
 * Hessian
 * symbols for "equal by definition"
 * symmetric symbols $$\displaystyle \overset{\Delta}{=}$$, $$\displaystyle \overset{\rm def}{=}$$
 * asymmetric symbols $$\displaystyle =:$$, $$\displaystyle :=$$; advantages
 * $$\displaystyle 2$$ independent variables
 * examples: linear, diffusion operator, nonlinear
 * HW: more examples, 2 linear, 2 nonlinear
 * "We must welcome the future, because soon it will be the past. We must respect the past, because it was once all that was humanly possible."  George Santayana
 * linearity
 * definition in lecture
 * notation on maps (functions), domain, boundary, range, set of real numbers $$\displaystyle \mathbb R$$
 * additivity and homogeneity, definition of linear mapping from Kolmogorov & Fomin, p.123. HW: Show equivalence between definition in lecture and definition in K&F. Note: Team Mafia Better proof in class; Team Three Error (examples, not proof); Team Bit did not do this HW.
 * linear PDEs, examples. HW.
 * affine mappings, definition. Best contribution: Team Mafia
 * order
 * definition
 * 1st-order PDEs
 * linear
 * nonlinear
 * 2nd-order PDEs
 * heat equation, diffusion operator, coordinate-free notation. HW: Expand diffusion operator into a sum of several terms (summation convention).
 * tensors, tensor order, tensor product, gradient, divergence, component form, summation convention
 * contant coefficients
 * varying coefficients, functions of $$\displaystyle (x,y)$$. HW: Show that the diffusion operator with varying coefficients is linear. Note: Team Mafia Error; Team Bit Team Three did not do this HW.
 * quasilinear 2nd-order PDEs, examples
 * nonlinear PDEs

 * project or longer HW problems, graded over 100%

EGM 6322 Report Table

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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User talk:HighAley

 Hello HighAley, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may

 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random project.
 * Browse Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.

 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Give feedback about your initial observations
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! --AFriedman 14:50, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 Hello , we are the Baah and Bahh twins and we'd both like to welcome you to Wikiversity. While you sit back and explore Wikiversity, enjoy some of our fresh goat milk. You can help us learn by creating new learning resources or help us by improving the guided tours and other exploration tools. We look forward to seeing you around. Baaaahbye for now.

title: User talk:HighAley


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Talk:Renewable energy/Photovoltaics

Photovoltaics
This area is usually referred to in the plural "photovoltaics" like a science (i.e. physic{s}). I would try just moving it but it is probably linked to by lots of other pages. RTG 15:04, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

 * I moved it and followed up correcting the links (only 3) RTG 15:31, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Battery Voltage
A charge controller doesn't regulate battery voltage, does it? Voltage input, no? RTG 16:08, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

title: Talk:Renewable energy/Photovoltaics


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User talk:Farmerboyau

heelo and a good morning to everybody

 Hello Farmerboyau, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may

 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random project.
 * Browse Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.

 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Give feedback about your initial observations
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! --mikeu talk 16:29, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:Farmerboyau


text:
Life

'From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Life is love, and is a characteristic of organisms that exhibit certain biological processes such as chemical reactions or other events that result in a transformation. Living organisms are capable of growth and reproduction, some can communicate and many can adapt to their environment through changes originating internally.

A physical characteristic of life is that it feeds on negative entropy. In more detail, according to physicists such as John Bernal, Erwin Schrödinger, Eugene Wigner, and John Avery, life is a member of the class of phenomena which are open or continuous systems able to decrease their internal entropy at the expense of substances or free energy taken in from the environment and subsequently rejected in a degraded form (see: entropy and life).

An entity with the above properties is considered to be a living organism, hence, a 'life form'. However, not every definition of life considers all of these properties to be essential. For example, the capacity for evolution is sometimes taken as the only essential property of life; this definition notably includes viruses, which do not qualify under narrower definitions as they are cellular and do not metabolize.

A diverse array of living organisms can be found in the biosphere on Earth. Properties common to these organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea and bacteria—are a carbon- and water-based cellular form with complex organization and heritable genetic information. They undergo metabolism, possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and, through natural selection, adapt to their environment in successive generations. So far, there is no proof of extraterrestrial life. The evidence of extraterrestrial life includes the fact of life on Earth, evidence associated with theories of how that life developed, and evidence that the universe developed consistently with known physical laws. Evidence that life exists only on Earth is only the lack of proof of any life elsewhere.

Definitions
There is no universal definition of life. To define life in unequivocal terms is still a challenge for scientists, as the definition must be sufficiently broad that would encompass all life with which we are familiar. It should be sufficiently general that, with it, scientists would not miss life that may be fundamentally different from earthly life. In addition, defining life requires measurable terms, and when derived from analysis of known organisms, life is usually defined at the cellular level.

Conventional definition
The consensus is that life is a characteristic of organisms that exhibit all or most of the following phenomena:
 * 1) Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, electrolyte concentration or sweating to reduce temperature.
 * 2) Organization: Being structurally composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.
 * 3) Metabolism: Consumption of energy by converting chemicals and energy into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.
 * 4) Growth: Maintenance of a higher rate of synthesis than catabolism. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter. The particular species begins to multiply and expand as the evolution continues to flourish.
 * 5) Adaptation: The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This ability is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the organism's heredity as well as the composition of metabolized substances, and external factors present.
 * 6) Response to stimuli: A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism to external chemicals, to complex reactions involving all the senses of higher animals. A response is often expressed by motion, for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun (phototropism) and chemotaxis.
 * 7) Reproduction: The ability to produce new organisms. Reproduction can be the division of one cell to form two new cells. Usually the term is applied to the production of a new individual (either asexually, from a single parent organism, or sexually, from at least two differing parent organisms), although strictly speaking it also describes the production of new cells in the process of growth.

