On 09/12/05, MacGyverMagic/Mgm macgyvermagic@gmail.com wrote:
If we have a systemetic bias, it's reasonable to assume it also portrudes to the featured articles we have.
First-cut analysis of [[WP:FA]], plus or minus a margin of error (I handcounted, and my list totals 828 not the given 826, oops):
Art, architecture, and archaeology - 20 Awards and decorations - 9 Biology and medicine - 44 Chemistry - 9 Computing - 28 Culture and society - 31 Education - 4 Economics - 15 Food and drink - 7 Geography and places - 66 Geology, geophysics, and mineralogy - 9 History - 68 Language and linguistics - 18 Law - 8 Literature - 54 Mathematics - 12 Media - 36 Music - 55 Philosophy - 7 Physics and astronomy - 35 Politics and government - 75 Psychology - 4 Religion and beliefs - 26 Royalty, nobility, and heraldry - 31 Sport and games - 48 Technology - 32 Transport - 31 War - 46
Some of these are a little vague - Computing and Technology might need reassessing, various odd articles could be classed elsewhere, the usual odd grouping of spaceflight and astronomy, and Culture and Society is a catch-all miscellaneous category which includes [[Exploding whale]], [[Octopus card]], [[Pet skunk]] and four articles on flags.
But, it's good enough for our test.
Highest ten proportions are:
9% - Politics and government 8% - History 8% - Geography and places 7% - Music 7% - Literature 7% - Sport and games 6% - War 5% - Biology and medicine 4% - Media 4% - Physics and Astronomy
Politics and Government has 75 articles. 28.5 of these are "essentially American", 15 of these "essentially British", 5 "essentially Canadian", 3 "essentially Australian".
("Essentially X" means an article that's to do with a topic mostly specific to one country. Cases where I wasn't sure I split the difference; feel free to guess which ones)
I invite people to look at the other categories and see if anything interesting emerges
-- - Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk