Wikipedia Caltrops
Wikipedia Caltrops
[Cueball drives a car, followed by another car driven by Hairy. Cueball is leaning on the open window looking back as 24 large paper slips with Wikipedia links are flying out of the open trunk of the car. They extend to the front of Hairy's car, obscuring that all the way up to Hairy's position in the car. None of the links can be read in full, and only on a few can parts of the actual link be seen. Many has only part of the pages title visible, some parts are obstructed partly by other slips in front of them or they have not entirely left the trunk. In once case the link is so long that it has been split on two lines on a thicker slip. There is a large part of the link that cannot be seen after the first line, but the end of the second line can be seen as well. Here the (fairly) readable parts are give, roughly in normal reading order.] a.org/wiki/Elsagate wiki/Bubbly_Creek wiki/Pheasant_Island a.org/wiki/American_death_triangle List_of_fictional_colors /wiki/Future_of_Earth#Introversion pedia.org/wiki/Fastest_animals#Invertebrates ki/Defence_Scheme_No._1 i/Boeing_YAL-1 ki/Bald-hairy /Walkalong_glider Burned_house_horizon /wiki/AVE Mizar Flying_ice_cube Time in Australia#Anomalies: Unexplained_sounds Talk:List_of_U.S._states_and_ Ebright_Azimuth Mosquito_laser January_0 /1808_mystery_eruption /Hairy_Hands Cumberland_vs._Georgia_Tech_football_game Timeline_of_the_far_future /wiki/1994_Caribbean_Cup#Anomaly
[Caption below the panel:] I have a collection of Wikipedia links to throw behind my car if I'm ever being chased by someone as easily distracted as me.

Cueball's car has a collection of Wikipedia links spilling out of the trunk, meant to stop Hairy who's in the following car. The idea is that by dropping a series of interesting links, one could stop someone else's movement as they take the time to go through them all, provided that they are also easily distracted. This is analogous to the caltrops mentioned in the title; caltrops are small, spiked implements that are scattered on a road to slow down someone pursuing you. Hence the title of Wikipedia Caltrops .
Wikipedia is also a website that is notorious for having many links to other pages, which may result in a "wiki walk", a dilemma for Randall that has been discussed previously in 214: The Problem with Wikipedia (and separately with TV Tropes in 609: Tab Explosion ).
This strategy is similar to a weaponized version of 356: Nerd Sniping , using the high levels of focus that tend to come along with nerdy interests against someone. Munroe apparently reasons that, because these links would stop him in his tracks, they might do the same for a given target.
The Wikipedia links include:
Mentioned in the title text, a " Czech hedgehog " is an anti-tank obstacle made of metal, essentially a large caltrop. It would be an effective roadblock, however a sign describing it would not impede most traffic, [ citation needed ] only for those distracted as easily as Randall.
[Cueball drives a car, followed by another car driven by Hairy. Cueball is leaning on the open window looking back as 24 large paper slips with Wikipedia links are flying out of the open trunk of the car. They extend to the front of Hairy's car, obscuring that all the way up to Hairy's position in the car. None of the links can be read in full, and only on a few can parts of the actual link be seen. Many has only part of the pages title visible, some parts are obstructed partly by other slips in front of them or they have not entirely left the trunk. In once case the link is so long that it has been split on two lines on a thicker slip. There is a large part of the link that cannot be seen after the first line, but the end of the second line can be seen as well. Here the (fairly) readable parts are give, roughly in normal reading order.] a.org/wiki/Elsagate wiki/Bubbly_Creek wiki/Pheasant_Island a.org/wiki/American_death_triangle List_of_fictional_colors /wiki/Future_of_Earth#Introversion pedia.org/wiki/Fastest_animals#Invertebrates ki/Defence_Scheme_No._1 i/Boeing_YAL-1 ki/Bald-hairy /Walkalong_glider Burned_house_horizon /wiki/AVE Mizar Flying_ice_cube Time in Australia#Anomalies: Unexplained_sounds Talk:List_of_U.S._states_and_ Ebright_Azimuth Mosquito_laser January_0 /1808_mystery_eruption /Hairy_Hands Cumberland_vs._Georgia_Tech_football_game Timeline_of_the_far_future /wiki/1994_Caribbean_Cup#Anomaly
[Caption below the panel:] I have a collection of Wikipedia links to throw behind my car if I'm ever being chased by someone as easily distracted as me.
