From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

/Test page

[edit] Top

[edit] Physical address

DK: Suggest this opening sentence may best be split into (at least) two sentences, around the word "which". For instance:

In computing, a physical address (also known as a binary address) is the value of the finite monotonically-ordered binary number presented on [at? to?] the computer's main memory control structure known as an address bus. The physical address is used...

From here, the text seems to describe a memory management unit as "a particular memory storage cell"[?], but I don't think this is what's intended...?

...electronically by the circuitry to directly enable a particular memory storage cell (itself part of the circuitry) using other boolean logic circuitry, the memory management unit (MMU).

Currently have the next sentence rephrased as follows, but perhaps still too wordy; perhaps also it might be preferable to preface this explanation with a sentence or two indicating the difference between a physical and virtual address...?

A physical address is distinct from a memory address only insofar as "memory address" can be used to identify a virtual or physical address.

Any address, virtual or physical, is a coded Is "coded" necessary? command to (or from) the MMU that identifies one memory cell...

Currently, memory cell is a disambig page; reckon something more specific than Computer storage (perhaps within Computer storage?) needed.

...of fixed size known as a "word" (or "data word").

Perhaps the following best left to the Word (computing) article?:

...[a "word" or "data word"] particular to the computers design, though in data retrieval contexts, the term may also refer to a part of one such word such as a byte or half word size given the particulars of a specific computer design.

Perhaps more logical if the content of this next paragraph came before the previous paragraph, i.e. as (part of) the physical/virtual distinction...?:

[Needs rephrasing and splitting into more than one or two sentences:] Once 'just' called an Address (or the Address) until the advent of virtual addressing schemes and paged memory blocks required further distinctions— each memory data location in both ROM and RAM memory types holds a generic binary number of some sort usually referred to as a 'code' (or coded data, because how it's interpreted, its type and meaning and use all depend on the context of the instructions which retrieve and manipulate it) and each such coded data item has a unique physically determined position which is enabled by another unique binary number, the address, of that single data word, much like each house on a street has a unique number along a street.

Suggest another sentence split across "which":

Each data address contains a binary word sized characteristic to the design of the computers' central processing unit (CPU) which in practice has historically been sized in multiples of four and eight bit chunks (nibbles and bytes respectively) so that at one time or another computer words of four, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty-four, thirty-two, fourty-eight, sixty-four (and larger) came into vogue with advances in processing and memory architecture. Each memory location (address) may contain either coded instructions, or binary data (text data, binary numeric data and so forth) the common fact being they are all just numbers that fit within the word size of the machine storing them. How they are interpreted and used is determined by the context of the retrieving instruction code (computer software) currently in control of the MPU [MMU?] and how they are combined with other elements of such coded data by the software.

Instructions in an storage address are contextually interpreted as command words to the systems main processing unit, and data is retrieved by such instructions placed in an internal and isolated memory structure called a storage register, where the next (or some subsequent) instruction can manipulate it in conjunction with data retrieved into other internal memory locations (or internal addresses). Registers are the memory addresses within the part of the central processing unit known as the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), which responds to binary instructions (Machine code) fetched into instruction registers selecting combinatorial logic determining which data registers should be added, subtracted, circulated (shifted) and so forth at the ground level (Machine language) of binary manipulation of data.

In more modern systems using memory mapping and paging which came into widespread use in personal computers in the later part of the 80's, aliasing and swapping within the physical addressing binary limits creating a requirement for a virtual memory handling system when the technique is employed. Prior to personal computers, virtual memory handling and swapping was common in time sharing main frame computers and other multi-user types of computing systems sharing computing time in different tasking. In personal computers, the virtual memory technique was first employed to expand the finite computer address space (at that time fixed at 640 contiguous kilobytes by the architecture of the original IBM PC's locating video memory starting in that address and above) into the ability to use memory pages at physical addresses above the video ram addresses range which enabled the physically determined (by microprocessor type) upper memory limitations of one megabyte to be fully utilized. Shortly afterwards, paging schemes and MMU addons enabled the upper physical memory limit of one megabyte to be exceeded further increasing the capabilities of such systems. Despite advances in microprocessor designs and personal computer architecture since, which enable much larger physical memory limits to be used, the ancient design holdover of placement of video memory in the middle of the first megabyte of physical address space still continues the need for exotic handling of memory management in all IBM PC descended computer systems forcing a resort to use of a virtual address scheme and MMU indexed by the binary address generated by the CPU relative to some block (memory page) of organized contiquous memory. Such Virtual addresses are translated into physical addresses by a memory management unit (abbreviated MMU) which must also be commanded by the processor and software which block is "current" for a range of addresses. This is a somewhat cumbersome and inefficient arrangement in comparison to an architecture (like the Apple MacIntosh which does not need to resort to the necessary overhead and occasional delays as blocks of data are swapped to hard disk and so forth.

