The Glade 4.0

So, I know I'm not the only one here who has found themselves lost in Wikipedia with a bunch of articles tabbed up to read. Last night I finished up reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (good read by the way), and after reading a novel by an author whom I've never read before I like to hop on Wikipedia and get a little infomartion about them for curiousity's sake. Over an hour later, it was past my bed time and I found myself reading about the 2 bombs dropped on Japan in WW2. So I went from Truman Capote --> Little Boy / Fat Man.

What's your craziest chain of Wikipedia articles?

Hell if I know, I spend HOURS on wiki.

Just this morning, I went from Michael York, to Gerrard's Cross (where he was born), to Jethro Tull (who mention Gerrard's Cross in a song), to the various band members who are no longer with them, mainly the bassists and a drummer. Could have gotten sucked into the English educational system, which I don't fully understand, but thankfully I pulled myself back from the brink.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

People make games out of this very concept. I want to say it was mentioned a long time ago on some iteration of the Glade, but by this point, what hasn't? :p

For example!

Start with the Wikipedia entry for dashi, a Japanese culinary mainstay... and see how few clicks it can take you to get to, say, the Wikipedia entry for Mjöllnir! Got it in 8, but I think I did poorly... :p

I just had to play, btw:

Dashi to Mjollnir in 7 clicks ;-P Although I think I could optimize the route.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Wow you guys did well. I took way more than that. My clickfu isnt so hot though.

Got it in 6!

Hmm.

Was it these 6?


I got it in 7 initially, after following

but seeing a 6 made me figure there was someplace to trim, and sure enough, I found my revised second click farther down the page, and figured it'd jump straight to the middle.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

That's it.

Heh, I went a completely different way.

_________________
Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Another 6



I can't even find the 8 path I took earlier. :p somehow ended up on Italian Cuisine early on when I felt really inefficient about it, hence my worry of 8 not being so hot...

Anyway this one has about run its course. Half of the fun is coming up with your own start->destination combo!

We need an Oracle of Baconesque application for this, but I imagine Wikipedia is much too large for any computer program to properly figure out what is the shortest route and such. I do wonder if we could come up with any that takes a lot more than 6 to get through. Wikipedia does tend to get a little rough around the edges when you get to really unpopular stuff, though, so maybe the quality degrades too much to feel fair and comparable?

Wait! Sorry, I was wrong before when I recounted my path (multitasking with work at 11pm and control of remote computers FTL). My path was a hybrid of what Kaffis and Noggel would take.



You know, what's evil about this game is the ease of cheating...say, add in a link to Norway directly onto the Sardine page and then claim to do it in five.

Clearly, entries should only be allowed if you disclose your Wiki username, so you can be disqualified if you added any links which you use (perhaps a statute of limitations can be set). In which case, I'm screwed, as I don't have one.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades