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User:Pelagic/Journal/2020/10

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October 2020.


Friday 30[edit]

Sunday 25[edit]

Attack helicopter[edit]

Looks like an interesting short story by Isabel Fall, but has been cancelled. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Sexually_Identify_as_an_Attack_Helicopter http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/fall_01_20/ (stumbled on via WLDC).

AFC, drafts, and G13[edit]

Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Articles for creation#Are we an incubator?

WikiLoop DoubleCheck[edit]

Somehow the interface changed for me between yesterday and today. Either they’ve done an update or I bumped into an A/B test. Old version was better.

Using it for a short time yesterday, when I could still see the ORES percentages, it seemed that 50–60% "damaging" were still very likely to be good. Still not sure about the 60–80% range.

I noticed a number of changes that were good-content, bad-presentation. None of the choices "looks good", "not sure", and "should revert" really fit. I’d want to have a judgement like "constructive contribution, but could be better / needs improvement".

Monday 12[edit]

WikiCite addon for Zotero[edit]

This looks promising: meta:Wikicite/grant/WikiCite addon for Zotero with citation graph support.

Tuesday 6[edit]

This user in a nutshell - brilliant!

The herbarium of Banks and Solander[edit]

For the earliest account of the plants of these Islands we are indebted to two of the most illustrious botanists of their age, and to the voyages of the greatest of modern navigators ; for the first, and to this day the finest and best illustrated herbarium that has ever been made in the islands by individual exertions is that of Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, during Captain Cook's first voyage in 1769. Upwards of 360 species of plants were collected during the five months that were devoted to the exploration of these coasts, at various points between the Bay of Islands and Otago, including the shores of Cook's Straits ; and the results are admirable, whether we consider the excellence of the specimens, the judgment with which they were selected, the artistic drawings by which they are illustrated, and above all the accurate MS. descriptions and observations that accompany them. That the latter, which include a complete Flora of New Zealand as far as then known, systematically arranged, illustrated by two hundred copper-plate engravings, and all ready for the press, should have been withheld from publication by its illustrious authors, is (considering the circumstances under which it was prepared) a national loss, and to science a grievous one, since, had it been otherwise, the botany of New Zealand would have been better known fifty years ago than it now is*.

* This herbarium and MS. form part of the Banksian collection, and are deposited in the British Museum. I feel that I cannot over-estimate the benefit which I have derived from these materials, and it is much to be regretted that they were not duly consulted by my predecessors. The names by which Dr. Solander designated the species have been in most cases replaced by others, often applied with far less judgment, and his descriptions have never been surpassed for fulness, terseness, and accuracy. The total number of drawings of New Zealand plants is about 212, of which 176 are engraved on copper, but the engravings have never been published; these treasures are accompanied with 24 additional copper-plates from Forster's drawings, of plants which were not found during Cook's first voyage.

Hooker, J.D. (1852), The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H.M. discovery ships Erebus and Terror. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae . Pp. ii–iii in Chapter I, Introductory Essay. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54141#page/13/mode/1up

“Among our collection are 56 Australian plant specimens collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander in 1770. These specimens were originally held in the British Museum of Natural History, which is now the National History Museum in London.” Banks specimens in the Australian National Herbarium

“Te Papa has a duplicate set of more than 500 specimens collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander during Captain Cook’s first expedition to New Zealand in 1769-1770.  Collections Online has images of most of them.” Topic: Banks and Solander specimens Mus.NZ (te papa tongarewa).

Australian Virtual Herbarium search for Banks, J returns 2294 hits across multiple AU and NZ herbaria.

Monday 5[edit]

Commons:File:Asteracea poster 3.jpg

Friday 2[edit]

Hedley Australian marine regions[edit]

Hedley proposed a subdivision of the Australian coastline, as regards the marine fauna, into four regions; these have been generally accepted by scientific investigators, ... Hedley 's Regions are as follows : the Solanderian covered the coastline of Eastern Australia from Cape York to Moreton Bay ; the Dampierian Region ran westward from Cape York to Shark's Bay, Western Australia; the Adelaidean Region extended along the south and south-west coasts of Australia from Wilson's Promontory, in Victoria, to Shark's Bay, and included the north and west coasts of Tasmania; the Peronian Region took in the rest of the east coast of Australia and Tasmania, and the east coast of Victoria. The only emendations yet pro- posed have been the separation of the eastern coast of Tasmania under the name Maugean, and the acceptance of the Solanderian as inclusive of the Dam- pierian. I have continually compared Peronian shells with the (same) species from southern Tasmania, and commonly find them to differ to a greater or less degree. At the point of inosculation of Regions, species of the two Regions will commonly be met with, but the further away from this point the purer the collection. Thus, to emphasise this point, Sydney should show almost a pure Peronian fauna, while Adelaide would show just as pure an Adelaidean fauna, but collections made at Twofold Bay or Western Port might show an appreciable Adelaidean or Peronian element respectively. At Twofold Bay no Solanderian forms would be expected, and these hypotheses have been absolutely confirmed by facts. We can now with certitude generally designate the littoral marine mollusca with their Regional names.

