I must be famous now!


At least, I’m in the Wikipedia. Nobody will ever be able to find it, though, because for some reason the author actually spelled my name correctly. I look forward to further additions, however, as the creationist strive to make the entry more complete by documenting my evil and my atrocities.

(No, I don’t go fishing through Wikipedia and the internet looking for instances of my name—I was told about it in email. I’m vain enough to want to avoid having people think I’m that vain.)

Comments

  1. says

    Wow, you must be famous. He left out Midnight, though. I wonder what obscure detail or subtle wording the editors are going to fight over?

  2. Apostrophe Avenger says

    Well, I’ve started going after a few spelling and other errors, and somebody else has started cleaning up the text as well, but no sign that any IDiots are messing with the text.

  3. says

    Is it not vainer to blog about it than to find it yourself and be pleased in private? I’m looking forward to seeing how long it takes for the fights to appear, though.

  4. George says

    Needs some work on the spelling/grammar front:

    Cap: temple University.

    Cap: prior to confirmation.

    Sp: “Contaversy”

    Sp: beseiging

    Hmmmmmm.

  5. FhnuZoag says

    PZ:

    Any chance of donating a photograph to the cause, then?

    (Note though that this means the photo will be licensed under one of those ‘free’ licenses, which may prevent you from selling your visage for big bucks, and may allow the IDers to photoshop you onto monkeys or whatever)

  6. speedwell says

    Avidor, do you or don’t you live in the Information Age like the rest of us? I thought any human who rubbed to brain cells together in front of a computer was aware that you never used just one Internet source for information about something, ESPECIALLY WIKIPEDIA…. And the more sensational the information presented, the harder one should look for alternative presentations. (That ought to be a Law. It’s not quite Occam’s Razor. “Speedwell’s Whetstone?” lol…)

  7. Hank Fox says

    Dang, PZ. I always hoped to meet you someday, and now I’m thinking if I don’t do it soon, it’s going to be like trying to get in to see Brad Pitt.

  8. plunge says

    I’ve never read such idiotic trash as that wikipedia-watch site outside of denialist lit. It basically uses against wiki-ing all the problems that wikipedia itself freely admits to and is a constant work in progress in figuring out how to deal with and all seems to be an elaborate documentation of whining about himself and his flames with thirteen year olds over details in citing HIS OWN WEBSITE as a source. Madness.

  9. plunge says

    Seems your mainline erstwhile biographer is Michael Zimmer, who other interests include Australia, Central Queensland, health, science, Norse Mythology, religion, government, games and anime. He is addicted to World of Warcraft.

  10. j says

    Did some copyediting. I’m a proud WikiGnome.

    I searched for you in the Wikipedia a while ago and was surprised to find that you didn’t have an article but PYGMIES + DWARFS did.

  11. Ian H Spedding FCD says

    Uh-oh! There’ll be no stopping you now.

    Next stop a multi-part TV show called Evo-Devo.

    You’d better start practice saying “billyuns and billyuns of cells”

  12. Dustin says

    I’m actually a little amazed that the article didn’t start out with “PZ Myers wants to use brass knuckles and steel toed boots on intelligent design advocates”.

    Being Wikipedia, though, I think it’s just a matter of a few days before that happens.

  13. says

    Hmmm, can I get into it and add variant spellings? Although that might need an article on its own. [I am an editor on Wikipedia, you know, hurrhurrhurr.]

  14. Michael Hopkins says

    Those involved Wikipedia might consider editing The Panda’s Thumb.

    Is there any good freely availiable images of the structure that Gould made famous? One will be very useful for obvious reasons.

  15. George says

    The quotes section could use improvement. I nominate (one of my favorite PZ quotes):

    Do me a favor. It’s a big favor, and we need everyone to join in. Next time your brother, or your sister-in-law, or your grandmother, or some guy in the booth next to you at the coffeeshop, starts talking about the Rapture or the End Times or the Second Coming or whatever crap they want to call it, just stand up, turn to them, and say loudly and clearly so everyone around you can hear it,

    YOU ARE A DEMENTED FUCKWIT.

  16. bernarda says

    Nothing to do with WP, but I thought a famous Minnesotan like you might be interested in these tidbits on Minnesota history.

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8653600534957141018&q=11652

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4823773845728948753&q=owner%3Anara+type%3Aparks

    It almost seems mythology today that the government could have worked like that. A Civilian Conservation Corps, who could imagine that?

    You can find more historical videos here.

    http://video.google.com/nara.html

  17. Oolon Colluphid says

    Many congrats, PZ! No mention of you as a former great (and missed) IIDBer though… nor as scourge of panadaptionists ;-).

