User:Zbvhs

Zbvhs is Virgil H. Soule's username. The H. is for Howard who was his father.

Biography

I was born in Linton, ND, the first son of Howard Gerald Soule and Matilda Bitz Soule. I grew up in Bismarck, ND, and currently reside in Frederick, MD.

Education

I graduated from Bismarck High School in 1955. I graduated from the old Bismarck Junior College with an Associate of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering and from the Municipal University of Wichita (now Wichita State University) with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

Things I Like

My first love is things that fly: birds, airplanes, helicopters - even blimps. When something flies over, I look up to see what it is. I obtained a private pilot's license in my youth but am now inactive as an aviator. I still keep tabs on events in the aerospace industry, however.

My second love is music. I was introduced to the (American) Baritone Horn in grade school and played the instrument in high school and college. I still have my old horn but no longer play it. I started out listening to the old Cities Service Band of America on radio. Sixty years later, I still enjoy listening to Symphonic Band music (as performed, e.g., by the United States Marine Band) and British-Style Brass Band music (e.g., Black Dyke Brass Band). I enjoy orchestral music (e.g.: Richard Strauss: Til Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks). (The boundaries are a little blurred, however. I prefer the Thomas Knox band transcription of Stravinsky's Firebird to the original, for example.) I enjoy choral music (Karl Orff: Carmina Burana, Johannes Brahms: German Requiem, Verdi's Requiem - not a "real" requiem but still part of the genre). I enjoy piano music (Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerti, Dohnanyi: Variations on a Nursery Theme). I enjoy Opera (Puccini: Gianni Schicchi, Mozart: Die ZauberFlote).

My other second love is Science. I did applied science as an engineer for forty years and enjoyed reading about "pure" science at the same time. I still enjoy reading about Physics, Astronomy, Archaeology, Paleontology, Geology, and Oceanology, to name a few.

My third second love is Religion and Theology. I see no conflict between Religion and Science because they arise from fundamentally different ways of thinking. Science strives for objective reality through the scientific method. Religion arises from subjective belief. I can think both ways.

My Position on Use of Userids

I have been bouncing around the blogosphere for three or four years now. In that time I have seen numerous - more than numerous - instances of truly vicious, insulting ad hominem attacks by one user on another. The perpetrators are able to get away with this kind of nonsense by hiding behind a pseudonym or userid. I've gotten responses to comments that go something like, "u r stupid who the h**l do u think u r". No capitalization, no punctuation, no sign of intelligence. Responses like these are really constructive and really helpful and, of course, truly professional in nature.

The print and television media do not accept comments from people who don't identify themselves and refuse to provide a means of verifying their identity. Scientific journals don't accept anonymous submissions. I don't see why it should be any different for the internet media - particularly Wikipedia. The only place where pseudonyms are accepted is in fiction writing. The editors still need to know who wrote the piece, otherwise, they wouldn't know where to send the check.

My suspicion, based on my experience, is that people who hide their identities do so for ulterior reasons. If there are arguments for hiding one's identity on the internet, I would be interested in hearing them.

I understand that Wikipedia is tolerant of some nonsense in its talk pages. However, nonsense, in my view, is never constructive and detracts from the professional quality of the work underway in Wikipedia.