Here are a few pictures that I've contributed to Wikipedia. These are all my own work:

I have translated a good number of articles from German about resistance fighters in Nazi Germany, and others who were unfortunate enough to incur the Nazis' wrath.

I have furthermore created or expanded articles about every municipality in each of the following German districts (Kreise):

1. Alzey-Worms (Rhineland-Palatinate)
2. Aschaffenburg (Bavaria)
3. Aue-Schwarzenberg (Saxony)
4. Bad Dürkheim (Rhineland-Palatinate)
5. Bamberg (Bavaria)
6. Bernkastel-Wittlich (Rhineland-Palatinate)
7. Birkenfeld (Rhineland-Palatinate)
8. Cochem-Zell (Rhineland-Palatinate)
9. Ebersberg (Bavaria)
10. Grafschaft Bentheim (Lower Saxony)
11. Groß-Gerau (Hesse)
12. Hersfeld-Rotenburg (Hesse)
13. Hochtaunuskreis (Hesse)
14. Höxter (North Rhine-Westphalia)
15. Kreis Bergstraße (Hesse)
16. Kusel* (Rhineland-Palatinate)
17. Lahn-Dill-Kreis (Hesse)
18. Limburg-Weilburg (Hesse)
19. Main-Spessart (Bavaria)
20. Mainz-Bingen (Rhineland-Palatinate)
21. Marburg-Biedenkopf (Hesse)
22. Miltenberg (Bavaria)
23. Odenwaldkreis (Hesse)
24. Offenbach (Hesse)
25. Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (Rhineland-Palatinate)
26. Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis (Hesse)
27. Schwalm-Eder-Kreis (Hesse)
28. Siegen-Wittgenstein (North Rhine-Westphalia)
29. Vogelsbergkreis (Hesse)
30. Vulkaneifel (Rhineland-Palatinate)
31. Waldeck-Frankenberg (Hesse)
32. Werra-Meißner-Kreis (Hesse)
33. Westerwaldkreis (Rhineland-Palatinate)
34. Wittenberg (Saxony-Anhalt)

"Westerwaldkreis" contained 209 articles.

The one marked with an asterisk (*) is the most recent addition to the list.

I have also expanded or created articles for individual towns here and there, such as Flensburg, Bobingen, Bergen auf Rügen, Gelsenkirchen (major expansion from the German article) and Forchheim (once again translated mainly from the German article).

The Rothaargebirge, Nuremberg U-Bahn, Westerwald, Odenwald and Kellerwald articles are mine, too. All are the result of translations from the German Wikipedia. Moreover, Friedrich Kittler, while a person rather than a place, and the Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II, an event, have claimed their rightful places here in the English Wikipedia thanks to my translating skills.

If you are into translation between English and German (either way), French and German, Spanish and German, Italian and German, Chinese and German or Russian and German I wholeheartedly recommend this link:

• The UTTERLY AMAZING LEO online translation dictionary

Its worst shortcoming, however, is that it cannot deconstruct those long German agglutinations like Lebensversicherungsgesellschaftsbeamtenvereinigungsführungssondergespräch, a reasonably common word (6000+ hits on Google) that I'm sure every German says at least four or five times a week – those with big lungs, anyway. Seriously, though, compounds must sometimes be broken down into their constituent elements and run through the dictionary separately. You then have to work out their combined meaning.

German places whose names are also German verbs

Yes, Germany has several places with this distinction, likely more than I've listed here (these are only incorporated centres). Come to that, it has at least one place whose name is a German preposition. This is Ohne, in case you're interested, whose name means "Without". Now, here are the verb-towns, complete with their translations:

• Bergen — “to rescue, recover”
• Buchen — “to book”
• Clingen — “to sound” (although admittedly this is an archaic spelling)
• Erlangen — “to achieve, attain”
• Essen — “to eat”
• Gehren — “to bevel”
• Gießen — “to pour, cast”
• Langen — “to be sufficient”
• Langen — (same)
• Laufen — “to walk”
• Leimen — “to glue, cement”
• Lenzen — “to bail, pump out”
• Mengen — “to mingle”
• Regen — “to bestir”
• Senden — “to send” (surprise!)
• Siegen — “to be victorious, win”
• Simmern — “to simmer” (surprise again!)
• Singen — “to sing” (bet you couldn’t guess)
• Süßen — “to sweeten”
• Weiden — “to graze, browse”
• Werben — “to advertise”
• Wissen — “to know”

