Author Topic: Your Wikipedia find of the week (Read 115415 times)

Kim · « **Reply #150 on:** 18 December, 2012, 02:59:42 pm »

Quote from: clarion on 18 December, 2012, 02:40:02 pm

I had to explain basic hydraulics to someone the other day

To be fair, I do tend to think of hydraulics (and on a bad day, calculus) using electrical analogies.

Kim · « **Reply #151 on:** 18 December, 2012, 03:07:55 pm »

Quote from: Butterfly on 18 December, 2012, 02:49:29 pm

To be fair, there has never been a need for me to know how hydraulics (or electrics, or engines, or computers for that matter) work, so I have never needed to dig further.

See, I subscribe to the Arthur C Clarke principle: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And I don't want to go around having to believe in magic, so...

Quote

I wish I hadn't been totally put off science by the things that go bang faction though

Aw.

I'd never really considered that as something that actively put people off. I'm all for a bit of pyromania, but never really needed it to kindle (detonate?) an interest in science, so could happily get on with it. I suppose growing up surrounded by science (albeit a field I wasn't really interested in) helped, even if I didn't appreciate it at the time.

I'm a hopeless generalist, though. I rapidly lose interest once I have a working knowledge of what's going on. If I didn't have more sense, I'd make a far better teacher than engineer or scientist.

clarion · « **Reply #152 on:** 18 December, 2012, 03:13:10 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 18 December, 2012, 02:59:42 pm

Quote from: clarion on 18 December, 2012, 02:40:02 pm
I had to explain basic hydraulics to someone the other day

To be fair, I do tend to think of hydraulics (and on a bad day, calculus) using electrical analogies.

sas · « **Reply #153 on:** 18 December, 2012, 10:30:09 pm »

You've probably heard of the Welsh hill Twmpa, AKA Lord Hereford's Knob. You might not have heard of this German mountain.

rogerzilla · « **Reply #154 on:** 21 December, 2012, 06:07:30 pm »

You know the "I've always loved you" bit with the Illinois Nazis in "The Blues Brothers".

The falling car is not CGI, or even faked. They took it a mile up on a helicopter and dropped it, with special aerodynamic testing and FAA approval in case it flew a bit instead of dropping vertically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blues_Brothers_%28film%29

Tim Hall · « **Reply #155 on:** 21 December, 2012, 06:22:48 pm »

The etymology of the Taser. Of special interest to those of a Sheddi persuasion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser#History

Bledlow · « **Reply #156 on:** 06 January, 2013, 08:49:24 pm »

Erna Low is not on Wikipedia.

Someone tried to submit an article & it was refused. The grounds for refusal apply ten times over to some other Wikipedia articles I've seen.

http://wpedia.goo.ne.jp/enwiki/Wikipedia_talk:Articles_for_creation/Erna_Low

clarion · « **Reply #157 on:** 06 January, 2013, 08:55:30 pm »

Very odd.

Pingu · « **Reply #158 on:** 06 February, 2013, 08:50:39 pm »

Bumhpa Bum

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #159 on:** 07 February, 2013, 10:06:56 am »

Quote from: Bledlow on 06 January, 2013, 08:49:24 pm

Erna Low is not on Wikipedia.

Someone tried to submit an article & it was refused. The grounds for refusal apply ten times over to some other Wikipedia articles I've seen.

http://wpedia.goo.ne.jp/enwiki/Wikipedia_talk:Articles_for_creation/Erna_Low

erm I can understand why it was refused.

The way that was written doesn't make it sound like she was notable enough (yeah, I know). They need to write more about her inspiration of the package holiday, impact etc, imitators.

Bledlow · « **Reply #160 on:** 07 February, 2013, 11:15:51 am »

Yeah, good reason, but that wasn't one of the reasons given for refusal.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #161 on:** 07 February, 2013, 11:31:30 am »

Quote from: Bledlow on 07 February, 2013, 11:15:51 am

Yeah, good reason, but that wasn't one of the reasons given for refusal.

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This submission appears to read more like an advertisement than an entry in an encyclopedia.

