More Wikipedia Weirdness From Petraeusworld

In followup to yesterday's post about how Paula Broadwell's wikipedia page was edited in January 2012 to hint she was having an affair with General Petreaus, I stumbled across this post at Boing Boing a few hours ago with another interesting wikipedia find:

About two weeks after the Broadwell edit, on February 6, an editor from an IP address associated with the United States Central Command made an edit to the entry for Arcadia University to add Jill Kelley to its list of notable alumni. (Kelley is the Tampa woman to whom Broadwell later sent reportedly threatening emails) The edit read:

Jill Kelley, amateur ambassador and chess player

A few days later ", B.S.C." was added after Kelley's name as a mocking suffix of her degree by the same editor. The addition remained, unnoticed, for months! It was only removed a few days ago, after the scandal broke. The ambassador reference, of course, is a joke about Kelley's unofficial (read: made-up) "social liaison" status for MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa -- which is where the US Central Command is headquartered.

Reviewing the editing history of this IP address a bit further, I also noticed that seven minutes after the first Arcadia edit, the same person edited the wikipedia entry for ambassador to add:

"Occasionally, in some cultures, people can self-appoint themselves as "''ambassador''" by simply writing it to thier bio."

This is obviously another crack about Kelley. The edit remained for 10 days (someone helpfully corrected the misspelling) before it was removed as "preposterous".

Wikipedia Speculation About Petraeus Affair - 10 Months Ago

The day after Paula Broadwell appeared on The Daily Show in January 2012 to promote her book "All In" about General David Petraeus, a very brief wikipedia page was created for Broadwell by a new editor who appears to be a Daily Show fan. Within one hour of creation, an anonymous editor (IP address 64.101.72.113, their only edit ever to wikipedia) edited the page to add:

"Petraeus is reportedly one of her many conquests."

This was removed about an hour later by an infrequent editor (DSutton) with the commentary "Remove libel / vandalism." No attempt was made to re-add the information. About a month later, the article was speedily deleted as not showing how Broadwell was "notable". After deletion, this editing history was hidden from public view until after a new article on Broadwell was created on November 9 when news of her affair with Petraeus broke.

Hard to know whether this anonymous editor had real knowledge, or was just reacting to Broadwell's awkward interview on The Daily Show, but it appears no one commented on the video of Broadwell's interview at the Daily Show website (posted the day after her appearance) until the story broke, at least based on the comments that are currently available.

ETA 2:07 PT 11/12: Thanks to LGF for linking me and confirming the info. He could not trace the IP either.

ETA 8:53pm PT 11/13: New post: More wikipedia weirdness

Deadline for Todd Akin To Drop Out of Race And Save The GOP's Future

Paul Ryan - Ayn Rand Lovefest

Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his VP candidate has caused Wikipedia traffic on the "Ayn Rand" article to go thru the roof.
From 5,026 views on August 10, the day before the nomination, to more than 10 times that many the following day. This is more than double the average number of daily page views than the Barack Obama or Lagy Gaga articles normally get.

Orville (cat) - Wikipedia Entry

Below is the Wikipedia entry for "Orville (cat)" prior to its deletion on June 12, 2012.  A brief discussion of its deletion follows at the bottom.

Orville is a cat who was converted into a radio-controlled quadcopter and renamed Orvillecopter. After Orville was killed in a car accident, his owner, Bart Jansen,^[1] collaborated with Arjen Beltman to create the "half cat, half machine." Orvillecopter based on Lotus T580, had his first test flight on March 9 2012.^[2]
Orville was named for the aviator Orville Wright.^[3] Jansen has said he did this to pay tribute to his pet.^[4]
The Orvillecopter was exhibited at the KunstRAI art festival at Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre in Amsterdam in early June 2012.^[5]

Reactions

Paddy Johnson commented that deceased pets have been used in art before, calling it "sort of a European flavor of art making."^[6] Katinka Simonse, a Dutch artist known as TINKEBELL, killed her cat Pinkeltje and made it into a purse.^[6]
Graffiti reading "Kill the animal killers" and "Shame" was written on the RAI convention center.^[7] The Dutch Party for the Animals condemned Orvillecopter and will send letters of complaint to KunstRAI organizers and RAI.^[7][8] Organizer Liesbeth Hemelrijk defended Jansen to the Los Angeles Times, "Even though artist Bart Jansen loved his cat when it was still alive and cared so much for it that he turned it into art after it was run over by a car, people declare him the worst person in the country."^[7]
The American People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called Orvillecopter "a macabre way to honor a beloved family member."^[6]
Due to the international attention, Orvillecopter's asking price has been raised from £8,000 (€12,500) to €100,000.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ "Overreden kat omgetoverd tot vliegende helikopter - OPMERKELIJK - PAROOL". Het Parool. 4 June 2012. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
2. ^ Orvillecopter first flight march 9 2012.MOV - YouTube
3. ^ Suzannah Hills (2012-05-06). "Cats away! Artist turns his dead pet into flying helicopter after it is killed by a car | Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
4. ^ "Bart Jansen's Helicopter Cat On Display At Kunstrai Art Festival In Amsterdam | Strange News | Sky News". News.sky.com. 2008-06-23. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
5. ^ "Dutch artist turns dead cat into remote-controlled helicopter, dubbed ‘Orvillecopter’". NY Daily News. 2012-06-04. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Popkin, Helen A.S.. "Dead cat copter: Art or 'macabre' pet send off?". MSNBC. Retrieved June 05, 2012.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Orvillecopter, the stuffed helicopter cat, sparks global outrage - latimes.com
8. ^ Veel kritiek op maker helikopterkat tijdens KunstRAI - KUNST - PAROOL
9. ^ A Dead Cat Flies. But Is It Art? - Forbes
10. ^ Orvillecopter rises: value of cat-helicopter increase tenfold

