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Posted by: Donny

QUOTE(Hushthis @ Wed 5th April 2006, 6:39pm) *

This could be a fun game -- click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random and assess the results for citations, viewpoint, grammar and accuracy.

I got http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Borges. It's a little boring. Can I play twice?
Second try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbira. Ooh. Nice article.
Third try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Little. Short but fairly informative.
Fourth try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umiastowski. Seems like a useful article.
Fifth try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_setting. Short but apparently useful.
Sixth try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbie_Conal. Interesting article, I liked it. Again rather short.
Seventh try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattus_Norvegicus_%28album%29. I used to have that album. Article is rather short, again.
Eighth try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-down_planning. This is the first really lame article I've hit.
Ninth try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Angus_Association. Short but mildly interesting.
Last try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamimatsura_District%2C_Nagasaki. Very short robot stub?

The only really good article I hit was the Mbira one, but none of the others except Top down planning were outstandingly bad. They all seemed to be a little short, and perhaps not very well researched.

Posted by: Blu Aardvark

List_of_political_parties_in_East_Timor (T-H-L-K-D)

Citations: None

Point of View: Relatively nuetral, but that's not saying much, because this article is next to useless, with one sentence being the primary content of this article - not including the list, of course

Accuracy: With no sources, it cannot be confirmed whether or not the only statements made by this article are factual.

Theodor_Becker (T-H-L-K-D)

Citations: None.

Point of View & Accuracy: This article is so badly written, I cannot understand it, much less establish a point of view or accuracy issues.

Roary_the_Lion (T-H-L-K-D)

Substub. Bloody useless. Should be merged with the article on Middlesbrough_F.C. (T-H-L-K-D) and redirected. This will never be anything more than a stub.

Posted by: norsemoose

What the shit?

World's_busiest_port

*That* page speaks for itself.

Posted by: Jonny Cache

QUOTE(norsemoose @ Mon 4th June 2007, 11:47pm) *

What the shit?

World's busiest port

*That* page speaks for itself.


I'm guessing either Manischewitz or Mogen David ...

Jonny cool.gif

Posted by: Somey

I thought Port 80 was the world's busiest port these days?

Posted by: Looch

QUOTE(Somey @ Tue 5th June 2007, 4:22am) *

I thought Port 80 was the world's busiest port these days?

Hehehe, good one, Somey.

Posted by: Kathryn Cramer

Gotta love those auto parts stubs!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_2S-G_engine

Posted by: JohnA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Borges has been deleted

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisexual_erasure. Its another reason why heterosexuals are bad people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography_of_the_Western_Apache is yet another list article. I think lists are one of the key reasons why Wikipedia is so large.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_County_Sheriff%27s_Office for everything you've ever needed to know about this important part of the American justice system - including the pay scales for Detention Deputies.

Vital information, as I'm sure you'll agree.

Posted by: Cobalt

Apologies for the thread necromancy, but Jesus God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietermaritzburg_Airport

Posted by: dogbiscuit

QUOTE(Cobalt @ Fri 8th August 2008, 11:56am) *

Apologies for the thread necromancy, but Jesus God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietermaritzburg_Airport

18 months of refinement lead to that? Better to leave it to the sockpuppets who can create a complete article on their first edits.

Posted by: Neil

Yoink. Cleaned up and stubbed.

Posted by: Cobalt

QUOTE(Neil @ Fri 8th August 2008, 7:04am) *

Yoink. Cleaned up and stubbed.


That's a major improvement.

Posted by: The Joy

When I was a more active Wikipedian, I tried to clean up various military articles. At one point, I got stuck on a Indian military article. It was like someone had taken an article from a different language, translated it into English via AltaVista Babelfish, and dumped it on Wikipedia without cleaning it up. I would try to fix things, but I never really knew what the original writers meant so I would just have to leave the ambiguous stuff alone as I have no knowledge of the Indian military. The most annoying thing was that every paragraph kept saying something like "General Vista Ramalamadingdong is the head of the Indian military and he is truly glorious." By the time I vetted through that article, I had about enough of General Vista Ramalamadingdong. Maybe he is truly glorious, but that's an opinion and no third party references to back it.

Pretty much after that, I gave up on making big changes to Wikipedia and I pretty much stay away from it now.

Posted by: Firsfron of Ronchester

QUOTE(The Joy @ Fri 8th August 2008, 1:25pm) *

When I was a more active Wikipedian, I tried to clean up various military articles. At one point, I got stuck on a Indian military article. It was like someone had taken an article from a different language, translated it into English via AltaVista Babelfish, and dumped it on Wikipedia without cleaning it up. I would try to fix things, but I never really knew what the original writers meant so I would just have to leave the ambiguous stuff alone as I have no knowledge of the Indian military.


That's my experience as well. However, I don't think most of those articles are actual Altavista translations, as Babelfish at least gets the punctuation spaced correctly.

Posted by: maggot3

I've seen similar articles that I've tried to fix before and had similar problems. There's often really no way to fix them other than stubbing them, they're so awful. Indian places are the worst for this; they're regularly created with lots of advertising style writing (stuff like "It is recently known for lots of very good Information Technology specialists") and attempts to fix are met with WHY U CHANGE MY ARTICLE.

Posted by: Milton Roe

QUOTE(Hushthis @ Wed 5th April 2006, 6:39pm) *

This could be a fun game -- click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random and assess the results for citations, viewpoint, grammar and accuracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HLA-B49 Short, but a lot of interesting info on an HLA allele I knew nothing about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carvers%2C_Nevada Stub about a town, but has grid coords, at least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Elmaleh_de_Buenos Minor French impressionist painter I'd never heard of. Obvious translation. Info but no refs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra_Hultgren Stub on Miss Sweden, 1995, with some acting gigs. No photo, damnit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_MultiCom Swiss computer network company. Clearly a cropped stub from the company website, just so they have a WP presense. COI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_York%2C_Duchess_of_Suffolk Stub on a younger sister of Edward IV of England, obviously by a ROYAL worshipper. Late 15th century. You remember the York who started the War of the Roses and kept waffling on and off the throne. No? Just as well. Anyway, he had this sister...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fern_%28disambiguation%29 A dab page on Ferns. I love dab pages. Did you know a Fern Bar is an upscale yuppie bar? Most people ferns I've met are varieties of human potted plants who decorate the living spaces of the rich and famous. A slang use not reported here. Ah, well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fun_of_Watching_Fireworks. An album by the American Analog Set. Not much info but a track listing. Apparently not a terribly important band.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_14_of_the_United_States_Code Not much info, but does give links. Title 14 is THE title in US Code for the legal authorization for the Coast Guard. Who knew?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorma A river in Norway (name means "warm"). Stubby article but long river.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._Lucas Texas bankrobber who went to Alcatraz in 1935, stabbed Al Capone non-fatally there in a laundry room in 1936, tried to escape in 1938 (resulting in a death) and was sentenced to life, serving 25 more years till he died there in 1963. This guy's life sucked (I've visited Alcatraz). Decent references and a pretty good article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilston_West_railway_station Stub on a Brit railway station closed in 1962 and used after that only by Hoggwarts students.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittenham_Clumps Article on a bunch of small hills in Oxfordshire. Thrilling poetry included. References substandard. But the English live up to their rep, with this article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Palace Very nice article on a pretty piece of London architecture, with nice photos and good references. And a good place to stop, as the English have here redeemed themselves for the Wittenham Clumps.

Posted by: Crestatus

Man, I hope none of mine get listed on here.

Posted by: Rootology

I used to do this ages ago...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_A40_Devon Decent article on a classic car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myricaceae Typical plant stub.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alizarine_ink A form of ink from the 1800s. Interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Coles English footballer. Next (I never read these).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orting%2C_WA_Flash_Flood_of_2006 I remember this flood, when it happened here. I boggled before I read the article that it said to merge to "Pineapple Express", thinking it was vandalism--merge a flood article to a stoner movie? What?! But turns out a Pineapple Express is not what I thought it was.

Posted by: KamrynMatika

The "Related Works" list in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World is quite entertaining:

QUOTE
Related works

* The Scientific Outlook by philosopher Bertrand Russell. When Brave New World was released, Russell thought that Huxley's book was based on his book The Scientific Outlook that had been released the previous year. Russell contacted his own publisher and asked whether or not he should do something about this apparent plagiarism. His publisher advised him not to, and Russell followed this advice.[22]
* The 1921 novel Men Like Gods by H.G. Wells. A utopian novel that was a source of inspiration for Huxley's dystopian Brave New World.
* In Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga, an isolated planet practicing genetic eugenics to form a perfect society is called 'Huxleys Haven'
* The 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman alludes to how television is goading modern Western culture to be like what we see in Brave New World, where people are not so much denied human rights like free speech, but are rather conditioned not to care.
* Kurt Vonnegut said that in writing Player Piano (1952) he "cheerfully ripped off the plot of Brave New World, whose plot had been cheerfully ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's We."[23]
* The Iron Maiden song by the same name on their album Brave New World whose cover art depicts a futuristic London described by Huxley.
* "Slave New World," a song by Brazilian band Sepultura from their album Chaos A.D.
* Brazilian rock singer Pitty's debut album, released in 2003, is called Admirável Chip Novo (Brave New Chip).
* Brave New World is the title song on the third album by the Steve Miller Band.
* The Motörhead album Hammered includes a song named Brave New World.
* Richard Ashcroft's first solo album Alone with Everybody includes a song named Brave New World.
* Demolition Man, a film starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock, is set in a not-too-distant future utopian society based on a Brave New World. Sandra Bullock's character is even named Lenina Huxley, referencing the author and character from the book. (1997)
* Reagan Youth had a song named "Brave New World".
* The Proletariat had an LP entitled "Soma Holiday."
* Scottish techno record label Soma Quality Recordings was named after the drug Soma featured in a Brave New World
* On their album Here, Here, and Here, Meg & Dia have a track titled "Hug Me", a song written by Dia inspired by "Brave New World."
* The song "Soma Holiday" by Gods of Luxury is based on the novel and includes several quotes from the novel in its lyrics.
* The lyrics for Marilyn Manson's song "Ka-boom Ka-boom" from The Golden Age of Grotesque play on the title and idea of this book; in them, Manson suggests that society is a "depraved new world."
* Sam Endicott of The Bravery based the song I Have Seen The Future off of Brave New World, as he said in an interview.