In network connection, physical address also means MAC address.

[edit] See Also

• Addressing mode
• Address_space
• Base address
• Computer engineering
• Computer science
• Endianness
• Offset (computer) (aka displacement)
• Page table
• Primary storage
• Virtual address
• Virtual address

<!--Categories-->
[[Category:Computer memory]]
[[Category:Memory management]]
[[Category:Virtual memory]]

<!--Other languages-->
[[de:Speicheradresse]]
[[es:Dirección de memoria]]
[[fr:Adressage mémoire]]
[[it:Indirizzo di memoria]]
[[nl:Geheugenadres]]
[[ja:メモリアドレス]]
[[pl:Adres pamięci]]
[[pl:Adres fizyczny]]
[[pl:Adres bezwzględny]]
[[pt:Endereço (memória)]]
[[sv:Minnesadress]]
[[ar:عنوان مطلق]]

[edit] Some m:Magic words

NAMESPACE:BASEPAGENAME    User:David Kernow

[edit] List of countries in Europe

"translit." = transliteration

[edit] Åland—Belarus

Flag	Map	English name	Domestic name
		short long	short	long
		Åland[1] Province of Åland	Swedish: Åland	Swedish: Landskapet Åland Finnish: Ahvenanmaan n maakunta
		Albania Republic of Albania	Albanian: Shqiperia	Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë
		Andorra Principality of Andorra	Andorra	Catalan: Principat d'Andorra French: Principauté d'Andorre Spanish: Principado de Andorra
		Armenia[2] Republic of Armenia	Armenian: Հայաստան/ Հայք translit.: Hayastan/ Hayq	Armenian: Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն translit.: Hayastani Hanrapetutyun
		Austria Republic of Austria	German: Österreich	German: Republik Österreich
		Azerbaijan[2] Republic of Azerbaijan	Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan	Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası
		Belarus Republic of Belarus	Belarusian / Russian: Беларусь translit.: Byelarus	Belarusian: Рэспубліка Беларусь Russian: Республика Беларусь translit.: Respublika Byelarus

[edit] Nordic Council

v • d • e

Nordic Council

Members  Denmark  Norway

Finland  Sweden

Iceland

Associates  Åland Islands  Faroe Islands

Greenland

[edit] Countries and territories of the Caribbean

v • d • e Countries and territories of the Caribbean
Sovereign states	Commonwealth Realms Antigua and Barbuda · Bahamas · Barbados · Grenada · Jamaica · St. Kitts and Nevis · St. Lucia · St. Vincent and the Grenadines Commonwealth republics Dominica · Trinidad and Tobago Other republics Cuba · Dominican Republic · Haiti
Dependencies and other territories	British Anguilla · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Montserrat · Turks and Caicos Islands Dutch Aruba · Netherlands Antilles French Guadeloupe · Martinique · Saint-Barthélemy · St. Martin American Navassa Island · Puerto Rico · U.S. Virgin Islands

[edit] Non-sovereign territories of Europe

[edit] Navigation with columns

[edit] Navbox generic

[edit] Navigation

[edit] See also

• {{Countries of Europe}}
• {{Outlying territories of European countries}}

[edit] British Isles

v • d • e The British Isles
Terminology (dispute)
Sovereign states	Ireland  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Dependency	Isle of Man
Semi-autonomous regions	Northern Ireland  Scotland  Wales
Islands	Great Britain · Ireland · Isle of Man Lists of islands of England · Ireland · Isle of Man · Scotland · Wales
History	Britain · England · Ireland · Isle of Man · Scotland · United Kingdom · Wales