Additional sources

"Dutch Artist Shocks with Dead Cat Helicopter". Der Spiegel Magazine. 6/5/2012. Retrieved June 05, 2012.

Deletion Analysis:

This article was deleted on June 12, 2012 after the closing of a deletion discussion which began on June 4. Essentially, its just another entry in the ongoing Wikipedia Wars over when something of brief popularity should be covered by an Everlasting Encyclopedia. There's no question that all or most of the content in the article could be verified with reputable news sources. Is the quantum of human knowledge somehow demeaned if Wikipedia does not include an article on the Orvillecopter? Interestingly, the deletion discussion (aside from my ridiculous poem in it) was fairly rational, and seemed to recognize that silly things like Orville CAN become encyclopedic, as long as people keep mentioning it over time. For fun:

"Hot Problems" - Yes, Of Course Its Fake

UPDATED 4/19: See updates at bottom for identities of who is behind the video.



This showed up on YouTube on April 15 and went viral on Tuesday after Huffington Post and other websites pimped it as the "next Rebecca Black".

Of course, this one is fake though.

It has some connection to CalState-Northridge film geeks. I may update this further, but just wanted to post to confirm for anyone who cares - yes, its fake. Fascinating though, that HuffPo and others posted it without caring that it was fake -- they just wanted to pretend it might be real, because that's more fun, I guess (and guarantees more ad impressions).

Here's some tweets I recently had with someone else confirming it:


As of April 17, when the story first broke, "OldBaileyProductions" which uploaded the video to youtube, had other videos on its channel, related to film projects at Cal-State Northridge. These were all quickly removed as the vid took off, and the channel reworked to be about "Double Take" the band (which "band" has no facebook, twitter, or other presence online at the moment.)

Just after OldBailey uploaded the video though, it did post on another video a joke about its new bad video. The post says "Come check out my page if you want to get a fucking laugh at the new artist 'Double Take'!!!" (The comment was made on the Lexi St. George video -- Lexi is a post-Rebecca Black creation by ARK Music Factory).


OldBailey has some connection, I'm not sure what, to Alex Goyette, who posts funny parody vids on Youtube as well, under the JouleTheif channel. On one old JouleTheif video, OldBailey posts that Alex is his roommmate.

ETA 9:42am PDT: Fuse has spoken with "OldBailey Productions." This confirms the CalStateNorthridge connection again.

ETA 11:10am PDT: One of the girls' (alleged, not proven yet) moms posted on the Fuse article:


ETA: 12:19pm PDT - It is now is clear I should mention that two of the original tags on the video (later removed as of late April 17) were "Drew G*****" and "Lauren W*****" - probably the names of the girls.

Yes, it is. Since they appear to be minors I will not post any additional information about them.


ETA 5:30am PDT 4/19 - The song is finally up on itunes now.


ETA 4/17 5:50am: Old Bailey Productions is probably a guy named Connor Abrams (at least he used to be a big part of it). He has videos up on other sites like this one credited to Old Bailey. He's from the same hometown and high school as the two girls in the vid.

ETA 4/17 6:04am: And Connor Abrams of Northridge, CA currently has a soundcloud account as "oldbailey", clearly he has the ability to record similar music.


ETA 6:15am PDT: Here's a radio interview the girls (Lauren and Drew) did this morning: kiss92.5. The girls don't admit its fake, but clearly they imply its a joke. It might have been more fun if they claimed it was real.

ETA 4/19 10:56am PDT: The girls did interviews with MTV and CNN this morning, based on their new twitter account @DoubleTakeMus1 (which I can verify is real, despite it looking new and fakey.)

YouTube Song of the Day: La Sera - Break My Heart

Youtube link
Mp3 available at Stereogum

La Sera is the solo-project of Katy Goodman of Vivian Girls. I shall never tire of perfect two minute punky post-Pixies/Blake Babies/Beach Boys/Buzzcocks female-fronted compositions. I share only the best ones with you, dear friends. Now LISTEN. OR ELSE. Upload to your mp3 player, roll down your car windows, put it on, and drive somewhere. Anywhere. Of course in 2 minutes you probably can't make it very far, but you get the idea.

La Sera's second album, "See the Light" was released this week.