Posted by: Herschelkrustofsky

QUOTE(KamrynMatika @ Sun 7th March 2010, 2:11pm) *

The "Related Works" list in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World is quite entertaining:

QUOTE
Related works

* The Scientific Outlook by philosopher Bertrand Russell. When Brave New World was released, Russell thought that Huxley's book was based on his book The Scientific Outlook that had been released the previous year. Russell contacted his own publisher and asked whether or not he should do something about this apparent plagiarism. His publisher advised him not to, and Russell followed this advice.[22]
* The 1921 novel Men Like Gods by H.G. Wells. A utopian novel that was a source of inspiration for Huxley's dystopian Brave New World.
* In Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga, an isolated planet practicing genetic eugenics to form a perfect society is called 'Huxleys Haven'
* The 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman alludes to how television is goading modern Western culture to be like what we see in Brave New World, where people are not so much denied human rights like free speech, but are rather conditioned not to care.
* Kurt Vonnegut said that in writing Player Piano (1952) he "cheerfully ripped off the plot of Brave New World, whose plot had been cheerfully ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's We."[23]
* The Iron Maiden song by the same name on their album Brave New World whose cover art depicts a futuristic London described by Huxley.
* "Slave New World," a song by Brazilian band Sepultura from their album Chaos A.D.
* Brazilian rock singer Pitty's debut album, released in 2003, is called Admirável Chip Novo (Brave New Chip).
* Brave New World is the title song on the third album by the Steve Miller Band.
* The Motörhead album Hammered includes a song named Brave New World.
* Richard Ashcroft's first solo album Alone with Everybody includes a song named Brave New World.
* Demolition Man, a film starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock, is set in a not-too-distant future utopian society based on a Brave New World. Sandra Bullock's character is even named Lenina Huxley, referencing the author and character from the book. (1997)
* Reagan Youth had a song named "Brave New World".
* The Proletariat had an LP entitled "Soma Holiday."
* Scottish techno record label Soma Quality Recordings was named after the drug Soma featured in a Brave New World
* On their album Here, Here, and Here, Meg & Dia have a track titled "Hug Me", a song written by Dia inspired by "Brave New World."
* The song "Soma Holiday" by Gods of Luxury is based on the novel and includes several quotes from the novel in its lyrics.
* The lyrics for Marilyn Manson's song "Ka-boom Ka-boom" from The Golden Age of Grotesque play on the title and idea of this book; in them, Manson suggests that society is a "depraved new world."
* Sam Endicott of The Bravery based the song I Have Seen The Future off of Brave New World, as he said in an interview.

To my mind, an oddly homogeneous listing. The big omission, of course, is Shakespeare's The Tempest, which originated the phrase:

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!

Posted by: wikieyeay

I tried:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossana_Schneider - text is close to nonsensical, and is basically a puff piece, reference is unverifiable. Rubbish.
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Sattsayev - minor Russian footballer, no information provided, latest year's stats not given by reference. Only one line. Unlikely to be useful to anyone.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaquina - dismabiguation page that rather misses the opportunity to explain why places in Oregon are called 'Yaquina'.
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Berman - another disambig page
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Thomas_Street - about a brutalist skyscraper. Now this is actually interesting, and appears to be the only real article about the subject available online.
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_governor - article asserting the existence of a specific mental process to prevent over-exertion. Presented as fact with a 'criticism' section at the end, but a google search leads me to suspect it's actually a fringe theory and not accepted generally by medical science.
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaysin_Quli - Balkar poet, pretty good article. Appears to have been written by only one or two people.
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_warship_combat - geek topic, I'm not even going to bother questioning this
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACP%E2%80%93EU_Joint_Parliamentary_Assembly - article describing an African, Caribbean, Pacific-EU assembly. Very dry, no analysis. Has this really attracted no news coverage?
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFAF_Challenge_Cup - minor European gridiron competition.

Posted by: radek

Well, this isn't "random" (it's actually related to an article I worked on recently) but it's pretty "awesome" so it fits. I'm too in awe of it to try and "fix it" in anyway:

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

(edit) Note that, had it been created in the past 5 days, the table of contents alone would be long enough to be DYKable, by a long shot.

(edit^2) And I get the impression that they have some kind of Springfield/Shelbyville thing going with this "town of Babylon" (which unfortunately does not appear have a Wikipedia presence aside from this)

Posted by: CharlotteWebb

QUOTE(radek @ Mon 8th March 2010, 12:37pm) *

Well, this isn't "random" (it's actually related to an article I worked on recently) but it's pretty "awesome" so it fits. I'm too in awe of it to try and "fix it" in anyway:

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

blink.gif Jesus Crime-in-Italy. Is that Brad's home-town?

Posted by: Peter Damian

QUOTE(Herschelkrustofsky @ Sun 7th March 2010, 11:39pm) *

To my mind, an oddly homogeneous listing. The big omission, of course, is Shakespeare's The Tempest, which originated the phrase:

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!



Seriously? [edit] I mean, does it seriously omit it?

Posted by: Eva Destruction

QUOTE(Peter Damian @ Mon 8th March 2010, 12:58pm) *

QUOTE(Herschelkrustofsky @ Sun 7th March 2010, 11:39pm) *

To my mind, an oddly homogeneous listing. The big omission, of course, is Shakespeare's The Tempest, which originated the phrase:

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!



Seriously? [edit] I mean, does it seriously omit it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World#Title. (Peter, I have to say that took all of two seconds to check.)

Posted by: Milton Roe

QUOTE(Herschelkrustofsky @ Sun 7th March 2010, 4:39pm) *

To my mind, an oddly homogeneous listing. The big omission, of course, is Shakespeare's The Tempest, which originated the phrase:

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!



'Tis new to them.

Posted by: EricBarbour

Suck on this one:

Love-shyness.

Something that Wikipediots know all about?

Rather long article for a term coined by pop-psychologist Brian Gilmartin, isn't it?
I wonder what other psychology academics think of Gilmartin's theories.

Posted by: Eva Destruction

I've mentioned them all before, but my personal holy trinity of Wikipedia shite at its stinkiest are:

  1. The BLP-violating, bar-advertising, sprawling mess of Orchard Towers;
  2. The zen-like distillation of pure pointlessness that is Southborough, Bromley;
  3. Blofeld's crowning glory, Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel. ("On March 25th-27th 2005 it hosted a Dawn of the Dead convention." Well, it must be notable then...)

Posted by: KD Tries Again

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Solo was a particular favorite of mine. I think I helped to improve it.

Posted by: Doc glasgow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anstruther_Fish_Bar is my favourite article.

Posted by: The Adversary

How can you forget the Saints? -any religion will do; Christian:
Mariam Baouardy (T-H-L-K-D)

QUOTE
Eyes flashing with hatred he lost control and kicked her to the floor. He then drew his sword and slashed her throat. Thinking her dead he dumped her bloody body in a nearby dark alley. It was 8 September 1858. What followed was a strange and beautifully moving story, told years later by Mariam to her Mistress of Novices at Marseilles, France. “A nun dressed in blue picked me up and stitched my throat wound. This happened in a grotto somewhere.

..or Muslim:
Sukayna bint Husayn (T-H-L-K-D):
QUOTE
..the children gathered around Sukaina with their little cups, knowing that as soon as Abbas ibn Ali would bring water, Sukaina would first make sure that they had some before taking any herself. Sukaina was standing next to Hussain ibn Ali, also with her eyes fixed on the Alam of Abbas ibn Ali. Abbas reached the river bank fighting Yazid's men trying to block his way, killing anyone with his spear that tried to stop his progress. Abbas' bravery was well known among the Arabs and the Yazid’s troops started to flee in different directions. As he bent down to fill the mashk, the Alam disappeared from sight. Sakīnah was frightened and looked at her father. Hussain ibn Ali said, Sakīnah, your uncle Abbas is at the river bank. Sakīnah smiled and said, Alhamdulillah (all praise is for Allah), and called out all the children to welcome Abbas.

With the water-bag filled, Abbas ibn Ali wanted to get the water to the anxiously waiting children as quickly as possible. Seeing him gallop towards the camp of Hussain ibn Ali, Umar ibn Sa’ad shouted from the enemy ranks that if even a single drop of water reaches Hussain's camp, it would be impossible to fight them on the battlefield. When arrows were coming from all sides, Abbas had only one thought in his mind, how to protect the water-bag than his life. Abbas ibn Ali lost both his arms during the attack, trying to save the water-bag. The Alam fell onto the ground. Sakīnah could not see it any longer. She looked at Hussain ibn Ali, but he turned his face away. Sakīnah began to tremble with fear and her eyes filled with tears. She raised her hands and prayed, “Ya Allah! Do not let them kill my uncle Abbas, I will not ask for water again and ran inside the tent to her mother”.

PS: the girl died...5 years old huh.gif

Posted by: Abd

QUOTE(The Adversary @ Tue 9th March 2010, 1:38pm) *

How can you forget the Saints? -any religion will do; Christian:
Mariam Baouardy (T-H-L-K-D)
Sukayna bint Husayn (T-H-L-K-D)
Probably all or almost all of what's in those articles is verifiable if attributed. Without sane process, fixing this stuff is completely beyond anything I'd care to attempt. If the mob comes across these articles, they will hack them to pieces. But I'd assert that any Saint recognized by the Catholic Church -- or even close to that -- or any widely known martyr of Shi'a Islam -- is almost certainly sufficiently notable for an article, and then what's in the article? Just neutral histories from secular sources?

Posted by: IN278S

I have a COI with respect to this article, so I'll let someone else decide if it's sufficiently crappy to be deletion-worthy.

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

Posted by: Eva Destruction

Definite honorable mention for An Organic Conversation. Anyone want to take bets on whether Ginanatalina (T-C-L-K-R-D) is "Helge Hellberg, Executive Director of Marin Organic" or "Mark Mulcahy, award winning retail consultant, educator, and organic advocate"?

Posted by: Eva Destruction

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Dell_Alexander. I'm particularly taken by the magnificent piece of artwork that is the Clinton Family Portrait.

Image

Posted by: Subtle Bee

QUOTE(Eva Destruction @ Wed 17th March 2010, 2:22pm) *

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Dell_Alexander. I'm particularly taken by the magnificent piece of artwork that is the Clinton Family Portrait.

