JimmyButler

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.

Background Check

In case anyone wishes to stalk me or simply desires to kick my "manus"; they can find me some where on the east coast of North Carolina, retired from teaching various forms of Biology where I corrupted literally 1,000's of students with the lies formulated by evil scientists. Such views as the earth is both old and round or that Dino and Fred never actually hung out together". I thrived on the controversy - encouraging my students to recognize that scientific advancements do not occur in a vacuum; but, have tremendous impacts on social issues. In essence, you do not have to be a biologist for biology to be highly relevant in your life.

Croatan's Mascot - interesting choice for a coastal community

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 most 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.

But seriously, remember the audience and at 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.

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.

To fill in the gaps until the "experts" arrive; I recruited an army of teenage high school students from Croatan High School to take up the banner. Our efforts are outlined at Wikipedia:WikiProject AP Biology 2011 to share your expertise and encouragement!

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.