User talk:Sprocket J Cogswell/Archive1

What is going on? World Blogs Clogs Elections The Bar (talk) (talk) (talk) (talk) (hic) Welcome to RationalWiki, Sprocket J Cogswell! Check out our guide for newcomers and our community standards! Tell us how you found RationalWiki here! If you are interested in contributing: Read what our articles are intended to be Check out the to-do list See our help page and Wikipedia's formatting cheatsheet If writing a new article, consider writing up a draft And most importantly: Pull up a goat and have some fun!

Hi there, Sprocket J Cogswell, seeing as you have taken an interest in the system messages I have made you a sysop so you can change it if you want. The rules for being a sysop are pretty much as follows. Don't block anyone unless they are another sysop, we have a feature called vandal bin for people that are vandals. Don't delete or protect a page without first discussing it on the talkpage, we protect as little possible, but delete a lot as we get a lot of off mission stuff (I am about to go have this discussion on the PDA page you made). Don't use hide/show unless it is to protect personal information such as home addresses, phone numbers and such. If I see it being used I come around an lecture people about it. Finally all talkpage are community property, including this one; don't alter comments or remove material with out archiving, you have an archive box at the top. Please read RationalWiki:Sysop guide and RationalWiki:Community standards. Good luck and the simplest rule for a sysop, tell someone before you do anything. - π 03:01, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Welcome to the Dollhouse! ħuman 03:03, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

PS, are you "gear"? ħuman 04:01, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Maybe gear, probably not fab, but what a long, strange ride it's been. Sprocket J Cogswell 14:11, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Jesus

No harm done. You know we also have Jesus Christ, right? Also, if you want to make a new section about "teh carpenters skillz", feel free to give it a shot. ħuman 03:36, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, but I like the picture better on Fun:Jesus. High on my to-do list is working in some mention of the word "mamzer," referring to htat same book. Sprocket J Cogswell 03:53, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

That's at Jesus now, as it once was. We had an editor who went on a "Christ (=Messiah)" deletion binge, moved my little article to fun, etc. Not that I "own" it, of course. But it's still my baby, I wrote most of it (I need to let go...). PS, JCS is an awesome album/play/video etc., I enjoy it most easters. I also kill (organic = expensive) turkeys and eat them most "Thanksgivings", even though I believe in neither. ħuman 04:04, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance!

Is "Sprockets" your favorite show? Corry 04:08, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

Should it be? For some reason I've missed most of SNL. Maybe it had to do with attending to the oddities of the ax murderer I was married to at the time. Sprocket J Cogswell 04:15, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

babelfish

I'm afraid so... I only know English as she is spoke. Totnesmartin 15:24, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

"no relation to Rocket J Squirrel nor Bullwinkle J Moose"

But what about Stimpson J Cat? Totnesmartin 15:28, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

My pride in claiming such a link notwithstanding, candor forbids it. Besides, that Stimpwell character will have been more familiar to the children and grandchildren of my persona here. Sprocket J Cogswell 18:15, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Are you the result of a merger between Spacely Sprockets and Cogswell Cogs? --GastonRabbit (talk) 02:48, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

You and your whacky ways is just what I need

You are without doubt the whackiest character on RW. Therefore I propose you join the 'Free Marcus Cicero' defence team. Your salary will be weighed in the amount of honour you accrue in your exertions. Lunacy (talk) 17:33, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Marcus Cicero seems to have escaped. There are rumors of him living under an alias, perhaps Sanders.

Free space in my calendar is scarce at the moment, and I suspect I will not have time to attend to this until after the rational statute of limitations makes the matter moot. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 17:39, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

noinclude

Help:Templates#Selective transclusion -- Nx / talk 22:07, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Any relation to....

Secrect Squirrel? Lol, I love those crazy old HannaBarbera cartoons! Way better than anything from that era that came from eith Disney or Warner Brothers. Cheers, friend. AnarchoGoon ^{Swatting Assflys is how I earn my living} 18:46, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

More of a parlor musician these days, and I still like visual entertainment... I went through sort of an Animaniacs phase a while ago, but with toons, I takes my pleasure where I finds it, and seek not nor shun any particular one. The really old Popeye, now, the 1940s ones where they used enough dynamic range in the audio so you need to be listening for his little sotto voce asides, now that was animation. In a true confession of oldfartdom, I was a Tenderfoot Scout when Hanna-Barbera came out with the Flintstones, and from there it was downhill until digital processing became more capable. My little brothers watched Clutch Cargo,and I refused. No illusions about any return of hand-drawn toons the way they were before that, nor need to mourn. (It seems photography killed realistic painting as a viable trade some time in the 19th century; when was the last time an itinerant portrait painter came through your town? ) There was a time when Eastern bloc animators were fun to watch, since they had ways of sliding under the censors' radar-- a lot of it had to do with the powers that be taking the attitude of "meh, it's just puppets, who needs to worry?"

