Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 May 4

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May 4

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From article history:

cur | prev) 19:26, 19 April 2010 Sbharris (talk | contribs) (13,884 bytes) (Practive is to leave "OR" looking stuff in non-BLP articles, so long as it doesn't look obviously wrong. If may be OR or not. Eventually, cites are found. Most of WP is uncited. Patience.) (undo) (cur | prev) 19:19, 19 April 2010 Richard L. Peterson (talk | contribs) (11,513 bytes) (rm possibly valuable and/but far from obvious information--original research.also rm OR tag) (undo)

From sbharris talk page:

[edit] Have Spacesuit, Will Travel; errors section;original research It's been a couple years already, how much faster do you think patience will work in the future? It seems likely to me that if citations are eventually found, it will because a fire was lit under the original researcher by deleting her or his contribution. But in fact, I'm dubious that any nonprimary sources can be found that point out the stated errors in Heinlein's book, whether or not they are errors. Best wishes, Rich (talk) 21:48, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

What should be done? Thanks, 199.33.32.40 (talk) 00:17, 4 May 2010 (UTC)Rich (talk) 05:56, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

AfD vote question

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  Done

I put the article Igor Ostrovsky up for deletion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Igor Ostrovsky. When I just looked at the AfD statistics it says that user Astudent0 has voted twice, although it appears the third vote was from an ip address (72.20.219.166). The third deletion vote wasn't signed so it appeared to be credited to the previous editor. Is there a way to correct this? I don't want the admin discounting that vote. Thank you. Papaursa (talk) 00:25, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I fixed it, added {{unsigned}} after the ip's !vote. ~~ GB fan ~~ talk 00:34, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Blorenge

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  Resolved
 –  – ukexpat (talk) 17:30, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Could someone take a look at The Blorenge. I tried to figure out what's causing the image to cover the entire screen but I can't understand it. I've tried putting in a size limit but on a preview, that doesn't seem to work. Thanks, Dismas|(talk) 00:48, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See response below, and ANI. The problem was an unprotected template which was messed up. It's been fixed. You may have to purge the page (make a null edit) in order to retransclude the template, but the source of the problem has been corrected. --Jayron32 01:23, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks!! Dismas|(talk) 06:57, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Really strange problem with Peace Candle infobox

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  Resolved
 –  – ukexpat (talk) 17:31, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. So, the infobox for the article Peace Candle has been fine for a long time, but the other day I went into it and for some reason, there is a whole mess of text directly underneath the photo that includes the words "Hi this is some facts on thr morman trail most of the people were drunk just kiudding the morman trail was one of the most important trails of the united statespx". This text seems to be messing up the coding of the article. The strange thing is, this text is nowhere in the actual body of the article source (as far as I can tell), so I don't know what to remove or change in order to fix it. Can somebody help me? — Hunter Kahn 01:00, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Possilbe_globally_currupted_infobox. It was a vandalized global template. The problem has been corrected by reverting the vandalism and protecting the template. --Jayron32 01:14, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Trouble adding a monobook script

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I attempted to add a script to my monobook.js (found here) and now I have a notice that I need to add the accompanying monobook.css. In my limited understanding this shouldn't be a problem because I use the default skin and don't have beta presently. The coordinator of the project found no problems in my monobook.js and suggested I ask here.--~TPW 03:35, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Differences between revisions

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If I click the "prev" link next to a revision in a page's edit history, but no changes appear to have been made (the paragraph highlighted in green is identical to that highlighted in yellow, with no red bold text), does that mean the edit was inadvertent? I would request notification via my talk page when this question is answered. Hallpriest9 (Talk) 04:12, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Some changes can be very hard to see, for example if someone changed a period (full stop) character to a comma. It would be nice if the diff feature showed not only the changed characters in different colors, but would also change the background color under the changed characters. Then even a nearly invisible change to a punctuation character would show up clearly. (There might be some way to customize the diff display with JavaScript; I've never tried.) We can only guess what you saw or did not see because you did not link to any specific diff example. --Teratornis (talk) 05:47, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You can also compare the character counts for each revision on the history page. That will tell you if the number of characters changed. --Teratornis (talk) 05:50, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
For example in this diff I fixed a reference punctuation inconsistency, and that little red comma may not be easy to see on first glance unless you are looking for it. An effective way to highlight obscure diffs might be with a Blink comparator (the technology that discovered Pluto, by the way) - that is, a way to rapidly do and un-do the change on a single instance of the paragraph. The human visual system is highly sensitive to motion, so you would see the diff "jumping" out at you. --Teratornis (talk) 06:01, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Of course the poor man's blink comparator is to open the two revisions in separate browser tabs, scroll them vertically so the section of interest aligns, and then switch back and forth quickly between browser tabs. You'll see the changed text jumping around when you switch. The lines which are the same between the revisions will appear to stay fixed on the display. --Teratornis (talk) 06:23, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sometimes an edit can make no change except to spacing, such as removing a double space after a period, which will result in no visible changes in the text because two spaces displays as one. This is sometimes done purposefully because a user wishes to leave an edit summary but not change the text. See Help:Dummy edit. For illustration purposes, I have just made a dummy edit to your post above by removing a double space you placed between two words; here's the diff. There is a monobook tool, User:Cacycle/wikEdDiff, which enhances diff display and makes it easy to see even very minor change, such as from a period to a comma, and even shows changes in spacing as in my dummy edit.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:16, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If there were no changes at all when a user clicked Save page then it becomes a null edit which is not recorded in page histories, contributions lists, etc. If there are no differences at all between two compared revisions, for example after a revert like [1], then the diff is empty. This should only happen for non-consecutive edits since it would have been a null edit otherwise. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:55, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Chives plant

