Monday, October 14, 2019

Thing 9: Exploring Wikipedia

This Thing is about exploring Wikipedia; many who are my age will have memories of losing marks in their coursework for referencing or even directly quoting a Wikipedia page on a particular subject, but its usefulness has not diminished.

Around 10 years ago, when I was finished my GCSE's, Wikipedia was known among my teachers as a generally useful but unreliable source of information about many things. In recent history this has changed slightly as the quality of articles has largely increased due to the sites increased popularity.

There are of course still some erroneous articles out there as pages can be edited by any one, but this is also one of its strengths; from academia, professionals can edit pages from a highly experienced point of view; from recent historical events, eye witnesses can testify to the truth of a situation, or add their own experience.

Overall, Wikipedia is a great source of introductory and sometimes very detailed information. One criticism of mine is that articles often seem to get too complicated too quickly, using terms that the average person may not understand if researching a topic for the first time - I guess this is what text books are for!

For example, I do love gardening, and have recently potted some snow drop bulbs. Immediately from the Wikipedia page, I can discover that 'Galanthus' is their scientific name, which derived from gala (milk) and anthos (flower) in Greek. However, in the second paragraph, a sentence of reasonable complexity is already encountered:

"In the era of molecular phylogenetics this characteristic has been shown to be unreliable and now seven moleculary-defined clades are recognised corresponding to the biogeographical distribution of species."

To me, a very amateur gardener, this mostly goes over my head. None the less, the rest of the article goes on to describe some very useful information;  the general appearance and reproduction of the plants, their natural distribution, Taxonomy, Ecology, Conservation, Cultivation, Toxicity, Medicinal use, and their references in popular culture (one such reference is given at the end of this article!).  This information seems pretty reliable too, using 97 references, several of which are from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), a reputable organisation.

This all seems like quite a lot of information, but to attain it other wise, I may have to search several books, and even ask some experts - through Wikipedia, the experts can write the articles!

More practical information however, is best found at dedicated gardening websites.

To end, here's a poem by Walter de al Mare called The Snowdrop:

           Now — now, as low I stooped, thought I, 
           I will see what this snowdropis; 
           So shall I put much argument by, 
           And solve a lifetime's mysteries. 

           A northern wind had frozen the grass; 
           Its blades were hoar with crystal rime, 
           Aglint like light-dissecting glass 
           At beam of morning prime. 

           From hidden bulb the flower reared up 
           Its angled, slender, cold, dark stem, 
           Whence dangled an inverted cup 
           For tri-leaved diadem. 

           Beneath these ice-pure sepals lay 
           A triplet of green-pencilled snow, 
           Which in the chill-aired gloom of day 
           Stirred softly to and fro. 

           Mind fixed, but else made vacant, I, 
           Lost to my body, called my soul 
           To don that frail solemnity, 
           Its inmost self my goal. 

           And though in vain — no mortal mind 
           Across that threshold yet hath fared! — 
           In this collusion I divined 
           Some consciousness we shared. 

           Strange roads — while suns, a myriad, set — 
           Had led us through infinity; 
           And where they crossed, there then had met 
           Not two of us, but three.



                                                (Photo from Country file website)



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