Why I Love Wikipedia

"Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information." - Michael Scott, from The Office

Okay, so I don't love wikipedia because it is the best possible source of information (it is not). I love it for two reasons - it satisfies my intense curiosity for new knowledge and it allows my undiagnosed A.D.D. a safe outlet. I'm addicted to clicking on the blue links. No, I don't actually have A.D.D., but you could see where I might after seeing my most recent search history on Wikipedia.

I was watching Survivorman, and he was running from a Jaguar. I wanted to know what a Jaguar looked like and why they were so feared. Enter wikipedia. Follow my thought process.

Jaguar Wow, this guy is scary. Fast, lean, and likes an occasional swim. Jaguars are also Apex predators. Hmm, what is an Apex Predator? Follow the blue link

Apex predators pretty much kick ass. They shape their local ecological system. Not all are huge like a great white shark. They are the subject of fantastic hypothetical questions like "Who would win between a Grizzly Bear and a Tiger?" I wonder if I can find a list of all Apex Predators.

This list of Apex Predators is pretty neat. I didn't know there were so many Apex Predators. What would happen if you put them all in a hypothetical room/aquarium? I wonder who would come out. Probably not humans, which are also on the list. I wonder what wikipedia has to say about humans.

Humans are funny. This is illustrated by the funny picture of us the page. **Warning** it includes cartoon nudity. I wonder why they have that picture as an illustration for humans?

That picture is on the Pioneer Plaque, a plaque we sent into space on the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft. This is a pictorial message of humanity intended for extraterrestrials. We apparently want them to know men are a happy, waving gender, characterized by bad haircuts. Women, on the other hand, are standoffish, have wide hips, and lack genitalia. We don't want to offend E.T. by making him see nudity... Also, almost no top-level scientists were able to decode this message. So, in case this one didn't work, we decided to use our super technology (at the time) to send out ...

The Voyager Golden Record. Awesome! We haven't gone platinum yet, but a golden record rocks! I had heard about this before - it's a record containing numerous things - including many songs from human history. You'll find Bach, Beethoven, and Chuck Berry, among others. Nice. According to Steve Martin on an episode of Saturday Night Live, when E.T. finds this record, their response will probably be "send more Chuck Berry."

Amen brother.