That third list is how you can describe high int low wisdom.
Smart enough to get there devices to move, not wise enough to have any safety precautions.
The list of common misconceptions was really interesting. Thanks!
Absolutely awesome page. I’ve just spent half an hour reading it and will be back to it.
Whoooa, I already knew about Franz Reichelt, but never knew there was actual footage of the test jump. That’s almost straight up NSFL, if not for the old timey camera making it hard to see anything.
I don’t know if it’s the absolute best, but the page for the band The Butthole Surfers is pretty excellent.
In 1986, they first met Lynch (a.k.a. Kathleen, a.k.a. Ta-Da the Shit Lady), who was then working at a strip club called Sex World in New York City.[75] Though never an official member, she became Butthole Surfers’ famous “naked dancer”, performing intermittently with them through 1989.[9] One show in Washington, D.C., with GWAR saw Kathleen take the stage to dance in nothing but gold body paint and antique wooden snow shoes. At another particularly wild concert in 1986, Haynes and Lynch, by now completely bald, reportedly engaged in sexual intercourse while on stage, as Leary used a screwdriver to vandalize the club’s speakers. This came after only five songs, during which time Haynes had started a small fire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy
Never seen Wikipedia this judgemental before
All relevant scientific knowledge about physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology contradicts homeopathy
Can you blame them? Quack medical pseudoscience gets people killed.
“that’s what big pharma wants you to think”
—too many people I know
I too think it is justified. Simply not used to this tone on Wikipedia. Which is why I find it funny.
Their finances and how God damn much money they blow every year
Probably the most important part of that page is that Wikipedia asks people for donations when they already have enough money to exist perpetually. All the money people donate simply goes to executives’ salaries.
WMF’s salary costs have risen from $7 million in 2010/11 to $88 million in 2021/22. Yet, only 2% of the raised money goes towards hosting costs, and the remuneration for the hard-working contributors to Wikipedia remains the same: zero.
That’s all untrue or misrepresentation. There aren’t that many executives and while money does get misused, that’s not where it’s going - instead some of it is going to grants and other programs that aren’t very important to the mission. However, quite a lot of donations go to very important projects, such as lawyers to keep editors in repressive countries out of jail, programmers to keep the website going, etc etc.
“2%” is a misrepresentation because programmer and operations salaries are a lot more than that and they’re equally important to keeping the lights on. If I own and operate a server for a website, then clearly my salary is part of what it takes to run the website even if it’s not included in “hosting”.
“Renumeration” is a red herring as paying contributors is obviously a non-starter.
I literally just copy and pasted from the wiki page the person above me linked to.
Wiki has a weird cult around it.
I remember right before the reddit migration there were a surge of wiki related memes about paying Wikipedia instead of doing this or that and it felt super weird.
I always wondered if it was paid shilling or if it was organic users who just loved Wikipedia so much they felt the need to make a bunch of memes about giving them money
It was taken down years ago, but for a while the entry for the song Regulate, by Warren G and Nate Dogg, used to feature a recitation of the story events done in the flowery prose style of a fancy Victorian English gentleman. It was a masterpiece.
A more meta one - the Wikipedia list of Lamest edit wars is very entertaining. Entries include: is Hummus Israeli or an illegally occupied Palestinian dip, asking snakes what they think of the Israeli-Palenstine conflict, is 3 always an odd number?, Michael Palin vs Sarah Palin, and should we put a picture of a human bumhole in the article for anus and if so which one?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human reads like it was written by aliens studying us.
I also like things like:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_names_considered_unusual which for some reason doesn’t even list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-du-Ha!_Ha!
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Est!_Est!!_Est!!!_di_Montefiascone
Quantum mechanics. Quantum entanglement will blow your intuitive mind.
I always find this one hilarious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Norwegian_black_metal_scene?wprov=sfla1
It’s a tad morbid. I didn’t know most of the details about this in/famous era. Read on Dead and Euronymous too if you can. These guys were nuts. Mind blowing to think all this happened only 25 - 30 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Titan%3A_Or%2C_Futility?wprov=sfla1
The novel that was published 17 years before the Titanic sank, about a ship that sank, named Titan. The details are creepily accurate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1775–1795_in_Western_fashion?wprov=sfla1
1775 - 1795 Western fashion, aka Marie Antoinette dominating & influencing the whole scene. It seems everything she did became a new trend and she had the eye for it too. Cool read if you’re into fashion history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerton_Man?wprov=sfla1
Somerton Man, a death surrounded by mystery. There are some recent findings about the mans identity, still fun to read.
I can’t pick one thing and my idea of entertainment might be slightly morbid so sue me.
IP Over Avian Carrier: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IP_over_Avian_Carriers&oldid=1073581154 (old version before certain revisions were made to make it more sensible)
And the other April fools RFCs: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day_Request_for_Comments
I have actually spent hours reading this one:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_characters
Not so much entertaining as it is “WTF!? Why doesn’t anyone talk about this!?”
