Socks, rain, wikipedia

It has rained a lot but there's been no flooding at all (on account of the Wear being in a big deep hole). This is a picture of some rain and our hedge that magically appeared one night about six months ago when I was in the pub.

I've also finished my Jaywalkers now. The heel flap worked really well and I've now only got annoying holes at the top of the join on one side of the heel rather than both! Stupid heels.


There's absolutely no flattering way to take photos of your own feet. Also, on the day that Abingdon was flooded, note the background here!

Here's a close up of the stitch pattern and the non-holey-side heel pickup (I finally discovered what the flower button on my camera does: knitting photos!):


Today I also listened online to a programme about Wikipedia on Radio 4. I thought it was quite balanced and interesting. I use Wikipedia a lot to double check things I think I know, and for easy explanations of things when I'm at work (like what metastasised means: I feel very lucky I've never come across that word in real life). I liked reading the encyclopedia we had when I was little, and I still waste lots of time clicking through trails of connected articles on Wikipedia. The problems with it really boil down to people having to know how to use it (like any source of information). Not only do you have to read differently and follow the official, front page text back into the discussion page, you also need to follow the links given for sources so you end up reading and evaluating and the information yourself. How not to do it: I had an essay handed in to me last year with a Works Cited that just consisted of the word Wikipedia. Not really a recognised work of academic criticism and not really cited, guys. I found the most interesting part of the programme was the climatologist guy who was complaining that his life got taken over by his need to keep re-editing the global warming page to reflect the evidence from current research. He got really frustrated that he was having to explain himself to people who were very, very stupid and who kept on disagreeing with him on the basis of beliefs rather than the sources he was showing them. It didn't really turn out to be an anti-Wiki story, though, because his expertise did prevail, ultimately. So, in conclusion, Wikipedia is not eroding my authority.