When Wikipedia started, I guess I had some sort of misconceived notion that it would become a compendium for all human knowledge. And while it started to look that way for a while, there’s a problem in that dream that is just now coming into focus, after more than two million articles have been created and most of the “essentials” have been covered. Wikipedia is not the postmodern Library of Alexandria it has the potential to be, because (according to some) .

In order to be included in Wikipedia, an article must have an attribute called notabilty. But who decides what is ? There are currently 1,360 unpaid community who are given the authority to control the fate of new Wikipedia entries, as the only ones with the power to delete entire pages. They determine if a page is worthy for inclusion based on Wikipedia’s :

The topic of an article should be notable, or “worthy of notice”. This concept is distinct from “fame”, “importance”, or “popularity”. A topic is presumed to be notable if it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject.

So essentially, on Wikipedia nothing is eligible for inclusion until it has received enough coverage from reputable outside sources. Sure, is notable– she’s been analyzed from every angle on every level of culture– but what about a butcher shop in South Africa called ?

What is more worthy of remembering? Paris Hilton, or this South African butcher shop?

That question seems simple enough, but has sparked a huge debate covered by news outlets from the to the English paper . Apparently, there are two factions of administrators, diametrically opposed on the issue of notability. From The LA Times:

Inclusionists believe that because Wikipedia is not bound by the same physical limits as a paper encyclopedia, it shouldn’t have the same conceptual limits either. If there’s room for an article on unreleased Kylie Minogue singles — and a group of people who might find it useful– why not include it?

Deletionists, meanwhile, believe that because not all articles are created equal, judicious pruning increases the overall quality of Wikipedia’s information and strengthens its reputation. An encyclopedia, they say, is not just a dumping ground for facts.

What could these “Deletionists” see in the aforementioned conceptual limitations of traditional encyclopedias? What could be wrong with hosting all the information in the world on one easily accessible, searchable server? Isn’t that the vision of so many sci-fi fantasies– a world where our robot pals could answer any question in the bounds of human knowledge instantaneously, with implied access to a centralized database containing all information?

Check out , a blog devoted to rescuing information before it’s eradicated from Wikipedia. And for a first-hand look at the douchebag reasoning behind Deletionist attitudes, check out this Cracked.com article entitled ““. Note that since that article’s publication, several of the articles it heckles have been purged from Wikipedia– literally tens of thousands of words expunged because someone thinks it’s funny that there might be a demand– however slight– for plot descriptions of “7th Heaven” episodes!

Even this stain on human history deserves to be remembered in minute detail.

Information is never needless! As the chart in explains, knowledge is power! But beyond that obvious assertion, we must come to realize that trivia is important, and beautiful. To quote two kindergarten philosophies in one paragraph, there are no stupid questions. Everything is important as long as any person, regardless of their significance, has the desire to know about it. Minutia is glorious!

Divorced of the self, we are all merely information stored in other people’s brains– neurons filed away in an unknown cranial cabinet until death or senility renders those life-long memories moot. We never truly die until we cease to exist as information. Gravestones are less for presenting corpse coordinates and more for saving the names inscribed upon them from the same grisly fate that has claimed their owners. Hence, information is the same as life. Deletionism is genocide.

I am a believer in the viability of Borges’ . Why not?

I had no idea where we were going at 8:00am on a Monday morning, but I was ready for anything. My boyfriend, Rudy, was taking me to an undisclosed location for an all-day birthday surprise. Technically, my 20th birthday was on Tuesday– so this was my final day as a teenager– the last dawn before my bones would begin turning to dust, as all things must. As we exited the freeway, I figured we were going to Catalina Island, as the only other obvious destination at the exit in question was the Long Beach Aquarium, and we for our anniversary.

The ferry ride over was Rudy’s first boat trip, another indelible benchmark in one’s life. Luckily, he enjoyed the sensation of seafaring travel. As we pulled away from the shore, we could see a dark cloud hovering over the entire horizon– the ashes of blowing off into the Pacific. Living in Los Angeles, you get used to this smog… but this is something else entirely. For the past three days, there has been a sepia tone filter covering the sky, causing the normally flattering sunlight to become a harsh reddish-orange.

, however, was a pleasant distraction from the havoc raging throughout Southern California. Neither Rudy nor I had ever been to the island, and I was excited to find it an even more peaceful, magical place than I had imagined. We spent the day exploring the town of Avalon, rather than exploring the untamed interior (about 20 square miles of wilderness, where wild Bison roam). In Avalon (population 3,100), the de rigeur mode of transportation is golf cart. There are many beautiful homes that reminded me of Bay Area architecture, and the “downtown” area is filled with every kind of touristy business you can imagine.

Most of the tourists were on their way out as we arrived, returning home from their weekend reprieves. We wandered the beach alone and took a bus tour of the area with about a dozen other quiet visitors. We played a game of air hockey in an abandoned arcade, ate at a couple of fully satisfying restaurants and completed 18 holes of miniature golf. Check out my pictures after the jump!

is fantastic. She’s been performing since the precocious age of 15, when she hit it big fronting the Mexican punk band (check out this hella ’90s-looking for their fun hit, “Pobre de Ti”). Later she became keyboardist for the amazing , and now she’s started her own solo career with a three-song EP that has quickly become a favorite. Rudy and I went to see her last month at the Knitting Factory and she gave a flawless performance with the help of the band backing her up. So we headed up to Pasadena on Sunday when we heard she was performing in the outdoor Pasadena Music Festival, and I shot some video of her performance.

The clip below is a compilation of songs from the show. Click after the cut to see a video of Ceci performing the song “Ya Me Voy” in its entirety. Sorry about the camerawork! I was roughing it handheld, as usual.

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For the 12th Future Shipwreck Podcast, my friend and poker buddy Kyle Buchanan takes the helm as guest DJ. is a Los Angeles-based journalist who writes for and . He also created the late, great , a nonfiction webzine that ran for three years and featured original work from over 75 of the city’s best young writers. When he’s not writing, Kyle is a music buff with refined tastes (as you’ll soon discover), and also hosts a weekly poker night for a unique, diverse group of nifty gay dudes. His favorite movie is .

As I said to Graham while making this podcast, where other people quote “The Simpsons” throughout their daily life, I quote Joe Versus the Volcano. This undersung film (the only one ever directed by acclaimed playwright , who has a Tony, Oscar, and Pulitzer Prize to call his own) was a stiff when it first came out in 1990, but as The Onion A.V. Club said in their feature entitled 10 Notorious Flops Worth Seeing, “If it works on you, the film conveys nothing less than the joy of being alive.” Seriously!

That said, this podcast stands on its own; if its songs are the smorgasbord, the occasional soundbites from Joe Versus the Volcano are the delicious sprinkles on top. Enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Track Listing: 1. Clinic – Hippy Death Suite 2. Joe Versus The Volcano – I Have No Response To That 3. Stephen Malkmus – Jenny & The Ess-Dog 4. The Kinks – Get Back In Line 5. Joe Versus The Volcano – I Know He Can Get The Job 6. Pop Levi – Blue Honey 7. Joe Versus The Volcano – I’m Not Arguing With You 8. The Bees – Chicken Payback 9. Los Super Elegantes – The Waves 10. Joe Versus The Volcano – This Is A Great Town 11. Brendan Benson – Let Me Roll It 12. Bob Dylan – It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry 13. Joe Versus The Volcano – Blue Moon