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Gentlemen:

My question is, are the flowers on the Chive plant edibile? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Syracusehyde (talkcontribs) 10:05, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The answer is a one- to two-second Google search away. You also might look at this encylopedia's page on chives for your answer: Chives#Culinary arts. Please note for future reference that this page is for questions about using Wikipedia, as announced at the top of this page, and general knowledge questions belong at the reference desk.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:43, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Listing my program in some article's "Links" section, where similar programs from another vendors are reffered

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Hi,

I read the page about COI and have a question. In some article's Links section, there are some refferences to software solutions, which is analogues to my. I'm willing to add a reference to my program there. Is it possible?

Thanks, - Alex. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Photovideosoft (talkcontribs) 10:31, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You should not add links to your website. The best idea is to bring up the link on the article's talk page for other editors to discuss. To which article were you referring? TNXMan 13:04, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
But look at WP:EL. If you see existing links that you don't meet these criteria, you can delete them (though if they are to competitors' pages, it would be better to declare a COI and suggest their removal on the appropriate talk page). --ColinFine (talk) 21:56, 6 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

<email removed>

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Muy señore mios: Intento localizar manual en español de ELECTRONIC TRANSLATOR DE PANASONIC RL-T50, pues lo he perdido en el trayecto desde Tenerife (Isla Canaris) Londres- Tenerife , donde he cursado en pequeño curso de ingles.

Prodrian uds. localisame una copia ?.

Agradeciendole de antemano las gracias, atentamente: Artemio Cabrera-Pinto Martin —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.0.168.147 (talk) 11:15, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Señor, por favor visite un lugar la página de consultas enciclopédicas de Wikipedia: es:Wikipedia:Consultas. Gracias.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:23, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

SVG Logo Conversion

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I am being harassed by another Wikipedian regarding the issue of FUR SVG Logos i have asked if we could drop the topic and they continue. Could someone please intervene. Koman90 (talk), Network+ 12:15, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Your best bet would be to bring this up at Dispute Resolution or Wikipedia:Third opinion -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 20:44, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You were already told you weren't being attacked or harassed by another editor. You're now forum shopping. The only reason I added 1 further reply was because you made an unjustified personal attack and have refused to retract it.--Crossmr (talk) 16:16, 6 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Check an edit please?

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I'd like to check the veracity of this edit but the website in the edit summary doesn't work on either Safari or Firefox. I keep just getting the same menu with a background image but no additional content on any page. Thanks, Dismas|(talk) 12:25, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a problem with your browser. Using Firefox or Internet Explorer, I also don't see any content on most of the pages. There's nothing there that verifies that Summer Hanson is her birth name. --Mysdaao talk 12:34, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I see the page fine in Firefox with her bio, background etc. but I don't see anything on the page verifying her birth name as Summer Hanson. However, there are many web sources found reporting this as her birth name [2]. I found none searching Google books or news archive. The reliability of the fewweb sources I reviewed is an issue, but a more thorough review by you may find something to use.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:42, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, guys! Apparently the web designer needs to go back to school. Dismas|(talk) 12:54, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

BLSC Blastomere Like Stem Cells

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I've been approached to be part of study for BLSC (Blastomere Like Stem Cells) and I can't find any reference to this on the Internet. Can anyone on Wiki help me? Thanks.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mccartjt (talkcontribs) 14:35, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You may find more information at Blastomere (but there's not much there) or at Stem cell. You may also want to ask at the science reference desk. TNXMan 14:49, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
See our Medical disclaimer. --Teratornis (talk) 18:29, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

