Wikipedia Publishes 500,000th English Article

Here’s the press release:

The Wikimedia Foundation announced today the creation of the 500,000th article in the English-language Wikipedia, its project to create a free, multilingual, online encyclopedia. The article was about “Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union.” The total of 500,000 articles far exceeds any other encyclopedia project. At the average of 2,500 characters per article, this is 1.25 gigabytes of raw text, which if printed double-sided would form a stack about 66 feet or over 6 stories tall. Other recent additions to its English-language edition include hundreds of full-length songs, almost a gigabyte of new images, and subject-specific portals.

Congratulations! If you haven’t already visited Wikipedia, I highly recommend it…

John DeLorean Dead At 80

DeLoreanForbes reports that car developer John DeLorean died last Saturday at the age of 80 of complications from a recent stroke. Best known for his stainless steel sports car featured in the Back To The Future movies, “DeLorean’s company collapsed in 1983, a year after he was arrested in Los Angeles, accused in a sting of conspiring to sell $24 million of cocaine to salvage the company.”

CBGB’s Faces Eviction

The legendary punk bar CBGB’s is apparently on the brink of eviction.

CBGB’s, with its familiar white awning, holds a special place in [New York’s] music history. It was here that the Ramones, the Talking Heads and Blondie created the punk scene for small crowds that paid a $1 cover charge.

It would be quite a shame if it really did get closed down…

Freebird!

The Wall Street Journal Online (of all places) explores the history of yelling “Freebird” at concerts.

Update: Robot Filter offers an observation that is sorely lacking in the WSJ article: 🙂

this is truly a great and interesting article but it fails to mention that puking after yelling “freebird!” is optional although in all my travels, the person yelling “freebird!” usually boots shortly afterwards…