Did you know that there’s a protein (which “plays a key role in regulating [...] growth of digits on limbs and organization of the brain”) that’s actually named after Sega’s iconic creation, Sonic the Hedgehog? The Sonic Hedgehog protein. How did I find out about this? Well let’s see.. I started on Wikipedia reading up on Law & Order and it’s different spin offs, which led me to NYPD Blue, which led me to David Caruso, which led me to CSI, which led me to Gil Grissom, where I read that he keeps a two headed scorpion in his office, which led me to polycephaly, which led me to diprosopus, which led me to cyclopia, which led me to this page, which mentioned the Sonic Hedgehog protein.

And that’s what a day at Wikipedia is like for me.

Oh yeah, happy New Year or smth. :D

Interested in a bit of light reading? Check out Wikipedia’s List of Paradoxes, I’ve been reading through this now for an hour or so. Some of the ones I found interesting:

• Omnipotence paradox – Can an omnipotent being (ie: “God”) create an object so heavy that he/she could not lift it?
• Control paradox – “Man can never be free of control, for to be free of control is to be controlled by oneself.”
• Grandfather paradox – If you go back in time and cause the death of your grandfather before he bore children, your father/mother would not exist to bear you, thus you would not exist, thus you could not go back in time to cause the death of your grandfather.
• Epicurean paradox – “Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?”
• Predestination paradox – “A classic example occurs in the film Somewhere in Time, in which a pocket watch is given to a young man by an older woman, only for the younger man to travel back in time, then give it to that same woman’s younger self, who then goes on to give it to him. At no point is it ever revealed where the watch came from.”

And there’s a tonne of others, but I’ll be forever if I try and list all the ones that caught my interest.

Wikipedia has this effect on me, the effect where I can’t tear myself away from reading trivial information. Just ask anyone that knows me, they’ll tell you that I’m just bursting with useless knowledge, the kind of things that some people know, that most people don’t, that one day you’ll wonder about, and I’ll be there with an answer. What can I say, I thrive on knowing those things that just might impress someone some day… most of the time though I just get a funny look.