I Think One Pissed Off Canadian Edited This Wikipedia Page

Wiki for dipping tobacco:

Canadian and American “tins” generally differ in size;^{[citation needed]} US tins are generally 34 grams while Canadian tins are 15 grams.^{[citation needed]} Smokeless tobacco products are also more expensive in Canada, comparatively.^{[citation needed]} Prices for a 15 gram tin of average, popular brand smokeless tobacco are normally around $10-12 Canadian Dollars.^{[citation needed]} As of November 2008, smokeless tobacco prices in Canada are scheduled to rise 64 percent, totalling approximately 10 dollars per tin. Though prices tend to vary more from one state to the next in the US, it is quite common to find the same brands of smokeless tobacco products in containers twice the size as Canadian ones, for around half the price.^{[citation needed]} Canadian users wait longer for new products to be released and spend, depending on province, up to 40% more. Many flavours are not released in Canadian markets until much later than American markets, due to Canadian tobacco denormalization laws. As of September 2008, Canadian smokeless tobacco products are offered in 34 gram tins, identical in volume to their American counterparts. The price of these new tins are around fourteen dollars per 34 gram tin, negating the temoporary sixty four percent price hike that occurred briefly in the preceeding summer. The new price is uniform with pre-summer Canadian pricing- roughly forty cents per gram.

I assume all the rest of that stuff has airtight citations. Actually, I’m guessing it’s all correct, angry smokers (or dippers, I guess) usually have most of their facts right.

People Continuing To Be Too Serious

Every week, Johnny Goodtimes posts a question of the week on his website; he then asks it at all of his quizzos that week. It’s a way to get people to go to his website and remember about quizzo (or something like that).

Anyway, this week somebody edited the Wikipedia entry for the question of the week’s subject (Mark Linn-Baker, for some reason) in an attempt to have people look up the wrong answer.

Now that’s fairly clever. And also fairly pathetic, but some people really, really, really take quizzo seriously.

Quizzo Sabotage!!! [JGT]

Great Rant From Police Commissioner

Okay, this is an ESPN Instant Classic rant from Police Commissioner Charles Ramsay after an Inquirer reporter asked an annoying question, and by that I mean one that referenced Wikipedia. Ha ha, silly journalist, you’re supposed to hate Wikipedia. The video does confirm the “fricking” variant said by Ramsay.

Earlier today: Wikipedia Blasted For Its Accuracy

Wikipedia Blasted For Its Accuracy

The always worthwhile Catherine Lucey chimes in with a little nugget from some anti-assault weapons press conference today:

The pols grew angry when an Inquirer reporter questioned whether the SKS Carbine was a true assault weapon, noting that the National Rifle Association disagreed with the classification and that a search on wikipedia.com would bring up information saying it was not.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey then got into the mix. “I don’t care about wikipedia or any other kind of pedias,” he said. “It it’s not an assault weapon by definition, then add it to the freaking list.”

Rendell added, “if there’s any ambiguity, we will clear it up.”

It’s good to see the top police officer in Philadelphia has finally come out against the strong anti-’pedia lobby.

Nutter and Rendell rage about assault weapons [Clout]

Beloved Soccer Fans Evicted From Wikipedia

Philadelphia — well, Chester — might be getting a state-funded soccer team in MLS, but not all is rosy for the team’s fan club, the Sons of Ben.

Yes, someone has nominated their Wikipedia article for deletion, and it appears to be destined to be removed from Wikipedia. While the Sons of Ben have gotten a couple mentions in the news, it appears that these Wikipedia editors have been on the receiving end of the group’s emails, which usually are sent five times in a row or so.

Or perhaps it’s just this: “Not only not notable, but also totally lame. Linking to user pages from the article just shows what a joke it is.” Oh, you showed them!

Philly-Area Nerds Drop Ball

As of 5:17 p.m., Alycia Lane’s Wikipedia page remains silent on her termination from CBS 3. Shocker!

Update: Ha ha, a Philadelphia Will Do reader edited the page! It now reads:

On January 7, 2008, Alycia Lane was fired from her job at CBS3. Lane responded by staging a hostage situation at the station, ultimately resulting in the shooting death of former co-anchor Larry Mendte. The situation is currently under investigation by area police.

Happy New Year, Hungover Cube Drone!

Happy new year everyone! Screw you, 2007, and let’s move on to what is sure to be the greatest year in human history. I realize it is my job today to help guide your still hung over self through the hardest three-day week since, uh, last week, but I’m a little slow myself today, so give me a few minutes. Plus, the hamster that runs our server got crushed by a common Internet joke generator.

In the meantime, check out Wikipedia’s page about our new friend 2008! This is the International Year of Planet Earth! How can you be disappointed to start a work week when it is your first week honoring Earth. (The International Year of Planet Earth, you’ll be happy to know, runs for three years. And Cyprus has already adopted the euro!

Plus, we only have four more years to enjoy earth before Darren Daulton says the world is going to end. Live a little!

Bill Giles Book May Not Even Exist

Last week, I noted a discussion of Phillies owner Bill Giles’ book, Pouring Six Beers at a Time, which itself noted that parts of the book may have been not so much accurate. But, whatever. It’s a memoir. Do you know how many baseball memoirs have errors in them? Is there a portion higher than 100 percent?

An alert reader passed along this review by Jim McCaffrey of The Bulletin from earlier this year. It sums up the book pretty well: Entertaining, but lacking in detail about interesting characters Giles knew. One such man is Roy Hofheinz, who helped broker the deal for baseball in Houston. And here’s what Giles’ book says about Hofheinz:

Giles’ one-paragraph biography of Hofheinz is quite literally lifted right out of Wikipedia.

Factual errors, Wikipedia thievery… looks like Giles’ memoir explains the Phillies quite well.

Giles’ Book Gives Insights On Phillies’ Failures [The Bulletin]
Friday: Phillies Owner Just Like Every Other Memoirist

‘Punch-Out!’ Has An Apocrypha

Now that I’ve realized that it’s the drugs, stupid, I’ve decided to pander to the base a bit. And what’s funnier to stoners than unintentionally hilarious Wikipedia articles? Well, unintentionally hilarious Wikipedia articles about Punch-Out!!.

Here’s what I learned:

• “The Electronic Arts game, Fight Night: Round 2 for the Nintendo GameCube identifies this character as ‘Little Mac’, but his appearance and naming in Fight Night is not considered canonical due to the third-party nature of the product. [I didn't know Punch-Out!! had a canon. —dmac]
• Doc also utilizes his almost magical healing powers brought about by pushing ’select’ one time per fight. [I already knew this, of course.—dmac]
• “However [Von] Kaiser can still attack with his flurry of left and right uppercuts, but with any skill at all his celebration will be short lived.”

More »

Larry West Has A Wikipedia Page

In the “criticism” section:

On an article written by Daniel McQuade, a writer for Philadelphia Weekly for the Philadelphia Will Do blog, he wrote, “It’s becoming more and more apparent Larry West is an art-school prank or perhaps the new host of Punk’d.”

For the record, Philadelphia Will Do is 100 percent in favor of Larry West’s candidacy. I will be sad when Larry’s Wikipedia page is nominated for deletion.

Larry West [Wikipedia]