Historic states: Kingdoms of Scotland  · England  · Ireland  · Great Britain  · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland  · Irish Free State

Modern Languages: Cornish · English · Irish · Manx · Scots · Scottish Gaelic · Welsh

Peoples: British · Celts (List of tribes) · Cornish · English · Irish · Irish Traveller · Manx · Scottish · Welsh

-->

}}

[edit] About this template

This template was developed based on a discussion on the Ireland talk page regarding objection there to the use of the term "British Isles." It is based on the original British Isles template developed by Lofty for use on articles relating to those islands. By default it will insert the above template but has the possibility to set a different title, if necessary.

It is proposed that articles where the community would prefer the use of a different term first reach a consensus with regard to what other term(s) to use and then insert the template, adjusting the title as necessary.

[edit] How to use this template

The template can be inserted on a page in one of two ways:

1. Where there are no objections to the use of the term "British Isles" on a page, use the following:

{{British Isles}}

2. On articles where there are objections, first reach a consensus as to what other term(s) to use, then insert the template using the following code (replacing "Title Will Go Here" with the agreed title):

{{British Isles|Title Will Go Here}}

[edit] See also

• British Isles
• British Isles (controversy)
• British Isles (terminology)

[edit] FrankB's templates etc

Suggest:

• {{Commonscat1}} → {{Category also used on Commons}}

  (thus Category:Wikipedia categories matching with Wikimedia Commons categories → Category:Categories also used on Commons)

• {{Interwikitmp-grp}} → {{Similar templates at sister projects}}
• {{Interwikicat-grp}} → {{Similar categories at sister projects}}...?

(All with shortcuts useful to Frank)

[edit] User:Dispenser/Navbox Demo

This template is only for demonstration, do not use in production articles. Feel free to experiment.

Without [edit] link:

Without frame and [edit] link, with style parameter:

[edit] Category:Wikipedia templates simplification

• User:Mike Peel/Template categories

...to continue from "T" in Category:Wikipedia templates:

[edit] Category:[Article] navigation templates

Templates that provide links to related articles. Usually appear at or near the ends of articles.

Navigational templates

Navigation bars ("Navigation-bar templates", "Navigational scroll-bar templates" as a subcategory of "Scroll-bar templates"...?)

Navigation templates that use a scroll-bar

Category:[Article] navigation templates by [category group]

Templates grouped according to the sections used in Wikipedia:Categorical index and List of overviews:

Arts and culture-related templates

Geography and place-related templates

Health and fitness-related templates

History and events-related templates

Mathematics and abstraction-related templates

Natural science and nature-related templates

People and person-related templates

Philosophy and thinking-related templates

Religion and belief-related templates

Social science and society-related templates

Applied science and technology-related templates

Reference-related templates

[edit] Category:Maintenance templates

Templates that indicate a page or some part of it needs attention, or is receiving such attention,...

Category header templates...?

Checkuser templates...?

Wikipedia header templates...?

Wikipedia maintenance templates

[edit] Category:[Utility] templates

Merge with or make subcategory of Content generation templates ("Templates generating content"...?)

Templates that simplify adding and/or standardizing pages' common features, such as citing references and sources, making attributions, etc.

Citation templates

Attribution templates

Merge as Citation and attribution templates...?

Quotation templates

Canned response templates ("Standardized response templates", "Response templates"...?)

Chinese calendar templates

Coordinates templates (also include in geography-related template category/ies)

Disambiguation and redirection templates

Formatting templates

"Content generation templates" - only three members; defunct?

Template:--

Template:MTR station 2 lines - recategorize as an infobox template

Function templates

Graphic templates ("Graphics templates"...?)

Image namespace templates ("Image[-related] templates"...?)

Image insertion templates...?

Infobox templates...?

Link templates

External link templates

Internal link templates

Interwiki link templates

List templates ("List-related templates", as they're not themselves lists...?)

Multilingual support templates

Search templates

Section templates ("Page-section templates"...?)

(Wikipedia special effects templates)

Spoiler warning templates

Succession templates

TOC templates

(Talk header templates)

[edit] Formatting templates...?

(Wikipedia special effects templates)

[edit] Function templates...?