So life can be defined as: "The set of characteristic which differentiat living beings from non-Living."

title: Life


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User:Mjc2987

I am a print and web designer, and partner at Harbinger, a brand building and publicity agency.

title: User:Mjc2987


text:
User talk:18.85.10.13

Dear Moulton, I have blocked you. You havent stopped going around your block here on Wikiversity. Do not try to use more IP addresses, they will be blocked too. You evidently dont understand that your behaviour is not good. In normal scholar system your reasearch would not be possible because of ethic and psychological/sociological reasons. --Juan de Vojníkov 17:55, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:18.85.10.13


text: Composite materials

title: Composite materials


text: Composite Materials/Syllabus

title: Composite Materials/Syllabus


text:
Portal:Microsoft/Microsoft news

 * Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 RC1 and comes out of Beta.
 * Microsoft names their Vista successor Windows 7, using its previous codename for simplicity.
 * Service Pack 1 was released for Windows Vista
 * Microsoft bid $44.6 billion for Yahoo
 * Microsoft Surface, a table with a multitouch-based interface and object recognition technology, is unveiled.
 * Microsoft will acquire aQuantive for $6 billion.
 * Microsoft released Windows XP SP3
 * Microsoft showed off Windows 7 build 6933 at the PDC 2008.
 * Microsoft handed out Windows 7 build 6801 to attendees at the PDC 2008.
 * Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 version is now available.

title: Portal:Microsoft/Microsoft news


text:
Portal:Microsoft/Did you know

 * ... that Microsoft's revenues on Microsoft Office are in the range of $250 million USD a week?

title: Portal:Microsoft/Did you know


text:
Portal:Microsoft/Things you can do

This portal is about all things Microsoft, from its history to its products to its criticism.

--- hi Note: This Portal is intending to organize all Microsoft pages.

title: Portal:Microsoft/Things you can do


text:
Wikiversity:Community Portal/Old/2007

{| id="Todo" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width:100%; border:2px #A3D9BE solid;"  To do lists Wikiversity is growing. However, at this early stage many areas are stubs, or otherwise need attention. If you like, go ahead, be bold, and jump right in.
 * colspan="2" style="background:#cef2e0; text-align:center; padding:2px; border-bottom:1px #A3D9BE solid;" |
 * colspan="2" style="background:#cef2e0; text-align:center; padding:2px; border-bottom:1px #A3D9BE solid;" |
 * style="background:#f5fffa; padding:1.2em;" valign="top" |
 * style="background:#f5fffa; padding:1.2em;" valign="top" |

{| style="width:100%; background-color:transparent;"
 * style="width:50%; padding-right:1.2em;" valign="top" |

Things to do

 * Help with the migration of Wikiversity pages from Wikibooks
 * Create and add content to pages on the requests page.
 * other open tasks

Learning projects

 * Bloom Clock
 * Wikiversity the Movie
 * Astronomy Project
 * Human Genetic Uniqueness Project
 * IRColloquium
 * Learning to learn a wiki way
 * Wikiversity Concepts Project

Custodian work

 * Import - to move Wikiversity pages from Meta and Wikibooks
 * Request custodian action - for page deletion, protection, user blocking and undoing all those
 * Category:Candidates for speedy deletion - monitor for requests for speedy deletion of pages.

 * style="width:50%; background:#f5fffa; border-left:1px solid #cef2e0; padding-left:1.2em;" valign="top" |

Time Dependent

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Not sure where to report a certain type of problem with article content? If it exists, it's probably listed at Maintenance.
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{| id="Departments" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width:100%; border:2px #B8C7D9 solid;"  Guidelines, help, and resources Wikiversity is "staffed" by a small number of volunteers. Here are some of the most general; for more specific departments, check the appropriate page below. See also the Wikiversity department directory.
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Wikiversity has some policies, guidelines, conventions, and traditions. This is a brief sampling of some of the most important. Policies and guidelines apply both to materials, and how to work with fellow editors. For easy access, the shortcuts to the pages are also listed.

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title: Wikiversity:Community Portal/Old/2007


text:
Wikiversity talk:Community Portal/Archive 1

Missing content
This page is given the honour of a direct link every Wikiversity sidebar. Seems to me this is a natural (and very friendly to users) place to list the current 8 major Wikiversity faculties, Engineering & Technology through Social Sciences. Give users a good starting place to drill down to subjects of interest.

morley 17:34, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Guide to Learning projects
I think we can develop a Guide to Learning projects based on Guide to WikiProject in wikipedia. This could help clearer up things about Learning projects. Srinivasasha 06:20, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

copyright link
In the Article Standards section WV:C is listed as linking to Copyrights but instead it is a shortcut to Colloquium.--mikeu 15:03, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

spring
It may be where the writer is but it isn't everywhere.

remove "Motto contest" heading?
Its concluded: eyes right!
 * Yes, the whole page needs a careful review. I'm not sure why it links to Register Language of Interest rather than the multilingual Wikiversity hub. --JWSchmidt 05:26, 26 August 2007 (UTC)


text: User:Josephlee

title: User:Josephlee


text:
User:JWSchmidt/Blog/27 January 2009

"Always give reasoning and appropriate warnings before applying sanctions"

In addition to a policy for banning editors it would be nice to have a policy governing bans from participation at the English language IRC chat channel.

Bad ban
9/21/08 11:36:09 AM: You have been kicked off channel #wikiversity-en by SB_Johnny (1 week ban for all account names)

That was an interesting day in #wikiversity-en, complete with the threat made that people could be banned from that chat channel for theorizing....when that threat was made I assumed it was a joke. Little did I know that the joke was on me. I was banned with no warning and no reason given for the ban. As far as I can tell, I was banned from #wikiversity-en because I talked too much to Moulton. I was banned even after I proposed that Moulton and I would just go to #wikiversity-en-projects any time our conversations became unwelcome or "disruptive". See also: Blocks and bans from IRC.

Bad block
At that time, I had recently been subjected to a bad block (19 September 2008 SB Johnny blocked JWSchmidt with an expiry time of infinite) for the ludicrous reason, "until guidelines are agreed upon", a block imposed without prior warning. My unblock request was rejected by SB Johnny with the excuse given that, "The community really needs some time to recover".

In the IRC chat that morning (9/21/08) it was mysteriously hinted that I was not aware of all the discussions that had been going on. I assumed that was alluding to the way a group of custodians had conspired off wiki to impose a bad block on me and go outside of process to perform an emergency removal of my custodianship. At that time, all I could do was mutter, "justice is remote when it is crafted in secret".

Anyhow, that was an impressive "1 week ban" from #wikiversity-en with no discussion, warning or reason given. A "1 week ban" that is still being imposed more than four months later.

