no.stupid.answers

This week on WikiAnswers Wednesday, we are examining a question that everyone should already have the answer to, but we’ll share it anyway:

What is the WikiAnswers AnswerThon?

Yeah, I told you it was an easy one. Here is my artistic rendering of a WikiAnswers AnswerThon:

Oh, wait. That’s an AnswerThong. The WikiAnswers AnswerThon is a competition to see who can answer the most questions on WikiAnswers within 48 hours. The first AnswerThon was a few months back and included prizes. The upcoming competition (July 26-27) is actually a charity edition: you choose your favorite charity from a list and compete on their behalf; the winning charity is the one with the most questions answered by its team.

So my artistic rendering of a WikiAnswers AnswerThon looks more like this:

Make sure to sign up in time so you can be counted in the competition. See a full list of the participating charities.

All we hear about these days is Dora the Explorer. You know what I’m talking about. Dora the Explorer backpacks. Dora the Explorer pencils. Dora the Explorer shoes.

And then, I stumble upon this question in WikiAnswers:

Who said that only a Kennedy could make Dora the Explorer rhyme?

Why are we bringing Kennedys into this? Leave the poor family alone!

But wait - shhh - someone’s coming…

Oh. My. God.

It’s… her. Anybody have any chicken? We gotta get out of here…

When does it end? Oh holy presence above, when does it end?

Not until all the questions are answered, good citizens of the internet community. Not until all the questions are answered.

This post is dedicated to the Morning Show, which would like you to know finding/making 8-bit chicken was not easy.

Remember Jim? Of course you do!

He’s managed to make contact with me from the depths of Africa, where he is currently hiding from assassins researching banana leaves. He sent this WikiAnswers Wednesday question via Morse code and after decoding it, I realized there is something very important to be said for vaccination research.

Do mosquitoes have tails?

I don’t know if mosquitoes have tails, but I can tell what they do have: malaria.

Malaria’s a bitch, and I know first hand after having gone through some pretty miserable days with it a few weeks back. I was all set to get on a boat on Lake Tanganyika, when I felt like dying. The first day is pretty awful, in part because the medicine you take in helping you get rid of the disease also goes ballistic on your body. The next day was bad, but I didn’t feel like dying. After that I felt a lot better.

Still, I hate mosquitoes, and I don’t think your question is the right one in this case. The correct question should be how do we get rid of all mosquitoes forever, regardless of any negative consequences this might have on the natural balance of the world or whatever. Does this help?

Why do you even care if they have tails? Does it matter? Yes, they do have tails… Do you feel better now? Or… No, they don’t; has your life significantly changed?

Anyways, have a nice day and I hope you don’t get malaria.

Jim

Thanks to our dear friend Pickleshy, this week’s WikiAnswers Wednesday question is absolutely ridiculous, unlike the usual ones we feature here, which are completely normal.

Allow me to explain:

How do you fix a photo-nucleo-trans-amic-polutrize-ziptimiser?

Pickleshy is not only awesome at finding the ridiculous questions, she excels at answering them, like so:

Here are the steps to fix a photo-nucleo-trans-amic-polutrize-ziptimiser:

1. Build a good photo-nucleo-trans-amic-polutrize-ziptimiser.
2. Throw the perfectly good photo-nucleo-trans-amic-polutrize-ziptimiser off your roof.
3. Gather the pieces.
4. Use original design to fix. If too difficult, start over from step 1.

How do you suppose one of thems would look, anyway?

For today’s WikiAnswers Wednesday question, I’m going to go for painstakingly obvious. I think it goes well with my hazel eyes.

Is there a good social search engine where one can search and have questions answered at the same time?

Hmm… While I work that one out, I’d like to bring up an article I just read on the Reuters site: Answers.com sees growth in wiki responses. It’s a quick exploration into where Answers.com, with WikiAnswers by its side, is going as discussed by some of its head honchos.

“Somewhere between Google Inc and the community-generated Wikipedia, reference website Answers.com aims to build a new growth model.

The site has found its millions of users are keen to get community-written bits of knowledge, known as wikis, alongside its trusted encyclopedia entries.” (source)

Gotta love that explanation. A lot of times, when I’m hanging out with people and they ask me what I do, and I mention WikiAnswers, and their faces get all crinkly like one of those mush-face dogs (see right), I explain it like this:

Me: “You know Wikipedia?”

Crinkly face: “Yes…”

Me: “You know how it’s an encyclopedia that anyone can edit?”

Crinkly face: “Ok…”

Me: “So WikiAnswers is a Q&A community, meaning it’s a giant database of questions and answers, contributed by people from all over the world and all kinds of experience. Everyone contributes a bit, creating one complete answer for each question. You can ask or answer anything you like.”

Crinkly face: “OoOOOOoOooOOOo…”

Back to the article:

“Both sites pull up answers based on a question posed by a user, compared with searches for individual keywords used on sites like industry leader Google.”

“Chief Executive Bob Rosenschein said the company would foster more “cross-pollination” between Answers.com and WikiAnswers.com, including a shared search bar.” (source)

Bringing the reference answers side together with the community-generated answers side sounds like a wonderful idea. It’s going to create a powerful force you might want to call a social search engine.

Hmm, so what was that WikiAnswers Wednesday question again?

I know… it’s been a while. For the past two weeks I’ve been visiting my hometown, a little place called New York City. Not familiar with it? Here are some New York City Q&A to get you started.

And, of course, it is WikiAnswers Wednesday so I will continue to share the NYC love and post relevant quickie questions. And believe me on the answers, I was just there.

What is there to do in Manhattan?

Absolutely nothing. It’s one of the lamest cities I’ve ever known.

What are the five boroughs of NYC?

The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and… what’s the fifth one again? Gracie Mansion? Times Square? Long Island?

Where is Brooklyn?

Brooklyn is a state of mind.

How far is New Jersey from NYC?

Not far enough.