Basil · « **Reply #162 on:** 07 February, 2013, 08:47:38 pm »

Ive eaten a wormburger to see what would happen.
I await the outcome with baited breath.

Basil · « **Reply #163 on:** 08 February, 2013, 10:15:03 am »

Quote from: Basil on 07 February, 2013, 08:47:38 pm

Ive eaten a wormburger to see what would happen.
I await the outcome with baited breath.

What's that doing here? I'm sure I posted it in the "Would you? Could you?" thread.

rogerzilla · « **Reply #164 on:** 09 February, 2013, 01:24:08 pm »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horten_Ho_XVIII

Nothing new under the sun.

They should have had a few in "Iron Sky", which is basically Nazi steampunk.

Efrogwr · « **Reply #165 on:** 19 February, 2013, 05:50:44 pm »

That the French Army had Vespa scooters, modified to carry anti-tank guns.

Tim Hall · « **Reply #166 on:** 22 February, 2013, 01:21:37 pm »

Edward Gorey (illustrator and subject of today's Google Doodle) had a stepmother with a bit part in Casablanca. She plays the guitar during the singing of "La Marseillaise".

clarion · « **Reply #167 on:** 22 February, 2013, 02:06:00 pm »

Jeff Beck grew up on a street I regularly ride along.

Kim · « **Reply #168 on:** 24 February, 2013, 12:38:16 am »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanamara_Matsuri (NSFW)

Tim Hall · « **Reply #169 on:** 01 March, 2013, 02:43:31 pm »

I was in Eastleigh on Wednesday for work. While trying to find where I was meant to be going, I drove past Benny Hill Close, which I googled when I got back.

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He then moved on to be a milkman for Hanns Dairies, in Factory Road, now Wells Place. His time working in Eastleigh on a horse-drawn milk-float gave him his inspiration for his hit record, Ernie,the fastest milkman in the West.[17][18] In Benny's honour a plaque has been put up close to the site of the now demolished Hanns Dairies building[18] and a new road has been named Benny Hill Close, though many of the people who had bought the new homes were not happy with the decision.[19]

And it gets better. Next road along is Heinz Burt Close, named after Heinz of "Just Like Eddie" fame, who lived in Eastleigh . And then is Tommy Green Walk. Who? Olympic athlete, innit:

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Thomas William Green (30 March 1894 – 29 March 1975) was a British racewalker who won a gold medal in the men's 50km walk at the 1932 Summer Olympics. The son of a police constable, Green could not walk until the age of five, owing to his affliction with rickets. He lied about his age and joined the British Army in 1906 and served during World War I, where he was wounded on three occasions and gassed while fighting in France. Returning to Britain, he eventually settled in Eastleigh where he worked at a railway works before being encouraged by a blind friend to take up racewalking.

Nice bit of nominative wossname going on there.

Tim Hall · « **Reply #170 on:** 01 March, 2013, 03:14:52 pm »

And for today, St David's Day, it seems that his most famous miracle took place in Llanddewi Brefi.

Bledlow · « **Reply #171 on:** 01 March, 2013, 11:25:33 pm »

A major sport in Japan which seems to be pretty rare here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekiden

rogerzilla · « **Reply #172 on:** 03 March, 2013, 06:55:19 pm »

A painful way to find out that a steam locomotive doesn't have a rev limiter:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Peppercorn_Class_A2_60532_Blue_Peter

Kim · « **Reply #173 on:** 10 March, 2013, 08:34:32 pm »

Not really a Wikipedia find, but Arch used the word so I went to look it up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snickelways_of_York

Bledlow · « **Reply #174 on:** 19 March, 2013, 09:47:17 pm »

Since January this year it has been illegal in the USA to unlock a mobile phone which is locked to a particular network, & which was bought on or after some day in January which I can't be arsed to check, unless they have the permission of the network operator. It does not matter whether they paid full price for the phone, or whether the contract on the phone has expired - nada. You are utterly dependent on the whim of the network operator. This is due to a regulation promulgated by the Librarian of Congress, under US copyright law.

Fortunately for Leftpondians, the network operators appreciate that it would be bad business to try to take too much advantage of the power they have been granted.