First there was the mini-scandal about updates to the page about Tim Russert before his death had been officially announced. Now Wikipedia is at the center of another manufactured scandal about the Sarah Palin page. NPR reports that “Someone, and apparently it was just one person, felt like the existing [Wikipedia] biography wasn’t appropriate for a vice-presidential candidate. On Friday, 15 minutes before the rumor that John McCain had picked Palin as his running mate, a Wikipedia editor discovered 30 mostly favorable changes had been made to the Alaska governor’s profile.” Is it suspicious? Maybe. But isn’t that what Wikipedia is all about? If someone has new, different, or better information, then they can update any entry they want. Someone else may have conflicting information, and if they have better sources to back it up, then they have the right to make their own updates.

Have you heard the old rule of thumb that one is not able to fold any piece of paper more than 8 times? I have, and I believed it after I tried it a couple times. According to the historical society of Pomona County, there is one girl who took the challenge seriously enough to prove it wrong. “Britney Gallivan has solved the Paper Folding Problem. This well known challenge was to fold paper in half more than seven or eight times, using paper of any size or shape. In April of 2005 Britney’s accomplishment was mentioned on the prime time CBS television show Numb3rs. The task was commonly known to be impossible. Over the years the problem has been discussed by many people, including mathematicians and has been demonstrated to be impossible on TV.” Thanks to her extra credit project, we now have mathematical proof that it’s possible to fold a piece of paper in half 12 times.

From a description of the top attractions to visit in Trondheim, Norway: “Designed to assist bike riders in their ascent of the steep hill, this mechanized conveyor belt (most of which is concealed underground beneath a metal-edged groove in the pavement) hauls bicycles, with their riders, up a steeply inclined stretch of a scenic bike path. The cost for 15 minutes of continuous operation is 100NOK ($15), which you can pay by inserting coins into the machine’s coin slot. Frankly, most individual riders either walk their bikes or cycle in low gear up the relatively short hill, but as a conversation piece, the Sykkelheis is worth a look.” Click the more link to see more pictures.
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It’s a little scary to think about criminals latching onto this idea. Wired magazine has a story about the project and a short description about how it works. The device “is simple, consisting of a circle of infra-red LEDs mounted on a headband. The infra red is invisible to The Man, but will cause CCTV cameras to flare out over the face of the wearer, obscuring his identity and making this the digital equivalent of a hooded sweatshirt.”

The KKK has some horrible and destructive philosophies, but the robes are usually pretty well-made, and Ms. Ruth is one of the reasons why. “Coming from five generations of Ku Klux Klan members, 58-year-old “Ms. Ruth” sews hoods and robes for Klan members seven days a week, blessing each one when it’s done. A red satin outfit for an Exalted Cyclops, the head of a local chapter, costs about $140.” View the full photo essay at Mother Jones.

Here’s an interesting story and great pictures of a German firm cleaning the Space Needle in Seattle from KOMO TV news website. “Crews with the cleaning company Karcher GmbH & Co. are only working at night after the restaurant and observation deck close, but they put in a few extra hours on Thursday to allow people to witness the process. Three daring high angle cleaners hit the Needle with water that measured precisely 194 degrees. Even though the sprayers use half the flow of a garden hose, the water shoots out at 3,000 pounds per square inch — more than enough power to send the guy behind the hose flying. It’s a big job with a huge challenge — the crews aren’t using any soap. That’s because what they spray up ends up going down to the Seattle Center and the EMP. Splotches of grime run from the beams under the restaurant all the way down to the base.” Follow the link to see more pictures.

In 1901, a lightbulb was installed at the hose cart house in Livermore California. Except for a 22-minute period during a move to a new firehouse in 1976, the bulb has remained lit continuously the entire time. “Hanging 18 feet above the floor at the end of a black cloth-covered cord, the little light with the filament the width of a No. 2 pencil lead is unprotected by any lampshade. Firefighters won’t even dust it. Touch it, jokes one captain, and you get your fingers chopped off.” The light bulb has a website, but unfortunately, it looks like it’s currently down, showing just a plain page with an email address.

