Wikipedia has an article on almost every subject—including, it turns out, one on how to write "the perfect Wikipedia article." The guidelines run through a list of the attributes such an article would have—e.g., "[i]s precise and explicit," "[i]s well-documented," "[i]s engaging"—before ending on a cautionary note: The perfect Wikipedia article is, by virtue of the collaborative editing process that creates it, "not attainable": "Editing may bring an article closer to perfection, but ultimately, perfection means different things to different editors." And as editors pursue perfection, they also must keep in mind another essential quality of a good Wikipedia entry: neutrality. That is, no matter how controversial a topic, an article must present "competing views on controversies logically and fairly, and pointing out all sides without favoring particular viewpoints." READ MORE

"Learners are doers, not recipients."—Walter J. Ong, "McLuhan as Teacher: The Future Is a Thing of the Past" READ MORE

This article is about Apple's allegedly portable device iPad. For other uses, see iPad (disambiguation). For the handheld digital music device, see iPod. For the gadget that looks like something Jon King would flash during a CNN election broadcast, see iPad(2). READ MORE

Wikipedia commingles inane and profound topics willy-nilly, most always with equal weight and seriousness of tone. Cataloging everything under the sun with such seriousness of purpose and attention to detail is an amazing endeavor. The excerpts that follow are both very silly and very informative. The complete entries on "Deep-fried Mars Bar" and "Exploding Whale," for example, are each almost as long and serious in tone as the entry on "Immanuel Kant." They highlight the oddity and incongruity and wonder of the whole enterprise. What's more, these excerpts are proof that Wikipedia is most likely the most positive development in the history of our extremely troublesome Internet. READ MORE

So everybody knows that Wikipedia is a fun tool not to be used for actual, real research but a widget that makes nouns and verbs do entertaining things like when you ask an 80-year-old, first-generation emigré of a non-English speaking country why a certain episode of Entourage should go before another episode of Entourage in the grand tapestry of narrative arcs that is this season. But apparently, the online encyclopedia that everyone can modify is trying to, you know, change things. First they locked certain pages to where you can't just go and declare that Barry Obama only eats with tiny, baby cutlery like it was one time written somewhere about Victoria Beckham and/or Melanie Brown and now they're trotting out something called WikiTrust, which highlights the background of certain information, kinda like how Men's Health does when they want you to pay real good attention to which cities have the fattest people (eat them; not them!). READ MORE