My new template I created

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I create Template:User:Immunize/Willing to report but I do not know how to get it to display on my userpage and I also feel it needs improvement (something about looks much different than the other userboxes). Please help. Immunize (talk) 15:06, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good to me. I've successfully added it to my userpage using the following incantation:
{{subst:Template:User:Immunize/Willing to report}}
Hope that helps! Cheers, TFOWRThis flag once was red 15:09, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I would rename your template to Template:User Immunize/Willing to report, as the ":" after "User" confuses the subst: if you just do {{User:Immunize/Willing to report}} (which just transcludes User:Immunize/Willing to report, not Template:User:Immunize/Willing to report). MC10 (TCGBL) 04:09, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Why not just move it to Template:Will report? No need for the user stuff and shorter titles are better. – ukexpat (talk) 17:39, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Good idea. MC10 (TCGBL) 04:23, 6 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

notes

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how do i leave a note —Preceding unsigned comment added by RIAAcertifacation (talkcontribs) 15:50, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Usually by doing what you just did. Was there a specific place you were trying to leave a note? TNXMan 15:55, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

On This Day

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I was just wondering how you missed the Kent State shootings of May 4th 1970 in the "On this day" section today. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.174.20.112 (talk) 15:59, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The proper place to discuss this matter is at Wikipedia_talk:Selected_anniversaries/May_4. Please read the discussion already going there, and also please read the FAQ at the top of the page, especially Question 1, which is very relevent. --Jayron32 16:05, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect Information in VMI Article

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As an employee of Virginia Military Institute I didn't want to edit the VMI entry.

I do want to draw your attention to the fact that the last sentence in the section on honor was apparently added maliciously (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Military_Institute#Honor_code).

The citation attached to this sentence does not support the contention made. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.75.179.19 (talk) 16:25, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed the offending sentence. In the future, the better place to raise these issues is at the talk page of the article itself, in this case Talk:Virginia Military Institute. --Jayron32 16:30, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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Can someone please help to add information to an already existing Wikipedia link? I don't know how and don't want to attempt at doing it.

I would like to see a reference to U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka on the Wikipedia link "Pacific Islander": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islanders


"Daniel Kahikina Akaka (born September 11, 1924) is the junior U.S. Senator from Hawaii and a member of the Democratic Party. He is the first U.S. Senator of Native Hawaiian ancestry" and his Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akaka —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.139.43.174 (talk) 17:00, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

He is listed on the page List of Native Hawaiians. Pacific Islander doesn't contain a list of notable Pacific Islanders, so I don't think there's a good place to add information about the Senator there. --Mysdaao talk 17:21, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Image code syntax?

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Hello, excuse me if I am being thick here but I can't get images to work...I just want to add a thumbnail to the top-right of a page, which appears to be very common. Thumb is what I believe has to be the code used, however I am a bit ambiguous as to where the 'Thumb' part needs to go. I think the problem might be that I am trying to link to the image in question rather than uploading it...however, it is licensed for use here as it is on Geograph.co.uk...I have seen many pictures from Geograph on Wikipedia, including some of mine...surely it is better to link to it with its original copyright info etc and have it so clicking on it goes directly to the page on Geograph...rather than replicating it here...plus it's not my image to upload!

I am sure I am doing something silly so if somebody could enlighten me as to what I am doing wrong then I can 'fix' the page in question and will know for the future. Thanks! GaryReggae (talk) 19:07, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You can't make an image appear on Wikipedia via an external link. Fortunately, the procedure for uploading Geograph images is fairly easy. The first thing you need to do is to go to Wikimedia Commons and search to make sure that the image is not already there (a great number of Geograph images were recently automatically imported to Commons). If it is there, all you need to do is copy its name and insert a link of the form
File:name of file
caption
in the article at the place you want the image to appear. If it isn't there, you can follow the instructions in the green box here to upload it and then add the link to the article. If that still seems too daunting, tell me which Geograph image you're interested in, and I'll upload it for you; or if you want more detailed instructions for uploading, leave a message on my talk page. Deor (talk) 21:50, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much! I have now uploaded the required image from Geograph and added it to the page using your instructions.GaryReggae (talk) 09:41, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Something needs to be added

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i tried to read upp on Jerry Hanlon, country music classic artist, and there is only information about the football player and coach. Someone who loves country should add him in somwhere —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.183.190.84 (talk) 19:16, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have reliable, independent sources of information about him? Does he meet Wikipedia's Notability guidelines (or Wikipedia's Notability Guidelines for Biographies or Wikipedia's Notability guidelines for musicians)? If the answer to both those questions is 'yes', you can either place a request at Requests for Articles, or you can create an account and then read "Your first article" (or use the Article Wizard) -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 20:49, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Assuming that the above criteria are met, then the new article should be created at a disambiguated title, such as "Jerry Hanlon (country musician)" and a hatnote added to the football player's article (or some similar combination, as per the disambiguation guidelines). Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 00:01, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipadia Logo not on it's proper place