    Cheers, Oolon

  18. George Cauldron says

    Yup, Jinx McHue has been there all morning, editing away! Still there now, from the looks of it.

    Getting his little Christian revenge for being disemvowelled here, I guess.

    That little boy needs to get over his PZ obsession. His daddy issues are way fucked up.

  19. George Cauldron says

    Ooh, here’s one of Jinx’s peevish little comments in the ‘history’ page there:

    “There is no such thing as ‘Intelligent Design creationism.’ They are two different concepts.”

    He also seems to have added the ‘demented fuckwit’ comment. Poor little guy.

  20. says

    Jsn can freely add any of my quotes he wants — I said it, I support it, or I’ll openly retract it.

    I see Tony Sidaway’s doing a little patching, too. Hi, Tony! Long time no chat!

  21. George Cauldron says

    Whoops, looks like Jinx isn’t playing nice on Wikipedia in general!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jinxmchue

    He earned this warning:

    With regards to your comments on Talk:Democratic Underground: Please see Wikipedia’s no personal attacks policy. “Do not make personal attacks anywhere in Wikipedia. Comment on content, not on the contributor. Personal attacks damage the community and deter users.” Please keep this in mind while editing. Thanks. BenBurch 20:33, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

    So he seems to be doing that same bitchy wingnut troll routine there, as well.

    I’m sure Jesus is very pleased with him.

  22. George Cauldron says

    I know that you’re apparently an abrasive social retard at other websites than this one, Jinx.

    Hey Jinxy, before PZ disemvowels you, wanna share (a) how old you think the earth is and (b) how literally you take the Old and New Testament? Have you worked enough courage to answer those questions, or are you still too much of a coward?

  23. says

    I am not addicted to World of Warcraft – it’s an aspiration. However, I have put gainful employment as a higher priority at the moment. (Which all my friends say is heresy).

  24. says

    Your Wikipedia webpage says —

    As well as criticizing Intelligent Design creationism and other forms of pseudo-science, Pharyngula includes posts on a very broad variety of topics that interest Myers.

    PZ,
    Any statement as to whether ID should be associated with creationism or whether they should be considered to be “pseudosciences” should be reserved for the Wikipedia webpages on those subjects, where different viewpoints can be presented. You should try to avoid damaging Wikipedia’s reputation for objectivity and impartiality. You should remember that you are just a guest on Wikipedia — you don’t own the site. On your own blog, you are welcome to say what you want.

  25. says

    So, Larry Fafarman comes here to lecture you on upholding the high standards of Wikipedia. He assumes, that is, that you wrote and are maintaining your Wikipedia entry. Well, hey, isn’t that how all biographical articles are done there?

    If this guy offers you expert advice on procedure for bidding on toll bridges on EBay, check it out before proceeding.

    Fafarman: Did you know that if you don’t like the text in the Wikipedia article, YOU can change it? No, I thought you didn’t.

  26. V.Paravas says

    You are actually famous, i found you through wikipedia… Biologist as well and godless too. Keep up the good work.

  27. says

    Re:Larry Fafarman – any comments about the original article can be directed at me, as far as I’m concerned creationism and ID are well established into the realm of pseudoscience, and i’ll take on anyone who wishes to prove otherwise. NPOV doesn’t mean being nice.

    as far as I’m aware PZ hasn’t edited the article (like everyone, he can), or added a photo, or developed psyonic laser beams –

    and he better watch out, there’ll be a movement to put him in WikiQuote soon, and then he’ll be in serious trouble.

  28. says

    Porlock Junior said —

    So, Larry Fafarman comes here to lecture you on upholding the high standards of Wikipedia. He assumes, that is, that you wrote and are maintaining your Wikipedia entry.

    No, I never said that PZ wrote the article, but he should be concerned that the statement arguably hurts Wikipedia’s reputation for objectivity and impartiality. I have been favorably impressed by the objectivity and impartiality in most Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia is having a hard time gaining full acceptance and people who write on Wikipedia should show some consideration.

    Well, hey, isn’t that how all biographical articles are done there?

    I didn’t see any flat statement that “evolution is a pseudoscience” on the biographies of Dembski and Behe on Wikipedia.

    Fafarman: Did you know that if you don’t like the text in the Wikipedia article, YOU can change it? No, I thought you didn’t.

