Wikipedia (Unofficial Podcast)

About Wikipedia (Unofficial Podcast)

We love Wikipedia, but no one has time to read it, so listen to it.

Publisher

John

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

12 May 2021

Latest episode

7 Jun 2022

Latest episodes

7 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Jun 2022

   28th Virginia Battle Flag

   The 28th Virginia battle flag is a Confederate battle flag (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_battle_flag) that belonged to the 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28th_Virginia_Infantry_Regiment). Captured by the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Minnesota_Infantry_Regiment) at the Battle of Gettysburg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg), the flag was brought to Minnesota and exhibited at the state's capitol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_State_Capitol) for several years before passing into the permanent collection of the Minnesota Historical Society (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Historical_Society) after 1896 where it has remained since. Although various groups in Virginia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia) have requested that the flag be returned, beginning as early as 1960, Minnesota (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota) has repeatedly declined to return it, with Governor Jesse Ventura (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ventura) asking "Why? I mean, we won."[1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28th_Virginia_battle_flag#cite_note-:4-1) The battle flag was captured at the Battle of Gettysburg by Private Marshall Sherman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Sherman) of the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment, and remained in Sherman's possession in Minnesota after being inventoried by the United States War Department (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_War) in 1867. A 1905 congressional resolution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolution_(law)) that flags from the American Civil War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War) should be returned to their places of origin did not lead to the return of the flag to Virginia, nor did requests by Virginia or groups therein for its return in 1961, 1998, 2000, and 2003; a request by the governor of Virginia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Virginia) to borrow the flag in 2013 was also declined. The flag is stored in a drawer at the Minnesota Historical Society, with its exact location undisclosed for security reasons. There are several holes in the flag, and the middle eyelet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grommet) is torn; however, it is mostly intact with less than one percent of its fabric missing.

2. 

   6 Jun 2022

   Super Weaner

   A super weaner (also super-weaner or superweaner) is an exceptionally large elephant seal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_seal) at weaning (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaning) age. Super weaners may reach their large sizes by stealing milk from nursing female elephant seals or by being adopted by an additional mother elephant seal.

3. 

   5 Jun 2022

   Magomed Musaev

   Magomed Musaev (Russian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language): Магомед Мусаев) is an international entrepreneur, venture capitalist and impact investor, philanthropist, founder and president of the Global Venture Alliance (GVA) investment fund, creator of the Sapiens Impact global impact community, one of the founders of the ImpactFuture investment company.

4. 

   4 Jun 2022

   Robb Elementary School Shooting

   On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Rolando Ramos fatally shot nineteen students and two teachers, and wounded seventeen other people, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States. Earlier in the day, he shot his grandmother in the forehead at home, severely wounding her. Outside the school, he fired shots for approximately five minutes, before entering unobstructed with an AR-15 style rifle through an unlocked side-entrance door. He then locked himself inside a classroom, killed nineteen students and two teachers, and remained there for around one hour before a member of a United States Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) fatally shot him. This was the third-deadliest school shooting in the United States, after the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, and the deadliest in Texas. Law enforcement officials have been criticized for their actions in response to the shooting, and their conduct is being reviewed in separate investigations by the Texas Ranger Division and the United States Department of Justice. After initially praising first responders to the shooting, Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for an investigation into the lack of action by incident commanders. Police officers waited 78 minutes on-site before breaching the classroom to engage Ramos. Police also cordoned off the school grounds, resulting in violent conflicts between police and civilians who were attempting to enter the school to rescue children. Afterwards, local and state officials gave inaccurate reports of the timeline of police actions and overstated police actions. The Texas Department of Public Safety acknowledged that it was an error for law enforcement to delay an assault on Ramos' position in the student-filled classroom, attributing this to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District's police chief's assessment of the situation as one with a "barricaded subject" instead of an "active shooter". Following the shooting, which took place only ten days after the 2022 Buffalo shooting, wider discussions ensued about American gun culture and violence, gridlock in politics, and law enforcement's failure to halt the attack. Some have advocated for a renewal of an assault weapons federal ban. Others criticized politicians for their perceived role in continuing to enable mass shootings. Republicans have responded by resisting the implementation of gun control measures, and called for increasing security measures in schools, such as arming teachers. They also expressed concerns about the politicization of the shooting. Some Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, expressed an openness for a bipartisan agreement on gun reform, such as incentivizing states to pass red flag laws and expanding background checks for gun purchasers.

