On January 15, the world changed forever; that’s the date of birth of Martin Luther King Jr., Pitbull, and, most importantly, Wikipedia. It was a day when the world was truly gifted.
Wikipedia, the abyss of information and knowledge, often gets a bad rap for being an “unreliable source” that anyone can edit — which is far from true. I’d go as far as to say that Wikipedia might be one of the best places on the internet — the entire sum of human knowledge is available at our fingertips!
We have Wikipedia to thank for many of life’s simple pleasures. It’s a seemingly endless source of knowledge; it is used for games like 5 Clicks to Jesus and can provide entertainment for hours at a time. Some may describe that time as “wasted,” but I describe it as fascinating. This is an ode to the rabbit holes, the dazed and bored blue link clicks, and the deep journeys into the world of Wikipedia, this is a list of the most unusual articles I’ve encountered in my time perusing and editing this wonderful website.
Eternal layover, anyone? This list features a flighty bunch who were driven to reside in airports for over a week, for reasons including politics, family problems, and running out of money. Maybe if you’re a huge fan of these liminal spaces, you might be added to the list someday.
Knitters and crocheters alike will be familiar with the content of this Wikipedia article, which explains a term used by knitters — the sweater curse — to describe the belief that knitting a sweater for a significant other will lead to the untimely demise of the relationship. Multiple reasons are given for this phenomenon, including unlucky timing, insufficient gratitude, and even the sweater being a catalyst for reevaluating the relationship. I’d stick to a nice pair of mittens, if I were you.
This list is one of my favourites, as it’s the perfect example of irony. The list covers everything from art to aviation, and even touches on popular legends. Most notably, the artist who created the evil, decrepit looking Blue Mustang statue at Denver International Airport was killed when a section of it fell on him, which feels very apt if you’ve ever seen a picture of the thing.
Those in the computer science program will be enthralled to stumble upon this Wikipedia page, which suggests that programmers should carry around a rubber duck to aid in their coding. One would explain their program line-by-line to the rubber duck in hopes that explaining their problem to “someone else” would help them see the errors in their ways — talk about quacks!
It’s exactly what it sounds like.
There are so many that there’s a dedicated Wikipedia page for it. My personal favourite is “quid pro Joe,” but “Little Rocket Man” — for Kim Jong Un — might be a close second.
When writers create characters who are based on real people, the small penis rule suggests that the author give the character a small penis to protect themselves from any defamation lawsuits. The logic is that nobody would want to come forward and admit that they had a small penis, which is a pretty sneaky loophole if you think about it.
What would be a better way to commemorate your wife than by naming beautiful geological features after her? A man named John Kitchen commemorated several geological features after his wife Molly. It’s speculated that there’s as many as 11 geological features that bear this sweet name.
The hairy ball theorem isn’t what it seems like at first glance — it’s actually a problem of algebraic topology. Mathematicians and scientists alike have been trying to figure out a way to comb a hairy ball without creating a cowlick — there’s numerous topological and physical analyses that have tried to explain this phenomenon, but sadly, to no avail.
If I had a nickel for every time a lampshade was made out of human skin, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
If you’ve got the same incessant urge to take a deep dive into uber-bizarre content from random websites, you’ll appreciate these articles. More importantly, you’ll understand the wisdom contained within Wikipedia — no matter how much of a bad rap it gets from nonbelievers.