Your banned
1/27/09 6:23:14 AM: You have been kicked off channel #wikiversity-en by darkcode (your still banned)

darkcode imposed his ban without discussion or warning. If SB Johnny imposed a "1 week ban" on 9/21/08 then why am I still banned on 1/27/09?

Wikipedia Disease
During the past five years I've seen drama at Wikipedia resulting from abusive admins conspiring off wiki, often in IRC chat channels, to impose bad blocks and bans on Wikipedians. When I spent years getting the Wikiversity project going I thought about how Wikiversity would be a different place where people talked out problems, openly, on wiki. Will Wikiversity ever find its way back to sanity?

Updates
13 June 2009. SB Johnny's "1 week ban" from September of 2008, imposed without discussion, warning or justification, is still in place. When SB Johnny wants someone to fuck off, I guess it means he just throws away the key. Is it time to put this down in written Wikiversity policy?
 * 15 August 2009. I was finally allowed to return to #wikiversity-en. Not clear how long this will last since there is no evidence that conditions have changed in that chat channel. Before I was banned, a popular strategy for the wielders of the ban hammer was to make false claims about freenode IRC policy in order to try to justify channel bans. The popular practice of making bogus claims about freenode policy continues. Apparently the current rules for discussions in that channel include the idea that you cannot question the abuses of admins unless you can provide scientific proof that the abusers were trying to be abusive. Someone must think that Catch-22 is a style guide for chat channel management.

 * Since I last edited this page I have witnessed two other bad bans in #wikiversity-en, imposed without warning or discussion or reason given. The most recent was in April 2010. The Wikiversity era of thugocracy continues.
 * Update, April 7, 2010. Today I was kicked from #wikiversity-en without warning, discussion or reason given. During the first two years of the Wikiversity project, #wikiversity-en was a place where learning projects were developed and new Wikiversity participants were provided with help. In 2008 it became a place where abusive sysops plan how to delete wiki content, impose bad blocks and attempt to silence anyone who objects to their destructive practices. Is it possible to return Wikiversity to its roots, a place where collaborating learners discuss their learning coals and collaboratively edit wiki pages, or will the death spiral of out-of-process page deletion and bad blocks continue?

title: User:JWSchmidt/Blog/27 January 2009


text:
Wikiversity:Learning trails

Learning trails

Learning trails are permuted, annotated and enhanced collections of learning resources that may serve the needs of a special topic or goal or that may link to internal or external resources of a specific type or from certain sources in order to allow a different learning experience. Tutors can design their own learning experiences and learn to appreciate that the way to learn something can make a difference for the learner.

The term "learning trail" is also used for a past learning experience of a learner who leaves a trail (a collection of material that may be useful for others, for instance annotated lecture notes). The term is used here in a stricter sense, putting more emphasis on the intentional preparation of the material for others, but the author of a learning trail may have prepared the trail as a result of his own studies, possibly following a learning by doing philosophy.

A learning trail should usually refer to other resource types and connect them to form a new learning experience.

Older comments

 * Colloquium/archives/February 2007
 * wikimedia:meta:Talk:Wikiversity/Archive 3

title: Wikiversity:Learning trails


text: User:ExplicitImplicity

title: User:ExplicitImplicity


text: Composite Materials/Additional Resources


text:
User talk:Rspill

 Hello Rspill, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may

 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random project.
 * Browse Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.

 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Give feedback about your initial observations
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! SB_Johnny talk 00:44, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:Rspill


text:
User:Dirtslayer

Hello everyone! Here are some of the things that I enjoy and spend time studying. I am not an expert on anything but I have a lot of time left to learn.

In no specific order:

Mental wellness - I am trying to keep my life going positively and not fall into the mire of laziness.

Yoga - I am an absolute beginner.

Mathematics - I did take some of this in University but have lost it, I hope to regain my math aptitude.

Computer Science - I have worked as a programmer in the past but not recently, again, I hope to regain this skill. Right now i am learning about Java and Relational Databases.

Science of Nature - why not? I have worked in forestry for years and have a notion of what real environmentalism is all about.

more later, i am a very solitary learner, but i am hoping that this platform will give me the opportunity to share conquests and trials with other learners in an open, flexible, and meaningful way.

title: User:Dirtslayer


text:
User:Luc M.

bio
Like most people I wear many hats. Sometimes they fit OK, but most of the time I spend my day running around trying to get the hat of the moment to fit without giving me too much of a headache. In this endeavor I'm not always successful. I have a fifty mile commute one way to Seattle, so squeezing work and school and friends and me time in can be challenging. About 3 weeks ago my wife and I separated, and that alone has added a whole new dynamic to how I see and respond to things. Like I said... sometimes I don't do a good job at wearing all those hats. I am a big fan of science fiction, both the written word and moving image, whatever form that may be. I saw the new Star Trek movie opening day twice in IMAX at the Seattle Center, once at 6am and again at noon. Yes, it's that cool. For the record, you are going to be in bookstores soon where the clerk will point you to the "Sy/FY" section (and not Sci-Fi or Science Fiction). When this happens you should look at that clerk as if they are some form of infectious disease because we have to do whatever we can to stop the "dumbing down" of everything in our society. I enjoy books written by Damon Knight, Timothy Zahn, Karen Traviss, Anne Rice, Michael Crichton, and Stephen King. I could list every author that I have ever thought was awesome, but I don't want to. I enjoy drawing and working in 3D. i love my job (it's true!) and am looking forward to transforming it into a successful career. I am a huge Star Wars nerd or geek, whichever term you prefer. I have hundreds of figures still in the box (in storage), a couple of Master Replicas lightsabers and a complete set of stormtrooper armor that I built myself. I have even learned a little Mandalorian (the language of Boba Fett's people) and sometimes my friends and I use it as a social defense mechanism. I really am a kid at heart, like Jack in Fight Club I am a 31 year old boy... but I have fun and I suppose that's what matters. I love to laugh at things that offend other people (even if I'm the butt of the joke), I love all kinds of beer and a great stogie (Davidoff or Cohibas will do), and after all these years I am still a Lego maniac.

Response
This is a response to "Zombie Cat" by Will Richer.