5. 

   3 Jun 2022

   The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

   On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, marking a steep escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which had begun in 2014. The invasion has caused Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II, with more than 6.8 million Ukrainians fleeing the country and a third of the population displaced. At the start of the war in 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, and Russian-backed separatists seized part of the Donbas, the south-eastern region of Ukraine (consisting of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts), sparking a regional war. In 2021, Russia began a large military build-up along its border with Ukraine, amassing up to 190,000 troops and their equipment. In a televised address shortly before the invasion, Russian president Vladimir Putin espoused irredentist views, challenged Ukraine's right to statehood, and falsely accused Ukraine of being governed by neo-Nazis who persecute the ethnic Russian minority. Putin also alleged that eastward expansion by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) threatens Russia's national security, something NATO has disputed. Russia demanded NATO stop expanding and permanently bar Ukraine from ever joining the alliance. Multiple nations accused Russia of planning to attack or invade Ukraine, which Russian officials repeatedly denied as late as 23 February 2022. On 21 February 2022, Russia recognised the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, two self-proclaimed breakaway statelets in Donbas controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The following day, the Federation Council of Russia authorised the use of military force abroad, and Russian troops overtly entered both territories. The invasion began on the morning of 24 February, when Putin announced a "special military operation" to "demilitarise and denazify" Ukraine. Minutes later, missiles and airstrikes hit across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, shortly followed by a large ground invasion from multiple directions. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted martial law and a general mobilisation of all male Ukrainian citizens between 18 and 60, who were banned from leaving the country. At the start of the invasion, Russian attacks were launched on a northern front from Belarus towards Kyiv, a northeastern front towards Kharkiv, a southern front from Crimea, and a southeastern front from the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk. During March, the Russian advance towards Kyiv stalled. Amidst heavy losses and strong Ukrainian resistance, Russian troops retreated from Kyiv Oblast by 3 April. On 8 April, Russia announced that its forces in southern and eastern Ukraine would be placed under the command of General Aleksandr Dvornikov, and some units withdrawn from northern Ukraine were subsequently redeployed to the Donbas. On 19 April, Russia launched a renewed attack across a 500 kilometres (300 mi) long front extending from Kharkiv to Donetsk and Luhansk, with simultaneous missile attacks directed at Kyiv in the north and Lviv in western Ukraine. By 13 May, Russian forces near Kharkiv had withdrawn following a Ukrainian counter-offensive. By 20 May, Mariupol fell to Russian troops following a prolonged siege of the Azovstal steel works.

6. 

   2 Jun 2022

   Mothers' Pensions

   Mothers' pensions, also referred to as mothers' aid or widows' aid, were cash payments distributed to impoverished single mothers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_mother) in the United States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) during the first three decades of the 20th century (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century). Introduced during the Progressive Era (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era), they were among the earliest components of the modern American welfare state and were the first public cash assistance programs targeted to single mothers. Mother's pensions were aimed at family preservation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_preservation), intending to provide the means for poor single mothers to care for their children in their own homes. While primarily targeted at widows (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow), they were also sometimes authorized for women whose husbands had deserted them, were confined to mental hospitals or prisons, or were physically or mentally incapacitated. They were financed and administered by state and local governments, and served as a precursor to the federal Aid to Dependent Children (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid_to_Dependent_Children) program created by the Social Security Act of 1935 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Act_of_1935).

7. 

   12 May 2021

   What is "The Josh Fight"?

   From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_fight

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