(Wikipedia special effects templates)

[edit] Infobox templates...?

[edit] Link templates...?

[edit] List templates...?

("List-related templates", as they're not themselves lists...?)

[edit] Category:Templates by type

[Article] navigation templates

Esoteric templates

Infobox templates

Graphic templates ("Graphics templates"...?)

Maintenance templates

"Scroll-bar templates"...?

Obsolete templates

(Rating templates...?)

Reference templates

SI unit templates

Utility templates

Category suppression supporting templates ("Templates that can suppress categorization", "Category-suppression templates"...?)

[edit] Miscellaneous templates

Strive to make defunct...?

[edit] Template category naming

First nominate "...navigational boxes" to "...navigational templates" at CfD...?

Perhaps post at Wikipedia talk:Categorization:

Subcategories of Category:Wikipedia templates

The vast majority of templates seem to me to be "navigational" templates ("navigational boxes"), i.e. templates included in articles that present links to related articles. If this is so, labeling category after category "X navigational boxes" or "X navigational templates" strikes me as creating redundancy; instead, these categories could be renamed "X templates" and those (few?) categories of non-navigational templates

[Presently there seem to be two name formats used by many of these categories, viz. "...templates" or "...navigational boxes". My understanding is that "navigational boxes" are templates that present links people can use to move to related pages; if so, are there (m)any templates that aren't navigational boxes...?  If not, I'm thinking of adding a proposal to WP:CfD that all "...navigational boxes" names become "...templates", per their root category Wikipedia templates; what do people think...?]

Thanks in advance for feedback,

CfD nomination:

[edit] Subcategories within Category:Wikipedia templates

Currently the names of these categories seem to be either "...navigational boxes" or "...templates". Suggest all are "...templates" as (1) this the description used by their parent; (2) it's shorter and more generic; (3) are there (m)any templates that aren't navigational...?  

• Category:Wikipedia content navigation templates to Category:Wikipedia content templates

In Category:Templates by article category

• Category:Arts navigational boxes to Category:Art and culture templates
• Category:Author navigational boxes to Category:Author templates
• Category:Business navigational boxes to Category:Business templates
• Category:CAM navigational boxes to Category:Complementary and alternative medicine templates ¹
• Category:Drug navigational boxes to Category:Drug templates
• Category:Education navigational templates to Category:Education templates
• Category:International organization navigational boxes to Category:International organization templates
• Category:Mathematics navigational boxes to Category:Mathematics templates
• Category:Medical navigational boxes to Category:Medical templates
• Category:People navigational boxes to Category:People templates
• Category:Religion navigational boxes to Category:Religion templates
• Category:Science navigational boxes to Category:Science templates
• Category:Technology navigational boxes to Category:Technology templates
• Category:Temporal templates to Category:Time-related templates (more straightforward name...?)

In Category:Navigational templates

• Category:Automotive navigational boxes to Category:Automotive templates
• Category:Aviation navigational boxes to Category:Aviation templates
• Category:Awards navigational boxes to Category:Awards templates
• Category:Book series navigational boxes to Category:Book series templates
• Category:Comic book navbox templates to Category:Comic book templates
• Category:Computer and video game navigational boxes to Category:Computer and video game templates
• Category:Currency navigational boxes to Category:Currency templates
• Category:Food navigational templates to Category:Food templates
• Category:Former countries navigational boxes to Category:Former countries templates
• Category:Heraldry navigational boxes to Category:Heraldry templates
• Category:History navigational boxes to Category:History templates
• Category:Hurricane season navigational boxes to Category:Hurricane season templates
• Category:Language navigational boxes to Category:Language templates
• Category:Microsoft templates to Category:Microsoft-related templates (as Microsoft itself uses the term "template" in its software, etc.)
• Category:Military navigational boxes to Category:Military templates
• Category:Music navigational boxes to Category:Music templates
• Category:Native American navigational boxes to Category:Native American templates
• Category:Novel navigational boxes to Category:Novel-related templates (or merge with or make subcategory of Category:Book templates...?)
• Category:Novel series navigational boxes to Category:Novel series templates (and merge with or make subcategory of Category:Book series templates...?)
• Category:Performing arts navigational boxes to Category:Performing arts templates
• Category:Philippine education navigational boxes to Category:Philippine education templates (and make subcategory of Category:Education templates)
• Category:Philosophy navigational boxes to Category:Philosophy templates
• Category:Politics and government navigational boxes to Category:Politics and government templates
• Category:Radio navigational boxes to Category:Radio templates
• Category:Rail transport-related navigational boxes to Category:Rail transport templates
• Category:Navigational templates by region and subcategories: to be nominated next!
• Category:Sports navigational boxes to Category:Sports templates
• Category:Television show navigational boxes to Category:Television show templates
• Category:United States government navigational boxes to Category:United States government templates (and make subcategory of Category:Politics and government templates)
• Category:Weapon navigational boxes to Category:Weapon templates

