What are some of your favourite wikipedia articles and why?

[breakingnerd@mastodon.social]

@babe i read about this guy some time ago and I found the story incredible

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_the_Farter

[f100@mastodon.social]

@babe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)?wprov=sfti1

[bytebro@mastodonapp.uk]

@babe

Regarding Wiki, I'll guess you might have already heard of the 'Philosophy' game?

For those not in the know, you start from any random Wikipaedia page, and click on the first link in the body of the article which is not a pronunciation guide, tab, or clarification. On the new page, do the same. Repeat. The game is to see how many clicks it takes to get to the main page for "Philosophy".

It's often a shorter path than you might expect!

[internet_george@mastodon.social]

@babe I love them all equally. That being said https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatom

[cardinal_reinhardt@mastodon.social]

@babe information about proto Indo-European blows my mind.

[tsvga@ni.hil.ist]

@babe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelema

rocket scientist Jack Parsons did a Thelemic ritual with L. Ron Hubbard, who later founded Scientology

[m3t00@app.wafrn.net]

@babe@glitterkitten.co.uk

every page of Wikipedia is a rabbit hole.

every day a new rabbit hole.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:On_this_day/Today

[lockex@ioc.exchange]

@babe Wikipedia article on Brass, the section on Lead Content:
"In laboratory tests, state researchers found the average brass key, new or old, exceeded the California Proposition 65 limits by an average factor of 19, assuming handling twice a day."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass

[jeremy_list@hachyderm.io]

@babe Chlorine trifluoride. Mostly because of the "safety precautions".

[diazona@techhub.social]

@JoBlakely @babe oh lol that is so on point given her role in The Good Place

[nora@blob.love]

@babe i thought you'd never ask. its https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_(concept)

[prozacchiwawa@functional.cafe]

@babe
list of effects
list of star names

[nora@blob.love]

@babe oh you wanted my second favorite? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_forms_in_place_names_in_the_British_Isles and the bot i made based on it? https://nora.zone/bots/britishtown.html

[jleedev@mastodon.sdf.org]

@woe2you @babe Guy Standing Sitting

[vaporeon_@glaceon.social]

@babe Look at these weird animals (we don't even know for sure whether or not they were animals or not) from 550 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickinsonia
Relatedly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ediacaran_Biota

[danmorgan@vmst.io]

@babe @nora The Schism of 1054. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism

[andrybak@mastodon.social]

@schroedingerspossum @babe fun fact: the couple in the photo got married https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/wikipedia-high-five-too-slow-photos-mystery-couple-solved

[trashheap@tech.lgbt]

@babe My favorite is already listed by another (The list of unusuald deaths), so ill mention my runner up "list of obsolete occupations". There are some startling ones that wouldn't immediately occur, because we're so far removed from the historical/cultural context.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_obsolete_occupations

[alwirtes@indieweb.social]

@babe @nora How about the time the state of Indiana tried to change the value of pi through legislation?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_pi_bill

[humanfish@mastodon.social]

@babe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godolphin_Arabian
I'm just amazed that people decided that 3 relatively random horses (their histories aren't that clear) were the most Horse horses and that any and all horses not related to them are somehow less Horse. Also, seemingly there was an ~80 year span during which other very Horse horses could be defined but that was the limit. That's a link to the article that started it all for me.

I am not a horse person, so this might be obvious to others but it seems absurd to me.