Unrelated Posts

Passing clouds of inconsequential observations.

Tag: Wikipedia

  • Homeschooling and baking controversy spoof

    An anonymous editor added a splendid story to the [W:Wikipedia] [W:Homeschooling] article. It was quickly removed but I post it here for prosperity:

    In 2001 the Wonderbread company introduced a class action lawsuit against the US government–specifically targeting homeschool families. The company charged homeschool families with saturating the market with their homemade, wholegrain products and hand churned butter. Spokesman for the Homeschool Commission for Fair and Equal Baking Practices, Leonard Norton, defended American Homeschooled families by saying: “Homeschooling and wholewheat baking are almost synonymous. It would be a tragedy to see honest, hardworking, homeschooling Americans see their right to wholewheat baking taken away.”

    Note the Spotify link below – this stuff isn’t just thrown together 😉

  • Things I did not know (part 703.5-b)

    There is a Simple English Wikipedia for children, non-English speakers etc. which seems like a good idea and an opportunity to waste even more time 😉

    You can use your UK library card number to access all manner of online resources. Usually the larger your local authority the larger the range of resources available but even our modest library service offers many useful links. Guess I will have to get a library card now 😉

  • The Wikipedia ban thing

    According to the BBC report it was a single reader who started the whole chain of events. Were they aware that the record has been around for decades and was once freely available in UK high streets?

    One would imagine that a body like the Internet Watch Foundation would have some understanding of how the Internet works. Do they not realise that anyone can Google for the image if they want to see it and that, as Wikipedia may be copied freely, you can find the Wikipedia article elsewhere anyway? The text from the article is available on a mobile phone version – without the image but updated to include information on the censorship.

    Meanwhile we are left with the even more disturbing image….

    small_wikierror.jpg

    Update: 10th December 2008

    IWF backdown

    “…in light of the length of time the image has existed and its wide availability, the decision has been taken to remove this webpage from our list.”

All original content may be freely copied. Illustration on packaging may not match content.
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