Link to five Wikipedia articles you find fascinating

Star Jelly

Lambert Simnel

Vampire Squid

Panspermia

Black Bart – the poetry bandit

I find it fascinating that Wikipedia is currently engaged in a vast behind-the-scenes debate over whether or not to eliminate spoiler tags. Actually, I find a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff fascinating, in a totally trainwreck-y way. These people are all so arrogant/socially maladjusted/insulated/whatever, it makes me feel like I should register and become an active contributor just to keep them honest and represent for the non-douchebags who make up 99% Wikipedia users (Mr. Smith Goes to Wikington?)

I love Black Bart. "Upon my corns you've trod too long, you fine-haired sons of bitches."

I love the way the relative size of Wiki articles says so much about the people who contribute to it. Anyone reading it from a position of total internet-ignorance (my dad, for example) would be left with the impression that Second Life was one of the most important aspects of the modern world.

That's also why every article on wikipedia mentions Family Guy somewhere.

Thing with Second Life is even a bunch of people who don't play treat it like this super-important facet of the internet. Like social networking/marketing people. I read an "eye-opening" blog story recently where someone was like "second life isn't that big of a deal, it only has a number of active users in the tens of thousands."

regardless, major incorporations like coca cola, the nba and some other ones i forget are funnelling ad dollars into this bucket of crap. unbelievable.

c'mon already, post interesting shit for me to read about :(

Well I posted a link to this on a separate thread but I found it interesting, at least...

ok, i am mashing random article, just for you.
This guy isn't hyper interesting but i love the entirely non-encyclopaedic writing here. "He's also working on something super secretive but absolutely delicious..."

List of Mason temples... random my ass! You wanted me to find that, you Illuminati bastards! Curse you! I can see the fnords! Hail Eris!

no fluxblog no credibility

I find it fascinating that Wikipedia is currently engaged in a vast behind-the-scenes debate over whether or not to eliminate spoiler tags. Actually, I find a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff fascinating, in a totally trainwreck-y way. These people are all so arrogant/socially maladjusted/insulated/whatever, it makes me feel like I should register and become an active contributor just to keep them honest and represent for the non-douchebags who make up 99% Wikipedia users (Mr. Smith Goes to Wikington?)

-- bernard snowy, Tuesday, May 22, 2007 3:19 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

they all start out that way i'm sure dude! be careful!

The Guardian did a piece a while back about Britain's Most Influential Blogs, all breathless with unique user counts and everything. Someone wrote in a couple of days later to point out that even the most popular one had a readership lower than the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, or somesuch.

But I digress. Three randoms in a row produced:

This, this, and this...

i didn't mea nto hit submit. i need three more, quick.

Krav Maga sounds scary

Starfruit... I've only heard of them in hippie drinks, and never as an actual fruit so this was neat to me at least.

doughboy is still a curious term, adn the wiki entry doesn't definitively say where it's from.

Apparently when you make an error, then fix it and submit, it doesn't warn you of xposts. My bbcode was fuxed, and i fixed it, and it auto-xposted me.

Anyway. Yeah, wiki dudes are terrible. I made an account and I go around fixing grammar errors because I am crazy like that. If I see a misspelled word or some missing punctuation, I fix it. But I sure as shit never talk to those dudes. Terrifying.

ooh awesome thread idea brb

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_Masters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Blake_%28actor%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Music

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Westheimer

if only to learn that she was a sniper in the haganah

Mountains!

More mountains!

Sometimes mountains explode! How cool is that?!

Interesting to read that the New York Film Critics Circle Awards 1956 gave Around the World in 80 Days 'best film', was this before it got an Oscar? If so can we blame the New York Film Critics Circle for one of the worst Oscar decisions ever?

Coconuts!

New Chronology

NESARA

El and Nephilim

Homintern

Category:Conspiracy theories is a goldmine.

Criticism of Pokemon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Pok%C3%A9mon

Old movie stuff. (endlessly fascinating to me)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_diggers_of_broadway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitaphone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norma_Talmadge

That's also why every article on wikipedia mentions Family Guy somewhere.

Haha OTM.

argh, "list 5"
4:list of sunken nuclear submarines (a bit grim)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lost_nuclear_submarines

5:history of development of the "classic" rhomboid-shaped british tank of world war 1:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mk_V_tank

Olde-tyme British villains:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nevison
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Wild
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Sheppard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Needham
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_hood

From the entry on airships. Says a lot about Wiki users:

This article is about the engineered aircraft. For the Final Fantasy Airship, go to Airship (Final Fantasy)

bump

keeping with the theme of british criminals, the shit this guy pulled is unbelievable

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_MacGregor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_horse_manure_crisis_of_1894
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_filament
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare

Wow, that last one. "The fork was never found."