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  Done thanks, Polbeer91

Since a while, the wikipedialogo at the top left of the webpage is placed to far to the right (About half of the logo sits over the line between the navigation panel and the actual articles so that it completely overlaps the word new from new page). I'm using windows vista and IE 8 (8.0.6001.18904 to be precise). This problem doesn't occur on firefox. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Polbeer91 (talkcontribs) 20:02, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See this thread from the computing reference desk. Cheers. Winston365 (talk) 21:44, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Please delete my article

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Hello Can you please delete the article TiUnite? I was trying to write it but kept getting flags from Wiki about it being too technical and sounding like and advertisement and not having a lead in. I need time to re-write it first (not in the live section). Then later I will try agin. It was redirected from TiUnite with a registered symbol. Thanks

CA Knapp (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 20:08, 4 May 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Tell you what, I've done you one better. I've moved the article to User:CA Knapp/Sandbox. This will allow you to improve the article without having to rewrite the entire thing. Feel free to take your time and if you have questions as you go, ask away. TNXMan 20:22, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Switching to a new account.

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I formerly used account User:Givememoney17 and would like to know if I have provided adequate notice on that page or if there is some template I need there, so as to avoid sockpuppett acusations (so long as I no longer use the old account).Schnapps17 (talk) 21:17, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you want, I can indefinitely block that account, so that it cannot be used, and protect the talk and user pages. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 21:22, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Please Help a new user

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I'm trying to make a page for a project for school and everytime I start making a new page it get's deleted. I try to learn how to use the templates and the help that is provided is not clear. All I want to do is make a simple page and be able to turn it in without it getting deleted. Can you please give me some advise as to why my page keeps getting deleted, and how to use the templates. Thank you for any help you can give me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ID15SD44 (talkcontribs) 21:26, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Answered on his user talk. --Jayron32 21:41, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

pdf file

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I copied someone elses Wikipedia format and changed it to include my entry on a Pdf file.

Can I simply submit my completed pdf file?

Larry Flinchpaugh. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.156.47.178 (talk) 21:38, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry no, Wikipedia articles must be written using our interface, which employs wiki markup language. The only thing I can think to suggest to make the conversion easier, if you are going to do it (and it's not already in a grabbable form), is to use an optical character recognition program (Adobe Professional has one for example) to convert the text so that it can be copied and pasted here. You would probably benefit from taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so you know how to format the text. Please also note a few of our policies and guidelines, such as verifiability, neutral point of view, no original research and notability. Please also see Wikipedia:Your first article. Oh, I should mention that you must sign up for an account in order to create an article (it's really easy). Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:12, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Appropedia:Help:Porting PDF files to MediaWiki mentions some possibilities. I haven't tried any of them. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:20, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Archive

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Hi, my archive bot was not working so I added miza bot3 and it has started working but I wanted it to automatically add it to my list and it has not done that, I added it to target-Off2riorob/Archive index but it hasn't added it to the list? Would someone have a quick look at the situation and tell me how I can just get it all to be automatic and added to the list, right now the archive from today is in space and I will have to add a link myself.Off2riorob (talk) 22:21, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You told it to archive to User_talk:Off2riorob/Archive 58 when you probably should've set the counter to 5 or 6. I think that whatever adds the links to the template does it sequentially, since there's not archive 6 through 57, it didn't add 58. Another question, do you really need the conversations to be archived after a day? That seems like a really short timeframe. --Kraftlos (Talk | Contrib) 11:18, 6 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, so if I reset it to 6 it will start to add them automatically? I agree a day is going to be far to short a time. I just wanted to see if it was working and how it was working. I lifted the settings from Jimbos userpage. Off2riorob (talk) 11:25, 6 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Articles deleted in a similar name

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  Done

How is it possible to search for previously deleted articles that had a similar name to a created article? This Andrew Brown (media strategist) is the one that has got me thinking, as I have sent the recently created article to AFD for discussion and I remember a previous AFD which is not showing and was perhaps in a slightly different name. Off2riorob (talk) 22:47, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm curious to see what others come up with. I failed, miserably, but tried, this type search and the same search with "Andy Brown"; I tried searching the history of Gordon Brown for a time the mention of Andrew Brown in it was red-linked, and if I found that, would have checked to see what it piped to. I did the same type search in the history of the Andrew Brown disambiguation page. Of course, I made a hearthearted attempt at the deletion log with a few possible disambiguators, but it's really a guessing game (man would it be useful if they ever made it searchable and case insensitive). I then searched the user talk namespace for deletion notifications of "Andrew Brown". Finally, I checked deletionpedia. That's all I can think of.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:23, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for trying Fuhghettaboutit and for the explamaition of how the search engine works and doesn't work. I also did a look back over my contributions and the G Brown article history and came up blank. I just thiught there may be any easy way. I quess it was my memory playing tricks on me, thanks. Off2riorob (talk) 07:41, 5 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]