Shel Silverstein was one of my favorite writers as I was growing up. I was always amazed at his ability to create different types of poems on many subjects while maintaining a whimsical style. Some of his poetry is very short, while other works are longer. His doodles that complimented the written verse were also very entertaining. He had a playful style fit for people of all ages to read (when thinking from a traditionally moralistic standpoint), but there was often a subtext of more adult themes. Will has captured this in his poem Zombie Cat with remarkable effectiveness. On the surface it is a funny poem expressing the wishes of a strange little boy. It contains no profanity or vulgarities (like Silverstein's work), but it's nature is a bit more adult. Zombies are a popular topic for horror and comedy writers, and like vampires, are monsters in human guise. most humans fear death in one way or another, which is why the zombie scares us. To be undead is a far worse fate than death itself. To be animated but not you. These mature themes are sown into a funny, and almost cute poem about a boy who wants an immortal pet. However as the poem continues, everything is not as it seems. The child is actually quite maladjusted and expresses no fear of his zombie cat infecting others, but rather relishes that idea. More cats for him to play with. In the final stanza we discover that the boy himself has no fear of being zombiefied... either because he is already a zombie, or he has no fear of becoming one.

Despite its dark undercurrent, the poem maintains its humor, which is no small feat considering that comedy is the hardest thing to write well. This is written quite well and the illustration is also a fantastic homage to Silverstein's style.

Compare/Contrast
Two of the most beloved and prolific science fiction franchises in film and media in general are Star Wars and Star Trek. They both have a fierce following of loyal fans and if you were to ask someone random on the street to name a science fiction movie, these two names would come up more often than any other in some form or another. While Star Wars and Star Trek are similar in their operatic design, they are very different. As a fan of both, and because I'm still swooning in the "high" of seeing the new Star Trek film in IMAX, I thought it appropriate to compare and contrast these two universes that have shaped my life as an artist so profoundly.

Star Trek first appeared in 1966 and is the creation of Gene Roddenberry. The original television show followed the crew of the Federation Starship Enterprise. Under the command of Captain James T. Kirk the ship and crew warped their way into new adventures every week. The show was set in the 23rd century, which allowed the creator and writers to explore (or expose) complex social and cultural issues in a different way from other programming at the time. For example, many people in my generation or younger may think nothing of the racial diversity of the Enterprise's bridge crew (Enterprise had a Japanese helmsman, a Russian navigator/weapons officer, and an African-American communications officer who was female), but at the time, these peoples being depicted together and working as a team on a weekly basis was groundbreaking in television. The original pilot episode, which was never aired, pushed even more boundaries as the first officer of the ship was a woman. While that character was cut for the production run of the show, Star Trek continued to move forward with often biting commentary on American and world issues until its cancellation.

The thrust of the show's plot is that in the 23rd century, mankind (on earth) have reached a kind of functioning utopia. There is no more war or even money. Man has pulled himself up out of the ashes of previous world wars and finally put aside his differences. All men and women all over the world are equal and free. The universe however is not so calm. Humans are members of the United Federation of Planets, a UN-like organization of like-minded star systems whose goal is peace and exploration. One of the other member races are the Vulcans. Vulcans look identical to humans with the exception of pointy ears and sharply angled eyebrows. They are a people of logic, and while they have emotions the same as humans, they have built their society on the idea of controlling that emotion. There are several races which are not a part of the Federation which provide recurring conflict for the crew of the Enterprise. The most notable are the Klingons. They are a warlike society who prefer to shoot first and ask questions later. In subsequent movies and television shows, the Klingons are given more depth with the idea that their honor and tradition has shaped how they live. In the original show, they were little more than school-yard bullies.

In this setting of peace on earth, but war everywhere else, the writers could explore issues that were in the news at the time, such as racism and civil rights, or sexism in a fanciful forum that wasn't as "in your face" as a show such as Archie Bunker. The point of the show was to bring the viewer to see an issue from a perspective that they couldn't achieve otherwise, that of an impassive, outside observer. The show was all about the hope that mankind would someday rise above those things that keep us down and that we would be able to boldly go where we have never gone before. We have the power ourselves to control our fate, and it was this idealistic humanistic element that has lead to some of Star Trek's popularity.

On the other hand, Star Wars is very different. Some would say that Star Wars is much more fantasy in construction than Science Fiction. The gadgetry and technology shown have nothing to do with our world. In fact, Star Wars isn't even set in the future, but A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away. The characters are iconic and oozing with thematic baggage. Star Wars first appeared in May 1977 and is the brainchild of George Lucas. Lucas was (and some would say still is) a rebel director who hangs out with the likes of Francis Ford Copolla and Steven Speilburg. His first film released to theaters, THX 1138, wasn't very successful, but has a cult following today. He made his bones with the release of American Graffiti and shortly thereafter began work on what would become his opus: Star Wars.

Star Wars (episode IV: A New Hope) follows the life of a young moisture farmer on Tatooine named Luke Skywalker. Skywalker is a restless teen who wants to get out of the crappy life he has and he wants to get out from under his uncle's boot. The daydreaming of young Skywalker takes place on a vast Galactic stage where the law of the land comes from The Galactic Empire. Designed to mirror the dread and terror caused by the Nazi's in the 1940's, the Empire seethes evil. The embodiment of that evil is the 2 meter tall Darth Vader. Vader is a Sith Lord, one who has mastered the dark side of the force. This is where Star Trek and Star Wars really differ. While Trek is a show about what might be if mankind goes down a certain path, Star Wars is about what religions and fantasy are made of. The essence of what we can't see. The theme's in Star Wars follow Campbell almost to the letter in their execution. Luke is given the Hero's call by the old sage, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke refuses the call initially, but then must accept once the Empire destroys all he knows as home. He then begins his hero's journey, which over the course of three films is ultimately about a son refusing to give up on his father no matter what and giving him the chance to redeem himself. The newest Star Wars movies (which are reviled by many) go back and explain how the Empire came to power and how Anakin Skywalker fell to the darkside. With all six films in order, the overall story becomes one about Anakin, his fall from being the hero, and his ultimate redemption at the hands of his son.

When comparing and contrasting Star Trek and Star Wars it is vital to understand that it really is a situation of apples and oranges. Trek is meant to inspire us to go beyond what we think we can. Star Wars invites us to remember things like dreamtime...to ponder the deeper meanings of life, the universe, and everything. Ultimately, they both entertain (each one is jam packed with explosions and steamy love scenes and all that other stuff we crave) and invite us to look at things from a certain point of view that may be different from the one we hold.

Sequel/Prequel
What follows is a sequel to Damon Knight's short story "To Serve Man".

"Exposure"

It was only six hours after our conversation in the cramped bar that they came for Grigori. The men were polite in their crisp uniforms, but it was clear that his presence on the next ship out was compulsory. They came for me the following morning. Since I was only a linguist and a translator in their eyes they were not as alert as soldiers should have been. Why should they have been? Ever since the Kanamit arrived and ended all war and disease and suffering on earth, why would anyone not want to go see the wonders that their homeworld surely beheld... even if they were forced? These men didn't know the truth. The Kanamit had simply done what ranchers and farmers have been doing for centuries... eliminating disease and providing a comfortable life and sense of well being... right up until we are led to the slaughterhouse.

The two soldiers were significantly heavier than they appeared, but after only a minor bit of fussing about I managed to shove them both bound unceremoniously into the small closet in my bedroom. Only one of them carried a service pistol, which I relieved him of before gathering up a small bag and leaving my apartment, probably for the last time. The gun was a bit bulkier than I would have liked, a Colt 1911-A1 .45 caliber semi-automatic. The trade off for its extra bulk and lack of concealability was stopping power. The Kanamit hadn't really shown any of their technology other than their interstellar vessels and their force-fields, but seeing as how the latter could repel any nuclear weapons blast at humankind's disposal, I had to assume that their offensive capabilities were equally as impressive. I had to get to one of their many human-research medical facilities before I boarded a ship. These facilities were researching the human genome and making the expected leaps and bounds in the areas of improving mankind's disease resistance and also finding cures for things like cancer and A.I.D.S. These facilities were also where their more robust power cells were utilized, and despite the sensitivity of their work, they were relatively unguarded.

The closest research facility was only about five blocks from my apartment, and with my UN access ID I had no doubt that i could gain entry and find something useful before the hapless MPs in my closet came to and freed themselves. I was right on only one of those counts. The building itself looked very out of place nestled against the older buildings on the street. The composite material (developed with the Kanamit's help of course)that made up the building's facade had a faint green twinge to it, and the slight hint of a metallic purple honeycomb pattern could be seen dancing along its surface if the sunlight hit it just right. The glass windows and doors were also mirror tinted, but they were tinted purple to match the overall aesthetic of the structure, rather than having a common chromed mirror finish. The doors opened in front of me as I walked briskly up the steps and a blast of cool air that smelled faintly of mulch and grain alcohol washed over my face. The sanitizing solution used by the Kanamit was purportedly 90 percent more effective than anything we could produce. The guard sitting at the desk in the lobby just opposite of the door looked bored. She was short and slightly overweight, like many women drawn to that particular profession seemed to be. Her hair was up in an unflattering bun pinned neatly behind her head and well above her neck with an arrangement of small bobby pins. She sat slightly more upright as I approached and seemed to be running through a prepared speech in her mind. She stifled a yawn as she spoke, "ID please sir and state the nature of your visit". I showed her my ID and a smile that had gotten me a date on more than one occasion, "I'm a linguist with the UN. I'm being sent to random facilities to talk with the employees who work with the Kanamit the most, specifically the scientists. I'm sorry I can't tell you any more than that." She seemed to ponder that for a heartbeat before handing me my ID back. "Sign in here on this line". She slid a large badge across the desk that said VISITOR in green letters and told me to clip it to my shirt where it would be visible at all times. She motioned me towards the elevators and then turned away from me in an obviously dismissive gesture. I walked to the elevators and stepped in, and as the doors slid silently shut, I realized that I didn't really have a plan. I pushed the button for the lowest sub-level as a cold sweat began to bead up on my upper lip and in my palms.

The doors opened into a small security anteroom. The composite walls were lighter in color and covered in a mind-numbing array of screens and readouts, some of them even in 3D like hologram stickers. The exit into the lab beyond was a good 30 feet away straight across from the elevator. To my left was a shielded security office. The force fields employed by the Kanamit were interesting in their design. They could be programmed on a molecular level for density and amplitude. A small one worn on a soldier's belt could be programmed to allow oxygen to pass through the field while prohibiting anything else. Anything from radioactive dust or biological weapons sprays all the way to bullets and nuclear shock and pressure waves could stopped. Two humans and one Kanamit looked at me expectantly from their vantage behind one of these fields. I smiled as i walked across the room to address them. Right as i got to the counter that ringed the security room, a small violet light pinged on the desk. One of the humans hit a switch on his tiny ear bud and moved out of earshot. The fields could be modulated to stop sound waves from passing through as well. The other human and the Kanamit looked at me and asked the obvious. "Who are you and what are you doing down here?", the Kanamit asked in very clear English. The guard with the earbud was looking at me while still talking. I cleared my throat and began as i had upstairs, "I am with the UN. We are doing random studies for posterity on humans who work with Kanamit in close proximity every day." I paused as the officer finished his earbud conversation and leaned to whisper to the other men. "I'm afraid I am not at liberty to discuss all the details", I concluded. The Kanamit hit a small switch and the screens in the room all flickered as the images that were on them gave way to my face. In bold letters were the words WANTED and DANGEROUS.