Image


Image

"huhhuh....I'm President... huhhuhhuh"

Posted by: the fieryangel

QUOTE(IN278S @ Wed 10th March 2010, 2:48pm) *

I have a COI with respect to this article, so I'll let someone else decide if it's sufficiently crappy to be deletion-worthy.

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


Hmm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/HandsFree_Networks

The Wikipedia Review effect strikes again!

Posted by: Eva Destruction

List of Presidents of the United States who knew a foreign language.

Posted by: Eva Destruction

Malchik. Words fail me. "Man brutally kills pregnant dog for no particular reason" has got to be my new favorite news headline, though.

Posted by: Milton Roe

QUOTE(Eva Destruction @ Wed 17th March 2010, 2:22pm) *

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Dell_Alexander. I'm particularly taken by the magnificent piece of artwork that is the Clinton Family Portrait.

Image

Well, they nailed Chelsea of that time. Bill has morphed a bit into a JFK with graying hair. I dunno who the woman is. I think I've seen her as a news anchorperson, though.

Posted by: CrazyGameOfPoker

Apparently all you need is 15 minutes of fame (well maybe an hour and a half)

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

Her only claim to fame is winning a contest to host SNL for one episode. Article's been up for 5 or 6 years.

Posted by: Milton Roe

QUOTE(Eva Destruction @ Tue 30th March 2010, 4:20am) *

Damn me, that's actually a well-done and interesting article. I read it all and it was painless and informative and even entertaining.

It's badly named, as it's too detailed to be a merely standard stand-alone WP:LIST article. I think should renamed to Presidents of the United States who knew a foreign language.

Posted by: NotARepublican55

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnout_Dominator/Paradise_Soundtrack

yak.gif

Mod note: Merged this post here as it's not really worthy of an individual thread - kamryn.

Posted by: CharlotteWebb

Two-year-old redirect vandalism at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=241729248&diff=prev, note the spelling.

The added specificity did make me lol out loud. Also I'm somewhat amazed that the edit wasn't swiftly reverted by some humorless bureauprat and that the section-redirect was still functional (the tortured ambiguity of the sub-title in question having remained untouched in the two years since it was introduced).

By that I mean "waning" is to "health rumors" as "purple" is to "people eater" of course.

In any case Al-Jazeera says he might be one step closer to retirement.


Posted by: Kelly Martin

Ran across Wikipedia's press releasearticle on Apple's Time Capsule (Apple) yesterday. The article is fairly obviously at best a light gloss on Apple product literature. The Time Capsule has been heavily criticized in industry press for its design flaws (and Apple's original reticence to replace defective units), but the article valiantly minimizes that.

Posted by: CharlotteWebb

Meet the Farquhars

Sorry but the http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=342278087&diff=prev made me lol out loud. At least one related vandalism remains http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=359965185&diff=prev.

Posted by: Obesity

QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Wed 19th January 2011, 12:11pm) *

Ran across Wikipedia's press releasearticle on Apple's Time Capsule (Apple) yesterday. The article is fairly obviously at best a light gloss on Apple product literature. The Time Capsule has been heavily criticized in industry press for its design flaws (and Apple's original reticence to replace defective units), but the article valiantly minimizes that.



Alison wrote it.

Posted by: Alison

QUOTE(Obesity @ Sun 13th February 2011, 7:45am) *

QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Wed 19th January 2011, 12:11pm) *

Ran across Wikipedia's press releasearticle on Apple's Time Capsule (Apple) yesterday. The article is fairly obviously at best a light gloss on Apple product literature. The Time Capsule has been heavily criticized in industry press for its design flaws (and Apple's original reticence to replace defective units), but the article valiantly minimizes that.

Alison wrote it.

I think it needs to be pointed out that I never touched that article, nor is it a product I had anything to do with. I don't go near Apple articles for obvious reasons, other than to provide the odd photo.

Jes' sayin' ...

Posted by: RMHED

QUOTE(Alison @ Sun 13th February 2011, 6:48pm) *

QUOTE(Obesity @ Sun 13th February 2011, 7:45am) *

QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Wed 19th January 2011, 12:11pm) *

Ran across Wikipedia's press releasearticle on Apple's Time Capsule (Apple) yesterday. The article is fairly obviously at best a light gloss on Apple product literature. The Time Capsule has been heavily criticized in industry press for its design flaws (and Apple's original reticence to replace defective units), but the article valiantly minimizes that.

Alison wrote it.

I think it needs to be pointed out that I never touched that article, nor is it a product I had anything to do with. I don't go near Apple articles for obvious reasons, other than to provide the odd photo.

Jes' sayin' ...

But then again, you would say that wouldn't you...

Posted by: Jon Awbrey

QUOTE(Alison @ Sun 13th February 2011, 1:48pm) *

I think it needs to be pointed out that I never touched that article, nor is it a product I had anything to do with. I don't go near Apple articles for obvious reasons, other than to provide the odd photo.

Jes' sayin' …


And if there's anything Wikipedia doesn't have enough of, it's gotta be odd photos.

