This user supports Jimbo Wales in his fight against the
unsubstantiated claims of lunatic charlatans.





My Wikipedia stats

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 This editor is a Veteran Editor II and is entitled to display this Bronze Editor Star.
 
N+
  This user has had an account on Wikipedia for 18 years, 8 months and 16 days.
 This user has extended confirmed rights on the English Wikipedia. (verify)
 This user has rollback rights on the English Wikipedia. (verify)
 
This user's account is secured with a unique Committed Identity.

My edit stats are here.

About me

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 This user believes science, practiced through the scientific method, is the
most reliable way of determining the
nature of reality.
  Rp2006 has met one of the 24 humans who have flown to the moon, as well as many others who have orbited the Earth. (Take that flat-Earthers!)
 This user has been touched by His Noodly Appendage.

My WikiProjects

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 This user is a participant in WikiProject Skepticism.
 This user thinks you're watching him. Watch other paranormal activity at WikiProject Paranormal.
 This user is a participant in WikiProject Atheism.
 This user is a participant in the
Star Trek WikiProject.

I have two articles in this category. Only about 0.5% of Wikipedia articles are in this category, so I am particularly proud of this!

 This user helped promote the article Bob Cenker to good article status.

My six DYK articles

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And yes, I wrote (or greatly expanded) each of these. I did not just nominate a page someone else wrote and claim credit. :-)

Article DYK Date & Archive Link List Position DYK Hours Pageviews Hook: Did You Know...
Alan Hale 10/19/16 1 24 12,110 ...that Alan Hale, who discovered Comet Hale–Bopp (pictured), said that he "predicted" its appearance would trigger suicides‍—‌and it turned out he was right?
Bob Cenker 6/29/17 8 24 9,493 ...that RCA's only astronaut, civilian Bob Cenker, narrowly avoided catastrophe during his mission on Space Shuttle Columbia, which experienced several launch-pad aborts and almost exploded?
Science Moms 12/16/17 2 24 6,462 ...that the goal of the Science Moms documentary is to challenge the anti-GMO, anti-vaccination, pro-alternative medicine culture affecting parents?
Bob Nygaard 4/12/18 7 24 11,127 ...that Bob Nygaard, a private investigator specializing in psychic fraud, has been instrumental in the return of millions of dollars to victims of this crime?
The Photo Ark 7/24/18 4 24 3,377 ...that in May 2018, the 8,000th animal was photographed for The Photo Ark project, which aims to document all 12,000 species living in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries worldwide?
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots 5/11/20 3 12 3,143 ... that the Netfix miniseries Unorthodox was inspired by Deborah Feldman's memoir Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots?

My most significant articles

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Created from scratch

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Science Moms

Documentary

Bob Nygaard

Bio: Psychic-fraud private eye

The Photo Ark

Wildlife project/book/film

Thomas John (medium)

Bio: Self-proclaimed psychic medium

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

Autobiographical book

America's Frontline Doctors

Far-right organization

Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space

Netflix 2021 docuseries

King of Clones

Netflix 2023 documentary

Virulent: The Vaccine War

2022 pro-vaccination documentary

How to Become a Cult Leader

Netflix 2023 docuseries

Expanded from a stub

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Alan Hale

Bio: Co-discoverer of comet Hale-Bopp

Robert J. Cenker

Bio: RCA astronaut


Significantly expanded or reconstructed

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Canine cancer detection

Unsupported medical claims

Weather pains

Unsupported medical claims

Grounds For Sculpture

Sculpture park

Forever Marilyn

Large scale sculpture

Robert Burnham Jr.

Bio: Astronomer

David Paulides

Bio: Paranormal author

Monica the Medium

TV show

Psychic Friends Network

Phone-a-psychic service

What the Health

Pseudoscience documentary

Gina Marks

Bio: Self-proclaimed psychic

Miami Psychic

Book

Kinesio tape

Pseudoscience in sports

Havana syndrome

Cuba "sonic attack" incidents (likely mass hysteria)

Félicette

First cat in space

Gua sha

TCM dermatology pseudocience

Robert S. Lancaster

Skeptical activist

Char Margolis

Bio: Self-proclaimed psychic medium

The Goop Lab

Netflix 2020 docuseries

Deborah Feldman

Author of Unorthodox

Mick West

CSI fellow

Iranian schoolgirls mass poisoning reports

Nationwide poisonings (or mass hysteria)

MH370: The Plane That Disappeared

Conspiracy-pushing Netflix 2023 docuseries

Waco: American Apocalypse

Netflix 2023 docuseries

The Phenomenon

2020 UFO documentary

EnChroma

Eyeglasses marketed to fix CVD

Satan Wants You

Documentary about the Satanic Panic

Other significant contributions

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James Randi

Bio: Magician and JREF founder

Uri Geller

Bio: Self-proclaimed psychic

Johnny Carson

Bio: Television host

The Tonight Show

TV show

Cara Santa Maria

Bio: Science communicator

Rob Schneider

Bio: Actor

Goop

Snake oil company

Gwyneth Paltrow

Bio: Actor and founder of Goop

Cowspiracy

Pseudoscience documentary

Facilitated communication

Discredited medical technique

Warm Kitty

Song popularized on The Big Bang Theory

Detoxification

Discredited medical technique

Oil pulling

Oral health pseudocience

After School Satan

After school secular program

Pet psychic

Just OMG!

