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  Wikipedia`s falsehoods
From: <ju-bo at msn.com> on 2009.01.31 at 13:39:10(19008)
Dear Ted and all Aroid Friends,

Thanks, Ted!
By now it SHOULD be obvious that Wikipedia is a VERY unreliable source of information on aroids or ANY material. 
I would NOT be surprised if it has become a ''tool'' of persons who are using it to push THEIR agenda.   "They" can post ''their'' agendas (which may be VERY inaccurate, as we have seen in this examples quoted here by Ted, plus others quoted previously), and ''they'' can keep editing any correction to THEIR false entry back to ''their'' original inaccurate posting, so that ''their'' misinformation is spread as being factual.  This by Wikipedia,  a source, which to most of the general public, is an aparently ''reliable'' source''.  Not so!!!
Enough said.   ''There are none so blind as those who WILL not see''.

Julius

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From: "E.Vincent Morano" <ironious2 at yahoo.com> on 2009.02.01 at 07:37:45(19016)
any idea's on where to find an unbiased source?

--- On Sat, 1/31/09, ju-bo@msn.com wrote:

From: ju-bo@msn.com

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From: ExoticRainforest <Steve at ExoticRainforest.com> on 2009.02.01 at 16:04:13(19019)
Consider referring to any of thesources I listed a few days ago. All are from scientific sources andif you follow the method I outlined on using Dr. Croat's field notesfrom TROPICOS in my previous note you'll get the best informationpossible. I'm listing the links here again:

TROPICOS which is aservice of the Missouri Botanical Garden
http://www.tropicos.org/

The International Aroid Society. You'll find tons of good info here!
http://www.aroid.org/

The Aroid l Index. To use this try typing in the name of the plant andthen click on all the years. The system will search for anydiscussions of that species from the beginning of Aroid l
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\Aroid l achieves search.mht

The International Plant Names Index which is a service of the RoyalBotanic Garden Kew in London. This is considered the ultimate sourceby many but rarely lists details and only confirms the validity ofnames.
http://www.ipni.org/index.html

Kew Monocot Checklist. This site sometimes contains good info aboutwhy a plant is a synonym instead of the currently accepted name.
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\Kew World Monocots ChecklistSeries.mht

The Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/prepareChecklist.do;jsessionidÔE7F43755D6B641D

Cate Araceae
http://www.cate-araceae.org/index.do;jsessionid–982249A0181F1EB1E74E6CEB9841D4

In addition, look up any of the major botanical garden websites. Sometimes you will find the information you need.

Of course, you should add all of Dr. Croat's journals on Philodendron,Anthurium and other genera you are interested in learning about toyou library. Be certain you own a copy of Deni Bown's book Aroids,Plants of the Arum Family. One of the ultimate scientific sourcebooks is The Genera of Araceae by Mayo, Bogner and Boyce. Manyof you often read Pete Boyce's material right here! Julius and I bothdepend on that text heavily since you can learn very detailed info thatis rarely available in other sources. You can order just about all of these from the IAS.

Steve Lucas

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From: <ju-bo at msn.com> on 2009.02.01 at 16:19:05(19020)
If you Google most species or ''things'' you may need information on, a list of possibilites comes up, choose the best ones you can, avoiding Wikipedia.
Another way to go (on Aroids, anyhow), is ask Steve Lucas for the legit. botanical sites where good (but not always perfect!) info is posted by recognized institutions such as Kew gardens and MOBOT.

Julius

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From: hermine <hermine at endangeredspecies.com> on 2009.02.01 at 20:08:13(19022)
At 08:19 AM 2/1/2009, you wrote:

If you Google most species or''things'' you may need information on, a list of possibilites comes up,choose the best ones you can, avoidingWikipedia.

maybe i told you maybe not, that i once went looking for information onwiki about Lorenzo da Ponte, the librettist for Mozart and everything Ifound there looked curiously familiar, because I HAD WRITTEN IT. However,in researching some hard science, i did find the footnotes and referencescheck out.

I used to test dictionaries by looking up some obscure dog breed to seewhat they had to say, to see if it added to my own knowledge, and seldom,seldom, was this so. it would be hard to find more info in one place onAroids than I have found on this list.

herm

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From: hermine <hermine at endangeredspecies.com> on 2009.02.01 at 20:09:59(19023)
Kew Monocot Checklist. This site sometimes contains good info aboutwhy a plant is a synonym instead of the currently accepted name.
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\Kew World Monocots ChecklistSeries.mht

HOW DO I GET HERE?

hermine

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From: ExoticRainforest <Steve at ExoticRainforest.com> on 2009.02.03 at 12:48:20(19032)
I copied the link directly from thewebpage but it won't come up alive when I try to paste it into anemail. I would just go to Google and type in Kew Monocot WorldChecklist and it will show up. Be sure and save the link to yourfavorites. In my case I have all of the ones I listed right on mydesktop with icons so I can just go to them quickly and click anyone soI can find info faster.

I originally learned about the site from Lucinda Lay at Kew. Severalof the folks over there have been really kind to help me find info andI am always thankful for all their help. Kew has a number of goodsites so I use them often.

Steve

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From: ExoticRainforest <Steve at exoticrainforest.com> on 2009.02.03 at 12:56:50(19033)
Interesting Hermine. Curiously I'mnow finding my own material on other websites (word for word) includingWiki! Although I do my best to make sure my info is accurate, how inthe world would anyone know it is accurate enough to just publish itword for word on an "Encyclopedia" website? Sites in SE Asia havebecome very bad about "borrowing" material from all sorts of sourcesand reusing it without credit in the origianl form! I've found quite afew of my pages reproduced intact minus the photos. And sometimes theyuse the photos as well! I created a moving banner of orchid photos formy orchid page (and I don't collect a lot of orchids) and found thething in full motion form on a SE Asian orchid site! You can screamand yell about copyright but with the internet many people will useanything they want and there is little you can do about it. What everhappened to civility and crediting others for what anyone uses as theirown work?

Steve Lucas

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From: hermine <hermine at endangeredspecies.com> on 2009.02.03 at 21:41:19(19037)
You can scream and yell aboutcopyright but with the internet many people will use anything they wantand there is little you can do about it. What ever happened tocivility and crediting others for what anyone uses as their ownwork?

Steve Lucas

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From: "mossytrail" <mossytrail at hctc.com> on 2009.02.03 at 23:14:12(19038)
If you have access to a university computer system, they may
be subscribed to JSTOR, Biological Abstracts, or some
similar database. These will take you to peer-reviewed
articles. JSTOR is especially useful, because every article
it references is scanned in its entirety in the database --
you can read it righ on your monitor.

Of course, this necessitates that something BE published on
the taxon in question. For some obscure taxa, there is
nothing out there. Another drawback to JSTOR is that is you
search the full-text of the articles, you may get articles
in which your search term appears only in the "works cited,"
as part of the title of another article you probably already
read.

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From: <ju-bo at msn.com> on 2009.02.04 at 11:01:17(19047)
Dear All,

Between what Steve Lucas has suggested, then the great information which Jason provides (below), I THINK we have covered about as many bases we can concerning locating good information on aroids (and eliminating using Wikipedia). 
Jason does bring up a good point--- where do we find information on some of the more obscure genera on which there are limited or NO publications!?!   Allow me to say that this forum (aroid-l) then provides an INVALUABLE service, as it has contact with MOST of the world experts on aroids or has a member who reads this forum, who can usually contact the person who has the knowledg.  Most times when a request has been submitted, there has been SOMEONE who reads the request and is able to eventually supply the information being sought!

The Best, and Good Growing.

Julius Boos
WPB, FLORIDA

> From: mossytrail@hctc.com

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