User: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, and I'll most likely end up in one of the following fields:biology (probably ecology or evolutionary biology, but possibly elsewhere), philosophy (probably either political philosophy or philosophy of science), law, or something political (probably political science).

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. My instincts are usually libertarian socially and economically and hawkish geopolitically, but I've been drifting leftward rapidly in recent months, mostly thanks to George W. Bush.

I am sympathetic to certain arguments from the radical left when it comes to foreign policy, epistemology, gender, and increasingly, economic structure. 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'm in a similar situation with regard to economics: I've never been convinced that a non-capitalist system can work, especially on a large scale, but I'm increasingly skeptical about the economic power it provides. I like what I've read from Brian Martin (though I don't agree with all of it) and I intend to read more of what he has to say on the subject.

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

Wikipedia stuff

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. I don't like {inote} because it's invisible to the reader.

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 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

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]
User:Singkong2005 likes my user page and plans to visit it again.

Userboxes

en-us
-N

This user is a native speaker of American English.

BS-0

This person does not understand Bullshit (or understands it with considerable difficulties or does not wish to communicate in Bullshit).

LE-1

This user's been known to screw up the occasional sentence and make the occasional typo, but is otherwise pretty accurate with regards to English.