The humans were on me in the blink of an eye, one squarely on my chest, the other hitting my knees in a standard two-man restraint grapple. The Kanamit was squealing something into his mic in his native language looking for all the world like a startled pig. My elbow dropped hard on the crown of the first guard's head. The wet THWACK while satisfying, didn't slow him down and he shifted his weight to hurl me bodily against the back wall and threw his arm up to block my elbow. The other guard was trying to bend my knees to get me to drop, but I kept shifting my weight so that I was never off balance. My left hand found its way into my coat pocket and produced the Colt. The butt of the pistol was sturdy and heavy, and when it connected with the guard's nose, the cartilage and skin yielded in a squishy, red crunch. He fell immediately while clutching his broken face and moaned like a widow at a funeral. The guard at my knees released me and took a step back. I trained the business end of the .45 on him and let him ponder the fact that he was three too many steps away from the safety of the shield. The Kanamit on the other hand was transfixed by the wounded guard laying in a pool of his own fluids on the floor. The uninjured guard spat his accusations at me like an angry cobra, "What the hell did you hope to accomplish? You are trapped in this facility now... there's no way out for you. You don't kill military personnel and live to fight another day." I was shocked. "I didn't kill anyone... no one ever died from a broken nose." The guard flicked his eyes down at his whimpering comrade, "Not him you idiot... the two MP's the Feds found strangled in your apartment." My mind was spinning out of control. I knew they were alive when i left. He would never believe me of course. To him I was a killer and a terrorist, who was planning to do God-knows-what to this peaceful facility. I decided to just blurt it all out, "A few months ago some of my colleagues at the UN got their hands on a Kanamit book that was not released to the public. After months of tireless research we discovered that it was called "How To Serve Man"." I watched the Kanamit's reaction closely, but he didn't twitch... he was still transfixed on the injured guard sprawled out on the floor. The second guard snorted, "So what?! They told us from the beginning that they were here to help us"! I turned back to him and met his icy gaze, "It's a cookbook you fucking moron... open your eyes! We aren't anything to them but a Goddamn drive-thru"!

He had just opened his mouth to issue a retort when the Kanamit lunged. Not for me or my weapon, but the injured guard lying helpless on the floor. His pig-like snout opened wider than it looked like it should have been able to and exposed a half a dozen rows of wicked looking teeth. His initial bite nearly severed the poor bastard's head clean off in a crimson spray of blood. The other guard and I moved reflexively away from the feeding alien and took several steps toward the elevator. My gun was now trained on the Kanamit. His eating was ferocious; he tore mercilessly through bone and muscle and sinew with all the glee of a child devouring his first piece of birthday cake. I fought down the hot, acidy taste that come boiling up from my guts and glanced at the guard standing next to me, "Are there cameras covering this room"? He didn't take his eyes off of the grisly scene playing out in front of us, "Yes". I let out a small sigh, "Can you transmit this image live"? He opened up a small panel on his wrist guard that was covered in more buttons and screens, "Only within the facility". I took one more step towards the elevator and hit the "up" button, "Then do it...right now...and if you can advise all humans to evacuate now". He tapped a few keys on his wrist and within seconds my image on the security screens was replaced by the grotesque scene in the middle of the floor. The Kanamit had eaten nearly all of the hapless guard's torso, leaving only the head and arms, and was beginning to bury his bloody snout into the man's groin area when he looked up at us and froze. I raised the barrel of the pistol slightly as I adjusted my grip for comfort and firmness. It would be a shame to die now because I dropped the damn gun. The alien looked at us with an unblinking stare for several seconds and it issued a low, rumbling growl before returning to its macabre feast. The blood was all over the floor now, expanding in a ruby sheen out from the body. The elevator door opened behind us and my once enemy stepped inside. I stepped back also, but before the doors began to close I lined up the rear ramp of the .45 with the front sight, aimed directly at the Kanamit's disgusting pig head and squeezed the trigger.

The slugs popped the creature's unshielded head, but to my astonishment it wasn't a liquid that sprayed out, but a gas. I pulled my arm in and let the doors close and we keyed for the lobby. The guard, whose name was Art Clark, had removed his earbud and put it in my hand. The chatter was immense. People were screaming on all channels. Some were barking orders, others were screaming for help or out of obvious pain. There was also the distinctive squealing shouts of the Kanamit in the background. When the doors opened on the lobby the floor was in chaos. Human and Kanamit bodies were everywhere. Blood streaked the walls and a noxious odor that smelled faintly of BBQ hung in the air. The guard who had given me my visitor's badge as ruthlessly smashing a Kanamit's face in with a Maglite as Art and I made our way to the exit. Art grabbed her arm as we passed, "Let's go Steph...pretty sure that one's dead". She managed another kick to the pig-man's corpse as Art hauled her with us. The doors opened and we stepped into sunlight. We tried to look as normal as possible as we limped our way down the street at a slightly faster than walking pace. It seemed odd that there weren't many people out on the street. in fact, there weren't any people on the street. I was just about to voice my concern when Art's head exploded.

The small fragments of Art's skull that weren't disintegrated hadn't even hit the ground as I dove down an alley and landed behind a solid looking dumpster. Steph was screaming, transfixed in the middle of the street. This time i saw it. A violet pulse about the size of a baseball hurtled from the sky out of seeming nothingness and struck her in her mid-section. Her torso hit the ground slightly before her waist and legs toppled over. The small Kanamit craft appeared to melt out of the sky and resolved into a solid greenish-purple object. It looked like a wingless dragonfly and was absolutely silent. It tracked slightly towards me and loosed another bolt of energy. The corner of the building above me exploded in a shower of bricks and mortar. I dove from my hiding place and hurried down the ally looking for any avenue of escape. My hunter flew overhead as it was too large to navigate the alley. A small circle of light appeared on its underbelly and a Kanamit materialized next to me as I crashed through the door of the adjacent building. A small shot of a similar type exploded next to my head as I fell through the doorway. I had made it only a few paces through the door into the lobby of what looked like a news station when the blast hit me. I saw more than felt my left arm go hurtling past me and collide with an unlucky newswoman. She screamed i think and toppled backwards over a small couch, one of her high heeled shoes flung mightily up into the air. I was falling towards the double doors in front of me more than running. The force of the blast that severed my arm had nearly picked me up off of the ground. I crashed through the doors and as a second blast hit my spine my right hand opened and Art's earbud flew across the room and landed on a well lit news desk in front two news anchors. They jumped back trying to take in what they were seeing. Blackness was edging in around everything, and the voices started to sound a little farther away. I heard the muffled sounds of my pursuer being disarmed and restrained. Someone was over me... a woman I think, trying to do...something. I heard the anchor's voice in the background... so far away now, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have just received a shocking bulletin, be warned though, the footage you are about to see is graphic and may disturb some viewers...."

Analysis
When i first ready Shakespeare's Sonnet number 12 I had a few questions with regards to the meanings of certain words. After looking up these words and discussing the poem in class, I feel that I have a handle on what the message is. Maybe. In the sonnet Time is personified and is equivalent to death. Shakespeare talks about many many beautiful things that cannot escape death or destruction. Every day must have its night and every summer a winter. Nothing you can do will allow you to escape time, except to breed. At first i though the line "And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence." had to do with a man's courage or fortitude in the face of death. After the class discussion however, and given Shakespeare's propensity towards the theme of pretty people breeding, I tend to agree with others in the class that this line is actually referring to the act of procreation. Only by having children can we achieve a form of immortality.

