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Wikipedia (pronounced /ˌwiːkiˈpiːdiə/ or /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdiə/) is a multilingual, Web-based, free content encyclopedia project. The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau (combination of words and their meanings) of the words wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information.
Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites attracting at least 684 million visitors yearly by 2008. There are more than 75,000 active contributors working on more than 10,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages. As of today, there are 2,392,903 articles in English; every day hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to enhance the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia. (See also: Wikipedia:Statistics).
Visitors do not need specialized qualifications to contribute, since their primary role is to write articles that cover existing knowledge; this means that people of all ages and cultural and social backgrounds can write Wikipedia articles. Most of the articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the edit this page link. Anyone is welcome to add information, cross-references or citations, as long as they do so within Wikipedia's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. Substandard or disputed information is subject to removal. Users need not worry about accidentally damaging Wikipedia when adding or improving information, as other editors are always around to advise or correct obvious errors, and Wikipedia's software is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes.
Because Wikipedia is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles more frequently contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation that has been recently added and not yet removed (see Researching with Wikipedia for more details). However, unlike a paper reference source, Wikipedia is continually updated, with the creation or updating of articles on topical events within seconds, minutes or hours, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Did you know...
... that U.S. Route 127 in Michigan (pictured) was tripled in length by extending the highway to replace its parent route, U.S. Route 27 in 2002?
... that the Young Religious Unitarian Universalists protested against Victoria's Secret for allegedly printing their catalogues with paper sourced from endangered forests?
... that the yuja hwachae, Korean traditional fruit punch made with Korean pear and yuja, is often served with flower pancakes made of chrysanthemum?
... that mathematician Nathan Mendelsohn was on the first Putnam Competition-winning team in 1938, but also won second prize in an International Brotherhood of Magicians contest, behind Johnny Carson?
... that the Webster ruling is a legal precedent clarified by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2008, which extends to professional footballers in Europe the same contractual freedom of movement as workers in other industries?
... that Zaha Hadid's architectural design won an international competition for the upcoming Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum?
... that father and son James E. Bolin and Bruce M. Bolin both served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and as a state district court judge – thirty-eight years apart in each case?
... that after serving three terms in the Norwegian Parliament for the Conservative Party, Georg Apenes took over as director of the Norwegian Data Inspectorate?
... that the Young Religious Unitarian Universalists protested against Victoria's Secret for allegedly printing their catalogues with paper sourced from endangered forests?
... that the yuja hwachae, Korean traditional fruit punch made with Korean pear and yuja, is often served with flower pancakes made of chrysanthemum?
... that mathematician Nathan Mendelsohn was on the first Putnam Competition-winning team in 1938, but also won second prize in an International Brotherhood of Magicians contest, behind Johnny Carson?
... that the Webster ruling is a legal precedent clarified by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2008, which extends to professional footballers in Europe the same contractual freedom of movement as workers in other industries?
... that Zaha Hadid's architectural design won an international competition for the upcoming Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum?
... that father and son James E. Bolin and Bruce M. Bolin both served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and as a state district court judge – thirty-eight years apart in each case?
... that after serving three terms in the Norwegian Parliament for the Conservative Party, Georg Apenes took over as director of the Norwegian Data Inspectorate?
Today's featured article
D. B. Cooper is the name commonly used to refer to a hijacker who, on November 24, 1971, after receiving a ransom payout of US$200,000, jumped from the back of a Boeing 727 as it was flying over the Pacific Northwest of the United States possibly over Woodland, Washington. Despite hundreds of suspects through the years, no conclusive evidence has surfaced regarding Cooper's identity or whereabouts. The FBI believes he did not survive the jump. Several theories offer competing explanations of what happened after his famed jump. The nature of Cooper's escape and the uncertainty of his fate continue to intrigue people. The Cooper case remains an unsolved mystery. It has baffled both government and private investigators for decades, with countless leads turning into dead ends. In March 2008, the FBI thought it might have had one of the biggest breakthroughs in the case when children unearthed a parachute within the bounds of Cooper's probable jump site near the town of Amboy, Washington. Experts later revealed that it did not belong to the hijacker. Still, despite the case's infamy for its enduring lack of evidence, a few significant clues have arisen. (more...)
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