User talk:Ianmacm

Steatoda nobilis

Not for British postmen of a nervous disposition...

There is a really good photograph of the skull-shaped marking on the back of a Steatoda nobilis here. Unfortunately it is copyrighted, so it cannot be used on Wikipedia. It has to be said that not all Steatoda nobilis have this feature, so it cannot be used as an infallible indicator. There is a risk of misidentifying other spiders as Steatoda nobilis, so nobody should kill a spider simply because it *might* be one.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 17:15, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

UK postman refuses to deliver letter because of spider and web

Amazing but true story here. What may have gone wrong is that the postman read recent sensational media stories about alleged attacks by false widow spiders. The harlequin markings on the spider in this incident show that it is a common orb weaver, which presents no threat to a human. During the autumn in Britain, these female spiders are capable of Tarzan-like feats of swinging between trees and bushes, and building large circular webs between them. Orb weavers look nothing like Steatoda nobilis, which are not flesh-eating spiders as stated here. This is getting silly, and is also similar to the panic over Asian giant hornets.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 17:44, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

And they're back, on the front page of the Daily Star today, with Killer false widow spiders attacked my little girl. There are no recorded incidents of a person dying from a spider bite in the UK.[1] The photograph of the wound on the four-year-old girl is consistent with others showing false widow bites. The photograph in the story with the caption "Spiders are coming in from the cold as autumn hits" is pretty absurd, as it does not show a native UK spider, possibly it is a Huntsman spider. This image has an enormous amount of hits on Tineye, and is even on Wikimedia Commons (dubious copyright status here). The tabloid newspapers really should be more careful when reporting this type of incident.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:07, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

Today's Daily Star headline is Killer false widow spider made my leg explode!. There is an improvement in the text of the story, because it makes clear that the incident was caused by a streptococcal infection rather than the bite itself. The front page appears to show File:Steatoda bipunctata female (aka).jpg from Wikimedia Commons, not a Steatoda nobilis.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:43, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

English name of spider

Hi Ianmacm, i don't really know how best to communicate with you, so i'm trying by editing here. You can look me up as my real name stuart longhorn, perhaps find my email if you want. You reverted some of my 'good faith' changes to the article on S.nobilis on 18.IX.13, and i have to say i disagree with many of those. So, i'm sorry, modified some as compromise, but reverted back others. For example i removed the general name 'false widow' as this is confusing with other members of the same genus, and under advice from senior members of the british arachnology society, their advice was to advocate only the single unique name of 'noble false widow'. Else, i had removed the original reference to 'bananas' because the original 1879 article on the topic mentions no such thing. It is in 1907 when the possibility of later introductions via bananas occurs. I also wish the reference later 2013 news story to say the treatment of antibiotics was for bacterial infection, simply because thats what antibiotics treat - yet some people appear to be under the wrong impression that antibiotics treat venom. Any other questions about my changes - we can discuss - but i'm not sure how to communicate except here! Sorry.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Sjl197 (talk • contribs) 01:39, 19 October 2013(UTC)

The use of false widow in the lead section is based on WP:COMMONNAME. Virtually all of the mainstream media coverage uses this, not noble false widow. Wikipedia articles have to take into account how the sourcing describes the subject, and even the Natural History Museum uses false widow here. There is, though, the possibility of confusion with other false widow spiders such as False widow spider Steatoda paykulliana. The media has failed to make clear that the really nasty wounds were the result of infections rather than the bites themselves. None of the sources makes this sufficiently clear and gives the impression that the spider was solely responsible for the incident (the "flesh-eating" myth). See also Talk:Steatoda nobilis. The Snopes article Brown Recluse is also worth a look. These spiders are often blamed for bites and infected wounds in the United States, but there is no definitive proof that a brown recluse was responsible for this incident. --♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:35, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

Regarding your revert of my edit on Google

The reason I posted that hatnote up there was due to a recent edit that I did: I changed the target of @Google from AtGoogleTalks to Google (due to that connection most likely being more notable than the connection to AtGoogleTalks). However, the AtGoogleTalks article has a lot of names and acronyms that contain "@Google", possibly meaning that search term has a very high connection with AtGoogleTalks. So, for that reasoning, I think the hatnote should remain up there; however, I am up for debating exactly how notable AtGoogleTalks is for a determination. If the "@Google to AtGoogleTalks" connection is not notable enough, I don't have any issue with that hatnote not being there. But, I would like get that figured that out. Steel1943 (talk) 07:33, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