Or so I was told by a fellow from Bucharest. Sorry about all this typing; be well, bud-- Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 19:22, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Not a problem. I kinda liked reading what you typed, in all honesty. I must say that I'm kinda like you with cartoons. I miss the ones from back in the day before you had all these pseudo-3D computer genreated cartoons on T.V. Gooniepunk2010 ^{Oi! Oi! Oi!} 19:42, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Not to butt in terribly, but your Popeye comments kinda grabbed me, reminded me of one of my profs talking about the old late-30's Fleischer stuff. He was pointing out what a crazy amount of work they went to in order to maintain perspective on EVERYTHING. Had us watching the one where they're building a bridge and Bluto's menacing Olive, forcing her back along a series of girders, and pointed out that every single thing in the scene followed perspective perfectly. Then he told us why. Turns out the Fleischers had built the entire set out of balsa, painted it in gray tones, then shot the animation vertically in front of the physical set while moving it in time with the animation. Insane! --Kels (talk) 17:29, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Really cool, top-shelf stuff they were doing. I'd like to see a picture of what their setup looked like. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 17:43, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Ask and ye shall receive. I'm just floored at that stuff. Apparently they also had a technique where the background was put on a rotating drum with various real props in front on a similarly-rotating disk, again with the cels shot vertically. Nobody else did that stuff, probably because it really was an insane amount of work for anything more than a single-reel. --Kels (talk) 17:57, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Wow. Not all that surprising though, since mechanisms and optics were flourishing without competition from electronics in that golden age, and there were people keeping their skills in shape to maintain it all. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 18:23, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Great craftsmanship, to be sure. Problem was, of course, as soon as you got beyond those short single-reelers the work involved blew the budget through the roof. Non-scalable, as they'd say today. --Kels (talk) 18:56, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Next time, take it to a talk page.

Srsly. TheoryOfPractice (talk) 00:16, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Great input, thanks. Kindly consider that winning/losing & right/wrong are transient delusions, and dickotry is in the eye of the beholder. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 00:56, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

No apologies needed.

Dude, I totally jumped the gun on killing it. It seemed so obvious, but you were right to put it back up temporarily. Researcher (talk) 19:01, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Oh no, you didn't. Your timing was perfect, whatever those others may say. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 19:05, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

You're a luthier?

Is that a violin tuning peg? TheoryOfPractice (talk) 16:59, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes. The boxwood had gone oval, and needed re-fitting, which amounts to lightly shaving it in a glorified pencil sharpener. At least this one was at the modern 1:30 taper; lately there has been a run of older ones, and I'll spare you the tedious details. I should be in the shop sticking bits of wood to other bits right now, instead of smurfing RW. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 17:05, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Do you only build violin-family instruments, or do you deal in the fretted world as well? TheoryOfPractice (talk) 17:08, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Couple of weeks ago I attended to a friend's Mid-Missouri mando with a loose buzzing brace. Doing that non-invasively called for some interesting fixturing. While it was here, it got a light fret dressing near the nut, where valleys were starting to show. Ordinarily I don't work on fretted insturminks though. I'm thinking about building a minimal stick violin, either for silent practice or electrification. So far only drawings and corrugated mockup... strings loaded head-to-tail, pegs close to the player's face. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 17:20, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Darol Anger

You mentioned him in the conversation about aura reading, and I thought there's a name I haven't heard in ages. I heard an album he and a pianist named Barbara Higbie (sp?) put out ages ago, and loved it. Never was able to find it again, which is a real pity. --Kels (talk) 16:00, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

He is still around and doing. A friend recently attended a fiddle camp featuring him as a presenter, in Maine, I think. She had a couple of five-string violins on trial, and there's a cute story about how she was favoring one over the other-- he had tried them both, and later, in passing, gave her a wink and a little pat on the shoulder, saying, "You ought to give that other one another chance." She is happy with the one she did keep, last time I checked. Pretty sure she took his advice; next time we meet that will be something to talk about while the bows are on the table.

