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“Paris Hilton” quantum effects on the two-way web
Summarizing my talk at Wikimania… 0) In quantum mechanics, looking at something changes its nature. Media attention creates just such effects on Wikipedia pages, and elsewhere all over the two-way web....
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Kansas crops, nuclear waste, Dave Winer’s biography
Something beautiful in Wikipedia today: All 321 images being considered for Picture of the Year (2006). A few of my favorites: British fairground worker Albert Harris inside his “coconut shy” booth (#...
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Hoverflies mating, two views of the moon, and SFO by night
Nope, not one of my favorites made the finals. But check out the sheer variety of these finalists for Wikimedia’s Picture of the Year . Then reflect that each image, with hundreds more besides, has...
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George Washington Carver: The Dave Winer of peanut butter
Movable School Originally uploaded by jessamyn. George Washington Carver (1861(?) – 1943 ) has been both praised and debunked at great length by many people in Wikipedia (and elsewhere of course). But...
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Warning: this book review may be “miscellaneous”…
…though that’s a good thing, says David Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous — the info-pop page-turner (think Blink or Freakonomics) seen here in my kitchen’s miscellaneous drawer. What is...
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McJob makeover: Treating the OED like Wikipedia
Oxford lovely building, part 2 Originally uploaded by betsythedevine. What’s a “McJob”? “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service -sector”...
View Article“Yours now sort-of expertly”: Blogging from my email outbox
Hey, I made yesterday’s Concord Monitor! Most of the editing to [potential US Senate candidate Jeanne] Shaheen’s Wikipedia profile has related to Iraq: Either adding or removing tidbits about her...
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Some of Wikipedia baddest bits and pieces
Caution: Wikipedia trolls at play Originally uploaded by betsythedevine Is Hillary Clinton a giant shape-shifting reptile? Do ghosts use cellphones? Does Smithville, Iowa have a “quaint little...
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Thumbs up for Nambu, big thumbs down to Reuters
Frank Wilczek and Yoichiro Nambu Originally uploaded by betsythedevine What wonderful news that Yoichiro Nambu finally got a Nobel Prize! Frank and I were just beaming at each other when the...
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Reinventing what it means to be human
Sky treehouse at sunrise Originally uploaded by betsythedevine Let’s be more ambitious than Freud: What do Humans want? I am putting together a college-level course on the ways that Utopia is being...
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