    Yes, I knew that (there you go, jumping to conclusions). I tried to log on but couldn’t because six people with the same IP address were already logged on. Wikipedia can be edited without logging on and I could try that next, but maybe instead I will just complain to the Wikipedia staff.

    zayzayem said —

    Re:Larry Fafarman – any comments about the original article can be directed at me, as far as I’m concerned creationism and ID are well established into the realm of pseudoscience, and i’ll take on anyone who wishes to prove otherwise. NPOV doesn’t mean being nice.

    That was not an NPOV. An NPOV would be just saying, “intelligent design and creationism,” or at most something like, “intelligent design and creationism, which many people associate with each other and which many people regard as being pseudoscientific.” As I said, the proper places to deal with these issues are the Wikipedia articles on intelligent design and creationism. BTW, I have never seen the combined form “intelligent design creationism” in general media news articles because general media reporters have the intelligence to recognize that there are differences. Wikipedia is not the place to state personal opinions as though they were definitions. You are seriously abusing Wikipedia.

  29. Nix says

    OK, does anyone have any idea how the *hell* Jason, of all people, got invited to join Wikipedia’s Libel-Protection Unit? Is it an automatic invite to all new members? I have some trouble thinking of anyone less suitable: perhaps Coulter…

  30. says

    Jason said ( September 5, 2006 12:33 AM ) —

    My gsh, bt y’r n dt, Grg. D y vn knw wh Bn Brch s? D y vn knw th stry bhnd hs ct lttl ttmpt t plyng Wkgd?

    Disemvoweling did not work here, because I was able to decipher every word except Wkgd. Anyway, it is not clear why the comment was disemvoweled.

  31. says

    Annoying, yes. Anti-PZ blog, no. I’m not going to stomp on someone for what they say outside Pharyngula.

    You’re all welcome to start anti-PZ blogs. I wish Alxndr Vrgs would.

  32. Michael Hopkins says

    Talk: PZ Myers says:

    An entry from PZ Myers appeared on Wikipedia’s Main Page in the Did you know? column on 5 September 2006.

    It looks like it has already served its time on Wikipedia’s homepage. It is currently archive Template talk: Did you know? and will eventually be moved to another location by someone’s bot.

    Hundreds of Wikipedia articles are created each day and only a handful make it to DYK.

  33. says

    PZ Myers said —

    Annoying, yes. Anti-PZ blog, no. I’m not going to stomp on someone for what they say outside Pharyngula.

    You’re all welcome to start anti-PZ blogs.

    That’s nice to know, because my blog has an anti-PZ article titled,

    PZ Myers, the Ann Coulter of Darwinism.

    I checked the statistics of the site meter (that rainbow square near the bottom of the left sidebar)and found that Pharyngula has been averaging close to 20,000 visits per day for the past few months. That’s incredible. In contrast, Panda’s Thumb, a popular big multiblogger blog, has been averaging 6-8,000 visits per day over the past year. However, Pharyngula’s average of page views per visit is not exceptional — a large proportion of the visitors view just a single page or a few pages (many visitors come just to skim the new articles or to link to another website).

  34. says

    zayzayem —

    Your statement “As well as criticizing Intelligent Design creationism and other forms of pseudo-science, Pharyngula includes . . . “ in the Wikipedia article about PZ does not merely show bias but gives the appearance of pig-ignorance about the fact that there are significant controversies regarding the relationship between ID and creationism and regarding the scientific merits of ID. A mere show of bias would be saying something like, “some people think that intelligent design is scientific and different from creationism, but they are wrong.”

    The following statement on Wikipedia’s main page shows that Wikipedia is very concerned about its reputation regarding objectivity and impartiality:

    There has been controversy over Wikipedia’s reliability and accuracy, with the site receiving criticism for its susceptibility to vandalism, uneven quality and inconsistency, systemic bias, and preference for consensus or popularity over credentials. Information is sometimes unconfirmed and questionable, lacking proper sources that could legitimize articles. However, a recent comparison performed by the science journal Nature of sections of Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica found that the two were close in terms of the accuracy in its science entries.

    The Wikipedia article on NPOV says:

    Neutral Point of View (NPOV) is a fundamental Wikipedia principle which states that all articles must be written from a neutral point of view, that is, they must represent all significant views fairly and without bias.

    The Wikipedia article on “Neutral point of view/FAQ” gives answers to the following questions:

    Pseudoscience
    How are we to write articles about pseudoscientific topics, about which majority scientific opinion is that the pseudoscientific opinion is not credible and doesn’t even really deserve serious mention?

    Religion
    Disrespecting my religion or treating it like a human invention of some kind, is religious discrimination, inaccurate, or wrong. And what about beliefs I feel are wrong, or against my religion, or outdated, or non-scientific?

    You should stop abusing Wikipedia for purposes of your own propaganda.