German places with remarkably silly names

Quite a number of places in Germany have names that mean something quite incongruous, interesting, or just plain weird. Here is a list of some of them. Feel free to choose your favourites:

• Aalen — name means “to eels”
• Altensteig — could be taken to mean “old men's hill climbing”
• Aschersleben — name means “ashtray’s life”
• Auen — name means “floodplains”
• Bad Lauterberg — second word in name means “louder mountain”
• Bad Schmiedeberg — second word in name means “smith mountain”
• Bad Staffelstein — second word in name means “squadron stone”
• Bad Wildbad — name means “bath wild bath”
• Bad Windsheim — second word in name means “wind’s home”
• Baden-Baden — name means “bathe bathe”
• Barby — Do they have Ken dolls there, too?
• Barth — pronounced exactly like the German word for “beard”
• Becherbach — name means “beaker brook”
• Bergen auf Rügen — could be taken to mean “to mountains on reprimands”
• Borken — name means “tree barks”
• Borken — likewise
• Braunlage — name means “brown location”
• Bühl — name means “volcanic chimney”
• Burgwedel — name means “castle frond”
• Celle — pronounced exactly like the German word for “cell” (various senses)
• Darmstadt — name means “gut town”
• Daxweiler — Everyone here hosts a sluglike symbiont; pronounced exactly like the German word for “badger hamlet”
• Dinkelsbühl — name means “spelt’s volcanic chimney”
• Dortmund — name means “there mouth”
• Ebern — name means “to boars”
• Eckernförde — name means “beechnut fjord”
• Egeln — name means “to leeches”
• Eibenstock — name means “yew pole”
• Eisenhüttenstadt — name means “ironworks town”; those East German bureaucrats were as imaginative as those from any country, I guess (founded in 1950, originally “Stalinstadt”).
• Eisleben — name means “ice life”
• Eiterfeld — name means “pus field"
• Engen — could be taken to mean “narrow people”
• Enger — name means “narrower”
• Eppingen — Isn’t there a place near London with a very similar name?
• Erbendorf — name means “heir’s village”
• Feuchtwangen — name means “moist cheeks”
• Frauenstein — name means “woman’s stone”
• Frechen — name means “impudent ones”
• Freudenstadt — name means “joy town”
• Frohburg — name means “merry castle”
• Furtwangen — name means “ford cheeks”
• Gaildorf — first syllable is pronounced exactly like the German word for “horny”
• Geilenkirchen — name means “to horny churches”
• Geldern — name means “to monies”
• Gelsenkirchen — name means “gnat’s churches”, although I’m cheating a bit here, as Gelse is an Austrian word
• Glückstadt — name means “luck town”
• Haan — pronounced exactly like the German word for “cock” (?! Excuse me; I mean “rooster”, of course)
• Hackenheim — name means “hoe home”
• Haltern am See — could be taken to mean “to owners on the lake”
• Hammelburg — name means “mutton castle”; I wonder if Hogan knew that.
• Haßfurt — name means “hatred ford”
• Heimsheim — name means “home’s home”
• Heringen — name means “to herrings”
• Hohnstein — pronounced exactly like the German word for “honing stone”
• Hundsbach — name means “dog’s brook”
• Kaltenkirchen — name means “to cold churches”
• Karlsruhe — name means “Charles’s calmness”
• Katzenelnbogen — name means “cat’s elbow” (my favourite)
• Kiel — name means “keel”, and is even pronounced more or less like the English word
• Klötze — could be taken to mean “chumps”
• Königswinter — name means “king’s winter”
• Kornwestheim — name means “corn/grain west home”
• Kranichfeld — name means “crane field”
• Krautheim — no, not what you think; Kraut is German for “herb” or “plant”
• Krempe — name means “brim, flange”
• Kuppenheim — name means “knoll home”
• Laage — pronounced exactly like the German word for “location”, as if this were the only town that had one
• Lage — not only pronounced exactly like the German word for “location” but spelt exactly like it, too
• Lahnstein — name means “flattened wire stone”
• Landshut — name means “land’s hat”
• Landstuhl — name means “land chair”
• Lauchhammer — name means “leek hammer”
• Lauchheim — name means “leek home”
• Lauterbach — name means “loud brook”
• Lauterecken — could be taken to mean “of loud corners”
• Lauterstein — name means “loud stone”
• Leer — name means “empty”
• Lehrte — name means “taught”
• Lieberose — name means “darling rose”
• Liebstadt — name means “beloved town”
• Löhne — name means “wages, salaries”
• Ludwigslust — name means “Ludwig’s desire”
• Mandel — name means “almond” or “tonsil”
• Marktleuthen — pronounced exactly like the German words for “to market people”
• Meerbusch — name means “sea bush”, but Meerbusch is nowhere near the sea
• Meisenheim — name means “tits’ home” (oops!)
• Müllheim — name means “rubbish home”
• Müllrose — name means “rubbish rose”
• Münzenberg — name means “coin mountain”
• Neunkirchen — name means “nine churches”
• Nußbaum — name means “walnut tree”
• Oberammergau — name means “upper bunting district”
• Oberstreit name means “upper dispute”
• Otterberg — name means “otter mountain”
• Otterndorf — name means “adder’s village”
• Pappenheim — name means “cardboard home”
• Pfaffen-Schwabenheim — name means “parson’s Swabian’s home”
• Rattenharz (constituent community of Lorch) — name means “rat resin”
• Regensburg — name means “rain’s castle”
• Roßleben — name means “steed life”
• Roßwein — name means “steed wine”
• Saalfeld — name means “hall field”
• Salzgitter — name means “salt grille”
• Salzwedel — name means “salt frond”
• Salzweg — name means “salt way”
• Scheibenberg — name means “disk mountain” or “slice mountain”
• Schillingsfürst — name means “shilling’s prince”
• Schlitz — name means “slit”
• Schlüsselfeld — name means “key field”
• Schopfheim — name means “tuft home”
• Schwerte — name means “swords”
• Sömmerda — no doubt the last five letters amuse Italian visitors
• Sommerloch — name means “summer hole”
• Spalt — name means “crack, split”
• Spangenberg — name means “brooch mountain”
• Speicher — name means “storehouse, shed, reservoir”
• Springe — name means “Jump!”
• Stadtlohn — name means “town wage”
• Steinwenden — name means “turn stone”
• Stößen — name means “to splices”
• Stutensee — name means “mare lake”
• Torgau — name means “gate region”
• Unterammergau — name means “lower bunting district”
• Wächtersbach — name means “watchman’s brook”
• Waibstadt — could be taken to mean “women’s town”, although it’s misspelt
• Waldshut-Tiengen — first half of name means “forest’s hat”
• Wankendorf — first two syllables actually mean "swaying" in German
• Waren — name means “were”
• Wedel — name means “frond”
• Wegeleben — name means “ways’ life”
• Weil am Rhein — name means “because on the Rhine”
• Weilburg — name means “because castle”
• Weil der Stadt — name means “because to the town” or “the town’s because”
• Weilheim an der Teck — name means “because home on the Teck”
• Weilheim in Oberbayern — name means “because home in Upper Bavaria”
• Weiterstadt — name means “farther town”
• Wertheim — name means “worthiness home”
• Wesenberg — name means “being mountain”
• Wetter — name means “weather”
• Wetter — likewise
• Widdern — name means “to rams”
• Wolkenstein — name means “cloud stone”
• Worms — actually not pronounced the same way as the English word