Hatnotes are best suited to situations where genuine confusion is likely to occur. The average person arriving at Google will not be looking for @Google, which is not very well known.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:39, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

The point you just brought up (and I agree with) is actually backwards from the question/point I am trying to figure out ... the point being will anyone looking for "@Google" be looking for "AtGoogleTalks", considering that I just changed the target of "@Google"? Steel1943 (talk) 07:50, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

Actually, looking at the page view statistics for @Google, the lack of traffic just told me, basically, that the target might as well be Google without any confusion. Disregard my last point, and good catch! :) Steel1943 (talk) 08:00, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

Poster of The Amityville Horror film

Poster of The Amityville Horror (film) already belongs to the film page. Free text in the novel page replaces the poster, or should I say that the novel page should not mention the poster itself and its aspects. (Or probably the aspects of the poster are inadequately explained.) If aspects of the poster are significantly covered by sources, the poster should be mentioned in the film page. May you please allow me to remove the poster again? By the way, I removed other images of The Amityville Horror. --George Ho (talk) 22:11, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

It is not in the current version of the article.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:50, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Then allow me to add {{db-g7}} on images and audios that you uploaded for the novel page? --George Ho (talk) 18:35, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

OK.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:11, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

Torquay being the Admin HQ of Torbay and about Agatha Christie and the new Dual Carriageway and Hollacombe beach/gasworks

Torquay is the Administrative HQ of Torbay and when Torbay was a county of its own right from 1968 onwards Torquay was the county town as I work for Torbay Council and the Council Headquarters are at Torquay Town Hall and if you look further down the page of Torquay there is a citation and a quote of Agatha Christie being born at Ashfield which was demolished in the 1960's plus the Kingskerswell bypass was given the go ahead in October 2011 citation Herald Express verified my friend I bet your not even from Torquay/Torbay but it sounds like your Scottish whilst im a Torquinian born and bred and know alot about Torquay and Torbay's history of which anything i put on is not untrue otherwise whats the point of putting false info on the site. So please stop deleting Torbay Council's files as all the info added was true and Plymouth is 28 miles from Torquay which is done from an Ordnance survey. Don't mean no disrespect but also Hollacombe Beach is the most southern beach in Torquay which you can find out by reading the history of Torbay by Frank Pearce as Hollacombe gasworks was directly opposite the beach and they come under the Livermead area of Torquay of which Torquay had another gasworks on Barton Hill Road in the Barton/Hele area of Torquay. No disrespect Ianmacm yours StatoatTBC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by StatoatTBC (talk • contribs) 10:47, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

I haven't disputed that Torquay is the adminstrative centre of Torbay, it is where the Town Hall is at Castle Circus. The description of Torquay as the captial/county town of Torbay is non-standard, as Torbay is a unitary authority, not a county or a country. This needs a citation. Cites need to be in easy to verify form, and some of the cites added have been too vague for an average reader to follow. Book cites should have an WP:ISBN and a page number, for example. After some looking around, I did find a citation saying that Agatha Christie was born at Ashfield, and that the building was demolished in 1961, which was more specific than the previous cite, so this was added to the article.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 10:57, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Sandy Hook

Thanx for working with me on the Sandy Hook page so collegially. Also I liked the new section you added on the report. I'm still curious about that opening point about the video game section. I wonder still if we should be clearer that there were some original news reports that suggested "thousands of dollars" of video games, then later clarify the official investigation found twelve (by my count unless I'm missing something). Might be clearer for the time line. At present, although more precise, I think it reads as if the investigation report prompted the scrutiny of video games which I don't think is an accurate portrayal. Who knows what went on behind the scenes I suppose, but I think most of the speculation in the general public was due to the rumors not what the police actually found. What do you think? Avalongod (talk) 18:54, 28 November 2013 (UTC)