User:JimmyButler

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Welcome,

Did you know that a sea anemone uses its mouth as an anus ... it is called a manus! Well at least according to Wikipedia.

That bit of erroneous information has compelled me to break my Wiki dormancy and see what minor contributions I can offer to the enlightenment of the masses. So with a new name (RandomReplicator is still on the enforced break) and a new attitude - I join the fray.

Contents 1 Background Check 2 Views on Wikipedia - from an educators perspective 3 Helpful Links 3.1 USFLSTF

[edit] Background Check

In case anyone wishes to stalk me or simply desires to kick my "manus"; they can find me teaching at Croatan High School located on the coast of North Carolina. I can see the yachts sail by from my classroom window --- how cool is that. I've taught various forms of Biology for 25 years; corrupting literally 1,000's of students with the lies formulated by evil scientist. Such views as the earth is both old and round or that Dino and Fred never actually hung out together". Yep ... I'm Ken Ham's worst nightmare.

[edit] Views on Wikipedia - from an educators perspective

Love it or hate it .... it doesn't matter; because the reality is ... everyone uses it. Assign a research project and you will see; this generation gets its information from the web and the sources mostly likely to score the answers is Wikipedia. Therefore, as a teacher, I feel somewhat obligated to do my part to assure it is accurate. I also hope that I can contribute in some small way to making it comprehensible. For many articles, I have no clue as to the accuracy because frankly, I have no clue what they are trying to say.

For example: By definition, genetic drift has no preferred direction, but due to the volatility stochastic processes create in small reproducing populations, there is a tendency within small populations towards homozygosity of a particular allele, such that over time the allele will either disappear or become universal throughout the population. This trend plays a role in the founder effect, a proposed mechanism of speciation.[1] With reproductively isolated homozygous populations, the allele frequency can only change by the introduction of a new allele through mutations.

Unless you already know this stuff -- that little passage is not likely to be of use.

Needless to say, I am a big supporter of Introduction articles; such as my personal favorite Introduction to Evolution; which is why my alter ego R² is still in rehab. But seriously, remember the audience and it least try to tone down the vocabulary and shorten those sentences. For complex topics (Genetic Drift) start out with the overview ... then the brutal details for those brave enough to read on!

Finally, I would encourage experts to get involved. Case in point. Karen Carr, responded to my plea to release a dinosaur picture for the Evolution article.

Why doesn't Richard Dawkins review and edit? Every college professor and expert in field should scan their specialty areas ... they will touch more minds through Wikipedia than a life-time of obscure journal articles.

Well, I'm no professor ... but "I do know my manus from a hole in the ground" ... so I'm here to do my part.

Cheers!

Jimmy B.

This user helped promote the article Introduction to evolution to featured article status.

[edit] Helpful Links