Semi Truths A highly irregular weblog dedicated to Truth, Justice, and American Cheese…!

March 17, 2007

“THE STUPIDEST THING I’VE EVER DONE TO MYSELF”

Filed under: WWW — semi @ 6:05 pm

I have been reading Cecil Adam’s Straight Dope column for more than twenty years. If you are familiar with his work, you know that he has managed to cop a pretty good living crafting informative and entertaining answers to his readers’ many arcane questions (and man, would I love to have his job!). StraightDope.com is definitely a Website Worth Watching.

In addition to a remarkable archive of Cecil’s writing, the website also hosts the Straight Dope Message Board, one of the livelier discussion forums you’re likely to encounter. My favorite is the MPSIMS (“Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share“) and a thread titled “The stupidest thing I’ve ever done to myself“. It began when a woman described punching herself in the nose while trying to put on her bra. After a few hasty inquiries from sensitive men who wanted to make sure that her breasts were all right, a long thread soon grew as more contributors described various self-inflicted bodily injuries. Something about this thread has inspired numerous tales, and there are now well over a hundred posts detailing all types of pratfalls, black eyes, blows to the skull and other precious body parts.

Personally, I have too many of my own tales to recount here , but the thread reminded me of a time that I faced my own mortality with razor-like reflexes and a hearty “nyuck-nyuck“, in an incident I can only call:

MY DEATH AS A STOOGE

March 12, 2007

Wacky Pedia

Filed under: Politics,WWW — semi @ 3:30 pm

I love the idea behind Wikipedia, an online collaborative encyclopedia. Yes, the site has its critics, but the promise of a publicly available and “editable” repository of collective knowledge is a very 21st century concept.

Not surprisingly, in this age of targeted information, other groups with focussed interest have set up their own Wiki repositories, such as Wookepedia, the Star Wars encyclopedia.

It therefore shouldn’t be surprising to learn of a conservative wiki called Conservapedia. Started in November of 2006 (before or after the mid-term elections, it does not say), the site describes itself as “an online resource … where we give full credit to Christianity and America (with) concise, clean answers free of ‘political correctness’…” (of that last promise, I have no doubt).

(more…)

May 22, 2006

HITCHHIKING ON THE INTERNET

Filed under: People,WWW — semi @ 9:24 pm

“I really didn’t foresee the Internet. But then, neither did the computer industry. Not that that tells us very much of course – the computer industry didn’t even foresee that the century was going to end.”

—Douglas Adams

In his seminal work, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams imagined an intergalactic and interactive guide to, well, Life, The Universe, and Everything. In his series of novels (“the increasingly inappropriately-named Hitchhiker’s trilogy”), Douglas forecast an electronic guide whose entries were made by writers travelling all over the galaxy. (more…)

February 9, 2003

THE PARSER OF CVILLE

Filed under: Charlottesville,WWW — semi @ 5:32 pm

With so much information available on the web, there are only a few places I turn to on a regular basis to find interesting and updated content. One of the most reliable is CVillenews.com, a meta-news site for Charlottesville, VA (USA), my town of residence. Running since March of 2001, the site carries abstracts and links of stories from other Charlottesville mainstream news sites and provides a forums for registered users to post their own reactions or to submit original items.Recently, there was a thread regarding Charlottesville’s City Council approving a resolution against a pre-emptive U.S. military attack on Iraq (as part of the Cities for Peace movement). The discussion that followed predictably defended and excoriated the council, but also veered into discussions regarding the roles of elected councilors in an representative democracy, providing a cross-section look into the opinions and politics that drive a small University town.

In another example, several months ago I witnessed a remarkable apparition in the skies above Charlottesville, a kind of inverted rainbow high in the sky and pointing toward the sun. At the first opportunity, I logged onto CVillenews, provided a quick description, and asked every one to run outside and take a look, hoping someone could tell me what I had seen. Sure enough, less than an hour later I had my answer: it was a circumzenithal arc.

The site is run by volunteers, with no ads and no one making any money. It provides a lively forum for debate, breaking news, and generally good-natured discussion. Even if you do not live in or near Charlottesville, it is worth taking a look at this shining example of just how good the web can be for a community.

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