Words:

erst- formerly

sable- black or dark

bier- a coffin frame

sheaves- bindings of cereals and other harvested plants

Personal
Every time I create anything, I think of my father. By the time I was ten he had introduced me to Heavy Metal Magazine and, much to my mother's dismay, many other artists that served to inspire me. Don't misunderstand, my mom wasn't dismayed at my exposure to art, it's just that the nature of the art dad usually showed me was more adult. Artists like Hans Rudi Geiger, Boris Vallejo, and Frank Frazetta were who I was interested in when all of my friends were reading Archie comics. Buxom females and grotesque aliens and creatures were my cup of tea so to speak and especially after my introduction to Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange, and The Thing I was always doodling and thinking of anywhere but where i was at the time.

It was around the time i was 12 or 13 that my father introduced me to the writings of Damon Knight. Damon Knight was an acclaimed science-fiction writer and editor whose extensive writing career begins in the 1930s and ran well into the 1990s. One of his more famous short stories, "To Serve Man", has been parodied countless times, including on the first ever Treehouse of Horror special on The Simpsons animated show. This type of witty sci-fi is what I have come to judge all others by, and like the artists featured in Heavy Metal (like Royo, Manara, and Corben), it has influenced my art and my world-view of art as a whole.

I think that sci-fi should be so fantastic in places that it really is a journey for the reader or viewer. Today, special effects are taken for granted in films, and I think this is because we as "the masses" are so caught up in making everything look "real" that we have forgotten to have fun. We have forgotten how to suspend our disbelief and embrace the pure spectacle of "what if". There has been talk for some time of Edgar Rice Burrough's "John Carter of Mars" books being transformed into film. The project has languished in green-light limbo for years, even with studios like Pixar expressing interest in the property. I find this sad because it would be such a wonderful artistic venture. A man, transported from the 1800s on earth to the surface of mars, where he encounters all sorts of creatures and aliens in a swashbuckling adventure. Today however, we know that you can't breathe on mars and so... the project sits... waiting for someone to have some balls. This type of thinking has the greatest impact on my art. I don't want to hear why not...I just want to do, and see what happens. Maybe I will fail. Even art is an industry, and hopes and dreams don't put food on the table... but thanks to my old man, I would rather fail doing what I love and believe in than to be a total sell out.

Of course... one has to sell out a little. A man's got to eat and I have to graduate to be able to proceed on my own grand adventure. And, even if, like in "To Serve Man", it all turns out to be a cookbook, at least I will have enjoyed the ride.

Perspective
This is a short story that takes place during the opening sequence of Star Wars: A New Hope, from the perspective of a lowly stormtrooper.

"Duty"

Time seems to stop just before a breach. Especially one like this. The only sounds in the cramped boarding tube are plasti-steel armor plates clanking together and your own heartbeat thudding in your throat. The vessel we are about to board has been fighting a losing fight for over a parsec. Corellian Corvettes are no match for an Imperial Star Destroyer under any circumstances. This one will be messy. The ship is registered in the database as the "Tantive IV", and has been screaming protests on the diplomatic channel for the duration of the pursuit. None of that really matters though. All that matters is getting though the door and finding cover before some dirty reb slots you. As I look around in the fleeting seconds before we breach, I am struck by how menacing we look, my squad and I, standing in identical armor. The overhead lights drop out and are replaced by red standby lights. We have 15 seconds. Now in the red glow, we look as if we have come straight from hell. That makes me smile for a second. If only the rebs could see us like this, maybe they would lay down their arms and we could go back to barracks with no losses. That won't happen though. There is supposedly a high-ranking leader of the rebellion on board this particular ship, and that means they will come at us no matter what. I wouldn't be surprised if they reprogram their protocol droids to rush us. Stupid rebs. My on-board helmet comlink crackles to life: "Epsilon Squad you are the tip of the sword... breach, breach, breach!"

You can't really hear a concussion charge go off, as much as you can feel it. One second you are staring at a solid bulkhead, the next second it feels as if a bantha has kicked you in the chest and the light floods in. Even through the smoke blaster bolts are starting to zip by. Looks as if the rebs have our entry point covered pretty well. It still won't do them any good. There are maybe 100 armed rebs ready to die for their cause. We have the whole 427th as well as the 382nd. Not to mention the 501st. A bolt glances off of my shoulder plate sending pain ripping through my left arm. I return fire and the reb is thrown backwards at a sickening angle and comes crashing down into two of his comrades. My E-11 burps twice and they are neutralized as well. We are advancing now, moving through the corridors in a room by room search. The Captain and officers of the vessel are to be taken alive, as well as this high roller for the rebellion, if we can locate them. Everyone else is to be neutralized by any means necessary. TK-420 gets hit right in front of me and crumples. A shot just misses my faceplate as I duck into a side room. Looks like the rebs are bringing out some military grade small arms. I click my back teeth twice to activate the comlink to the rest of my squad, "This is TK-699, be advised, rebel targets are using armor piercing kit, coverage plan Delta, acknowledge." I set up to get the drop on my well equipped friend as the acknowledgments from my squad start pouring in. I don't have time to play this game. I hurry through the rooms I am using for cover and find that the small quarters connect to one another. I slip through three rooms without ever stepping foot in the corridor and chance a recce out of the door. Perfect. I am now behind the reb who is waiting for me to stick my head out from three doors down. He has acquired an E-11 blaster rifle from one of my fallen comrades. I line up his head and audibly key the mike in my helmet. I can almost see the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he starts to turn around. As soon as his head is in full profile I squeeze the trigger. Bits of armor from his helmet and bone and blood scatter in all directions, dissipating in a satisfying pink mist. The front of the battle is moving a bit further away now, time for some recon. I grab two troopers to follow me in a search of the lower engineering sections.