In other subcategories

• Category:Maintenance navigation to Category:Maintenance navigation templates ²
• Category:Date math to Category:Date math templates ³
• Category:Current daylight saving offset to Category:Current daylight-saving offset templates ³
• Category:Language icons to Category:Language icon templates ⁴

¹ Also expands abbreviation
² Parent category is Category:Wikipedia maintenance templates
³ Parent category is Category:Mathematical templates
⁴ Parent category is Category:Multilingual support templates

[edit] Sister projects template

Sister projects using this template or an equivalent
	Metawiki	See	{{{link}}}
	Wikipedia	See	{{{link}}}
	Commons	See	{{{link}}}
	Wiktionary	See	{{{link}}}
	Wikibooks	See	{{{link}}}
	Wikiquote	See	{{{link}}}
	Wikisource	See	{{{link}}}
	Wikinews	See	{{{link}}}
	Wikispecies	See	{{{link}}}
	Wikiversity	See	{{{link}}}

[edit] Absolute centering

from http://lissaexplains.com/forum/showthread.php?p=411945

So, what needs to be done? Well, ideally, we'd like to have our element in the middle of our page, right? That's done easily enough: just position the element 50% from the left of the page...

div { position:absolute; left:50%; }

Only, that's going to put the left edge of our element in the middle of the page, not the actual middle of the element, resulting in a lopsided mess: no good, but it's a start. All we need to do from here is shift the element over by half it's width. So, we need two things: a width... and a negative margin (a wuh?). The width is necessary to be able to calculate half the width (duh). The negative margin, unlike a margin specified with a positive unit that pushes content away from the element, will pull the element in the direction of the margin's side. The width can be in absolute or relative units. Which you use will depend on your individual needs.

div { position:absolute; left:50%; width:80%; margin-left:-40%; }

[edit] List columns

Superceded by "style= "(width=X%;) -moz-column-count:N; column-count:N;"> where N = 2, 3,  ...?

{{autocolumn|3|
* Item 1
* Item 2
* Item 3
* Item 4
* Item 5
* Item 6
* Item 7
}}

[edit] "Census divisions of North America" remnant

[edit] Census division

[edit] United States

Main article: Census divisions of the United States

In the United States, "census divisions are groupings of states that are subdivisions of the four census regions... There are nine census divisions, which the U.S. Census Bureau adopted in 1910" [1]

[edit] See also

• List of the largest metropolitan areas in the Americas

[edit] Template:Nbsp

Ask template whizz whether {{nbsp|X Y Z}} → X Y Z possible.

That'd be handy.... maybe parser functions would allow that. Remind me later on and I'll investigate. (→Netscott) 00:09, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Interwiki links for revamped Census division: [[fr:division de recensement]] [[ja:国勢調査]]

[edit] Template to invite category creators to join CfD review

[edit] [[:Category:Name]]

Hi User,
As creator of this category, you may wish to contribute to its ongoing review [[Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/YYYY M DD#Category:Name|here]]. Best wishes, {signature}

[edit] Vinkt Massacre

The Vinkt Massacre was the killing of at least 86 civilians in and near Vinkt, a village in Belgium, by the German Army in May 1940, during World War II. It occurred as the Belgian Army and British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fought to delay the German Army's advance through Belgium so that the BEF might escape capture.

Vinkt, a village of 1200 inhabitants, is now part of the town of Deinze, 20 km southwest of Ghent. Most of those massacred died on or near the bridge over the Schipdonk Canal in the village.

