wikipedia

Thirteen hours before the bodies of WWE pro wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife, and their son was found by the police (and later ruled a murder/suicide), an anonymous user from Stamford, CT edited Benoit's Wikipedia entry announcing the death of his wife. Stamford, incidentally, is the home of the WWE headquarters. Benoit must have been in communication with others before his suicide, possibly sending the news through the wrestling rumor mill. The most dramatic result of this is probably an obstruction of justice charge, but still, this is the first time I've heard about Wikipedia timestamps opening up a new angle in a homicide case. (thx, flea) Update: The person who made the edit has spoken out, claiming that they had no inside information and that they made the edit based on some online rumors. (6) #
6/28/2007

Wikipedia's list of conspiracy theories. Many of these were new to me, like the theory that the New World Order controls an underground base and city below Denver International Airport. (1) #
10/2/2006

Nature magazine commissions a peer review comparison between 42 science articles in Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica. The results are surprisingly similar: on average, Wikipedia contained about 4 errors per article, while Britannica contained about 3 errors per article. (1) #
12/15/2005

Wikipedia's entry on R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet 12-part (so far) song-cycle. For the first time in my Wikipedia history, I strongly doubted the authenticity of the article while reading Chapters 9 and 10. My brother informs me that they are all too true. I'll watch his DVD copy sometime during Thanksgiving. Update: If your child is studying Trapped in the Closet in the classroom, you may want to buy her this and this. (6) #
11/21/2005

Missing white woman syndrome. The sort of subject wikipedia was made for. (1) #
11/10/2005

Global Voices reports that Wikipedia is now being banned in many parts of China. The state of human and civil rights in that country is not in a good place. This is bad for the Chinese population, and bad for the rest of the world. (0) #
10/20/2005

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