Wikipedia People Articles Now Moderated
Wikipedia is implementing a new policy requiring that changes to articles about living people be approved by moderators before going live, essentially abandoning the wiki model. The new feature, called “flagged revisions,” will require that an experienced volunteer editor for Wikipedia sign off on any change made by the public before it can go live. Until the change is approved — ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 25, 2009 09:09
Michael Jackson Dies, Kills Internet
Not sure this is BREAKING NEWS, as CNN does, but it's amusing nonetheless: How many people does it take to break the Internet? On June 25, we found out it's just one -- if that one is Michael Jackson. The biggest showbiz story of the year saw the troubled star take a good slice of the Internet with him, as the ripples ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 26, 2009 11:00
Matthew Yglesias on Jeff Sessions
Matt Yglesias snarks, Watching the Senator from Alabama’s press conference, I’m comforted by the fact that whatever our ideological disagreements this is a man who’s made it in life without any preferential treatment. One hundred percent meritocracy in action. America is a beautiful place. Presumably, no one makes it to high office without some sort of "preferential treatment." Still, Sessions' biography hardly ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 2, 2009 13:53
Memorial Day – Canuck Edition
Richard Florida passes along this snippet from The illustrated History of Canada: American draft dodgers in Canada were far outnumbered by the young Canadians who joined U.S. forces to fight in Vietnam. This factoid may be in that category Stephen Colbert would call "truthy" and Dan Rather would call "false but true." Canada did not participate in the Vietnam War for a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 25, 2009 07:19
Made-up Wikipedia Quote Makes Obituaries
[caption id="attachment_36114" align="alignright" width="229" caption="AP Photo/Fionn Kidney "][/caption] The erstwhile Dr. Leopold Stotch passes along news of the exploits of a fellow Irish prankster: When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news. His report card: ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 12, 2009 05:44
Wikipedia: Good Enough
Oliver Kamm declares himself "an enemy of Wikipedia" because its "purpose is to secure consensus rather than accuracy." Norm Geras demurs: This is a metaphysical rather than practical objection. In matters of information, of truth and falsehood, I, too, am for accuracy. But when I go to Wikipedia I am not doing philosophy, I am not researching a scientific paper, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 17, 2009 14:15
3-Play Toilet Paper
After decades suffering through a mere two plies, the toilet paper industry has finally come through for us: If two-ply toilet paper is good, then three-ply tissue must be better. At least that's what toilet-paper researchers in northeastern Wisconsin hope. Yes, there is such a thing as a toilet-paper researcher. And a team of them at Georgia Pacific's Innovation Institute in Neenah ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 16, 2008 21:29
McCain Plagiarized Georgia Facts!
Today's Outrage of the Day comes to us from Taegan Goddard, who notes, in a CQ Political Insider piece entitled "Did McCain Plagiarize His Speech on the Georgia Crisis?" that there are "some similarities between Sen. John McCain's speech today on the crisis in Georgia and the Wikipedia article on the country Georgia." Wikipedia and McCain You can click Goddard's name to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 12, 2008 07:51
Appalachian Election?
Steve Tuttle takes to the pages of Newsweek to proclaim the ascendency of Appalachia as the decider of the next president. "Hick." "Hillbilly." "Redneck." "Inbred." "Cracker." "Ridge Runner." I heard and self-effacingly used them all when I left the mountains of Appalachia to attend college in the great metropolis of Williamsburg, Va., in the '80s. I was mercilessly ribbed as a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 30, 2008 09:20
McCain on Gas Prices: ‘I Don’t See How it Matters’ (Corrected)
In a recent interview with the Orange County Register's Martin Wisckol, John McCain said that, not only doesn't he know how much gas costs, it doesn't matter. (Tangentially related: "Nothin' Matters and What If It Did" was an excellent album title. The album itself was so-so.) When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 29, 2008 08:28
Gay Medic Discharged after ‘60 Minutes’ Appearance
A group "dedicated to ending discrimination against and harassment of military personnel affected by 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'" reports that Darren Manzella has been discharged under said policy. Decorated Army Sergeant Darren Manzella has been discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law banning lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans from military service, effective June 10. The Iraq war veteran was one ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 27, 2008 15:33
“Storm Troopers In Clown Shoes”
That's how Instapundit refers to James Hansen, apparently the most intemperate of the global warming alarmists (yes, he's worse than Gore because he's Gore's science advisor). Here's Hansen's latest proposal: James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 24, 2008 00:48
Biracial = Black?
One of the oddities of this election cycle is that, with all the focus on Barack Obama's race, he's almost invariably referred to as "black" or "African-American" despite having a white mother. The same phenomenon is true pretty much across the board, from Tiger Woods to Halle Barry. Biracial or multiracial people, regardless of hue or other ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 23, 2008 15:09
ID Creationism In Louisiana
The creationists deserve a few props here. Since the Dover loss they've switched strategies away from claiming that ID is science and are instead focusing on "academic freedom". That the concept of academic freedom doesn't generally apply at the elementary and secondary levels seems to be of no consequence. The Louisiana legislature has passed, by a veto-proof ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 19, 2008 00:58
School Vouchers And Other Forms Of Choice
School vouchers is an idea I've supported ever since I first read Capitalism and Freedom in 1989. It's an idea so simple, and sound, that it's a wonder it hasn't been embraced. Yet here we are, forty-six years after CaF was published and choice hasn't caught on (except when dismembering a fetus) and is even reviled by most ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 18, 2008 20:59
