The Wikipedia Thread

[Gustav 6,468]

Hi! It's me! I'm bored!

 

One thing I like to do when I'm bored is to look up a topic of interest on Wikipedia and see where the link-clicking gets me. I've come across a lot that I've found interesting, and I'd like to share some (I'm sure I'll be back with more that I think of if this thread gets some positive attention):

 

 

It's a bit cheating to do this first bit, since they're collections rather than articles themselves, but here's a handful that I'll put in a separate category for that reason:

 

List of unusual articles - I have spent DAYS on this one.

 

List of unusual deaths

 

List of hoaxes (general)

 

List of hoaxes on Wikipedia

 

136 Creepy Wiki Articles

 

Silly Things

 

 

 

Some individual articles (with apologies for this being very geography-heavy):

 

All-American Bowl Player of the Year Award - the high school equivalent of the Heisman for American football. I find the list of players who have received it super interesting, ranging from future Hall-of-Famers to marginally recognizable names to players who never made the NFL. As I just noticed, the winners from 2018 and 2019 were from the same school.

 

Whittier, Alaska - a whole rabbit hole by itself. First, almost all people in the town live in one building. Second, it's the site of the longest tunnel in North America, at the end of the Portage Glacier Highway...on the other end of which is the ghost town of Portage, destroyed by an earthquake in 1964.

 

Principality of Sealand - a decommissioned offshore platform that has been occupied and claimed as a sovereign state. Obviously unrecognized by anyone, but certainly interesting--and worth reading about. See also the list of micronations!

 

Vermont Republic - in which Vermont attempted to be an independent country and ran itself for about 15 years after the American Revolution. 

 

Town Line, New York - while we're on the topic of geography, here's a bit of local history for me. A tiny part of the Buffalo area (less than 5 square miles) voted to secede from the Union during the American Civil War. As with most things like that (as you may be able to gather from the other articles here), it went unrecognized.

 

Ismail al-Jazari - Mesopotamian inventor who created automatic devices and programmable machines...in the 12th century. With the technology and knowledge available, what he did is incredible...and I bet you've never heard of him.

 

John von Neumann - incomprehensibly smart mathematician from the past century. I highly recommend trying to make sense of his life and the impact he was able to have, because I cannot.

 

Kit Armstrong - I consider myself fairly good at both music and scientific stuff, but this guy is on another level for both.

 

Druze - the Abrahamic religion you've probably never heard of. Some interesting characteristics--Jesus and Muhammad are both considered prophets, followers believe in reincarnation, and attending most organized activities relating to religious practice is seen as optional.

 

Sark - an island in the English Channel which effectively practiced feudalism until 2009. Cars are banned and lifestyle remains fairly traditional.

 

Tristan da Cunha - in a similar vein, another British territory. This time, it's the most remote inhabited island in the world. You're not allowed to move there and all land is collectively owned and farmed.

 

History of Singapore - particularly following World War II. Japan loses the war and the territory after taking it from Britain, and it goes back to Britain and spends the next 10 or so years dealing with changes in its government and working toward independence (eventually granted in 1958). In 1963, present-day Malaysia forms as a merger between a handful of states (Singapore being one). Singapore is involved in a lot of racial and economic tension with the rest of Malaysia, and two years later Singapore is unanimously kicked out of Malaysia by the Parliament.

 

SS United States - the largest ocean liner built entirely in the USA and the fastest ocean liner to ever cross the Atlantic. Decommissioned in 1969 and changing ownership many times since, it now sits empty in Philadelphia.

 

 

 

 

...well, it's getting late for me. I'd love to see what you've come across out there--let's learn some cool stuff together!

[samx 1,175]

I have a fun wikipedia game you can play:

 

you start at a topic with a Wikipedia page and you pick another completely random topic and try to get there only through hyper link.

 

 

so you might try to go from pineapple to Napoleon

[Gustav 6,468]

6 hours ago, samx said:

I have a fun wikipedia game you can play:

 

you start at a topic with a Wikipedia page and you pick another completely random topic and try to get there only through hyper link.

 

 

so you might try to go from pineapple to Napoleon

The Wiki Game is exactly this. That page just tells me to download an app but it at least used to work as a browser game too. 

 

Also check out https://wikitrivia.tomjwatson.com

[frescoelmo 1,282]

Ah yes the black hole that is Wikipedia. Usually I will look up a subject of interest (this am for me it will be about PURPA, and the 1978 national energy act). Often times I will find other interesting linked pages in the article and add them as new tabs.

 

[Garsh 1,195]

1 hour ago, frescoelmo said:

Ah yes the black hole that is Wikipedia. Usually I will look up a subject of interest (this am for me it will be about PURPA, and the 1978 national energy act). Often times I will find other interesting linked pages in the article and add them as new tabs.

 

 

 

[frescoelmo 1,282]

2 hours ago, Garsh said:

 

 

 

I learned it in a book!!

[Ledge 1,131]

One time instead of doing work in geography class I researched the colonization of the Republic of the Congo, a central African country (but not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of the Congo)

 

Anyway, I wormholed to Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, who was a pretty cool dude. The capital of Republic of the Congo, Brazzaville, is named after him. The cool thing is it's the only African European-named capital that stuck, because Pierre was such a cool guy

[Ledge 1,131]

8 hours ago, Gustav said:

https://wikitrivia.tomjwatson.com

I've been playing this for about half an hour now

 

very neat

[Gustav 6,468]

A dump of some tabs currently open between my phone and computer:

 

• The Italian Unabomber - an unsolved case of someone in Italy who made bombs over a period of many years. Curiously, these were not intended to kill anyone--rather, just to injure. Why this was is unknown.
• The Oklahoma panhandle - and why it exists. American students probably remember the Compromise of 1850 as the establishment of the state of California and the foundation of American policy with regard to slavery as it expanded westward. What I personally didn't know about this was that Texas, a slave state, had a tiny strip of land in the area that was set to be free territory. This land would be cut out of Texas and is today what makes Oklahoma shaped funny.
• Sitka, Alaska - the largest city (by area) in the US. Not many people, but almost four times the size of Rhode Island.
• Casiopea - a very solid jazz fusion band from Japan. I learned from here that they have a very intricate history, with lots of different members and 36 whole studio albums over four different, officially named iterations. Their best-known album, Mint Jams, is an interesting example of a live album because it was recorded with the intent of receiving post-production treatment (including strategic editing in and out of crowd noise).
• Jochen Hecht - former Sabres forward who I remember from when I was a kid. I was intrigued by his playing history because it features three separate stints with German team Adler Mannheim--where he now coaches.
• Columbus radiotherapy accident - a reminder to pay attention to the details around you. The wrongful calibration of a radiation treatment instrument led to numerous instances of complication (and death) over many years before it was finally noticed. 
• Randy Bass - an American baseball player who moved to Japan after limited MLB success and ended up doing really well. He still holds the record for highest batting average in a single NPB season, is a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, and ended up a state senator after baseball.