Jon tongue.gif

Posted by: Obesity

QUOTE(Alison @ Sun 13th February 2011, 1:48pm) *

QUOTE(Obesity @ Sun 13th February 2011, 7:45am) *

QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Wed 19th January 2011, 12:11pm) *

Ran across Wikipedia's press releasearticle on Apple's Time Capsule (Apple) yesterday. The article is fairly obviously at best a light gloss on Apple product literature. The Time Capsule has been heavily criticized in industry press for its design flaws (and Apple's original reticence to replace defective units), but the article valiantly minimizes that.

Alison wrote it.

I think it needs to be pointed out that I never touched that article, nor is it a product I had anything to do with. I don't go near Apple articles for obvious reasons, other than to provide the odd photo.

Jes' sayin' ...


i am sorry for my disrespect
sorry for my lies

:-(

Posted by: Somey

QUOTE(Obesity @ Tue 22nd February 2011, 12:06am) *
i am sorry for my disrespect
sorry for my lies

Sorry for my dialect,
and my pumpkin pies...

Posted by: Obesity

QUOTE(Somey @ Tue 22nd February 2011, 1:36am) *

QUOTE(Obesity @ Tue 22nd February 2011, 12:06am) *
i am sorry for my disrespect
sorry for my lies

Sorry for my dialect,
and my pumpkin pies...


i don't think Biggie Smalls, despite his physique, ever rapped about PUMPKIN PIES

Posted by: EricBarbour

Nopsie, just http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/notoriousbig/fuckyoutonight.html and http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/notoriousbig/somebodysgottadie.html.

Posted by: Zoloft

Some say the spies, make the pies
Spec-tacular, make me lick it from da fork
On da plate, then ya, shiverin, tongue deliverin
Taste of that pumpkin, that pie is jumpkin
Skip the milk and the cookies, no Oreos tonight
If its alright with you, we slicin' dat pie


Posted by: Eva Destruction

I thought Wikipedia had lost its capacity to surprise me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Bieber%27s_hair.

Posted by: -DS-

QUOTE(Eva Destruction @ Sun 10th April 2011, 10:12pm) *

I thought Wikipedia had lost its capacity to surprise me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Bieber%27s_hair.


Where I come from, there is a word for this.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Posted by: radek

QUOTE(Eva Destruction @ Sun 10th April 2011, 3:12pm) *

I thought Wikipedia had lost its capacity to surprise me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Bieber%27s_hair.


To be fair, that's in good part a reflection on our general culture rather than being specific to Wikipedia.

Posted by: Milton Roe

QUOTE(radek @ Mon 11th April 2011, 12:09am) *

QUOTE(Eva Destruction @ Sun 10th April 2011, 3:12pm) *

I thought Wikipedia had lost its capacity to surprise me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Bieber%27s_hair.


To be fair, that's in good part a reflection on our general culture rather than being specific to Wikipedia.

Ever culture has its reliquaries. The reliquary of the http://worldvisitguide.com/oeuvre/O0008604.html. The requiquary of the lock of hair of Justin Beiber. You can start to worry when either the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquires Beiber's hair, or else they start building a cathedral around it.

Even so, it's not THAT much more silly than Catholicism. tongue.gif

Posted by: radek

QUOTE(Milton Roe @ Mon 11th April 2011, 1:21pm) *

QUOTE(radek @ Mon 11th April 2011, 12:09am) *

QUOTE(Eva Destruction @ Sun 10th April 2011, 3:12pm) *

I thought Wikipedia had lost its capacity to surprise me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Bieber%27s_hair.


To be fair, that's in good part a reflection on our general culture rather than being specific to Wikipedia.

Ever culture has its reliquaries. The reliquary of the http://worldvisitguide.com/oeuvre/O0008604.html. The requiquary of the lock of hair of Justin Beiber. You can start to worry when either the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquires Beiber's hair, or else they start building a cathedral around it.

Even so, it's not THAT much more silly than Catholicism. tongue.gif


Oh, I totally agree with that - I'm willing to bet that pretty much every culture at every point in history was more or less just as goofy as ours. It's just the fog of history and the dulling vapors of romanticism that make it seem otherwise. Seriously, when Mozart was around, how many people do you think actually listened to the guy (putting aside the fact that he's over rated). I tell you how many. Two. Everyone else was listening to some roadside tavern version of Justin Bieber (of course in those times, each village had to have its own version of JB, and some did worse than others). But that stuff never got recorded so we were spared it. Or it got passed through the generation but thanks to the passage of time it now seems quaint and "authentic" (ugh). But now we record every single damn thing.

So anyway, my standard of comparison, was my somewhat idealized version of what culture we should have, rather than any kind of historical comparison. You know, I was being elitist.

btw, that article was apparently created as a (very awesome and hillarious) violation of WP:POINT (bad editor! bad!),

Posted by: EricBarbour

QUOTE(radek @ Mon 11th April 2011, 10:00pm) *
Everyone else was listening to some roadside tavern version of Justin Bieber (of course in those times, each village had to have its own version of JB, and some did worse than others). But that stuff never got recorded so we were spared it. Or it got passed through the generation but thanks to the passage of time it now seems quaint and "authentic" (ugh). But now we record every single damn thing.

And most of that now gets posted to http://soundcloud.com/.
It contains millions of music recordings--mostly utter crap, and remixes of crap.
Plus millions of recorded voices of bored teenagers, making fools of themselves.

Sorta like Wikipedia with a mic, ya know?.....

