extrapolation and beyond

February 17, 2006 5:55 AM

The Wiki History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less [via]
posted by moonbird (14 comments total)

Whoda thunk that the History of the Universe was so Americentric and logarithmically scaled?
posted by Plutor at 6:08 AM on February 17, 2006

He seems to spend an inordinate amount of time on the first several seconds, and he completely left out the Bracknarvian Galactic Revolutionary War, wherein several entire planetary systems were used as ballistic weapons against the Thu'ood Death Cloud.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 6:32 AM on February 17, 2006

UhOh, keep that away from Billy Joel.
posted by HTuttle at 6:43 AM on February 17, 2006

Since when is the history of Earth a large enough topic to be part of a concise "history of the universe"? Damn, if I'd have done it, I'd have included a short autobigraphy of my life, since that's pretty important, too.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 6:45 AM on February 17, 2006

They forgot:

201. Profit!
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:10 AM on February 17, 2006

This is funny. The 1996 copyright date is particularly sly.
posted by Nelson at 8:28 AM on February 17, 2006

<obligatory grammar callout>200 words or fewer</obligatory grammar callout>
posted by matildaben at 8:59 AM on February 17, 2006

Meh.... it's a little earth-centric don't ya think.
posted by wfrgms at 9:09 AM on February 17, 2006

That's a lot of word's for
"God said, 'Let there be light.'"
posted by papakwanz at 9:31 AM on February 17, 2006

obligatory grammar callout

That's not grammar, that's fake pedantry. In the words of the (highly recommended) Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage, "The OED shows that less has been used of countables since the time of King Alfred the Great... more than a thousand years ago.... After about 900 years Robert Baker opined that fewer might be more elegant and proper. Almost every usage writer since Baker has followed Baker's lead, and generations of English teachers have swelled the chorus. The result seems to be a fairly large number of people who now believe less used of countables to be wrong, though its standardness is easily demonstrated."
posted by languagehat at 10:51 AM on February 17, 2006

I love when languagehat comes into these threads and busts up the pedants.

They also forgot my conception in that list ("Falconetti's incubation").
posted by Falconetti at 12:03 PM on February 17, 2006

Thanks, languagehat - I learned something! (That was actually my first [second?] ever grammar callout. I usually bite my tongue.)
posted by matildaben at 1:59 PM on February 17, 2006

Does anyone else think that this should be put to music and sung? I'd listen to it.
posted by ErWenn at 3:47 PM on February 17, 2006

I thought it was quite moving actually, more so than entertaining even (I got chills down the spine where it exclaimed "Civilization!"). I was slightly disappointed however that the piece wasn't, you know, actually in itself a wiki. Maybe we should make a Wiki article out of this as an exercise.

And the taxation without representation bit, while humorous, was just plain detrimental. It took away from the entire narrative structure and linear story flow.

Oh, and they left out Web 2.0.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:53 AM on February 18, 2006