Author Topic: Your Wikipedia find of the week (Read 116885 times)

T42 · « **Reply #350 on:** 11 February, 2015, 01:46:35 pm »

Quote from: Vince on 11 February, 2015, 09:54:17 am

Quote from: nikki on 05 February, 2015, 06:03:03 pm
Oh my!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cakes
How can a list of cakes not include Flapjack?

Bugger flapjacks, it hasn't got a Paris-Brest!

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #351 on:** 15 April, 2015, 10:59:27 pm »

I rather like it that the list of notable residents of Gibsons, British Columbia lists Paul Rudolph firstly as a "cyclist" rather than the guitarist in the Pink Fairies and replacement for Lemmy in Hawkwind.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #352 on:** 17 April, 2015, 10:37:40 am »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_%28cat%29

Bledlow · « **Reply #353 on:** 17 April, 2015, 11:36:08 am »

Eagle House School, Sandhurst.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_House_School -
Wiki lists as 'notable former pupils' -

Stuart Burge, actor and director
James Chalmers, actor
Nick Drake, singer-songwriter
John Gardner, composer
Lewis Moody, rugby player
John Bruce-Lockhart, schoolmaster and cricketer

But not, for example, Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck GCB, GCIE, CSI, DSO, OBE (1884-1981 - Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army 1941, Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East theatre 1941-42, Commander-in-Chief India again 1943-47, then Supreme Commander of all British forces in India and Pakistan until late 1948). Something against soldiers (odd, considering the location of the school)? A couple of ex-pupils have been awarded the Victoria Cross, one was given the Croix de Guerre & the Czech Cross - & that's selecting only from those listed as died in wars. But that's not notable, while a minor actor is.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #354 on:** 17 April, 2015, 11:41:09 am »

You could edit the article and put him in...

jsabine · « **Reply #355 on:** 17 April, 2015, 11:44:20 am »

Well, quite.

I thought it was in the wiki spirit to share this sort of knowledge for the benefit of all who read the article, not just those who read a slightly obscure cycling forum.

Bledlow · « **Reply #356 on:** 17 April, 2015, 05:59:24 pm »

Weeellll . .. it was already on Wikipedia. That's how I know which school Auchinleck went to.

Bledlow · « **Reply #357 on:** 23 April, 2015, 03:01:48 pm »

Violette Morris. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violette_Morris

Perhaps not the best female role model, despite her sporting achievements.

Pancho · « **Reply #358 on:** 23 April, 2015, 04:46:07 pm »

Shandy was invented for, and named after, cyclists (in Germany, at least)

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandy

Kim · « **Reply #359 on:** 04 May, 2015, 12:51:17 pm »

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

Cryptographically-generated offsets in the datum! That's taken a few steps over the line between genius and insanity.

Bledlow · « **Reply #360 on:** 06 May, 2015, 12:53:36 pm »

I found this page -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Comparison_Program

Unfortunately, it seemed to have been written by someone incapable of understanding that there was anything before the web, & that there are these things called books, made out of paper. Is this a common problem with Wiki?

It said that the results had been published twice - the first time for 2005, & the second time for 2011. When I read that, I turned my head to look at a bookshelf which holds the published results for 1970, 1973, 1975, 1980 & 1985, printed between 1978 & 1988.

It also has a bizarre comment that it relies too much on primary sources. What?

PS. It was crammed with grammatical errors, typos, etc. as well. I did a quick clean-up.

Pingu · « **Reply #361 on:** 18 May, 2015, 03:38:33 pm »

Not much going on in Iceland in 1996

Palinurus · « **Reply #362 on:** 10 June, 2015, 09:39:43 pm »

Cycled through a village called Layer Breton in Essex recently, Googled it because I wondered where the name came from. Found this instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1884_Colchester_earthquake

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #363 on:** 10 June, 2015, 10:35:53 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 04 May, 2015, 12:51:17 pm

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

Cryptographically-generated offsets in the datum! That's taken a few steps over the line between genius and insanity.

The Soviet Union used to put deliberate errors in all maps until some time in the '80s. The aim was supposedly to hinder any invasion and they ended it once they realised the Running Dog Capitalist Pigs had satellite images making it all irrelevant. I'm not convinced that China's aim is necessarily the same though.

Efrogwr · « **Reply #364 on:** 11 June, 2015, 09:09:32 am »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 10 June, 2015, 10:35:53 pm

Quote from: Kim on 04 May, 2015, 12:51:17 pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_geographic_data_in_China

Cryptographically-generated offsets in the datum! That's taken a few steps over the line between genius and insanity.
The Soviet Union used to put deliberate errors in all maps until some time in the '80s. The aim was supposedly to hinder any invasion and they ended it once they realised the Running Dog Capitalist Pigs had satellite images making it all irrelevant. I'm not convinced that China's aim is necessarily the same though.

The Ordnance Survey omitted details of defence related sites (airfields and ordnance factories among others), presumably to confuse the Soviet Union.

The problem with this was that the lack of detail was noticeable on the One Inch Seventh Series; the most glaring example was a blank grid square near Selby.

Pancho · « **Reply #365 on:** 11 June, 2015, 10:54:12 am »

The old os maps of Pompey and Gosport have conspicuous blank patches where anyone stumbling around the actual territory would stub their toe on not insignificantly sized naval bases and airfields

Wombat · « **Reply #366 on:** 11 June, 2015, 01:10:45 pm »

Not to mention Gosport's speciality, armaments depots, including the infamous Bedenham explosion.

(hey, I said NOT to mention... )

IGMC

Bledlow · « **Reply #367 on:** 11 June, 2015, 06:15:09 pm »

There used to be three patches of land to the SW of Reading with nothing but geographical features shown on OS maps. Weell, one (just south of Bramley, en route to Basingstoke) had a railway running through it which was shown, but the spread-out sidings with widely & evenly spaced buildings weren't on the map. Neither was a big patch near Burghfield, & another one not far from Aldermaston.

Efrogwr · « **Reply #368 on:** 11 June, 2015, 07:58:41 pm »

RAF Welford was blank on the map, with a dead end road leading from the M4 to, apparently, nowhere. However, it was signed from the motorway as a highway service depot... the sign had a red border.

rogerzilla · « **Reply #369 on:** 12 June, 2015, 06:32:36 am »

Still is. "Works unit only". It's been like that for as long as i can remember. There are"Works unit onlY" signs on other motorways, but they're not red and it's probably where they store cones and stuff.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #370 on:** 12 June, 2015, 11:18:31 am »

The one at the bottom of the M11 would have been Chigwell Services if they'd ever been built, and was converted into a lorry marshalling yard for Olympic Park construction traffic for a while.

Pingu · « **Reply #371 on:** 06 July, 2015, 11:25:49 pm »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephistofeles_(car)

andrew_s · « **Reply #372 on:** 09 July, 2015, 08:44:27 am »

a new medical condition: Nomophobia
speaking as someone who's immune, I find it somewhat amusing

PeteB99 · « **Reply #373 on:** 22 July, 2015, 12:44:05 pm »

The Pub my Grandfather ran in the late 50's. My first home.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Lambeth_pub,_Kirkdale.jpg

JennyB · « **Reply #374 on:** 25 July, 2015, 08:57:36 am »

Why Murricans drive pickup trucks. It's all to do with the chicken tax. Apparently. $:-\$