Day: December 5, 2005

The World Wide Fund for Nature (who?) claims to have spotted a new lizard like creature in the forests of Borneo.

Researchers from the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) may have spotted a new mammalian species in the dense central forests of Borneo island, the organisation said. The carnivorous animal, slightly larger than a domestic cat with dark red fur and a long bushy tail, was caught by a camera trap at night twice in 2003, the WWF said in a press release.

Photos of the animals have been shown to locals well acquainted with wildlife in the area and the organisation also consulted several Bornean wildlife experts but none recognized it.

“Most were convinced it was a new species of carnivore,” WWF said, adding that researchers were hoping to set cage traps to catch a live specimen.

If confirmed, it would be the first time in more than a century that a new carnivore has been discovered on the island, it added.

It looks like someone read the same ‘How to create a fake monster picture’ manual as the guys who worked this one up.

Man, this picture used to give me the heebeegeebees somethin’ fierce when I was a kid.

Oh well, Bigfoot was getting a little long in the tooth anyway. Why not have a new monster for a new generation? At least now I’ve got something to scare the wits outta my kids.

Prediction: By this time next year, Wikipedia won’t be Wikipedia anymore. 

In the past week or so, a couple of instances of editorial creativity have come to light. First, there was the issue involving Adam Curry who was caught rewriting the history of podcasting, and now we have evidence of libel within a biographical article on John Seigenthaler Sr., the former administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy.

Now these are just a couple of controversies that have come to light. There could be (and likely are) more ‘problematic’ articles interwoven through Wikipedia. Yet, I’m sure that little blemish hasn’t tarnished the sparkle seen by many tech savvy individuals and investment firms as they dream about the financial prospects of this community encyclopedia. So, the only way to transform Wikipedia into a vehicle that can realize its true destiny (i.e. ‘money making machine’), is to change its overall business model.

And when this changes, Wikipedia will not be Wikipedia anymore. 

Oh, it will still look like Wikipedia, and the functionality will remain the same. It just won’t be a community encyclopedia that can be edited and changed instantly by anyone anymore. Wikipedia will take submissions for new articles and screen current article changes before they hit the web. Sounds like a regular everyday encyclopedia doesn’t it? That’s because it is, and it’s what Wikipedia will become.

And the same things that plague other online and offline encyclopedias will ultimately plague Wikipedia. The ‘publishing’ cycle will slow way down as users inundate the site with new offerings and requests for content accuracy changes. Faced with the overwhelming task of working through the mountains of data, the editors oversight committee will cut and chop Wikipedia and in the process take on a subtle bias peppered with a dash of political correctness. The breadth of material will narrow, since some topics will be just a little too ‘hot’, a little too intellectual and not sensational enough to keep an audience that makes money for the big pocketed corporate owners Google by clicking on Google Adwords sidebar ads related to the articles they’re reading.

And don’t forget about the pressure Wikipedia will receive from higher education as it realizes that students throughout the globe regularly cite the online encyclopedia in their dissertations which find their way into STM (Science, Technical and Medical) journals and other online databases.

And then of course, the Government will have an interest in the ‘community’ encyclopedia as lawyers begin to include citations of law precedent in court documentation which they researched on GoogleWikipedia.

Alarmist? Chicken Little-ism?

I predict. We’ll see.

UPDATE: Good dialog on this subject happening at Dean’s World. Check the comments.

Others: Growing Pains for Wikipedia | Wikipedia and the Nature of Truth | How wikis are changing our view of the world | Wikipedia slander? | What Wikipedia doesn’t want you to know | Is Wikipedia a threat or a menace? | Wikipedia: A Techno-Cult of Ignorance | Wikipedia is the next Google |

And to think that this guy could have been our president.

John Kerry, in an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” yesterday, suggested that American soldiers are the ones spreading the terror in Iraq, and that the U.S. should leave terrorism to the new Iraqi army. Host Bob Schieffer countered with, silence.

Add Kerry’s position (Soldiers=Terrorists) to that of John Murtha (Withdraw Now), Nancy Pelosi (Yeah, what Murtha said), to Joe Lieberman (Stay and Win), and Hillary Clinton (Position? I don’t need no stinking position) and what have you got?

A fractious jumbled mess of selfish ideas, or as I like to call it, the Democratic Party. 

Face the Nation Transcript (PDF)
Video

Cori Dauber over at Rantingprofs is heaping shame on NBC for showing video from a terrorist group that is claimed to be footage of an attack that killed 10 U.S. Marines. The problem is, the attack happened at night, but the video contains only daylight scenes. NBC aired it anyway.