Posted by: Zoloft

This article *retch* has it all - no notability, bad sources, poorly written, riddled with errors, and offensive to an entire language.

I present: Portuguese_profanity (T-H-L-K-D).

Posted by: MookieZ

From Terrence Malick (T-H-L-K-D):

QUOTE
Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois[3][4][5] or Waco, Texas[6][7].

Seriously?

Posted by: Kelly Martin

QUOTE(MookieZ @ Fri 30th December 2011, 4:57am) *

From Terrence Malick (T-H-L-K-D):
QUOTE
Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois[3][4][5] or Waco, Texas[6][7].

Seriously?
I've been in Ottawa, and I don't see how it could be confused with Waco. They really aren't that much like another, not to mention separated by a thousand miles or so.

Posted by: Malik Shabazz

QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Fri 30th December 2011, 2:10pm) *

QUOTE(MookieZ @ Fri 30th December 2011, 4:57am) *

From Terrence Malick (T-H-L-K-D):
QUOTE
Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois[3][4][5] or Waco, Texas[6][7].

Seriously?
I've been in Ottawa, and I don't see how it could be confused with Waco. They really aren't that much like another, not to mention separated by a thousand miles or so.

That's what happens when sources don't agree. I've done it myself.
QUOTE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Alexander

Posted by: Kelly Martin

QUOTE(Malik Shabazz @ Fri 30th December 2011, 10:15pm) *

QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Fri 30th December 2011, 2:10pm) *

QUOTE(MookieZ @ Fri 30th December 2011, 4:57am) *

From Terrence Malick (T-H-L-K-D):
QUOTE
Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois[3][4][5] or Waco, Texas[6][7].

Seriously?
I've been in Ottawa, and I don't see how it could be confused with Waco. They really aren't that much like another, not to mention separated by a thousand miles or so.

That's what happens when sources don't agree. I've done it myself.
QUOTE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Alexander

That's horrible writing. That ought to read "Alexander's birthplace is disputed; various sources report his birthplace as either Denver, Colorado, or Missouri." A discussion as to which has the greater support would seem meritorious as well. But that would required doing more than just collating data; it would, in fact, smell rather heavily of the dreaded "original research" which we all know is prohibited at Wikipedia. That's one of the ways, in fact, that Wikipedia ensures that article quality stays low.

Posted by: melloden

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Fisher_(architect)&action=history has had an interesting history.

Posted by: Fusion

QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Sat 31st December 2011, 4:22am) *

That's horrible writing. That ought to read "Alexander's birthplace is disputed; various sources report his birthplace as either Denver, Colorado, or Missouri."

Yet that would in itself be original research, no? Or is it synthesis? I fail to sometimes distinguish them. You cannot say that something is disputed unless you have a reliable source that says that there is a dispute. Having contradictory sources does not "prove" that.

Posted by: Mister Die

I'll post in here since it's minor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_parliamentary_election,_1945

Now I don't consider it a bad article (mainly because I wrote 99% of it) but it does, I feel, demonstrate a weakness on Wikipedia's part. I originally called it "Albanian Constituent Assembly election, 1945" but some guy with a 2000-page general elections book (for which he gives "thanks to Wikimedia UK, who provided me with a grant to purchase" it) decided that it had to be a "parliamentary" election because, well, that general reference book which had to provide general information on thousands of elections across Europe deemed it so. Normally one would think "hey, Albania in 1945 didn't have a parliament, ergo it couldn't possibly have had a parliamentary election," but verifiability not truth reigns and all that. Said guy had used the book in Albanian election articles before and apparently decided that it was infallible.

So naturally it's put up to a vote. I provide 5 sources (and another one in the main article), of which 2 were Albanian government-published texts given official English-language translations, 5 Western academic works on Albanian history, and 1 academic book on post-1989 Balkan history. Opposing user continues using his 2000-page general elections book as a defense. No one cares about Albania so no one except me and him* vote on the subject of changing the article's name back.

The result? "No consensus to move."

dry.gif

* Inasmuch as it concerned his book.

Posted by: Fusion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_day is a good example of the editor who says "I'm so clever! I know better than standard references!"

QUOTE

Although many references say that the Julian in "Julian day" refers to Scaliger's father, Julius Scaliger, in the introduction to Book V of his Opus de Emendatione Temporum ("Work on the Emendation of Time") he states, "Iulianum vocavimus: quia ad annum Iulianum dumtaxat accomodata est", which translates more or less as "We have called it Julian merely because it is accommodated to the Julian year." This Julian refers to Julius Caesar, who introduced the Julian calendar in 46 BC.

You may think that he has disproved a widely held but misinformed idea, no? It is on the contrary, of course, more likely that Scaliger only said that it was named after Julius Caesar and in fact was deliberately honouring his father. To avoid any charge of original research, the article could be re-worded as "Scaliger claimed to have called it Julian in honour of Julius Caesar. However, many references say ..."


