Talk:Magic Slate

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Theleekycauldron (talk) 01:04, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

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• ... that during the Cold War Magic Slates were used by US Embassy staff in Moscow to thwart attempts by the Soviets to intercept their communications?
  Sources: "In 1952, an electronic sweep of the American ambassador’s residence had revealed that a wooden replica of the Great Seal of the United States that had been a gift from a Soviet youth group at the end of the war contained a listening device. As a result, the Americans were convinced that microphones were hidden throughout the embassy, and some staff had taken to communicating with each other by writing on children’s Magic Slate doodle pads, which they would wipe clean after each message so that no trace of sensitive conversations remained." Duns, p.20
  "... why not use [Magic Slates] to thwart the Russians. After all, American journalists meeting with Soviet dissidents in Russia have occasionally used Magic Slates as a way of communicating. And last week, even the U.S. government bought the idea. In fact, Rep. Dan Mica (D-Fla.) and Rep. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) received special instructions from the State Department to take the 99-cent toys with them on their recent inspection tour of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow." Horovitz
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Radomir Lazović

Created by Bruce1ee (talk). Self-nominated at 09:02, 3 April 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Magic Slate; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.

• Hi Bruce1ee (talk), great idea for a new article (I wonder if it was prompted by that The Last of Us episode?). Review: article created 1 April and exceeds minimum length; I didn't spot any overly close paraphrasing from a spotcheck on sources and Earwig is clear; hook fact is interesting, mentioned in the article and checks out to Duns (2013); a QPQ has been carried out. Just one query, I am not familiar with CompleteSet or Toy Tales and couldn't immediately find any details on their editorial process. Toy Tales has had a reasonably recent favourable opinion at RSN for a similar purpose but is there any background you can give me on CompleteSet? All the best - Dumelow (talk) 11:54, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
  • Hi Dumelow (talk), thanks for the review (and the copyedits). Actually what prompted me to write this article was that episode of Evil I watched last year, not the recent Last of Us episode. Regarding the reliability of CompleteSet, the only thing I can find is a list of some websites that use CompleteSet as a source:

Wealthify, 91.7 WVXU, Toy Tales, Den of Geek, Your Money Magic, Hot Cars and Money Pop (there others).

I don't know if this will help. Otherwise I can remove CompleteSet as a source and rework the article accordingly. —Bruce1ee^talk 14:45, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

Hi Bruce1ee, I had never seen one before and was intrigued enough to look it up when it appeared in The Last of Us episode. Thanks for the additional info, I am not an expert on toy websites but am happy to AGF that CompleteSet is reliable, if you think so - Dumelow (talk) 17:07, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

Dumelow (talk): Thanks – I'm happy with that.—Bruce1ee^talk 17:20, 4 April 2023 (UTC)