48: Wikipedia w/ Annie Rauwerda, The First Boring Number, and Perpetual Stew

27th September 2023

We all use Wikipedia, but how did it come to be? What’s the first number to not have a Wikipedia page, and what does that say about math and humans? And what on Earth is Perpetual Stew? Follow Annie and Depths of Wikipedia on Instagam/Twitter/Tiktok! Images we talk about: Sloane’s Gap nostalgia.wikipedia.com Support us with […]

Episode notes

We all use Wikipedia, but how did it come to be? What’s the first number to not have a Wikipedia page, and what does that say about math and humans? And what on Earth is Perpetual Stew?

Follow Annie and Depths of Wikipedia on Instagam/Twitter/Tiktok!

Images we talk about:
Sloane’s Gap
nostalgia.wikipedia.com

Support us with a Max Fun Membership!

Join our Discord!

Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:07:33) The History of Wikipedia
(00:50:16) The First Boring Number
(01:12:09) Wikimania and Perpetual Stew
(01:50:38) Outro

We also learn about: there’s more Wikipedia languages than google translate, Grendel would have loved Blackpink, how often do we think about the roman empire, the first encyclopedia was very wrong, all men think about is present Rome! Pliny’s child piss ab wrinkle cure, fortune did not favor the bold according to Pliny the younger, the encyclopedia Britannica, getting lazy on the later letter installments, door to door encyclopedia salesmen, Annie’s Mom’s excitement for the new encyclopedia, Encarta the forgotten digital encyclopedia, welcome to the 90s baby, webrings, soft core porn is the carcinization of the web, Jimmy Wale’s “Guy Oriented Search Engine” Bomis.com, the failed boring Nupedia, the wiki prefix from a Hawaiian bus, Cunningham’s Law, Wikipedia’s Bro culture, nostalgia.wikipedia.com, no search or sources on old wikipedia, it’s not easy but people were making this encyclopedia, this human element has always been a part of encyclopedias, Jimmy Wales got his admin privilages revoked by the community, the interesting number paradox, Ramanujan’s Taxi Cab Numbers, the OEIS sequence database, Sloane’s Gap, 20,067 sitting alone at lunch, a surprising recent number update, the notability standard of numbers, the highest negative number to not have a page is only negative 3!!! come to the dark side of the zero, the Wikimania, Annie is Taylor Swift at Wikimania, Ella’s years long Wikipedia War, Annie’s neuroscience journey, Annie’s Perpetual Stew, a stew love.

Sources:

Andrew Lih’s Book “The Wikipedia Revolution”
Pliny the Elder’s Encyclopedia with Sun Shade Feet People
History of the Encyclopedia Britannica
The Encarta Encyclopedia
The “Decline” of Wikipedia
Jimmy Wales Guy Raz Interview

Scientific American The Most Boring Number
Ramanujan’s Taxi Cab Numbers
The OEIS
Sloane’s Gap Paper
The Notability Requirements for Number Pages

Wikimania
NYTimes on Perpetual Stew

In this episode...

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Science communicators Ella Hubber, Tom Lum, and Caroline Roper share anything and everything interesting! Each episode they teach each other about a science topic, answer a question, and learn about a miscellaneous topic. Whether it’s temporal illusions, animals in space, or the history of fanfiction, there’s so much out there, so let’s learn everything! Join us on Discord, email us, and follow us everywhere at LetsLearnEverythingPod.com.

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