About rare recordings, I just found I can download tracks (huzzah!) from an album I only ever saw on vinyl or cassette: Beggar's Velvet was an a cappella quartet with Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman as tenor and sop. Loved it; now I need to figure out a way to play mp3 on this fedora box without too much sneakernetting. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 16:38, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

That's one thing I do love about the folk crowd, there's an overall friendliness vibe that I don't see in a lot of places. Not sure if the stuff he did with Higbie is really all that rare, by the looks of it, I'm getting hits on Google for it. Last time I looked for the pair a couple of years ago, Google had hardly anything. Sadly it's not on iTunes, so I'll have to go further afield when I have some cash. --Kels (talk) 17:26, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Violin hands

I was about to add that picture to category:Pictures of RationalWikians but: are those your hands, or did somebody else take the picture? Inquiring minds need to know. Totnesmartin (talk) 18:22, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Yup, self-portrait, camera on tripod with delayed shutter release. I went and added that cat to the file. Cheers, Martin! Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 18:34, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Merkins

I hope that was all in fun. ħuman 06:24, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Hello

Long time, no see. How are things? The Spikey Punk ^{I'm punking my punk!} 01:25, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Good to see you about the Wiki again

I really enjoyed your contributions to the Wiki last year. Lord of the Goons ^{The official spikey-haired skeptical punk} 21:50, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Zen

I noticed you added my favorite books to the Zen article last year. Do you practice? 19:34, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, if by "practise" you mean "glance over my shoulder at the dusty pillow over there, and tell myself I need to start sitting regularly again." _/\_ Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 19:47, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Yep. Me too. It's been more than a year since I sat vipassana regularly and it's showing in my life. 20:27, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Starting tomorrow, I intend to mend my procrastinating ways. I do have a deadline coming up, a basket case fiddle built by someone's Grandpa that needs to be playable by this coming weekend. Maybe an elevated level of activity in that realm will bring me back to it. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 20:40, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

CP templates

Excuse me, but wtf are you doing? --JJ4e^talk 02:24, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Take it to Template talk:Cp for better exposure to the will of the mob. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 02:26, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Sprog, please put them in EL, not "see also". Now fix please. Also when doing such repetitive editing, usually one should ask to be botted so we can skip over the 20,000 edits if we want. Peace out, ħuman 05:34, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Or would you like to become a ninja? Blue (pester) 06:09, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

I only get this workative once every five years or so; that was a one-time spate of editing. Tomorrow RC will show little trace of the roughly 75 edits I made. Will request bot/ninjahood in the unlikely it ever happens again; not needed for now thanks.

Where there was an EL section, that's where it went, if I moved it. Some were already in See also, and I did not change that. IMO tis silly to create a clear EL just for this, since CP links are practically internal anyway. See unstated bits of the mission statement: "to be CP's mocking shadow." Can you tell I'm of two minds aboat this whole deconservagedifedaction thing? Poking CP is a fun raison d'être, but should not be hammered too hard. Fuzzy bunnies to all, Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 09:58, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Shootag & Magnetism

In reference to your challenge to the magnetic field assertions on the ShooTag page:

I'm not qualified in anyway to dispute or endorse the scientific accuracy of the user edit that included the magnetic field information. Personally, though, I think even adding it is a furphy. There is no known mechanism by which such a phenomenon could work, as I have pointed out in my comprehensive dismembering of the ShooTag phenomenon. Even if there is a measurable magnetic field ANY distance away from the ShooTag it is quite irrelevant. I had this conversation with 'Jeff' in the comments on one of my posts:

‘It’s entirely possible that ticks and fleas experience their world, and navigate through their world relying extensively on magnet field sensing. Who knows, maybe they can ’see’ magnetic fields.'