Psychodermatology (Pending upgrade)

Dermatology pseudocience

Tyler Henry

Bio: The Hollywood "Medium"

Joel Sartore

Bio: Nat Geo photographer

Modern flat Earth beliefs

This is for real!

Taylor Winterstein

Bio: Anti-vaxx Samoan activist

Eric R. Braverman

Bio: Medical doctor who misdiagnosed his patients and prescribed inappropriate treatments

Skeptical Inquirer

"The Magazine for Science and Reason"

Jeanette Wilson

Bio: Conspiratorialist and self-proclaimed psychic healer

The Dybbuk box

Paranormal hoax investigated by Kenny Biddle

Misc

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Countries I have visited

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Countries I have visited
 This user has visited Spain.
 This user has visited France.
 This user has visited Italy.
 This user has visited Vatican City.
 This user has visited Greece.
 This user has visited Croatia.
 This user has visited Denmark.
 This user has visited Norway.
 This user has visited the Netherlands.
 This user has visited Belgium.
 This user has visited Japan.
 This user has visited China.
 This user has visited Hong Kong.
 This user has visited Macau.
 This user has visited Aruba.
 This user has visited Bermuda.
 This user has visited the Bahamas.
 This user has visited the United States Virgin Islands.
 This user has visited Saint‑Martin.
 This user has visited Sint Maarten.
 This user has visited México.
 This user has visited Ecuador.


The sound of Wikipedia

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This is just so cool... Listen to the sound of Wikipedia being edited here!

Details:
  • Bells indicate additions and string plucks indicate subtractions.
  • Pitch changes according to the size of the edit; the larger the edit, the deeper the note.
  • Green circles show edits from unregistered contributors, and purple circles mark edits performed by automated bots.
  • You may see announcements for new users as they join the site, punctuated by a string swell.

Important concepts

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Here are some articles concerning some of the most important concepts for successful Wikipedia editing, and one bad-ass essay on fighting pseudoscience and woo on Wikipedia:


Helpful lists and articles

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Citation issues

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Looking for an appropriate citation template? See here

Simplified DYK instructions

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See here for my instructions on doing a DYK nomination.


Hey, why is Wikipedia so biased?

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See here for the official WP guidance on bias and POV issues. Also, here is: the Arbitration Committee Decisions on Pseudoscience.

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, once said the following. (This was borrowed from editor Roxy the dog):

"Wikipedia’s policies around this kind of thing are exactly spot-on and correct. If you can get your work published in respectable scientific journals – that is to say, if you can produce evidence through replicable scientific experiments, then Wikipedia will cover it appropriately."
"What we won’t do is pretend that the work of lunatic charlatans is the equivalent of 'true scientific discourse'. It isn’t.[1][2]"

So yes, we are biased towards science and biased against pseudoscience.
We are biased towards astronomy, and biased against astrology.
We are biased towards chemistry, and biased against alchemy.
We are biased towards mathematics, and biased against numerology.
We are biased towards cargo planes, and biased against cargo cults.
We are biased towards crops, and biased against crop circles.
We are biased towards venipuncture, and biased against acupuncture.
We are biased towards water treatment, and biased against magnetic water treatment.
We are biased towards electromagnetic fields, and biased against microlepton fields.
We are biased towards evolution, and biased against creationism.
We are biased towards medical treatments that have been shown to be effective in double-blind clinical trials, and biased against medical treatments that are based upon preying on the gullible.
We are biased towards astronauts, and biased against ancient astronauts.
We are biased towards psychology, and biased against phrenology.
We are biased towards Mendelian inheritance, and biased against Lysenkoism.

On the subject of Verifiability vs Truth, there are these conflicting WP essays:

Wiki Adventure badges

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Wiki Adventure badges

If you're new to Wikipedia and have not yet done so, I strongly suggest taking The Wikipedia Adventure which teaches you to "Learn to edit Wikipedia in under an hour." These are the badges I was awarded while learning to edit:

 

Editor

 

Sourcer

 

Advisor

 

Citer

Committed identity: f1d3fcd49530ebc8eed4fef61b74fe0fc28f29ca3548f510c7e7965745c63ca58638975b1efeb280823c5322b3d6859226fd144e04cac378d2429ccf1bcf6009 is a SHA-256 commitment to this user's real-life identity.