Posted by: MookieZ

from Roseanna Vitro (T-H-L-K-D), this may be my favorite sentence of all time:

QUOTE
Vitro has never avoided politics, and in 2011, she released an album of Randy Newman jazz arrangements.[5]


Posted by: Mister Die

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

72% of the sources of this article come from a single book. Normally that wouldn't be too bad except said source says about Albanians, among other things, the following: "In marked contrast to the Albanian, the Northern Epirote was devoted to learning and the cultivation of those virutes collectively termed civilization." (p. 52) "It is not my intention to heap scorn upon the Albanians because they have had the misfortune to enter the Twentieth Century little more advanced than they left the First, but it it s a fact that must be recognized. It explains much about them and the quality of leaders they have produced—as well as the misery to which their rule has reduced Northern Epirus." (p. 7) He also claims that Albanians were basically too savage to want to have an alphabet, among other wonderful and totally not racist claims.

But hey, the author can be a racist but at least the information isn't wrong, right?

Except the only source that the organization was anything more than a very minor element in the whole history of Albania's war against fascist occupation (one will look in vain to find it in literally any other history book about Albania) is... the author of said racist book. And he provides no sources. And no academic work actually cites said book.

On the talk page we see a bit of the worst sort of things Wikipedia can cause: User A notes that the article is making claims completely different from those of every other source on Albanian history (including greatly exaggerating the influence of the organization and the "battles" it supposedly engaged in), User B who originally inserted said information into the article denounces A, User A points out unreliability and inconsistencies of accounts of book cited by User B, User B searches Google and Google Books in a desperate attempt to kinda-sorta provide meager support for the book he swears by. User A points out irrelevancy of those "sources" but eventually gives up because of obstinate stand of User B. User B enjoys confidence in keeping an article in a state in which it details events that never happened.

Posted by: Fusion

QUOTE(Mister Die @ Fri 17th February 2012, 12:20pm) *

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Epirus_Liberation_Front
But hey, the author can be a racist but at least the information isn't wrong, right?

These things happen in Albania. It is a strange country where many have huge chips all over their shoulders, sometimes for good reasons. Is this book published by a reputable publisher or is it self-published? And might User B have some connection with its author?

Posted by: Mister Die

It was published, as far as I can see, by a small Greek-American publishing company. The author himself (I actually brought the book just because I wanted a different take on North Epirus, which was a bad idea because it's a really lame book) is not an academic and his two main qualifications seem to be that he himself is Greek and that he contributed articles on things to the Long Island Star-Journal. The dust jacket also proudly states that he fought in the Korean War.

So no, not really.

User B is Greek. Author of the book is Greek. User B has a history of trying to put forward all sorts of North Epirus claims on various Albanian articles. He's joined occasionally by another Greek nationalist.

Posted by: Mister Die

The Trotskyism article is very obviously written by his adherents. Where else would one find something like this:

QUOTE
This was the position, contrary to that of "Classical Marxism" which by that time had been further illuminated by active life, shared by Trotsky and Lenin and the Bolsheviks until 1924 when Joseph Stalin, who along with Kamenev in February 1917 had taken the Menshevik position of first the bourgeois revolution, only to be confronted by Lenin and his famous April Thesis on Lenin's return to Russia, after the death of Lenin and seeking to consolidate his growing bureaucratic control of the Bolshevik Party began to put forward the slogan of "Socialism in one country".
The article on "Stalinism" sucks as well, but at least it doesn't look like his adherents wrote it. It seems quite difficult to build these articles up towards good quality using the Wikipedian way.

Posted by: Mister Die

A Brazilian guy I know pointed out that the http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pedro_II_of_Brazil&diff=477826453&oldid=477196186 article, which is a featured article, has a definite traditionalist and monarchist slant.

I don't study Brazilian history, but I find it hard to reconcile the following:

QUOTE
Although there was no desire for a change in the form of government among most Brazilians, the Emperor was overthrown in a sudden coup d'état that had almost no support outside a clique of military leaders who desired a form of republic headed by a dictator...

The reign of Pedro II thus came to an unusual end—he was overthrown while highly regarded by the people and at the pinnacle of his popularity...
With, say, this from Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia:
QUOTE
A coalition of the urban middle class, coffee planters, and the military increasingly disparaged the monarchy and its ties to the traditional landed class. They advocated the creation of a modern republic that would support the new coffee and industrial capitalism, finding additional allies in the church. Discontent became widespread, and the military, representing this diverse opposition, overturned the empire.

Posted by: Mister Die

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.H._Carr

As encyclopedic as a magazine or perhaps critical journal article. Complete with photos coupled with "descriptions" such as "The Face of the Future?" and "The Price of Progress?" Not to mention "The American historian Richard Pipes. In 1993 Pipes was to write that Carr's History of Soviet Russia was no different from Holocaust denial."

It looks big and scholarly at first, but underneath it all is basically one continuous "eff you, Mr. Subject" vibe. It really doesn't look very encyclopedic at all.

Posted by: EricBarbour

QUOTE(Mister Die @ Mon 26th March 2012, 9:00pm) *

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.H._Carr

Did it already. That, FYI, is one of the longest biographies on Wikipedia, and is the work of one obsessed crank.

Posted by: Mister Die

QUOTE(EricBarbour @ Tue 27th March 2012, 4:55am) *

QUOTE(Mister Die @ Mon 26th March 2012, 9:00pm) *

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.H._Carr

Did it already.
Where? tongue.gif

And yeah, it's long and lame. I think the sheer size of an article plays a significant role in people being reluctant to edit it.