Wikidata milestone
Wikidata passed the one billion edit milestone. The milestone edit, by
User:Stevenliuyi <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Stevenliuyi>, created
the item “The band structure in microwave frequency for quasi-1-D coaxial
photonic crystals (Q66665412)
<https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?oldid=1000000000>”.
Anti-disinformation research
There was a meetup regarding disinformation at Wikimania 2019
<https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2019:Meetups/Disinformation>. Thanks
to Leila <https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:LZia_(WMF)> for the
notes from the session. I am glad that that there is interest among WMF and
community members regarding this topic.
Humor
"The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never know if they
are genuine." —Abraham Lincoln
<https://www.pinterest.com/pin/360921357612301545/>
(For anyone who does not understand the joke: Abraham Lincoln’s life
preceded the existence of the Internet by approximately a century.)
Google and Mozilla take steps to limit mass surveillance in Kazakhstan
See Mozilla’s blog post at
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/08/21/mozilla-takes-action-to-protect-us…
.
Content
From English Wikipedia’s “Selected anniversaries” I
learned that on 18
August 1877, “American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Phobos,
the larger
of Mars's two moons, six days after his discovering Deimos, the smaller
one.” This image of Phobos is featured on Commons and on the Arabic,
English, Spanish, and Persian Wikipedias
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phobos_colour_2008.jpg>. I enjoyed
reading the description of how the image was made. Also of note is that
when Asaph Hall was learning mathematics, he studied under an instructor
who was two years ahead of him, Angeline Stickney. “During their days
together as teacher and student, Hall and his classmates would devise
questions and problems that they were convinced Miss Stickney could not
solve, yet she never failed to solve them
<https://maia.usno.navy.mil/women_history/hall.html>.” The two of them
later married. Stickney encouraged Hall to search for the Martian moons.
Hall said, "The chance of finding a satellite appeared to be very slight,
so that I might have abandoned the search had it not been for the
encouragement of my wife." The largest crater on Phobos
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stickney_(crater)> is named Stickney in her
honor.
The Commons Picture of the Day for 23 August 2019 was “Khotyn Fortress
under the light of the full moon
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%A5%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%86%D1%8F_%D0%B2_%D0%BC%D1%96%D1%81%D1%8F%D1%87%D0%BD%D1%83_%D0%BD%D1%96%D1%87.jpg>”.
According to the article about the fortress on English Wikipedia
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khotyn_Fortress>, “The Khotyn Fortress (
Ukrainian <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_language>: Хотинська
фортеця...) is a fortification complex located on the right bank of the
Dniester <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dniester> River in Khotyn
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khotyn>, Chernivtsi Oblast
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernivtsi_Oblast> (province
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblast>) of western Ukraine
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine>... Construction on the current
Khotyn fortress was started in 1325, while major improvements were made in
the 1380s and in the 1460s.”
Off wiki
Related to Wikimania 2019’s focus on the Sustainable Development Goals
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals>, I sometimes
think about what happens to recycled materials. This article from The New
York Times Magazine
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/magazine/the-big-business-of-scavenging-in-postindustrial-america.html>
reports
that “The recycling of scrap metal is a $32 billion business in the United
States, according to IBISWorld.” The article discusses the business of
scavenging for metals and recycling them.
Closing comments
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:Ата <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:%D0%90%D1%82%D0%B0> for the
Ukranian 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 )