Perhaps you've noticed a "geographical" streak in those articles that I mentioned. As a traveller, I am very fond of geography (or has my love of geography made me interested in travelling? I'm not quite sure). To that end, I have made maps. Here come a few now (well actually, quite a number)………

If you would like to try your hand at making maps, for Wikipedia or other purposes, I also wholeheartedly recommend this link:

• The AMAZINGLY DAZZLING, STUPENDOUS, BOFFO, KNOCK-'EM-DEAD, NEVER-SAY-DIE Open Street Map site

The Outer Harbour East Headland/Leslie Street Spit map up above was made using this site. This site produces maps that can be freely used on Wikipedia. There used to be another one, called "OMC", but it has undergone somebody's idea of "improvements", and is now useless.

Happy mapmaking!

I have been to quite a number of countries. They are as follows:

In the Americas

• Canada
• Mexico
• the USA

In Europe

• Austria
• Belarus
• Belgium
• the Czech Republic
• East Germany, the only country that I've been to which has ceased to exist
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Luxembourg, the most recent addition to the list
• Monaco, the smallest country I've visited
• the Netherlands
• Poland
• Russia, which is also in Asia (I actually went to Siberia, but I won't mention Russia again under "Asia")
• Switzerland
• the UK

In Africa

• Egypt, also a two-continent country
• Morocco

In Asia

• Bahrain
• Brunei
• China
• India
• Indonesia
• Israel
• Japan
• Jordan
• Macau, which was Portuguese the first few times I went there; so I count it
• Malaysia
• Mongolia
• North Korea (that represents a trip to Panmunjŏm, of course)
• Oman
• the Philippines
• Saudi Arabia (one swinging place)
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Taiwan, which most governments will tell you is not a country
• Thailand
• the United Arab Emirates
• Vietnam

In Australia & Oceania

• 'Strylia
• New Zealand

…and on the map, that looks like this:

What follows is a selection of articles that I have found on Wikipedia – none started by me although I've edited a few – which struck me as odd, funny, extremely esoteric or arcane, or whatever. Here they are...........

1. Inflation fetishism — (now deleted) Some people have some rather unwholesome preoccupations. At first, I believed the writer was pulling our legs, and I am still not thoroughly sure he isn't. It was not an article about sex dolls, by the way, but the idea of people inflating, if you can believe that.
2. Corn dolly — Ah, but are they inflatable? *ahem* Excuse me.
3. Doll Domination — Another unwholesome preoccupation?
4. Mooresville, Missouri — Population: 89. Awesome.
5. Jerome, Arkansas — Here's a place with 46 people that calls itself a "city". It also has an area of about 50 ha.
6. Illán de Vacas — Es el más pequeño municipio de España. En mi opinión, no vale la pena de mencionarlo. ¿Por qué hay un artículo sobre un lugar de ocho habitantes (o seis, según otra página)? ¡Noticia! Ahora sólo queda un habitante. ¿Cuántos harán después de un año?
7. Dierfeld — Diese Gemeinde in Rheinland-Pfalz hat nur acht Einwohner! Daneben sind die meisten Kuhdörfer Großstädte.
8. Windhexe — Well I'll be blowed.
9. Trim (cat) — Now how many cats go down in history?
10. Stonecutters — A fictitious organization in a fictitious universe. Why is it worth noting in an article?!
11. Cyniclons — I don't like anime; so what would I know about this? Well, apparently that writer doesn't know much about it either. Update: It has now been greatly expanded and the new title is List of Tokyo Mew Mew characters.
12. Piss Beer — (now deleted) Leave it to the Aussies.
13. Dickheads matches — Likewise.
14. The CAS School, Karachi — If I had to give this a new title, I would choose How not to write a Wikipedia article. Update: It has been improved ever so slightly.
15. Infernum — Have you ever heard of these guys? I hadn't, but I'm not much into the Warsaw music scene. I get the impression from the article that they never exactly made a splash in the world of popular music. Are they really worth an article?
16. Chameleon Jail — Where naughty lizards get sent?
17. Body nullification — Where Michael Jackson got his ideas?

    

18. Centwine — Cheap plonk?
19. Drag City — No doubt a lot of fun to visit if it suits one's tastes.
20. Pussy, France — Likewise.
21. Bitche — This as well.
22. Saavedra position — Sounds naughty; the article says it was named after a Spanish priest.
23. Beaver Machine — (now deleted) No clergyman involved here, but it still sounds naughty.
24. River Piddle — Sounds idyllic.
25. Barf (Lake District) — So does this.
26. Wank — Positively charming.
27. Cum fart — Only on Wikipedia, eh? Also interestingly, another article on a similar topic, called Vaginal flatulence, is being considered for deletion. Update: The Vaginal flatulence article is apparently all right, but the Cum fart article has now been merged into Oral sex, and this link will now redirect there.
28. Green manure — Not as disgusting as it sounds.
29. Iowa Cow War — Did they fight it with green manure?
30. Butt plug — It's not about cigarette ends, I assure you.
31. Ganja State University — Like, woooow, maaaaan … where do I sign up?
32. Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster — Very encyclopaedic indeed.
33. Porker Hogg — Not quite kosher, I don't think.
34. Seborga — Neither is this, but I suppose it brings tourists.
35. Jerk — It's brainier than you might think.
36. Cameltoe — But this sure as hell isn't.
37. Golden Cross — Someone's favourite local?
38. Sex bolt — A new toy?
39. Joseph Carlton Loser — What a great name for a politician!
40. Rinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz — Someone's trying to outdo me in the German concatenation department.
41. Hollywood Left — Yeah, right. Celebrities are such brainless oaves they need a list.

