Best of Wikipedia

Little Wars

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:46:05 -0400

Little Wars is a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers, written by H. G. Wells in 1913. Its full title is Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys’ games and books. Little Wars is considered by some to be the first modern table top war game. It included fairly simple rules for infantry, cavalry, and artillery in the form of a toy 4.7 inch naval gun that launched projectiles, usually small wooden dowels to knock down enemy soldiers. In addition to it being a war game, the book hints at several philosophical aspects of war. (via yeslikethemotorcycle )

Little Wars

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:41:05 -0400

Little Wars :

Sensational spelling

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:07:05 -0400

Sensational spelling :

Sensational spelling is the deliberate spelling of a word in an incorrect or non-standard way for special effects. (via Ken Herman)

Roman dodecahedron

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:11:05 -0400

Roman dodecahedron :

A Roman dodecahedron is a small hollow object made of bronze or stone, with a dodecahedral shape: twelve flat pentagonal faces, each having a circular hole in the middle which connects to the hollowed-out center. Roman dodecahedra date from the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD. The function or use of the dodecahedra remains a mystery; no mention of them has been found in contemporary accounts or pictures of the time. (via werttrew)

Tool use by animals

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 06:00:06 -0400

Tool use by animals:

Tools are used by some animals, particularly primates, to perform simple tasks such as getting food or grooming. Originally thought to be a skill only possessed by humans, tool use requires some level of intelligence. Primates have been observed exploiting sticks and stones to accomplish tasks. Numerous bird species have also been noted as capable of using tools. The behaviour has also been observed in dolphins, elephants, otters, birds and octopuses. Tools may be used by animals for construction. (via Matt)

Involuntary celibacy

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:04:00 -0400

Involuntary celibacy:

Involuntary celibacy is the absence in human sexuality of intimate relationships or sexual intercourse for reasons other than voluntary celibacy, asexuality, antisexualism, or sexual abstinence. The term (which is sometimes shortened to incel) describes those who, despite being open to sexual in timacy and potential romance with someone and also making active, repeated efforts towards such an end, cannot cause any such end(s) to occur with any significant degree of regularity—or even at all. (via theionking)

Seed Bombing

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 13:58:00 -0400

Seed Bombing:

Seed bombing or aerial reforestation is a technique of introducing vegetation to land by throwing or dropping compressed bundles of soil containing live vegetation. Often, seed bombing projects are done with arid or off-limits (for example, privately-owned) land. (via defrost)

Traffic park

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:24:00 -0400

Traffic park :

A traffic park or children’s traffic park is a park in which children can learn the rules of the road. A traffic park is also called a transportation park or traffic garden or safety village depending on locale. (via sleevia)

Suicide Door

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:03:04 -0400

Suicide Door:

A suicide door is a car door hinged on the trailing edge, the edge closer to the rear of the vehicle. Such doors are rarely used on vehicles in modern times because of their disadvantages. (via defrost)

Politician's syllogism

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 06:00:05 -0400

Politician's syllogism :

The politician’s syllogism, also known as the politician’s logic or the politician’s fallacy, is a logical fallacy of the form:

We must do something
This is something
Therefore, we must do this.

(via @werttrew)

Rhaphanidosis

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:49:00 -0400

Rhaphanidosis:

Rhaphanidosis is the act of inserting the root of a plant of the raphanus genus (commonly known as horseradish) into the anus. It is reported to have been a punishment for adultery in ancient Athens of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. (via awantonwonton)

Paradox of tolerance

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:35:21 -0400

Paradox of tolerance:

The tolerance paradox arises from a problem that a tolerant person might be antagonistic toward intolerance, hence intolerant of it. The tolerant individual would then be by definition intolerant of intolerance. This problem is at the heart of the dilemma faced by pluralist societies who wish to embrace diversity, but in doing so ostensibly exclude those who do not embrace diversity, which includes a large portion of the world’s population. (via boringben )

Trichotillomania

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 06:00:05 -0400

Trichotillomania:

Trichotillomania, which is classified as an impulse control disorder by DSM-IV, is the compulsive urge to pull out one’s own hair leading to noticeable hair loss, distress, and social or functional impairment. It is often chronic and difficult to treat.

Butter Lamb

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:01:06 -0400

Butter Lamb:

The butter lamb, also known as a buttered lamb, is a traditional butter sculpture accompanying the Easter meal for many Slovenian and Polish Catholics. Butter is shaped into a lamb either by hand or in a lamb-shaped mould. Frequently the eyes are represented by peppercorns and a white banner with a red cross on a toothpick is placed on its back. (via jokestress)

Challenge Coin

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 06:00:05 -0400

Challenge Coin:

A challenge coin is a small coin or medallion (usually military), bearing an organization’s insignia or emblem and carried by the organization’s members. They are given to prove membership when challenged and to enhance morale. (via pbmaxwell)

Knismesis and Gargalesis

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 18:00:05 -0400

Knismesis and Gargalesis:

Knismesis and gargalesis are the scientific terms, coined in 1897 by psychologists G. Stanley Hall and Arthur Allin, used to describe the two types of tickling. Knismesis refers to the light, feather-like type of tickling. This type of tickling generally does not induce laughter and is often accompanied by an itching sensation. Gargalesis refers to harder, laughter-inducing tickling, and involves the repeated application of high pressure to sensitive areas. (via sleevia)

Beat Up a White Kid Day

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 06:00:06 -0400

Beat Up a White Kid Day:

Beat Up a White Kid Day refers to a custom among some minority children in the city of Cleveland, Ohio of beating up white children on May 1. The only incident of this resulting in a court case or media attention occurred in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2003. The attackers explained the attack as being motivated by “May Day” or “beat up a white kid day,” and many readers wrote in to The Plain Dealer to report similar experiences. (via sleevia)

Flight With Disabled Controls

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:03:10 -0400

Flight With Disabled Controls:

Several aviation incidents and accidents have occurred in which the control surfaces of the aircraft became disabled, often due to failure of hydraulic systems or the flight control system. Other incidents have occurred where controls were not functioning correctly prior to take-off, either due to maintenance or pilot error, and controls can become inoperative from extreme weather conditions. Aircraft are not designed to be flown in such circumstances, however a small number of pilots have had some success in controlling aircraft with disabled controls. (via shields)

One Thousand

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:02:00 -0400

This is the 1000th post to Best of Wikipedia.