[edit] Chronology

[edit] May 25

By the time of the massacre,

As the German Army continued to advance west during May 1940, pushing back both the British Expeditionary Force and Belgian Army, Vinkt, lying on the road between Ghent and Lille and astride the Schipdonk Canal, became a significant target. Both sides already knew the Allies had lost the battles of Belgium and France and that the Belgian Army had been reduced to assisting the retreat of the British forces.

The Vinkt bridge was being guarded by the

The bridge over the Schipdonk Canal was being guarded by the 1st Belgian division of "Ardenner Jaeger" (which in the Belgian army of the day meant one regiment of tanks out of five regiments in a division - the rest being motor riders and cyclists). Coincidentally, this division turned out to be one of the most motivated in the Belgian army. The Belgian command decided not to destroy but to guard the bridge, so as to help as many British stragglers as possible on their way West, and as many Belgian refugees as possible on their way South: more than one million Belgians (most of them on foot, as cars and horses had been requisitioned by the different armies) had become refugees. News of what happened at Vinkt would cause an additional one million to flee South or even West. By the middle of June, according to Red Cross figures, 30% of the Belgian population had left the country.

Arriving near the bridge on May 25, the German 225th division, consisting mostly of badly trained soldiers from the Hamburg area, found it impossible to cross. They then took 140 civilians hostage and used them as human shields. As the "Ardense jagers" (as they are called in Dutch) managed to continue to harass the German positions with great precision, and crossing remained impossible, a grenade exploded among the hostages, killing 27.

[edit] May 26

This was a Sunday. The Germans took hostages both at the Meigem and Vinkt church, and at various farms in the neighbourhood. Some hostages were killed on the spot, but the most horrible event happened at Meigem church, where an explosion killed 27 hostages.

[edit] May 27

Adolf Hitler, on German radio, demanded Belgium's immediate and unconditional surrender. Belgian King Leopold III announced to his government that he would use his authority as Supreme Army Commander to lay down arms. For the constitutional crisis following this, see the History of Belgium.

Meanwhile, the Ardense jagers, completely in the unknown about all this, were still holding and defending the bridge against vastly superior odds. For unclear reasons, the 225th division now started to execute their hostages, and taking new ones, executing them on the spot. Refugees were taken out at random from the endless columns on the trek South and executed immediately. One priest managed to escape buried under two dead colleagues. He was one of four such victims managing to escape to tell the tale.

[edit] May 28

Leopold III and the Belgian army capitulated in the early morning (4 am, 5 am German time).

This did not stop the carnage in Vinkt. Nine hostages were shot after the capitulation. In a style that would become all too familiar on the Eastern front later, the last five victims had to dig their own graves first.

[edit] Total number of victims

Most sources claim between 86 and 140 victims, 86 being the total number of executed victims. The divergence stems from the fact that other historians include the victims in front of the bridge and those killed by the explosion at the church in Meigem. Whereas the exploded grenade on the 25th was almost certainly German, the explosion at the church has usually been attributed to Belgian artillery. However, there remains a controversy over the church explosion as some victims later claimed they saw German officers throw hand grenades into the church, and all women hostages were taken out of the church just before the explosion - ensuring that all 140 victims of the incident were male.

A very different picture was painted by the priest who managed to escape on the 27th: he claimed to have seen dead women and children, even babies. Since no corpses of women or children were later found, this would imply, if true, that the scene was later cleaned up, and the real death toll of the executions is much higher than the 86 or 140 usually claimed. However, most Belgian historians believe that any additional refugee victims the priest saw, were killed in crossfire, and not intentionally.

The Vinkt massacre shares some strange similarities with the later massacre at Mayakovskoye in East Prussia, where there are similar accusations of embellishment and manipulation after the fact and an attempt was made to include refugees killed in crossfire before a bridge among those executed.

[edit] Aftermath

As news of the carnage spread, German press sources denied it or excused it, claiming that Belgian civilians had dressed up as soldiers. Although British newspapers knew the exact story, they refused to press the point - because this had happened in Belgium, they were afraid of being accused that they were repeating the war propaganda claims they had made in 1914 with the gross exaggeration of "the rape of little Belgium".

