Last night I wanted a little information on the backstory of the television series Firefly and I figured Wikipedia was as good a place as any for that kind of information.
Most people are familiar with my opinion of the site, and vandalism is one of the reasons (not to mention the integrity of its contents) but sometimes the vandals manage to do something that’s just spectacularly amusing, even though I think it serves to the encyclopedia even more.
I pulled up the main page last night and noticed a fun bit of vandalism. Wikipedia always has a little “Did you know” section “from Wikipedia’s newest articles.” Here’s the example:
As you can see the section features an article about green turtles, but these are not the green turtles you are looking for.
The photo itself was reverted about 4 minutes after I’d noticed it, which is actually pretty slow by their standards. I remember I once added a link to the steam engine article into the see also section of the World Wide Web article (right after Search Engine, of course) and it was reverted in about 30 seconds.
Here is what the main page was supposed to look like last night, sans vandalism:
First off, Max Blumenthal brings us this video about a pro-Israel convention. That’s not to say I’m not pro-Israel, but
CUFI has an ulterior agenda: its support for Israel derives from the belief of Hagee and his flock that Jesus will return to Jerusalem after the battle of Armageddon and cleanse the earth of evil. In the end, all the non-believers – Jews, Muslims, Hindus, mainline Christians, etc. – must convert or suffer the torture of eternal damnation. Over a dozen CUFI members eagerly revealed to me their excitement at the prospect of Armageddon occurring tomorrow.
I met Jon last April, and we sort of had a thing for about a month and then went our seperate ways. He was with me in the car when I hit a deer. He introduced me to Connor Oberst and Bright Eyes and Brand New and Panic! At the Disco, which last summer was some of my favorite music. A lot of it I’m still fond of. He was only 21. I feel really sad now that he’s gone, even tho I had not seen much of him lately. I guess I have always been aware of people floating in and out of my life, but I’ve imagined that they go on and do whatever they do and… live… that they live their own lives perhaps longer than mine—but they certainly don’t go and die young… it’s just an unwelcome shock. Especially since I had just seen him, and missed him, and wondered how he was.
I tried to think of all the songs we listened to, made out to, partied to, etc. I couldn’t find a video for “Arc of Time” or “Road to Joy” so I had to settle for “Easy/Lucky/Free” which does happen to be one of my favorite music videos ever. That and “First Day of My Life” was just too depressing in this context.
They are all great songs, and I will always think of Jon when I hear them.
Hello… long absence… not really been busy so much as uninspired. Happy 7-7-7. Still getting way to much spam visits here, which is fucking up the SQL shit, which isn’t hard to fix but still nerveracking. Here is a drink recipe for 7-7-7:
7/7/7:
Pour 30mL Seagram’s 7 Blended Whisky over ice into a tumber
Add 200mL 7UP or Diet 7UP
Stir seven times. Enjoy!
About
This blog is a chronicle of my life for the past seven years, so at times it's pretty interesting to dig back on.
I don't have one particular focus here, it's not a blog specifically about anything in particular as my interests are fairly broad. I post a lot about space, books, progressive politics, and little tidbits of my life.
If you have a comment about something, send me a tweet @paulpellerito.
