What I’m looking at on Wikipedia, right now.

What I’m looking at on Wikipedia, right now.

Taedonggang is a brand of North Korean beer brewed by the state-owned Taedonggang Brewing Company based in Pyongyang.

North Korean government-brewed beer.

With an alcohol content of 5% and a taste significantly more bitter than most Asian beers, indeed resembling British ale, Taedonggang beer is described by The New York Times as a “full-bodied lager a little on the sweet side, with a slightly bitter aftertaste” and “one of the highest quality beers on the [Korean] peninsula for several years”.

What I’m looking at on Wikipedia, right now.

Oorah is a battle cry common in the United States Marine Corps since the mid-20th century.

Not to be confused with:

• Hooyah 👉 Hooyah is the war cry or battle cry used by the United States Navy SEALs, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Teams, and Navy Deep Sea Divers.

or

• Hooah 👉 …used by soldiers in the U.S. Army and Canadian Army and U.S. Air Force airmen.

What I’m looking at on Wikipedia, right now.

“when code … spews forth and becomes permanent, it becomes an architectural feature of the archaeological variety. Things are built atop the structure without question and without hope of changing what is beneath them. The existing code is seen as an historical curiosity.”

An antipattern.

What I’m looking at on Wikipedia, right now.

Otherkin are a community of people who see themselves as partially or entirely non-human.

I learned of this term through the wonderful @tumblrtxt Twitter account.

Otherkin largely identify as mythical creatures, with others identifying as creatures from fantasy or popular culture. Examples include: angels, demons, dragons, elves, fairies, sprites, aliens, and cartoon characters.

Wait. Cartoon characters? Oh yes. Meet otakukin.

Outside viewers may have varying opinions about people who identify as otherkin, ranging from considering them animal-human relationship pioneers, to psychologically dysfunctional. Reactions often range from disbelief to aggressive antagonism, especially online.

I leave it as an exercise to the reader to guess my reaction.

What I’m looking at on Wikipedia, right now.

Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since. In contrast to the Olympic flame proper, the torch relay of modern times which transports the flame from Greece to the various designated sites of the games had no ancient precedent and was introduced by Carl Diem at the controversial 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

This Olympic Torch tradition was birthed out of the Nazi’s love for pageantry:

Carl Diem devised the idea of the torch relay for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin that was organized by the Nazis under the guidance of Joseph Goebbels … Hitler saw the link with the ancient Games as the perfect way to illustrate his belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich.

Check out some of the other things I’ve looked at on Wikipedia.

What I’m looking at on Wikipedia, right now.

This list includes compositions written before 1920 that are considered standards by at least one major fake book publication or reference work. Some of the tunes listed were instant hits and quickly became well-known standards, while others were popularized later.

What I’m looking at on Wikipedia, right now.

Die Fledermaus (The Bat) is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.

Being a newcomer to Opera, learning about this Opera triggered a memory from 12-year-old me.

For the Tick character, see Die Fledermaus (The Tick).

Continuing on…

The appellation was most likely given due to the popularity of the Johann Strauss II operetta Die Fledermaus and is pronounced as such (not as it appears in English). To English-speakers not familiar with the German language, his name sounds like “Deflater Mouse.”

I’ve heard the overture before.

What I’m looking at on Wikipedia, right now.

The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. promoted beauty not only for its own sake, but also to create moral and civic virtue among urban populations. Advocates of the philosophy believed that such beautification could thus promote a harmonious social order that would increase the quality of life.

Discovered when looking at the Wikipedia page for The Manhattan Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street, one of my favorite buildings in New York.

What I’m looking at on Wikipedia, right now.

It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.

Alternatively,

Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.