After the war, Belgian historians were not encouraged to study the event, not because it was largely unknown outside Belgium, but because of possible political ramifications if it was found out that the carnage had been ordered by Berlin to push Leopold III towards surrender.

On the Western front, the Vinkt massacre was not only the first major infraction of the Geneva Convention by the German army, but also unique in that it was committed by an ordinary Wehrmacht unit, and not by a special SS unit, not even by the Waffen SS. It may be the only war crime of the Wehrmacht committed on the Western front before 1944.

Although largely ignored outside Belgium, it did not go entirely unpunished: the German officers Major Kühner and Lieutenant Lohmann were tried, convicted and sentenced to 20 years hard labour. They were both released after five years.

[edit] External links

• The story of four bloody days - from the Vinkt memorial website - in Dutch
• Ardenner Jaeger in May 1940, also hinting at a more terrible massacre - in French
• Pictures of the carnage - in Dutch, some French

[edit] Create "Infobox:" namespace...? at the Village Pump

Copying and pasting a proposal made at Bugzilla :

...Infoboxes seem to've become part of the Wikipedia furniture, at least in the English Wikipedia. Hence, rather than the many "Template:Infobox..." pages (with inconsistent capitaliz/sation etc), suggest an "Infobox:..." namespace created.

What do folk think...?  Thanks, David Kernow (talk) 01:13, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

There are lots of different sorts of templates. Why should infoboxes get their own namespace instead of, say, navigation bars? I don't think that giving them their own namespace will solve capitalisation problems; there's always somewhere you can go wrong with capitalisation. Tra (Talk) 01:31, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Re infoboxes rather than navigation bars etc, infoboxes all seem to use "Template:Infobox..."; do navigation templates all use "Template:Navigation..." or the like...?  Re solving capitaliz/sation problems etc, I agree; but an "Infobox:" format should prevent at least one common mistake/oversight. Thanks for your input, David Kernow (talk) 11:20, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

What about a Userbox namespace? --J.L.W.S. The Special One 08:47, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Maybe, but personally I reckon userboxes / Wikipedian categories / etc better handled by a separate wiki. Regards, David Kernow (talk) 11:20, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

• SortableTableExtension at Meta.
• Sorting lists and tables at Meta.
  • http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2001

/Abbreviations and category naming
/List of countries by continent

[edit] Category:People condemned by Nazi courts

where no reference to trial made in article, or other omission noted

[edit] Include in a "People of the Widerstand" category?

Friedrich Aue · Judith Auer · Bernhard Bästlein · Liane Berkowitz · Dietrich Bonhoeffer · Cato Bontjes van Beek

[edit] Associated with the July 20 Plot

Robert Bernardis · Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal · Hasso von Boehmer · Eugen Bolz · Dietrich Bonhoeffer · Klaus Bonhoeffer · Eduard Brücklmeier ·

[edit] Associated with the Red Orchestra

... Eva-Maria Buch

Execution of women by the Nazis during World War II

Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit

Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts.

Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.

Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities").

Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.

Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.

Quantify, wherever possible.

If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.

Occam's razor - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.

Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?

Additional issues are:

Conduct control experiments - especially "double blind" experiments where the person taking measurements is not aware of the test and control subjects.

Check for confounding factors - separate the variables.

Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric

Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument.

Argument from "authority".

Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an "unfavorable" decision).

Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).

Special pleading (typically referring to god's will).

Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased).

Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses).

Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes).

Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)

Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but scientific projections on environmental dangers thriftily ignored because they are not "proved").

Non sequitur - "it does not follow" - the logic falls down.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "it happened after so it was caused by" - confusion of cause and effect.

Meaningless question ("what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?).

Excluded middle - considering only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the "other side" look worse than it really is).

Short-term v. long-term - a subset of excluded middle ("why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?").

Slippery slope - a subset of excluded middle - unwarranted extrapolation of the effects (give an inch and they will take a mile).

Confusion of correlation and causation.

Caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack.

Suppressed evidence or half-truths.

Weasel words - for example, use of euphemisms for war such as "police action" to get around limitations on Presidential powers. "An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public"

(excerpted from The Planetary Society Australian Volunteer Coordinators Prepared by Michael Paine )