Halloween fun
* Image 1
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anime_North_2019_C_IMG_0404.jpg>:
A walking plant was seen at the Anime North
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime_North> 2019 convention. 31 October is
Halloween <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween>, and the primary author
of this publication <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Pine> generally
likes plants.
* Image 2
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mission_impossible_cast_1970.JPG>:
Cast members of the television show Mission: Impossible for the production
season that started in 1970. A Halloween-ish music video that features Lindsey
Sterling <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsey_Sterling> and The Piano Guys
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Piano_Guys> playing the theme music from
the show is at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p0BqUcQ7i0. I like the
video with the exception of the ending.
Donation of 2000 medical images
User:Netha Hussain <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Netha_Hussain>
announced
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-medicine/2019-October/000404.html>
that Dr. Yale Rosen, a pathologist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathology>,
agreed to donate his entire collection of approximately 2000 pathology
images to Wikimedia Commons
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Commons>.
New affiliate recognition from the Affiliations Committee
Community Wikimedia User Group Haïti
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wikimedia_User_Group_Ha%C3%AFti>
Project milestone for Italian Wiktionary
Italian Wiktionary <https://it.wiktionary.org> has passed 500,000 entries.
Also, see this page on
stats.wikimedia.org
<https://stats.wikimedia.org/v2/#/it.wiktionary.org/content/pages-to-date/normal%7Cline%7C2-year%7Cpage_type~content%7Cmonthly>
which shows a significant increase in Italian Wiktionary content pages
during the year 2019.
English Wiktionary Word of the Day for October 14
"Woozle effect <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Woozle_effect>: The
phenomenon whereby frequent citation of earlier publications leads to a
mistaken public belief in something for which there is no evidence, giving
rise to an urban myth." Regarding the etymology for this term, Wiktionary
says in part: "A reference to the book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926)
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh_(book)> by English author A.
A. Milne <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._A._Milne> (1882–1956), in which
the characters Winnie-the-Pooh
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh> and Piglet
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piglet> follow their own tracks in the snow,
believing them to be the tracks of the imaginary "Woozle"."
Survival and adventure in Watership Down
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down>
As described in the English Wikipedia article for the book Watership Down
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down>, it "is a survival
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_fiction> and adventure novel
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_novel> by English author Richard
Adams <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Adams>, published by Rex
Collings Ltd <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Collings_Ltd> of London in
1972. Set in southern England, around Hampshire
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampshire>, the story features a small group
of rabbits. Although they live in their natural wild environment, with
burrows <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrow>, they are anthropomorphised
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism>, possessing their own
culture <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture>, language
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapine_language>, proverbs
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverb>, poetry
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry>, and mythology
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology>. Evoking epic
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_poetry> themes, the novel follows the
rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrow> and seek a place to establish a new
home (the hill of Watership Down
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down,_Hampshire>), encountering
perils and temptations along the way."
I first learned of these Watership Down quotes from User:OohBunnies!
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:OohBunnies!>:
"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies. And
whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch
you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning,
and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed."
"Look. Look. That's the place for us. High, lonely hills, where the wind
and the sound carry, and the ground's as dry as straw in a barn. That's
where we ought to be. That's where we have to get to."
"The Sound of Her Voice"
Many relationships in the Wikiverse involve remote communication. Someone
who influenced my early days in the Wikiverse was User:Sonia
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sonia>, who graciously took me under
her wing. I remember her as being intelligent and kind. She left the
Wikiverse years ago, and I miss her. As far as I know, Sonia is alive and
well, somewhere in the world. I wish that I could have met her in person.
Mindful of Sonia and the many other people that I know through remote
communications, I am sharing a video clip from the Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine> episode "The
Sound of Her Voice <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Her_Voice>".
Some background information is necessary here. This contains plot spoilers
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoiler_(media)>. (For a more thorough
summary of the episode and a commentary by Michelle Erica Green, see
https://www.trektoday.com/reviews/ds9/the_sound_of_her_voice.shtml.) In
this episode, Captain Benjamin Sisko
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Sisko> and the crew of the USS
Defiant (NX-74205) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Defiant> receive a
distress call from Captain Lisa Cusak, who is the sole survivor of the
destruction of her ship. The Defiant begins a six day journey to rescue
Captain Cusak. The Defiant's crew members have voice conversations with
Cusak during their journey, and the crew members form friendships with her.
Unfortunately, when the Defiant arrives at Cusak's location, she is
deceased. The video clip that I link below shows the end of the episode.
Sisko and the crew of the Defiant have an Irish wake
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_wake> for their friend. Chief O'Brien
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_O%27Brien_(Star_Trek)> shares
reflections that I think are applicable to many friendships, especially
friendships across long distances like many of us have in the Wikiverse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yryqc8RETgE
WMYHTW reflections
I am glad that generally people like these WMYHTW emails and I appreciate
the positive feedback about them. I think that these emails encourage a
collegial environment in Wikimedia-l, and I hope that they are good for
morale. However, they are time consuming to write. I have a backlog of
Wikimedia emails that I have not read, I want to complete a few of my long
delayed Wikimedia video tutorials, and I have many off wiki demands on my
time. As I wrote in September, I need to reduce the amount of time that I
spend writing these pieces. Perhaps shorter contributions from me to WMYHTW
will lead to other people feeling that there is more space for them to make
their own WMYHTW contributions.
WMYHTW should not be about me, but I will say that of the projects that I
could do for the community, this has become one of my favorites. Before I
started writing WMHYTW emails, I spent a lot of my time being vigilant for
problems and wondering what would go wrong next. The habit of writing these
pieces has slowly changed how I think. I am thankful for the community
members who accept and encourage the WMYHTW initiative, and the Wikimedians
on Facebook who gave me the idea for this practice.
Off wiki
* From the Mozilla Blog: "Examining AI’s Effect on Media and Truth"
<https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/09/17/examining-ais-effect-on-media-and-truth/>
* From the BBC: "What Japan can teach us about cleanliness"
<https://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20191006-what-japan-can-teach-us-about-cleanliness>
* From the BBC: "The beautiful ways different cultures sign emails"
<https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190508-why-the-way-you-close-your-emails-is-causing-confusion>
Closing comments
Additional translations of the subject line of this email would be
appreciated on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine/WMYHTW_translations>.
Thanks to User:Neetha
Hussain <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Netha_Hussain> for the
Malayalam translation.
What’s making you happy this week? You are welcome to write in any
language. You are also welcome to start a WMYHTW thread next week.
Pine
(
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )