Wikipedia articles I have read lately

On this Tuesday evening, I found myself wondering: about what could I write? A question indeed. This was one of those times when I didn't have anything in particular on my mind, and went searching for inspiration anyway. As I thought I should prepare for bed, an idea came to mind. I could go to my bookmarks archive and see if I have read anything recently that would inspire me.

One idea came to mind: list some articles on Wikipedia I have read lately.

I am in awe of Wikipedia. I regularly find interesting new articles through Hacker News. When I find a topic that interests me, I look through linked pages. On reflection, there are no common themes that link together the articles on Wikipedia I have read.

Here are a few articles I have read (at least in part!) recently, with some highlights:

• Mercator projection: On the size distortion flaws with the Mercator projection: "Greenland appears the same size as Africa, when in reality Africa's area is 14 times as large."
• Sutor, ne ultra crepidam: Translated as "Shoemaker, not beyond the shoe". The article notes "The expression led to the term ultracrepidarianism, which is the giving of opinions and advice on matters outside of one's knowledge." Ultracrepidarianism is a long word. Many letters.
• International orange: The Golden Gate Bridge is painted in a colour "slightly lighter" than International orange. "The international orange paint used on the Golden Gate Bridge is specially formulated to protect the bridge from the danger of rust from salt spray off the ocean, and from the moisture of the San Francisco fog".
• Facade pattern: A means of abstracting the complexity in a method or algorithm by providing a higher-level API.

Tagged in reading, wikipedia.