User:SageRad

Pages to create soon:

• Samuel Orcutt historian and writer of colonial times. I keep encountering his works and yet he's got no article.

I'm here on Wikipedia because it's a worthy project. It defines human knowledge more than any other resource that i know. It's people's go-to source for basic knowledge about the world. I'm a long-time user and sometimes contributor. I used to edit without a username, but in March 2015 i signed up as SageRad.

I've edited pages on electrical engineering, microbial ecology, and solar power, as well as Nepal, among other things. I've had a lot of experience in life, and i use it to improve Wikipedia when i can contribute, which is why Wikipedia is such a miracle, a combined compendium of the best minds in the world editing about what they know best.

I love editing on many topics, like historical figures, towns that i am familiar with in my personal life, rivers, caves, farming and agronomy, and many other things. I love to learn while i also improve the knowledge base of the human species (at least the English-speaking segment of the species). I find it a pleasure and a joy generally, except there are some topics where it feels extremely contentious, and people are calling each other names and making insinuations. There it's not such a joy, but i do it because i must stand for accuracy and for representation of reality in articles around which there seems to be some sort of vested interests pushing in a direction away an unbiased reckoning of reality. It can get tricky, but my compass is to edit for accuracy, and to follow good sourcing. I try to be civil even when people attempt to get my goat. My goat cannot be gotten. My goat is mine.

I've been looking into pollution lately, although i have interests in a wide range of fields. I was born in a place where rivers were polluted by mercury for the hat industry. The two largest rivers near me were polluted by toxic chemicals. I have friends with cancer that may be due to toxin exposure. I think a lot about sociology of power, and i have observed power struggles in many arenas in life, from international diplomacy to war to organizational dynamics in many settings. I see the way that power corrupts, and i don't want it to corrupt human knowledge. That is why i am wary about how industry with vested interests may try to change the content of human knowledge, to remove inconvenient information. Some on Wikipedia have called this a problem. I think it's the functioning of a healthy immune system. We must be on guard against the actions of some to change the story, the basic knowledge of the human species, for self-interested reasons. This is not tin-foil hat territory. It's basic sociology and history.

I've worked as a microbial ecology researcher in a prestigious university, and i've designed specialized equipment to evolve microbial populations to accept or deposit electrons onto graphite electrodes for their basic metabolism. I've done high-efficiency power converter work for a solar-powered car. I've run experiments in microbial evolution. I practice agronomy. I've also studied the nexus of power and knowledge. I've seen how power sometimes wants to shut down knowledge to extend their dominion. These experiences inform my work in the world. I have observed how the fossil fuel industry has attempted to delay public knowledge about climate change and its importance. Sometimes so-called "controversial" topics are controversial because they are troubled by vested interests who don't want the best unbiased science to become accepted.

I love life, and i love knowledge, and i think Wikipedia is a wonderful creation.

Pages created:

• Sporomusa ovata (species of bacteria)
• Counterwill (psychological concept coined by Otto Rank)
• Chief Squantz (native leader in the time of colonization by Europeans)
• Zadoc Benedict (first hat maker in the "Hat City" town of Danbury, Connecticut)
• Charles Burnham (geneticist) (a noble man who helped develop blight-resistant American chestnut through back-breeding)
• Tory's Cave (Springfield, Vermont) (sources were used in the Tory's Cave (New Milford, Connecticut) article that were misleading as they applied to a different Tory's Cave, this one. I created an article for that Tory's Cave, and transcribed a poem about the cave into the article. I hope that the people in the area pick this up and develop the article more. Rather than throwing away good sources, i preferred to create a new article for the other cave. I wish all editors had a generous attitude in regard to editing -- to build rather than to simply delete. This historical work is fascinating.
• Batcheller's Cave (a cave in Roxbury, New Hampshire where a noted Tory sympathizer hid. Continues my spelunking expedition begun with cleaning up Tory's Cave (New Milford, Connecticut).)
• Breed Batcheller (an early settler of Roxbury, New Hampshire who did not support the American Revolutionary War and ended up run out of town and hiding in Batcheller's Cave)
• Chief Waramaug successor to sachemship after Chief Squantz, lived well, was highly respected.

Categories created:

• Category:American Loyalists from New Hampshire - Through happenstance, i was disambiguating some sources from the Tory's Cave (New Milford, Connecticut) article and created the Tory's Cave (Springfield, Vermont) page, when i inadvertently created the Category:American Loyalists from New Hampshire category. I love how Wikipedia grows.
• Category:Caves used for hiding - Tory's Cave in Connecticut and Tory's Cave in Vermont and Batcheller's Cave in New Hampshire are all examples of caves used for hiding, so i created this category. I hope that other examples will surface. I am sure many caves have been used for hiding historically.
• Category:Schaghticoke tribe - Pages related to this native tribe that lives on land along the Housatonic River.

Conflict of interest declarations:

• I have done work with Sporomusa ovata at Harvard University, and i created the page on Sporomusa ovata. I did not cite any of my own work.
• I have done work with Geobacter spp. at Trophos Inc. and i contributed to the Geobacter page. Again, i did not cite any of my own work.

I have no financial interests bearing upon any work i have ever done at Wikipedia.