Iredale, (1924) p.180 in "Results from Bell's molluscan collections." Proc.Lin.Soc.NSW 49(19):179–278

(20:28 Fri 02, AEST)

Oysters again[edit]

Ibid. p. 191–192

Ostrea sinuata Lamarck is the name for the shell recently known as O. angasii from Australia. The Neozelanic species known by the latter name seems to be a distinct species. The status of O. virescens Angas I have not yet decided.

(54) Ostrea cucullata Born, 1778 [Saccostrea cucullata].

This species was described from the Mus. Caes. Vindob. without locality, but, when figured in the later work, the locality was given as West Indies and the Isle of Ascension and is still included in lists of these faunas. As there appear to be two forms in New South Wales, the name may be totally rejected. On the sheltered shores and with the mangrove associations is a form named by Gould glomerata [Saccostrea glomerata] : this appears to range further south, and Roy Bell sent it from Tellaburga Island, off the Victorian corner, which seems to be an addition to the Victorian fauna. The other form, which lives on the ocean reefs extending as far south as Long Reef, near Sydney, and which Bell collected at Lord Howe Island, may bear the name of mordax Gould [Saccostrea mordax?]. These names were proposed by Gould (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., iii., Dec, 1850, p. 346) for shells from New Zealand and the Feejee Islands respectively, and may later have to give way to some earlier name, as Solander appears to have collected specimens when here with Captain Cook, probably at Cooktown. Thus, in the Sale Catalogue of the Portland Museum, appears the entry on p. 139, etc., "Ostrea purpurea S. from New Holland, very rare."

The name O. purpurea falls as an absolute synonym of Born's O. cucullata as Born's figures (Tab. 6, f. 11-12) were cited as illustrative of Solander's species.

Drupa, Morula, (Tenguella), etc.[edit]

Ibid. pp. 274–275

  • 988 Drupa chaideaMorula nodulifera
  • 989 Drupa marginalbaMorula marginalba
    • When I collected the shell known as Drupa chaidea Duclos at the Kermadec Islands, its close resemblance to the Australian shell impressed me, and I worked out the affinities of these shells from conchological characters, and accepted Morula for the chiaidea series. ... Cooke pointed out that the radula was "markedly that of Morula. Cronia is a scarcely modified Morula" thus absolutely confirming my conclusions achieved from conchological studies.
    • "In the Proc. Malac. Soc. Lond., xiii., 1918, pp. 38-39, I noted that Duclos' P. chaidea was regarded by Martens, from study of the type, as identical with P. nodulifera Menke. This was briefly described (Verz. Conch. Samml. Malsburg, p. 33 (pref. May 18) 1829) without definite locality, but as the species is unmistakable, Menke's name may be accepted."
  • At the same time, I recorded that Purpura granulata Duclos (Ann. Sci. Nat. Paris, xxvi., May, 1832) was equivalent to and earlier than P. tuberculata Blainville (after June, 1832), and this chronological item was overlooked by Hedley (These Proc, xlviii., 3 Oct., 1923, p. 314) when he gave a definite Australian locality for Drupa tuberculata, recte Morula granulata Duclos, a common shell at Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, whence Bell sent it.

Thursday 1[edit]

Mix n Match[edit]

Was doing a little Wikidata Mix'n'Match on NSW Flora ID [2] last month. That led to working on underground orchid Rhizanthella speciosa, and heaths Rupicola, Budawangia, Epacris gnidioides, etc. here on Wikipedia.

Lord Howe Island[edit]

File:Lord Howe Silvereye.jpg struck me yesterday, for its subtly colourful plumage.

"Observations on the vegetation of Lord Howe Island" (Maiden, 1898) mentions some non-botanical observations that could fit into the history section of our LHI article.

Proc. Lin. Soc. N. S. W.[edit]

Is a mess on Wikidata. [3] IA (e.g. at vol 23) says vol's 1-10 were called series 1, vol's 11–20 series 2, then series numbers were abandoned for 21–present (vol 147 and counting). See BHL for volume list.

Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales (Q6087096) is labelled series 1, but it’s really about the whole Journal to present. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales (Q6087098) has sitelinks for es and ast. A lot of the identifiers are duplicates but need to be checked. Spanish Wikipedia links only to IPNI (dupe) and Tropicos (...).

The links between IA and OpenLibrary appear to be imperfect. For example, volume 1 on IA proceedingsoflin0101linn links to OL7210197M (good), and OL241358W (which has a thumbnail that says "second series volume VII" and on-page identifier OL13500590M), which in turn links back to proceedingsoflin0207linn. Perhaps OL chooses the volume first linked to the work record as representative of the work?

Hathi trust has [4] Google scans, nothing after vol. 24. [5] shows the current volume, there are search features but link to purchase issues only returns 20 volumes to choose from.

Transparency versus big bang[edit]

“On the one hand, ... the editorial community has developed a hugely successful process of open collaboration, based on incremental improvements. On the other hand, paid staff in any large organization achieve professional outcomes through hiding their incremental improvements in favor of a final product.”
— John Vandenburg, quoted in "The WMF's age of discontent", The Signpost, 2016-01-06. [6]