Harry491

Did you know... ...that the broadfish tapeworm is the longest tapeworm in humans, averaging ten meters long and that it can shed up to a million eggs a day? ...that different stages of the fish parasite Myxobolus cerebralis were originally thought to be three different organisms in two different classes?

About me

I'm a college student in the U.S. that does this in my spare time. I debated in high school, coach a debate team now, and am majoring in biology. My interests are mostly science and politics related. I consider myself straight but not narrow, and I try to stay fairly well-informed on LGBT issues.

I'm interested in evolution, especially coevolution, and that means learning a lot about parasites, which are really cool. Myxobolus cerebralis is my first parasite-related featured article.

Political views

I am not a libertarian, even though I write articles on the subject. I consider myself grudgingly liberal. My instincts are usually libertarian, but I've found over the years that those instincts are usually wrong.

I am sympathetic to certain arguments from the radical left when it comes to foreign policy, epistemology and gender, though I'm also fairly hawkish. I haven't figured out how to reconcile this yet. Geopolitically, I think the U.S. can do a lot of good, even through the use of force, but don't trust our leaders to do it, which puts me in an odd position every time the War on Terrorism comes up.

I try not to let my politics interfere with NPOV: balance is important.

Wikipedia stuff

 

Some of the topics I work on may flirt with the limits of notability. The proportion of such articles increases when I'm especially bored or too overworked to write "real" articles.

I'm a big believer in citing sources, if for no other reason than that it solves conflicts. The best way to cite sources is probably footnotes, which can be a pain, but are necessary if we're going to avoid constant edit wars and creeping inaccuracy in our articles

Because Wikipedia is not paper, I sometimes put in factoids others may not find encyclopedia-worthy. If the consensus is against it, I'll remove it (see, for example, this conspiracy theory about comets being made of antimatter). I'll be more likely to remove it faster if you ask nicely.

I'm a bit concerned about systemic bias on Wikipedia, and know that I'm contributing to the problem (or at least not helping). Unfortunately, I don't consider myself qualified to write on most of the neglected topics (and the ones I am somewhat qualified to write about, like Nagorno Karabakh, are POV minefields that I don't want to touch). At some point, I may get off my ass and read enough on Benin or something to write decent articles on a neglected subject.

People I've pleased

 

For my "excellent work" on M. cerebralis, Anilocra awarded me a pile of gold.

Anyone can leave comments in this section, in addition to on the talk page

• User:Kbdank71 credits me with lowering his/her wikistress level to green here
• User:malathion was very happy with my "informed and well-argued comment" on User talk:Ta bu shi da yu [1] about Libertarianism.
• User:Petaholmes thinks I deserve adminship and offered to write a "flattering intro" for me. I turned her down, for now, but I'm pleassed with the offer.[2]