    

42. Mr Danger — It's apt, but I rather think it would have qualified as an entry on the List of political epithets or the List of pejorative political puns (which have both now been deleted, I notice), and not as an article. Update: It has now actually been expanded beyond one sentence.
43. Ǯ — This is weird. This article doesn't even have a visible title, at least not on my browser, and here, the title is a little box. I guess this computer's a bit out of date with regard to funny foreign characters.
44. Diet of Worms — Sounds yummy. I wonder whether Martin Luther enjoyed it.
45. Chocolate and Cheese — Sounds deelish.
46. Buffalo Chips Running Club — (now deleted) That's a hell of a name.
47. .mw — Well I'm glad I found out!
48. Polish car number plates — Now here's something that'll appeal to a lot of readers.
49. San Diego Yacht Club — Likewise.
50. List of errors on Portuguese ex-Colonies stamps of Mozambique 1911 — (now deleted) Wikimedia was obviously worried that its servers would get overloaded, what with everyone busting to read this article.
51. Nerd — A sociological exploration of ostracism from a rather interesting perspective, I thought.
52. Carbon Defense League — And this is the kind of thing that nerds get into...and now out of (it's been deleted)
53. Prat — Shouldn't this be merged into "Nerd"?
54. Exploding animal — Unwholesome preoccupations, indeed!
55. Ray Twinney — A dead mayor of a suburban town whose term in office came to an ignominious end as the RCMP laid various charges against him. He will soon be forgotten. Why is there an article about him?
56. One of These Days — That's what many kept telling Ray!
57. Twatt — We'll eradicate bad spelling on Wikipedia one day, I'm sure.
58. Darwinian poetry — This is supposed to produce "intelligent" poetry.
59. Southpark Mall (Colonial Heights, Virginia) — Some kid's favourite hangout?

    

60. Tai Mei Tuk — I have actually walked straight through this community and I didn't even realize it was a community. It is an utterly forgettable place. Why is there an article about it?
61. explodingdog — I don't care what it takes! This has just got to stop!
62. Toilets in Japan — and then there are other unwholesome preoccupations.
63. The Amorous Flea — Does it like anything that inflates or explodes?
64. Bach Aircraft — Wind, or perhaps Wing, on a G-String?
65. Samuil Shatunovsky — It says he's a famous Ukrainian mathematician, and nothing else. There isn't even a Ukrainian interwiki link. I'm sure he was very famous.
66. Anti-Barney humor — This is quite a long article considering the kind of thing that it's about, which surely won't stay in vogue all that long (if it even still is among the few who practised it).
67. Spirit duplicator — Oh good, we need more ghosts.
68. Penis panic — People have actually been killed in this, believe it or not.
69. Leisnig — A little hamlet that no-one's ever heard of.
70. Roderich Fick — A German man whose last name is a German vulgarism. Interesting. Even more interesting is the article about Raschau that I have translated from German. It mentions several people with the surname Ficker, and yes, to find the English meaning, one need only change one letter.
71. Fucking, Austria — Speaking of which...
72. Petting, Germany — And this is right nearby, always.
73. Kissing, Bavaria — As is this.
74. Shitterton — Here's another place that got sick of having its roadsign stolen.

And now, just for the hell of it, a whole heap of userboxen………

	POV This user supports userboxes that display points of view.	This user still does not want people screwing with his userboxes.
This user loves userboxes.	This user supports userboxes .
	This user finds copyright paranoia disruptive.
		This user opposes monarchism.
This user advocates democracy.
This user has no use whatsoever for fascism or demagogy.	This user supports the New Democratic Party.	This user believes that the death penalty should never be used.
This user is strongly opposed to all forms of eugenics.		no war This user is against the war in Iraq
		This user is opposed to online censorship.
This user supports the legalization of cannabis.
	X This user does not believe in the existence of human races, except as a social construct. X
	I would say I'm a cynic but I bet you just wouldn't believe me.
IQ This user's Intelligence Quotient is rising all the time.
		This user has Jewish ancestry, but is not Jewish himself.
	This user is a cat lover.
This user did not support Michael Jackson.	This user does not believe in Santa Claus.
	This user is pretty sure that he is an outlier compared to everybody else.
		This user absolutely insists upon using whom wherever it is called for.
PC-0 I am politically incorrect. Hence, I will use common sense and speak plainly rather than trip all over myself trying to be inoffensive.
This user's favourite colour is red.
	This user enjoys solving Sudoku puzzles.
This user believes that "all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players".
	This user can't stand hip hop music.
This user is an omnivore.	This user eats bagels.
		This user eats cantaloupes.
		This user knows that 42 is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
	This user DOES NOT live in a pineapple under the sea.
	This user loves userboxes.