Yes, indeed, Jeff. Perhaps that is the case. However, it is an entirely irrelevant case. Even if it were so (which is an assertion that requires some significant scientific substantiation in its own right) then, to prove that ShooTag even has the remotest basis for working, the next logical step is to show that interfering with that field actually affects the little buggers in some useful way. Then, the step after that is to demonstrate that there is a magnetic field around people or pets. Then, you need to show that this field interacts with the fleas & the ticks via some plausible mechanism. Then the next step after that is to prove that interfering with that field causes a situation to arise where the fleas and ticks are repelled, rather than attracted, say, or caused to breed out of control, or any of a million other possibilities

There's another thing in the ShooTag entry that I feel should be changed: the bit under the 'Does it Work' heading that says 'Probably not.' There is no reason at all to give ShooTag the benefit of the doubt. I have thoroughly examined these tags and they are literally nothing more plastic cards with magnetic strips. There is NO data, other than the very contradictory and obviously cherry-picked testimonial kind offered up on the ShooTag site, for any efficacy of these trinkets. ShooTag has promised to publish scientific trials that they ran in 'Europe', but there is no evidence that these trials ever took place. No other even vaguely scientific tests have been made.

You may be interested to know that the most recent development in the ShooTag saga is that they sent a bunch of the stupid things to Haiti as a gesture of 'humanitarian aid'. These were the 'people tags' that supposedly fend off mosquitoes. I don't need to elaborate on how potentially dangerous this kind of thing could be. ^{— Unsigned, by: Anaglyph / talk / contribs}

Could I copy the above to the article talk page? ^postate 16:54, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Sure, go ahead (all references can be accessed from the link I included above). I note also in the ShooTag entry that there is a 'positive' review linked. This review is almost certainly written by one of the ShooTag clan. It is something of an MO for them to go around the pet forums and talk up the product while posing as disinterested third parties.Anaglyph (talk) 20:05, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Santa Fe Sandy is probably legit as I found her through a few different routes while researching it ages ago. The "Miss Bergman" one on the talk page is definitely suspect. If you've got enough evidence that they actively spam sites with fake glowing reviews it should definitely be included. I'm also going to copy this over rather than take up any more of Sprocket's page. ^postate 02:47, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Just saying 'Hi'

As the title says. I guess that if they can't simply see that eugenics is wrong then there's not much we can do but... Have a virtual pint on me. Jack Hughes (talk) 21:07, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Libertarianism

I already took it to the talk page. Check out RationalWiki:SPOV. Thanks! --69.22.172.33 (talk) 05:43, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Your input is noted. Thank you for your cooperation. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 05:46, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Since you have banned and re-vandalized the page with incorrect bias without even addressing my debunking of the article in its original biased and incorrect state, I have reported you for sysop abuse.--146.82.18.96 (talk) 05:59, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

You are not banned, just blocked for a day in various guises, largely for seeming like a humorless authoritarian. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 06:03, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Your work

		Red Link Removal Barnstar
		ТyTalk. 00:11, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Hello there, sir

Long time, no talk. How have you been? Lord Goonie ^{Hooray! I'm helping!} 01:23, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Been OK, just laying low and not checking in all that often, retiring to lurkerhood, one might say. Every now and then some unpredictable item piques my interest and prompts a response. May the chips fly far from your face, good sir! Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 13:21, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Resysop

You are resysopped. can't give you ninja back though :< Тy^Talk. 17:59, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks; I didn't know I had been promoted, it's been so long since I looked in. For now, ninjahood can wait... Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 18:03, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

It got pretty bad. Strike that, we had a civil war. But it is nice to see you back :) Тy^Talk. 18:05, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

Not too sorry I missed it, I guess. Real life is demanding (and OK) so I may not be pulling my weight for quite a while. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 18:09, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

Still in Reconstruction. No problem though :) Тy^Talk. 18:13, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

Lakers fan

oh, wait, lakoff fan, grins... would you take a look at what i added to "language". I fleshed it out, but I've been out of the field of academics for 15 years, so want to make sure it's still up with what is modern. --En attendant Godot 15:10, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

