User:Pat Palmer

I joined this wiki in 2007 and was around intermittently for many years. When Citizendium considered closing down in mid 2020, I returned after a long hiatus and took ownership of the domain to help the project continue, in honor of the past great efforts by Larry, Anthony, Milt, Norman, Ro and others, and the continuing efforts of John S. and the many technical staff who've helped in the past. The sense of community possible here was especially valuable during the COVID-19 shutdowns--and I value it all the time. My interests in this wiki are as often personal as professional, and wide ranging.

On the academic side:

M. A. in public sector management (Fels Center, Univ. of Penn., 1992)
M. S. in computer science (Univ. of Tenn., 1983)
academic work towards a Ph. D. (not completed) in Germanic linguistics and literature, 1975-1976, Univ. of Tenn.
B. A. in liberal arts (Univ. of Tenn., 1974); my major was English, with a minor in German

Some articles I've contributed to:

Amaryllis: The common name for a group of showy ornamental perennials plants in the genus Hippeastrum. ^[e]
Amy Lowell (poet): Modern American poet (1874-1925), posthumous winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926, author of poemms Patterns and Lilacs ^[e]
Claude Shannon: (1916-2001) American theoretical mathematician, founder of information theory. ^[e]
Clean Water Act: Federal laws from 1948, 1972, 1977 and 1987 that govern water quality in the United States of America ^[e]
Coal mining: the various methods used to extract coal from the ground. ^[e]
Croquet: A sport using wooden mallets to knock balls across a lawn, playable with average strength, speed, agility and endurance, barefoot or in any kind of shoes including high heels. ^[e]
C_Sharp: Object-oriented general-purpose programming language developed for the Microsoft .NET Framework. ^[e]
Eugene Daub (sculptor): An award-winning American scultor (1942-?) known for statuary, busts in a classical style, and for medallic art and bas relief. ^[e]
Evening primrose: Several species of wild flowers native to eastern and central North America from the genus Oenothera. ^[e]
Gertrude_Stein: American author (1874-1946) who lived in Paris, France, and is best remembered for creating deliberate linguistic conundrums. ^[e]
Lois_McMaster_Bujold: American science fiction and fantasy writer, winner of seven Hugos, three Nebulas, and many other awards ^[e]
Macrobiotics: A mostly vegan, low-salt, low-oil diet; a social movement training people to cook according to their personal condition. ^[e]
Mary Baker Eddy: American founder of Christian Science and of international newspaper The Christian Science Monitor. ^[e]
One-way encryption: Form of encryption used to store passwords on disk and verify intact file transmission. ^[e]
Paris, Tennessee: A town of about 10,000 in West Tennessee; county seat of Henry County; has a 70' replica of the Eiffel Tower ^[e]
Quinto_(grid_game): Board game a.k.a. Game of Fives resembling Scrabble but with numbers. ^[e]
Rainer_Maria_Rilke: German poet (1875-1926) from Austria-Hungary famous for the Duino Elegies and The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge among other works ^[e]
Ruby (programming language): Dynamically-typed, object-oriented programming language created by Yukihiro Matsumoto in 1995. ^[e]
Scylla (sea monster): A mythological a sea hazard on one side of a narrow strait across from a dangerous whirlpool. ^[e]
Smoke Signals (film): A 1998 Canadian-American film about a troubled father-son relationship on Idaho's Coeur D'Alene Reservation. ^[e]
Tennessee Heritage Protection Act: Tennessee state law (2013) to prevent removal or relocation of confederate memorials on public property. ^[e]
Tennessee River: a large tributary of the Ohio River ^[e]
Theater in the round: A performance space in which the audience sits on at least three sides of the stage ^[e]
Theodor Fontane: A popular, late 19th-century German-language novelist whose realistic works are still widely read, sometimes in English translation. ^[e]
Walt Whitman: (1819-92) American poet and essayist, famous for his flowing free verse in Leaves of Grass, including 'A Noiseless Patient Spider' ^[e]
What is language?: The definition of language - what counts as a language and what doesn't - is a difficult philosophical topic, deserving an article in its own right. ^[e]