In 1999 Nicholas White was trapped in an elevator in New York City’s McGraw-Hill building for forty-one hours. There was recently a story written about his ordeal in New Yorker magazine, and it includes a time lapse video showing him rushing about the compartment, prying open the doors to see only the bare concrete walls, and eventually accepting his fate and falling asleep on the floor, as shown in the screen capture here.

You may have seen an email forward in early 2008 claiming that pictures of frozen waves came from Lake Huron. I’m always skeptical of claims like that, so I had to check it out. My favorite urban legend debunking source, snopes.com, verified that the description is completely fake. However, the pictures are real. They were taken in Antarctica at a base called Dumont D’Urville in 2002, and you can see more pictures from the series at a CalTech website.

There is a famous poem by William Carlos Williams called “This Is Just To Say” which reads like an a half-hearted apology a husband may have left on a scrap of paper on the kitchen table.

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

I heard about this poem, and the many spoofs of it on an episode of This American Life. There is some information about it on Wikipedia, as well as some examples of spoofs that they talked about on the show. There is even an online Mad Libs style generator so that you can easily create a “This Is Just To Say” poem of your own.

The Falkirk Wheel is a unique and innovative way to get boats from one canal to another. The official site describes the history. “The Forth and Clyde Canal is 35m (115ft) below the level of the Union Canal. Historically, the two canals had been joined at Falkirk by a flight of 11 locks that stepped down across a distance of 1.5km, but those were dismantled in 1933, breaking the link. What was required was a method of connecting the two canals by some means of lifting two boats down the 35m drop as quickly and simply as possible.” I found some good pictures of the contraption at a russian blog, and there are some YouTube videos of the wheel in action.

Most of the errors Jeff Deck comes across involve missing apostrophes, misplaced commas, and misspelled words. He has been making his way across the country with a typo correction toolkit consisting of white-out, different colored Sharpies and stickers which he uses to correct many of the mistakes he finds. It’s a strange hobby to be sure, but it’s also a good excuse to travel, and it’s brought him some notoriety as well. The Typo Hunt Across America has become a very popular blog, and I first saw his story on ABC news, so there has been plenty of media coverage as well. If you start to notice signs around town which have been corrected by hand, then there’s a good chance that Jeff’s typo hunt has come to a neighborhood near you.

Faith is an inspirational dog. She was born missing a front leg, and her other front leg began to atrophy and was amputated when she was 7 months old. Her owners considered her part of the family and nurtured her as she learned to walk on only her hind legs. She has become a canine celebrity, traveling around the country spreading a message of hope and overcoming adversity. See a nice collection of pictures at oddity central, and visit Faith’s official website for more information.

Body piercing and tattooing have become a common form of expression in our society, and it seems like people are continually going to greater lengths to be unique. Pauly Unstoppable, a man from Toronto, is pushing the boundaries with his eye tattoo. Metro.co.uk describes the procedure. The tattooer injected ink into the eyeball using a needle, until it was completely blue. It took more than 40 tries before the eye was filled with ink. The blue substance used was mixed with antibiotic eyewash to prevent infection. Pauly himself declared: “I really have to emphasize again that the procedure was extensively researched and done by people who were aware of the risks and possible complications and that it should not be casually attempted. Now that this experiment has been started, please wait for us to either heal or go blind before trying it.” Read other stories at inventorspot and asylum.com.

Why did it take them so long to start doing this? The New York Times describes that movie theaters are going to start showing more live events. “Movie theaters are not just for movies anymore. Coming soon will be broadcasts of live baseball games, rock concerts, classic TV shows and an array of other offerings not associated with the silver screen.” That sounds like a great idea. There are some events that I’m not willing to pay the money to see live, and some others that pose a geographical challenge. In those cases, I may want to make it special and see and hear it with better quality than my living room allows. I could see myself spending $10 to watch a concert or sporting event on the big screen.