d'accord... but you need to know that I am but a mere dilettante. Not a huge fan of Chomsky for any number of shaky reasons, largely to do with my misunderstanding of his language-learning model. DId he ever change his views on that? The whole prototype theory thing was a revelation to me, addressing ideas I had wondered about for ever since I started thinking. I hated academia (den of posturing vipers) and squeaked through some undergrad debris, finally finishing in 1980, and haven't been back since. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 15:31, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Ohhhz, youz done finished your edumakation long before me. I wasn't out till almost 95. I think his ideas of language acquisition have been largely challenged in the last 10 years. I'm not kidding when i say, in the intro, that the MRI has changed virtually everything we know about language and acquisition. language is less special, in a away, than simply being able to make cognitive maps, which is critical to language. Where he's good is just the raw understanding of 'what language is", "how we structure it", and the very idea that this cognitive map likely predestined us to be language users of some kind, be it written symbols (literal maps, or squiggly lines for "lets go to the river") or be it signed language, or spoken. How could you hate academia! grins. that posturing is all we have to live for! hehe.--En attendant Godot 15:48, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Functional MRI is a wonderful thing, but still pretty coarse-grained for detailed language (or other cognitive) study, from what I can tell. Kind of like looking at a city with an average human eyeball from 30 000 feet up, when what is really needed is that Eagle Eye thing that can tell what people are saying in a soundproof room by watching the ripples in a coffee cup.

The father of my grandchildren spends his time probing individual neurons, but I think that better data about a cognitive gestalt come from things like reaction-time tests on subjects who have been primed with various images or statements. Compared to what our feeble computing machinery can do, a human mind is bogglingly vastly complicated, and subtle besides. Fascinating stuff for a dilettante to view from afar, as I do.

Don't even get me started on eusocial insects... Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 16:25, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

"eusocial insects?" :-) I'm having one of my Tarzan "Jane" moments. (where she waxes philisophical about incredibly banal things like "Tarzan, do you ever wonder why we are here". damn bimbo. anyhow, in my bimbo moment i'm thinking "so really, maybe we are just the nurons of some great big thinking thing's brain... and to us, this is our universe, but to him, it's just a cell". hehe. do tell about the insects. And totally cool what your grandkid's dad does. I wish i could understand neorscience at all. i'm stuck with just the "reworkings" they give for linguistic seminars, where they say "ok, children, this is what my science means to you". ;-)--En attendant Godot 16:31, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

My son-in-law has told me that he loses sleep over the cute furry animals he uses for test subjects. Honeybee swarms actually "vote" on potential nest sites, based on the number and enthusiasm of scout bees dancing about their discoveries in the field. If you have time, you could have a look at The Cerebral Symphony, which is dated 1989 and has some chatty spots in it, but still an OK read. I think that was the one that introduced me to the "Mexican hat" graph of central activation and peripheral inhibition, that has a lot to do with how we process optical images, and probably other things as well.

The main thing I took away from that book is that the parts of our brains, children, that we use to form utterances may be the same parts that we use to prepare activities like free-throws, where nerves are too slow to keep up with what is happening. Activities like that have to be prepared mentally (and largely subconsciously, no surprise) and then launched. It seems we developed some of the mental mechanism for fluent speech by practising throwing sticks and stones at running animals, who'da thunkit? Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 16:46, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

p.s.: Yup, I've sometimes wondered if we are the elements of an emergent hive mind... Sprocket J Cogswell (talk)

Your new sig

Is awesome. Тy^{Please do not click on this} 15:49, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

Needs to be bigger. ADK^{...I'll voice your goat!} 16:46, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

Betterer? Sprocket J Cogswell 18:23, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

Okay, maybe not so big... ADK^{...I'll sanctify your gasoline!} 10:03, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

Now 50 pixels wide, big enough to be ostentatious but not overwhelming. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 16:44, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

Just noticed it, it is indeed awesome!--^talk 06:56, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

email

Any chance you could enable email?--Bob^{Spring is sprung!} 14:08, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

What the heck. Email me too. 22:58, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Email me back, Nutty you cunt. Ace^ace 23:18, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Get fucked. 23:38, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Taba approaches! Ace^ace 23:41, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Aargh!!

Screw you for linking to what appears to be a very interesting book I'm now going to have to waste a lot of time reading--User:Brxbrx/sig 01:41, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

It is pretty accessible. More people need to be familiar with that material. Enjoy! Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 01:43, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Sprocko

Hey! Тy^talk 15:04, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Hey there, yourself! Nice to see the welcoming committee is alert and on the job. My attendance will be spotty in the foreseeable... prosper and be well, Sprocket J Cogswell 15:23, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Nothing serious I hope? Тy^talk 15:29, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Life is good. I just wanted to reduce the drama in it, while continuing to add occasional useful bits to the resource that is RW. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 15:35, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Good to hear, take care now. Тy^talk 15:41, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Good to see you around

How's it? Ace^Moderator 02:47, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

File:Acemodlove.jpg

Don't forget to vote Ace

Nice urban tactical transport you got there, sport. In my rock&roll gear fixing days I worked for a fellow who had spent his teen years in east Africa. Out hunting geezle they would strap a chair to the top of the land rover for the spotter to sit in. One time they were stopped when a group of nomads came up and started bidding on the girl in the chair.

