Wiki-Wander-Wednesday

[RevolverRob]

Introducing,

Wiki-Wander-Wednesday -

Preface: I have wanted to do this for a long-time. Initially, I intended this to be a regular feature of a blog. But alas, I don’t have the time to have a blog to make other regular posts to. So, instead I thought this would be a fun thread for Romper Room (aka General Discussion). On Wednesdays I will post a “Wiki-Wander” list. Everyone else is free to participate by providing their own Wiki-Wanders whenever they want. Just know that on Wednesday, I will post a Wiki-Wander.

Rules: This is very simple.The glory of Wikipedia is the number of embeded hyperlinks that take you to tangentially related topics. You start someplace…generally you start with what you last searched Wikipedia for. You indicate the start place and what links you clicked from that start place. From those links you will likely click additional links, tell us what you clicked and from where. You can continue for as long as you like. I am generally able to control my Wiki Wandering somewhere around 10-12 different topics. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter.

Example: Today’s Wiki-Wander started here:

Start) HMS Terror - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Terror_(1813) this led to:

1) HMS Erebus - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Erebus_(1826)

2) Hudson Bay - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Bay

3) Naujaat - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naujaat

4) European and American voyages of scientific exploration - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_and_American_voyages_of_scientific_explor ation

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5) Hudson Bay - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Bay led to:

6) Mid-Canada Line - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Canada_Line

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7) Mid-Canada Line - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Canada_Line led to:

8) Interceptor Aircraft - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interceptor_aircraft

9) North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Aerospace_Defense_Command

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10) Interceptor Aircraft - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interceptor_aircraft led to:

11) WS-201 (1954 Interceptor) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WS-201

End

Today, I was able to navigate, from HMS Terror, a 19th century British battleship turned Arctic/Antarctic exploration ship, to the history and development of U.S. Air Force Weapons-System acquisition.

Welcome to the wonder of Wiki-Wander-Wednesdays.

[olstyn]

Sorry to make the first reply in your thread be a semi-threadjack, but you reminded me of an amusing thing to note about wikipedia. It seems that if you always click the first link in the body text of every wikipedia article you read, you'll always end up at the article on philosophy eventually. Sometimes it takes a while, but I've never found a start point that doesn't end there. (Yes, starting at HMS Terror gets to philosophy; I just checked.) If one of P-F's intrepid souls does find a start point that doesn't lead to philosophy eventually, I'd be entertained to know what it is. :)

[olstyn]

Aw crap, I was trying to make a quick example of that weird behavior, and the first one I tried doesn't get there; it gets into a loop. If you start with 9mm Parabellum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9%C3%9719mm_Parabellum), the first link in the body text is cartridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartridge_(firearms)), and the first link in that is ammunition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammunition), followed by propellant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propellant), and then chemical substance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_substance), then matter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter), then atom (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom). Atom goes back to matter, and they repeat endlessly. Sad face. :(

[Chance]

I used to kill entire afternoons doing this, but I don't have the time presently. I always wanted to write a crawler that would try to establish six degrees of separation between any two topics you could name.

[Drang]

...Initially, I intended this to be a regular feature of a blog. But alas, I don’t have the time to have a blog to make other regular posts....

Pffft! Like that stops anyone!