Salon's critique: Wikipedia is like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. "Like the Guide's lengthy entries on drinking, Wikipedia mirrors the interests of its writers rather than its readers." (The author notes that criticising wikipedia is almost as dangerous as criticising scientology, but he's found the perfect method. You can say anything about someone if you make them feel like Ford Prefect while doing it.)

Wikisnips of the day: Manhole covers and their frequent theft. (Street signs get stolen, too.)

The avatar versus the journalist: Making meaning, finding truth.: the best article about wikipedia I've read in ... well, ever. Rohit Gupta totally gets it.

"Dig down into why there's a debate, and you see the care with which Wikipedia and its community have set up policies to ensure entries are useful and accurate." Damn straight.

Lawrence Lessig also has an interesting post (and subsequent discussion) about Wikipedia and economic systems.

Wikisnips of the day:

• List of School Pranks. Including 11 types of wedgie.


• An exhaustive list of words having different meanings in British and American English.

Wikisnip of the day: Amazingly detailed article on the swastica -- it predates Nazi germany by several thousand years and is still a religious symbol in Asia. (There's also a Swastica, Ontario, whose name has less benign origins. God, it would suck to live there.)

Wikisnip of the day: List of films ordered by uses of the word Fuck.