This evening.

[zotz]

I'm not sure what to do tonight. I could go to the pub, as usual, or go to the Beltane fundraiser. Both of these would mean braving licenced establishments on Paddy's Day, which of course is the one day of the year when the braindead walk by law breweries have to convince us that Irishness is simply a matter of wearing green and being a rampant alcoholic (as opposed to wearing tartan and being a rampant alcoholic, which is of course completely authentic cultural Scottishness). Or I could contract oestrogen poisoning watching Alan Rickman films with nickys et multiple al.

I'm slightly disappointed by the blatant howler in today's Wikipedia featured-article-of-the-day. No river anywhere in Britain or Ireland over 70 miles long? That'll be shining bright.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

Whatever the wikipedia error is/was looks like either it has been fixed or I can't see it.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Ah spotted what you mean -- it quotes the length of the shannon incorrectly at the start of the article.

[zotz]

"The island is bisected by the River Shannon, at 113 km (70 mi) the longest river in either Britain or Ireland"

I've just reloaded, so I think it's still there. According to their own articles, the Shannon's over twice that long - 161 miles - and the Thames and Severn come in at 215 and 219 miles respectively. The Shannon's estuary is 70 miles long, which may well make it longer than the Severn's, it's obvious rival for length, but that's different.

It is a genuine howler. Anyone from Britain or Ireland should know immediately that it's highly unlikely to be true.

Evolution tomorrow, and John Dee on Saturday. Those look much better.

[zotz]

Bah. "its obvious rival".

[steer.livejournal.com]

Looks like the page is in the process of being vandalised. As I reloaded it it changed so the entire page said "LOL". Wikipedia is now unusably slow.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Ah... I rather think it's being subjected to vandalism. At the moment the article just says "LOL".

[zotz]

Reverted now. The main article had the length corrected several hours ago too, but it hasn't been changed on the front page.

[deliberateblank.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I see it the opposite way round. Strange. You'd think both would come from the same part of the DB, but maybe they snapshot featured articles onto the front page to prevent vandalism of the underlying article from being quite so embarassing.

[steer.livejournal.com]

That is indeed what they do.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Oh -- I think you misunderstand the Shannon entry -- its length is 240 miles from their article though confusingly listed in two parts I admit.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Or at least that is why they are claiming it is the longest river in britain and ireland. Whether it is fair to add on the estuary, you could not pay me to care about.

[zotz]

Presumably the Severn would get a bit tacked on in that case, too. the full article only says it's the longest river in Ireland, which sounds eminently plausible.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I really couldn't tell you. Looks like the "Longest river in Britain and Ireland" part was added today and is presumably subtle vandalism. It seems to be under debate at the moment.

[zotz]

It could possibly be a troll, indeed - where exactly the estuary finishes could be debated for all eternity.

[steer.livejournal.com]

(grin) Hey, as far as I'm concerned if we measure the banks it has infinite length so I'm not going to debate it.

[I remember we knew we'd got through to a wealthy industrial guy when he said "I have a lake on my ranch which is ten miles round" and I and another researcher stared at him and he corrected himself to "I have a lake on my ranch which has an infinite shoreline."]

[zotz]

I was talking about the front page version, which still lists the length as 70 miles.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Not on my computer it doesn't.

[zotz]

OK. They have, finally, changed it.

[reddragdiva]

That is, I changed it, after steer duly alerted me. Trouble is that the articles remain unlocked, but (after too much vandalism) the templates making up the front page remain locked. I've got l33t admin p0w3rz, so I could fix it. And after it had been up that way only fifteen hours ...

[akicif.livejournal.com]

The Paddy's Night madness shouldn't directly effect the club: it's not exactly been highly publicised.

KJ's may be another matter. I was thinking of popping in briefly between the Forest and the Club just to check it out as it never really makes a massive thing of St Guinness' day.