Tag Archives: xkcd

When did we get a Simple Wikipedia project. It says it “Use(s) easy words and shorter sentences. This lets people who know little English read them.”

Here’s a sample of the first paragraph from the regular Wikipedia on the word Sniper.

A sniper is usually a highly trained marksman that shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles. In addition to marksmanship, military snipers are also trained in camouflage, field craft, infiltration, reconnaissance and observation techniques.

Here’s a sample of the first paragraph from the Simple Wikipedia on the word Sniper.

A sniper is a soldier in an army. They are given special training with sniper rifles. Snipers are able to shoot at targets very far away, or that are very small, and hit them accurately using a sniper scope. They are also specially trained to be stealthy and hard for the enemy to see when they are hiding, by using camouflage.

It’s interesting. I’ll be checking it out when I look up extra-geeky science stuff, but I just can’t believe I haven’t heard a peep about it.

I only found out about it when I saw this cartoon (and I almost thought it was a joke).

(I chose the word sniper since it was on the simple wikipedia main page as a selected article.)