Your Wikipedia find of the week

[Efrogwr]

That Marc Twight ( an American mountaineer) attempted more routes than he completed... He would hardly have tackled fewer, would he?

[rogerzilla]

That Redditch has England's only cloverleaf road junction.

http://goo.gl/maps/R9gBX

I didn't realise we had any; I know there are only three 4-level stack interchanges (M4/M5, M4/M25 and M23/M25).

[Kim]

That's more of a cbrd.co.uk find of the week, really...

[Tim Hall]

Prompted by my posting in the hats thread, I read up on Fedoras.

The word fedora comes from the title of an 1882 play by dramatist Victorien Sardou, Fédora, written for Sarah Bernhardt

[clarion]

That there has been an entire sub-genre of music called Filk, associated with sci-fi & fantasy, apparently:

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

[Ian H]

It's possible that I'm misremembering, but I could have sworn that, when I created the link at the beginning of this article, it was in English (second word in).

[clarion]

A very minor discovery, but the song I have thought for most of my life was called Paint It Black is, in fact, entitled Paint It, Black.

As if that weren't enough of a gem to amaze and astound, I discovered that Pilot was formed by two former Bay City Rollers with the son of the bandleader Ted Heath.  'Stonshin', huh?

[Wascally Weasel]

That there has been an entire sub-genre of music called Filk, associated with sci-fi & fantasy, apparently:

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

Filk singing sessions are a regular feature at SF conventions like Eastercon.  Given that they often involve broad comedy, smut and geeky SF/Fantasy references, I'm surprised there isn't already at least one board thread dedicated to Filk here already.

I once saw Terry Pratchett at an Eastercon, listening to people singing Filk songs based on the Discworld stories* and characters - he looked so happy.

*Yes, the Hedgehog Song was one of them.

[Kim]

That there has been an entire sub-genre of music called Filk, associated with sci-fi & fantasy, apparently:

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

Not to be confused with Geek Rock and related genres.

I've been known to write the odd filk from time to time...

[mrcharly-YHT]

It's possible that I'm misremembering, but I could have sworn that, when I created the link at the beginning of this article, it was in English (second word in).

Crazy, someone trying to make a point perhaps? A bit of a fail from Google Translate on that page too "We are not yet able to translate from Breton into French" 

Your link isn't to the english version of wikipedia.

[Bledlow]

Randonue.

Not on bikes.

[clarion]

That was one of the alternative conflict resolution systems I studied (in passing) at college, along with palaver.

[Ham]

I don't know why but I find this whole Xeer thing very fascinating. This is the kind of altruism western world lacks.

A guurti (court) is traditionally formed beneath an acacia tree, where judges arbitrate a dispute until both parties are satisfied. This process can sometimes lead to several days' worth of discussions.

We don't have time for altruism......

[Wowbagger]

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

Isn't the erection an exercise in hydraulics? And then the banging starts? 

[Efrogwr]

Herbie Flowers, who played the knockout bass parts on "Walk on the Wild Side", composed "Grandad", the Clive Dunn schmaltzfest.

[Nuncio]

Not my find but via Twitter. Adrian Carton de Wiart

This is just the intro

Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart[1] VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO (5 May 1880 – 5 June 1963), was an English officer of Belgian and Irish descent. He fought in the Boer War, World War I, and World War II, was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip and ear, survived a plane crash, tunneled out of a POW camp, and bit off his own fingers when a doctor wouldn't amputate them. He later said "frankly I had enjoyed the war."

[clarion]

Wow.  I'm amazed I've never heard of him before.

[Charlotte]

Bloody Norah - what an extraordinary man.  Can you imagine the tales he could have told?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Not in sign language!

[Nuncio]

Bloody Norah - what an extraordinary man.  Can you imagine the tales he could have told?

A little further research shows he wrote an autobiography in 1950 called 'Happy Odyssey'.  The one review I read suggests it's not very good.  He's too modest and too 'military'.

[Bledlow]

Eric Brown is still alive!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Brown_(pilot)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_flown_by_Eric_%22Winkle%22_Brown

[clarion]

On Plastic Bertrand (Roger Allen François Jouret):

...on 28 July 2010 the singer finally revealed that he is indeed not the singer of any of the songs in the first four albums released under the name Plastic Bertrand

[Tim Hall]

Work took me to Stiffkey this week.  The (de-frocked) rector there was killed by a lion.

[Regulator]

Work took me to Stiffkey this week.  The (de-frocked) rector there was killed by a lion.

One of my friends specialised in ecclesiastical law and she wrote a fabulous paper on the Harold Davidson case.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Meet 'Ronnie', the bren-gun girl