Word of the Day

If any of you haven't checked out Wikipedia yet, go have a look-see. You can find the most random pieces of information there. Example - today I did a search for something unrelated on Google, ended up at Wikipedia and after jumping a few links, found myself reading this definition of "conurbation", which until that moment, I didn't even know was a word. (Did you?)

A conurbation is an urban area comprising a number of cities or town which, through population growth and expansion, have physically merged to form one continuous built up area. It is thus a polycentric form of agglomeration.

Now I can use conurbation with ease in dinner-party conversation!

For those that don't know, Wikipedia is a free digital encyclopedia which can be updated and changed by anybody with access to the web. Some entries have been shut permanently but most are open for editing. There is debate that it's simply the sharing of mass ignorance, not information, but it's also undoubtedly true that some of the entries were written by experts in their field(s). Of course, the opposite is also true, so go dig around the site and make up your own mind.

What I like about it is that you can find things there that you'd never find in a normal encyclopedia, like this article on Point of View in Literature or more off-beat, this article on Benevolent Aliens...or this one on Exopolitics (bet you want to know what that is, don't you?).