Author Topic: Your Wikipedia find of the week  (Read 111878 times)

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #475 on: 16 November, 2017, 10:28:19 am »
Frank Sinatra played an assassin in the 1954 film 'Suddenly'.

The character's name was John Baron...
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #476 on: 03 December, 2017, 11:12:52 am »
This needs a longer Wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_rope_memory

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #477 on: 23 January, 2018, 04:27:16 pm »

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #478 on: 23 January, 2018, 04:37:55 pm »
Or Catatonia, a shit Welsh pop band with a frankly terrifying frontwoman.

Cerys?  What could be terrifying about her, she seems lovely?
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #479 on: 30 January, 2018, 11:39:48 am »
It was Dusty Springfield during the sessions for "Dusty in Memphis" that suggested to the heads of Atlantic Records that they sign a new band called Led Zepplin (she new John Paul Jones).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dusty_in_Memphis
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #480 on: 15 February, 2018, 11:09:39 am »
When Prince Louis of Battenberg acknowledged being the father of Lillie Langtry's as-yet unborn child, his parents had him assigned to HMS Inconstant.

Quite the lass, that one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillie_Langtry
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #481 on: 01 June, 2018, 01:34:27 pm »
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #482 on: 01 June, 2018, 06:39:53 pm »
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #483 on: 04 June, 2018, 09:02:40 am »
When Prince Louis of Battenberg acknowledged being the father of Lillie Langtry's as-yet unborn child, his parents had him assigned to HMS Inconstant.

Quite the lass, that one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillie_Langtry
I'm more surprised by the choice of ship name. It seems to run against all the traditional military virtues.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #484 on: 04 June, 2018, 09:26:10 am »
The RN does have form for slightly incongruous names, mind; I suppose back in the day when you had hundreds of ships you started to run out of inspiration after a while. According to Wikipedia there have been six ships of the name; the first was captured from the French, so presumably that was why the name was originally chosen? Later renamed HMS Convert, which seems less laden a term.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #485 on: 04 June, 2018, 09:27:58 am »
Beat me to it.

Judging from the chequered histories of most of the Inconstant avatars, Their Lordships were exercising their talent for irony:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Inconstant
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #486 on: 04 June, 2018, 01:04:43 pm »
When Prince Louis of Battenberg acknowledged being the father of Lillie Langtry's as-yet unborn child, his parents had him assigned to HMS Inconstant.

Quite the lass, that one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillie_Langtry
I'm more surprised by the choice of ship name. It seems to run against all the traditional military virtues.

I'd better not mention the Flower-class corvettes used as convoy escorts in WW2, then.  :demon:

One of them was originally intended to named HMS Pansy, but was renamed HMS Heartsease when the sailors due to be assigned to her nearly mutinied at the thought of having to wear caps with "Pansy" on them.

Beat me to it.

Judging from the chequered histories of most of the Inconstant avatars, Their Lordships were exercising their talent for irony:

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

See also HMS Invincible - only 2 of the 6 ships so named survived in service for long enough to be paid off and scrapped.
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #487 on: 04 June, 2018, 02:19:20 pm »
Also USS Saucy, USS Pert and USS Temptress  :o

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #488 on: 04 June, 2018, 02:45:22 pm »
USS Ponce. :demon:

Stop sniggering at the back, it's pronounced "PONsay" and she's named after the municipality in Puerto Rico that's the namesake of the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, the first governor of Puerto Rico and the European discoverer of Florida.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ponce_(LPD-15)
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #489 on: 04 June, 2018, 03:43:58 pm »
Also USS Saucy, USS Pert and USS Temptress  :o

In the same vein, HMS Dainty. Wonder what would have happened had they been in port at the same time as HMS Spanker? Or indeed HMS Cockchafer...

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #490 on: 21 June, 2018, 10:14:01 am »
Dorodango, the Japanese craft of rolling spheres of mud.

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #491 on: 21 June, 2018, 11:21:39 am »
Dorodango, the Japanese craft of rolling spheres of mud.
I so want to go outside and start trying this.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #492 on: 21 June, 2018, 11:35:58 am »
More a tweet find of the week but I think it can go here for sure :


'Phantom Islands – A Sonic Atlas' (by @andrewpekler) http://andrewpekler.com/phantom-islands/

Phantom Islands are artifacts of the age of maritime discovery and colonial expansion. During centuries of ocean exploration these islands were sighted, charted, described and even explored – but their existence has never been ultimately verified. Poised somewhere between cartographical fact and maritime fiction, they haunted seafarers’ maps for hundreds of years, inspiring legends, fantasies, and counterfactual histories. Phantom Islands – A Sonic Atlas interprets and presents these imaginations in the form of an interactive map which charts the sounds of a number of historical phantom islands.
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #493 on: 03 August, 2018, 08:56:32 am »
Churchill College, Cambridge:

Quote
Crick had agreed to become a fellow on the basis that no chapel be placed at Churchill. A donation was later made by Lord Beaumont of Whitley to Churchill College for the establishment of one, and the majority of fellows voted in favour of it. Sir Winston Churchill wrote to him saying that no-one need enter the chapel unless they wished to do so, and therefore it did not need to be a problem. Crick, in short order, replied with a letter dated 12 October 1961 accompanied by a cheque for 10 guineas saying that, if that were the case, the enclosed money should be used for the establishment of a brothel.

Otherwise ho-hum. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchill_College,_Cambridge
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #494 on: 09 September, 2018, 10:31:38 pm »
Of Michel Blavet, 18th century French composer:

Quote
Born in Besançon as the son of wood turner Jean-Baptiste Blavet,[1] a profession which he followed for some time, he accidentally became the possessor of a flute and soon became the finest player in France.

Well, these things happen. I deliberately bought a piano and I think I’m about the best pianist in my house...
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #495 on: 10 September, 2018, 08:53:03 am »
Of Michel Blavet, 18th century French composer:

Quote
Born in Besançon as the son of wood turner Jean-Baptiste Blavet,[1] a profession which he followed for some time, he accidentally became the possessor of a flute and soon became the finest player in France.

Fell off the back of a tumbril, dinnit.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #496 on: 21 October, 2018, 10:36:36 am »
Could post it here, could post it in the CDC thread.

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

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #497 on: 23 December, 2018, 05:59:23 pm »
In all the chaos we've forgotten about the 2016 clown sightings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_clown_sightings

That page is exactly the sort of comprehensive resource that makes Wikipedia great.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #498 on: 23 December, 2018, 09:49:46 pm »
Irony in software engineering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_matter_of_programming

Some of my former bosses clearly missed that this was Irony and thought we could be miracle workers in 2 days...

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Your Wikipedia find of the week
« Reply #499 on: 13 January, 2019, 06:34:32 pm »
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6ng%C3%B6l_H%C3%B6rde

Notable for metal umlaut overload and this beguiling quote:

Quote
The first song we wrote is about Natalie Portman's tapeworm using her as a glove puppet to lead an uprising in Hollywood.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.