User:Dbabbitt

Contents

1 My Origin 2 Why I Contribute 3 My Observations about Wikipedia 4 Unfinished Work 5 Legal Stuff

My Origin

There is much that is flawed, sloppy and downright bizarre in the way I was designed. My DNA is "convoluted, ill-documented, haphazardly maintained spaghetti code (http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/10/21/genome/index2.html)". About 98% of my DNA is ‘junk’ DNA, not coding for any protein. For example, the Alu sequences are repeated some million or so times, and this one family alone accounts for about 5% of my DNA (http://www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#junkdna). As an embryo, I went through a phase where I had gill bars and gill pouches, though not functional gills. Between four to seven weeks of development, my vertebra ended in a tail (http://www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#humanembryotails). (My extensor coccygis would flex these bones, if only they weren't fused (http://www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#coccyx).) Because of my mother's inefficient placenta, oxygenated blood coming into me mixed with deoxygenated blood that had already circulated. Haemoglobin, the molecule which transports oxygen around my body in red blood cells, has more affinity for carbon monoxide than for oxygen. I have nonfunctional oddities like nipples, and goose-pimples for instance. My laryngeal nerve does not go directly from my cranium to my larynx. Instead, it extends down my neck to my chest, loops around a lung ligament and then runs back up the neck to my larynx.

Speaking of larynxes, there's the opening of my larynx (leading to the trachea) being from the pharynx, so that swallowing impedes breathing (and vice versa) (http://www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#choking). Not only that, but with the wind-pipe coming from off the food-pipe, there is a constant risk of choking. I also have a lung ventilation system that is tidal: I breathe in and out through the same tubing. Deoxygenated air is therefore mixed with the fresh, and some of it is re-breathed. My plantaris muscle is of suboptimal design: it is atrophied and ends in the Achilles tendon without reaching the toes at all. My spinal column can barely withstand the compression strains of vertical bipedalism (http://www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#spine). My jaw is too small for the number of teeth it holds (http://www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#wisdomteeth).

The photo-sensitive cells in my eyes, (which lack a tapetum) lie behind the optic nerve endings, which combine into the optic nerve forming a blind spot. I have feeble ear-moving muscles (http://www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#auricularismuscles). I cannot reactivate the genetic instructions for limb formation (http://www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#limbregeneration). I have a tiny extension of my cecum, the appendix, who's only function appears to be providing employment for doctors who treat appendicitis. Not to mention the fact that my testicles have to pass out through the abdominal wall (http://www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#externaltesticles) to the scrotum where they are vulnerable. I produce around 350 million sperm at each ejaculation - way more than I need. My gene for synthesising vitamin C is broken (http://www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#scurvy).

All this seems grossly inefficient. My construction is of an impromptu, make-do nature: the signature of intent is missing.

Why I Contribute

As of 2003, I participate within Wikipedia with a somewhat low degree of involvement. Though I clock in at between 300 - 350 words per minute reading the articles, my writing rate is very low. I am motivated by the sense of satisfaction I get by contributing to the production of a collective good. I do not feel a sense of belonging to East Coast Liberal Acadamia, though the discovery of minds of surpassing excellence in the context of supporting the community is pleasurable.

I am mildly concerned with the representation of the Reformed and Libertarian understanding of things here, but mostly like to just add a contrarion twist to whatever I find of interest. I have an intense curiosity about how things work and I find it exhilarating to watch some POV "gem" I just added get edited into NPOV "smoky quartz".

My Observations about Wikipedia

FUD-based (http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/free_issues/issue_02/fud_based_encyclopedia/) encyclopedia articles are written by committee members trying to impress their fellows. Wikipedia articles, in contrast, end up in nice, "bite-size" paragraphs that are easily understandable. But are Wikipedia articles really supposed to look like encyclopedia articles? They feel more like summaries of discussions, somewhat like the FAQs which were distilled from UseNet discussions.

According to the Guide to Writing Better Articles, if rules and guidance make you nervous and depressed, and not desirous of participating in the Wiki, then ignore them and go about your business. But I say if it makes you depressed, you are really looking for a contrarian set of rules, so here goes.

The "game" of Wikipedia is to get your crackpot theories and daring new analyses to survive page edits long enough to become established as part of the conventional wisdom. (This is a lot easier to do with text than it is with images. It takes real work and lots of political maneuvering to get creative images to stick.) Here are some tips:

1. Camouflage the visible - replace your arcane terminology with terminology already used on the page.
2. Absorb the radar - carve out a subheading that includes others' content as well as your own so that yours will be overlooked.
3. Cut and run - sometimes it's important to lose the content battle in order to win the war. If you move a whole section (that contains your stuff) off the main page and onto an auxillary page just before a major rewrite, for example, you will probably be able to expand your explanations and will for a time have saved your section from permanent obliteration.
4. It is important to leave a comment in the Edit summary whenever you change the overall presentation (i.e., pedagogy, terminology, flow, spelling, and grammar), not just the content.
5. It's also important to add incrementally off the "Show preview" button instead of the "Save page" button. Only click the "Save page" button when it becomes pointless to further click the "Show preview" button.

Unfinished Work

I don't think that the Timeline of Islamic terrorism against the United States is necessary, and I'm tired of working on it, so I offered it as a sacrifice to those who are offended by the term "Islamic Terrorism".

I wish there was a page for Orders of magnitude (specific energy density)

I also enjoy playing in my Sandbox.

Legal Stuff

I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below: Template:DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual