What-the-pedia? And some Fried-News-Day!

Wikipedia is a great concept. And, by and large, it's a great resource as well. There are, however, certain drawbacks to user-supported media.

Take the Wikipedia article on the City of El Mirage, Arizona. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Mirage,_Arizona

Along with helpful information from the US Census, and the Latitude and Longitude of the City, there is this comment which seems more editorial than coldly factual:

El Mirage SUCKS

If you need to see it in context to truly appreciate the humor, you'd better hurry and take a look. Because, unless El Mirage truly "SUCKS," some merciful user will delete this bit of information. And therein lies the strength of user-supported media.
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Meanwhile, in the news...

Gastronomy:
(Mar. 12, 2009 09:58 AM Associated Press)

Britain's most famous restaurant (Fat Duck) reopened more than two weeks after it shut due to a mysterious outbreak of sickness that left 400 people reporting bouts of vomiting and diarrhea.

Menu items include snail porridge, jelly of quail, mustard ice cream, and bacon-and-egg ice cream. And yet, somehow, it's unusual for patrons to suffer bouts of vomiting and diarrhea?


Geography:
(Mar. 17, 2009 01:06 PM Associated Press)

A new Brazilian geography text book for sixth-grade students doesn't include Ecuador on the map. In fact, the book distributed by the education ministry in Brazil's most populous state botches the location of most of Brazil's neighbors. Paraguay is switched with Uruguay, and a second "new" Paraguay is shown with a coastline at the southern tip of Brazil. Bolivia is fortunate enough to appear on the map, but the book misses its border with Paraguay - the Paraguay that sits where Uruguay should be, that is.

All is not lost, however. Publishers of the book were quick to point out that every map correctly depicts the location of Waldo.


And in something oddly akin to Geography:
(Mar. 12, 2009 10:50 AM Associated Press)

EASTON, Pa. - A man accused of driving drunk said Pennsylvania courts have no jurisdiction over him because he's his own country.

I have no problem with this man wanting to be his own country. However, when his country gets drunk and invades our country, he needs to be stopped.


And speaking of people who are not closely associated with their own rockers:
(Mar. 19, 2009 03:47 PM Associated Press)

HART TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Police say a naked 14-year-old boy taking a walk with a large white poodle assaulted a woman in Oceana County. Sheriff's Lt. Craig Mast tells the Ludington Daily News the boy walked away from a behavioral treatment facility Monday. He was strolling unclothed in Hart Township with the dog when he encountered a 53-year-old woman in her yard. Mast says, "The young naked man approached her with this poodle, and she immediately realized something peculiar."

I'm not sure this article requires any commentary. But I do have to wonder where he got the poodle...