The engineering section is dark and musty. The smells of metal and oil and grease manage to slip through my helmet's filter. I am all at once drawn back to my youth, working on flash speeders with my grandfather on Carida. It's funny how smells can trigger the most vivid memories, despite your environment. In this room, our white armor stands out like a beacon against the grime and soot of the old ship components. Giant cylinders each five meters in diameter line the right hand wall. Shadows spill everywhere across the room. Our boys must have hit one of the main power supply conduits to this section in the battle. I click my teeth, "Go to enhanced filter settings, check every shadow." The two troopers respond "Affirmative". We are still bunched together when I see a shadow move. What reveals itself shocks me to stillness. A beautiful girl who is just barely a woman. She looks to be maybe 16 or 17. Her eyes are wide as we slowly approach. She is obviously one of the passenger's daughters, and therefore my duty is to capture her. Her face is almost angelic and it takes me a full beat longer than it should for me to alert my men, "There's one, set for stun." As the orders escape my lips, she levels what appears to be a small, sporting blaster at me. Her eyes weren't wide with fear... they were focused with the steely determination of a predator. Time seemed to stop. The powerful bolt hit me square in the face and fully penetrated the armor. I don't remember falling, but I know I'm on my back. I know I am dead. All I can see is her beautiful face. And then I see nothing.

Response to Your Chrestomathy
Hey Luc!

So I am here to read your writing and respond.

So the first awesome piece of text I want to comment on is your Perspective writing which is pretty awesome seeing as I am a bit of a Star Wars fan, not hardcore but enough. Anyways the thing that really got my attention was you decided to do the perspective from someone in the movie that gets really no camera time. And if I saw the movie through the eyes of this guy up to the point where he got shot dead, I would have felt sorry for him.

I am really glad you made your Compare and Contrast on the Star Wars and Star Trek Sagas, as both have made a return in these past couple of years and there is still this on going feud between the so called “trekkies” and “fan boys” but thanks to your writing both parties can see that each has flaws and each has there great strengths, and through these strengths they have both been able to stay afloat in this mainstream media world that we live in,

Memorization
I will be performing a piece from Dennis Leary's "Lock and Load". It is my goal to not only have the words memorized, but the performance as well.

Self Assessment
This quarter I have endured a lot. I know that I didn't put my best foot forward in this class all the time, but i think i managed OK. My time has been devoted to working, preparing to graduate (which happens this week) and dealing with the fact that my wife of seven years decided she doesn't love me anymore and wants to go it alone. I have been working in less than ideal circumstances living in a single guest bedroom of one of my closest friend's house. Everything I own minus a few clothes and my computer is in a 5 foot by 5 foot storage space that i have visited once in 2 months. I have survived this quarter (and subsequently this class) on the charity of my friends... people who choose to be with me because i am me. They have offered me shelter and food. They have listened when I needed to rage and they have talked when I needed advice. Now that my selfish whining is out of the way...

I enjoyed the book "My Jim" although it is pretty depressing. I didn't have any trouble with the dialect and thought it was an interesting counterpoint to Huck Finn. Albeit without any of the humor. I also enjoyed the creative aspects of the crestomathy. Writing sequels and alternate versions of stories was very interesting, but i must admit that some of the analytical aspects of the class, while presented in an interesting way, were kind of dull. Of course, it was during these periods that i was exposed to writers and styles i had never encountered before, so perhaps that judgment of "dull" is uncalled for. I didn't do my best in this class, but i did my best under the circumstances. "Senior-itis" would have dampened my performance anyway, but with everything else going on, I think i did OK. I don't think i deserve an "A"... maybe not even a "B", but that isn't for me to decide thankfully.

title: User:Luc M.


text:
User:Abu.asfar

Hi, My name is Abu Asfar. working in vb.net and Oracle PL/SQL using Oracle 10G/9i. currently i am doing the airchitechture or the project as well as for the database for the projects. Here I am to get knowledge of not only the .net and oracle but also some other fields of work too. I also want to share my little knowledge to all of you.

title: User:Abu.asfar


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User talk:Threads~enwikiversity

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Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

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Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

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Renamed
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User talk:Abu.asfar

 Hello Abu.asfar, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may

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 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
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And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! --Juan de Vojníkov 06:24, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:Abu.asfar


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User talk:Elana.altman

 Hello Elana.altman, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may

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title: User talk:Elana.altman


text: Wikiversity:Policies/table

title: Wikiversity:Policies/table


text:
Assistant teacher program/Developing countries/Introduction for visiting assistant teachers

Introduction for visiting assistant teachers
Teaching and mentoring in developing countries requires intercultural competence and understanding for the possible perspectives of people in developing countries.

The value of education
Educationally deprived families who participate in primary education in the first generation may not understand the value of education properly. One could say that the purpose of education is a secret that has not been fully revealed to them, because without primary education the purpose of education may remain dubious and the pupils are usually to young to fully understand the value of education on their own. The problem can still apply to pupils in secondary education, because education may have been realized as a means towards a simple goal, like a specific vocational education, but not as an end in itself. An assistant teacher program can help to encourage pupils to see education as a self-sufficient goal, as an end in itself.

Group dynamics and intercultural competence
People who are susceptible to being manipulated by group dynamics may not be well qualified for social bridging. Especially if you join a group that could in some way be seen to benefit from your influence being unduly manipulated by group processes or attitudes of the group may easily spoil a beneficial influence, consequently the personal attitudes may have to be ensured consciously and possibly even against intercultural competence.

As an example a more academic attitude is easily subverted by group processes that do not appreciate learning.

If you fail to plan you plan to fail
While the view that "if you fail to plan you plan to fail" could be seen to apply in general it applies even more so in a context where more responsibility and self-reliance are required. Being an assistant teacher in a school that doesn't have enough teachers (compared to developed countries) is such a context.

Questions:
 * What planning tasks concerning the curriculum or the classroom management may be left (possibly unexpectedly) for the assistant teacher?
 * What degree of planning may be required or possible for individual pupils?
 * Are there important plans (for instance with respect to intercultural competence) for situations outside the school, social situations or unexpected events?

The recommended procedure is to write down your plans in a special booklet and to review your plans regularly, for instance once a week.
 * Do the plans still apply?
 * Were they successful in the past?
 * Are there new perspectives or categories that may require further planning?

A personal code of conduct can be a part of your planning endeavors and should be written with respect to intercultural competence, the situation in the school or country and your personal aims during the visit.