Carry on... Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 14:38, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

Let me add my voice to those glad to see you around again. The Symphony of Noise ^{The official spikey-haired skeptical punk} 11:51, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

Happy to see you elected mod, as well as that Ace character. Trusworthy characters, both. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 12:06, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

zen article

Hey, you may want to pop by the talk page for Zen Buddhism, since you seem to be the biggest proponent of the nontheistic section--User:Brxbrx/sig 03:45, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

Which hinterlands?

So, you say you're outside of 495. I understand that rather a large percentage of the country is outside 495 (despite what they think around downtown). How far outside and which direction are you? (I assume it's not east). Phiwum (talk) 02:14, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Not far from where Rte 9 goes over 290. Dirty old mill town. It has its redeeming features. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 04:09, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Thanks

For your kind comments. Look what was just created today [1]. See also [2] where you can find the person who created it today, using material from my now deleted article here. Hardly a coincidence. Dougweller (talk) 17:55, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

As the old man in my nuclear birth family used to say, Illegitimati non carborundorum. Just going by their curly-headed logo, I bet Metapedia's contributors are all conflicted and repressed, if that's any comfort to you. Flourish and be well, sir, and know that living well is the best revenge. __ Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 23:36, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

"Comprise" means "include"

So, if "included of" seems nonsensical, then "comprised of" seems pretentious. It is just the sort of pompous arrant wankery up with which I do not care to put. If you must discuss, I suppose here is where to. Sprocket J Cogswell 16:25, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Pat on the back

Thanks for pointing out that copyleft violation the other day. Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 09:50, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

No prob; don't mention it. 'Twas actually Sam what first pointed it out in Talk:Dick Cheney. I trust the Board has come to a decision about how much skin off our nose it is, and what's to be done, or not. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 23:30, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

We sent them a letter, and they understood and gave us our CC-by-SA due. No harm done, no feelings hurt. Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 11:33, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Response you wanted

I have not a bloody clue, site is slow as molasses in Vladivostok in January. I'm not having a problem with trolltop/bottom, at least if there is one I'm not noticing it on top of the general sluggishness. I've checked the techblog, it's as dead as the proverbial post. We might be getting slashdotted, but nothing on Popular Pages really stand out. Sorry if I'm cranky, but I hurt my leg and am rather grouchy. Тy^{Bother me} 22:58, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for answering. I prefer terse direct communication, and don't usually read it as grumpiness. My friend, I figure we were not put on this planet to kiss each other's asses, and when someone gets all effusive, I start wondering what they want. Sorry to hear your leg is distracting you; my fuse shortens considerably when I'm not feeling 100%. I'm still seeing trolltop and collapse being weird about not hiding the included text, in places like Talk:Deep time.

In other news, I'm not seeing the link to the saloon showing up on the main page's sidebar, nor on any other page. Not saying it's your job to fix it, just wondering.

Didn't RW get mentioned recently on PZ Myers's blog, or some place like that? (Kindly consider that a merely rhetorical question.) That might could've driven some traffic. I figure I can just lay low and see if things fix themselves. If they don't, I suppose someone, maybe even moi, could escalate it on a help page. Take it easy, hear? Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 23:22, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Heh. It looks alright on my compy on Deep time. The sidebar has done this before in similar instances, it has reverted to the "normal" MW sidebar. I'm probably going to do the same as you. Тy^{Bother me} 23:36, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Basically, anything inserted with css and javascript isn't loading. Seems like a server crash rather than a slash-dot. ^pathetic 23:48, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

OK, I will rest easy, knowing that far better minds than mine are on the case. Cheers! Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 23:58, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Pedophile?

I'm usually just an AIDS infected jew faggot. Nice to be promoted! Do you think this is the work of one idiot with an arse full of proxies or some incoming flack from Metapedia? --MtD^{Prematurely Indeterminate} 23:44, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Clueless, me, also uncaring. I don't have checkuser access. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 23:45, 28 September 2012 (UTC)