I initially thought of highlighting an impressive page on Wikipedia—maybe something detailing its origin—but nothing was substantial enough. Celebrating the thousandth post of content (links, not meta posts like this) may have been more logical, but having this go up as the post counter hits “1000” is going to give me a happy feeling. A thank you, which later seemed obvious, seems fitting. As always, please forgive the meta post. It’s only the fourth of a thousand total!

I want to thank every single person that emailed me personally when the site went into hiatus (all of the times) when I burned out updating. That number finally went to around 1000. I want to thank everybody who emailed to offer help. That number went to around another 300. Those of you that sent emails checking to see if I needed money, if my health and family were OK or if I was still alive—I can’t believe so many strangers could care. I want to thank everybody who wanted to pay some kind of membership fee to keep things running. BoW has been open and advertising-free since day one, and I can’t imagine changing that. I lost count long ago of these messages on other social media besides email.

I want to thank the Tumblr team for highlighting us on Radar, their staff blog and other spotlights. In fact, I want to thank Tumblr for Tumblr—the platform catapulted BoW’s popularity with its social features. This is besides your horrendous posting queue management system. If you’re unsure what the problem is, please email me and I’d be glad to detail an elaborate structure on what’s wrong. I think Tumblarity was a better idea than you got credit for, and I miss the metrics that I can’t seem to get anymore.

I want to thank all the blogs (major or not), newspapers, magazines and other websites that linked to BoW. I’m still receiving traffic from many of you. I want to thank each and every single reblog, like, retweet, Reader share, forum post etc. You guys are basically how BoW got this kind of popularity. I remember the days when I could actually thank retweets because the community was thirty people. It astounds me how many of you there are that want to share what is posted now, and how little time I get to react to posting mistakes. Post to first like/reblog/retweet is measured in seconds on the average post.

I want to thank each and every submission, whether we managed to get to you or not. You guys kept this site going when we ran out of wiki, when we burnt out and when we got fed up. If you’re one of the regular submitters (you know who you are), please, let me know where on earth you are, and if I am ever in the vicinity, I want to buy you a beer. Email, twitter, whatever. I’m serious about this, I travel a lot. If you’re one of the submitters that formats the submission in the way I post it, I owe you a hug. Over almost a thousand posts, that’s a lot of saved time. If you’re one of the hundreds of submissions that are either in perpetual queue, were repeats (unknowingly), were not selected, were missed or just didn’t make it on the site for whatever reason, know that you have my undying gratitude regardless. If you’ve submitted even once, whether it made it on to the site or not, know that your submission, formatted or not, was met with a whisper and sigh of thanks. I want to thank all of you that post messages of excitement on various social media when your submissions make it live. It’s amazing that a little thing like that makes a difference like it does.

I want to thank Jimmy Wales and the Wikimedia team for Wikipedia. I got through college primarily because of you and what you’ve created. BoW is just a non-licensed greatest hits of what your work has achieved. A decade of the free exchange of the greatest collection of human knowledge on earth is not something to be taken lightly. Your vision for Wikipedia, the Commons and the Wikimedia project in general is why I’ve refused every advertising or commercialization offer I’ve received. I wish I still had the time to edit and add to Wikipedia as much as I did before. I want to thank every editor on Wikipedia. I guess you’re technically more important than Jimmy, since you are the brains behind the esoteric and the wonderful that I love highlighting here.

I want to thank Annie, who generously created BoW’s original and still-used logo. I hope I told you that it looks fantastic. I want to thank Laurie, who stepped in and took the reigns of my baby when I was too tired and busy and stuck in life to handle the community. You saved this site. I can’t imagine you feel any less proud and amazed at what we have here than I do.

I want to thank every single person that reads BoW. There are, as of this morning, 18,000+ followers on Tumblr, 6,000+ followers on Twitter, 2,000+ RSS subscribers and many tens of thousands of monthly visitors to the website. I currently have around 250 submissions waiting in the official queue, and god knows how many more on email and Twitter. I know there are plenty of other hobbyist websites that garner significantly more traffic than that, but it doesn’t matter to me. What I have is more special than all of that. Every bit of effort over the past two years has been for all of you. The growth of this community has been outstanding; far beyond what I imagined when I started this as a link blog to catalog interesting Wikipedia articles when I was bored one summer.

Thank you,

Avinash

Hollow Earth

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:00:06 -0400

Hollow Earth:

The Hollow Earth hypothesis proposes that the planet Earth is either wholly hollow or otherwise contains a substantial interior space. The hypothesis has long been contradicted by overwhelming observational evidence, as well as by the modern understanding of planet formation; the scientific community has dismissed the notion since at least the late 18th century. The concept of a hollow Earth still recurs in folklore and as the premise for subterranean fiction, a subgenre of adventure fiction. It is also featured in some present-day scientific, pseudoscientific and conspiracy theories. (via charlesfosterofdensen)