Wikipedia and Google Earth

I'm a Wikipedia junkie. For an information addict like me, it's better than crack: all that stuff there, all the time, just begging me to read it. I know Wikipedia has problems with people defacing articles, among other things, but for things historical, technical and scientific it's a great resource. (It's section on professional wrestling is also worryingly complete.) I also happen to love (you guessed it) Google Earth: I find something very contemplative in zooming around the planet, looking at all sorts of places I didn't know existed.

The other night, reading about the Allied island hopping campaign in the Pacific during World War II, I started going back and forth between Wikipedia and Google Earth, and the result was amazing. I've read a fair amount of World War II history, so I know the general outlines of the campaign. But with Google Earth I got a completely different grasp on the where, on the tiny islands and the great distances. The Google Earth community placemarks are great marking the American ships which went down in Ironbottom Sound and all of the naval battles in and around the Solomons. There's even a placemarker where Admiral Yamamoto's plane crashed.

The fact that I was doing this at 4:45 in the morning must just be another sign of how cool I am. . .

And, one more thought: One of the criticisms I hear of Wikipedia is that you can't trust it because you can't trust the people who write the articles. What makes people think those who write the "trusted" sources are any more believable?