Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 16 to 22, 2014)

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Summary: After a flood of traumatic, perplexing and complex events, users took time to digest the material confronting them, with topics such as the 2014 Crimea crisis or the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 easing down the list, making way for such traditional topics as St Patrick's Day, Reddit threads and even Google Doodles, which have reappeared after a long absence.

For the week of March 16 to 22, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Last	Wks	Article	Views	Notes
1	10	3	Saint Patrick's Day	1,604,355	Sometimes I have to admit making a mistake, and my previous assumption that people weren't interested in arguably the world's most popular saint's day turned out to be due to mistiming; as it happens, people are very interested in it- on the day itself. Interest wanes pretty quickly in the days leading up to and from it. Given the long association of this holiday with binge drinking, perhaps there's a reason it fades in the memory so quickly.
2	1	2	Malaysia Airlines Flight 370	1,075,269	We still don't know precisely what happened to this flight, or to its 249 passengers and crew, but, gradually, a drip of hard facts is beginning to replace occasionally wild speculation. The most significant development (the Malaysian government's declaration that the plane was lost in the southern Indian Ocean) occurred after this time period, but even before then, leads had already begun to coalesce around that isolated, violent region of the sea off the coast of Australia.
3	13	4	Crimea	949,876	In recent decades, the map of the world has only changed to reflect the rise of new independent nations. One country deliberately annexing part of another is not something our generation is used to. Case in point: over the last few days, Wikipedia's maps of Russia first absorbed this fragment of Ukraine, then excluded it, then finally included it in an indecisive shade of mint green, indicating it is in dispute. Given the nature of Wikipedia, that is likely as far as the argument will go; other organizations (such as Russia Today) have not been nearly as accommodating.
4	-	-	Spite house	863,608	This unique form of architecture, in which usual considerations such as aesthetics, functionality or even livability are abandoned in favour of annoying the neighbors, usually by blocking sunlight, became a topic of interest on Reddit this week.
5	-	-	L'Wren Scott	658,411	The tragic suicide of this famously tall former model (she was 6'3''), stylist and fashion designer at just 49 caused a great deal of lurid coverage in the British tabloids, particularly regarding her longterm relationship with Mick Jagger.
6	-	-	Agnes Martin	457,187	The Canadian abstract painter got a Google Doodle for what would have been her 102nd birthday on 22 March.
7	7	52	Deaths in 2014	448,266	The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
8	-	2	Saint Patrick	443,567	The man himself naturally drew interest on his day
9	7	62	Facebook	443,413	A perennially popular article.
10	-	-	Fred Phelps	433,520	It is either ironic or fitting, depending on your point of view, that a man who achieved fame in life by leading pickets of innocent people's funerals would receive so much attention upon his own death. For all his fury and "GOD HATES FAGS" bombast, there is tragedy in a man beginning his career as a civil rights lawyer yet ending it in a morass of bigotry and hate.
11	-	-	Equinox	397,924	The first of two points in the Earth's orbit in which day and night are of equal length fell on 21 March this year. The astronomical foundation for many well-known holidays such as Easter and Passover, it even inspired the builders of Chichen Itza.
12	15	14	Frozen (2013 film)	397,597	Even excluding its Oscar win for Best Original Song, Disney's de facto sequel to Tangled has become something of a sensation. It reclaimed the top spot in the US charts on its sixth weekend (a feat only matched by Avatar and Titanic), has already outgrossed its quasi-predecessor both domestically and worldwide, and is on course to overtake Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest as Disney's highest-grossing film. I must say I'm looking forward to the phenomenon fading, as it means I won't constantly hear that Madonna song in my head every time I do this.
13	-	4	Ukraine	386,384	No tanks have rolled across its border; no formal military confrontation has occurred, and yet, in less than a month, this country has seen a portion of its territory become the territory of another. How this will end is anyone's guess, but most players in this drama are probably staying their hands until the presidential election on 25 May.
14	3	8	True Detective (TV series)	381,520	The HBO police procedural, starring Woody Harrelson and recently minted Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey, had its season finale on 9 March.
15	12	24	The Walking Dead (TV series)	377,698	The show's fourth season recommenced on 9 February.
16	5	2	Bermuda Triangle	377,613	In the absence of facts, people turn to myths, so again it's not surprising to see this old malarkey resurfaced in light of the disappearance of MH370, despite the fact that there is a far more fitting candidate for this event. The Triangle is largely a work of science fiction (ship disappearances are no more common in the purported area than elsewhere in the region) but when the real world makes no sense, sometimes nonsense gains credence.
17	-	-	Russia	353,064	It's hard to see at this resolution, but if you look closely at that map you will see a little patch of green where none was before: Russia has become the first country to expand its territory in many years.
18	-	-	Ayrton Senna	351,195	Brazilian Formula 1 legend who died in a spectacular crash 20 years ago got a Google Doodle on his would-have-been 54th birthday on 21 March.
19	-	2	A Song of Ice and Fire	350,671	George R. R. Martin's still unfinished (hint hint George) tale of dynastic struggle has reappeared in the top 25 in the run up to the fourth season of Game of Thrones on 6 April.
20	6	3	Internet	330,029	Some have speculated that the attention given to the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web's invention by Sir Tim Berners-Lee has led to a spike in interest in this article, despite the fact that the Web and the Net are not the same thing (the Internet was invented by the US military in 1969).
21	-	7	Amazon.com	320,162	The popular online shopping site has reappeared in the top 25 after being absent since August. There doesn't appear to be any particular reason why, although it's always in the news, and there are always discussions about it.
22	20	5	The Walking Dead (season 4)	303,614	People are undoubtedly using this page to look up air dates.
23	–	2	Holi	299,164	This fun Hindu spring festival, which involves people throwing coloured powder at each other in the streets, coincided with another notorious party day, St Patrick's Day, this year.
24	21	25	United States	281,403	The 8th most popular article of 2013 and the 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010 and 2012. Even when not on the list, this article is a perpetual bubble-under-er. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia.
25	-	-	Mick Jagger	280,673	The Rolling Stones frontman doubtless got into the list due to the suicide of his girlfriend L'Wren Scott (see above)

Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 280,673. Last week: 240,976.

The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create this list.

Almosts: YouTube (279,441 views); Wikipedia (278,927 views); Air France Flight 447 (278,233 views)

Exclusions

This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages, and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Please keep in mind that the explanations given for these articles' popularity are, fundamentally, guesses. Just because I can't find a reason for an article to be included doesn't mean there isn't one; conversely, just because a plausible reason is found for a view spike, that doesn't mean it wasn't due to a bot.

There are a number of articles that reappear frequently in the top 25 for no determined reason, and have been excluded as likely being due to automated views. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.

- Lycos: the geriatric web portal seems to be back en vogue, for no apparent reason.
- Java: My only guess is a bot searching for the programming language.
- Several articles related to global warming (including global warming) have been removed from this list; their continued high view counts are raising suspicions of artificial inflation. I'll believe that Climategate was #1 during a typhoon, but that it got more hits than Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving? No.
- IPv6: I have to face facts; I've been allowing this into the top 25 for months as it is the kind of issue that would appeal to web denizens (ala Bitcoin) but its insane popularity is just too high explain by human interest alone. It's getting help.
- Ddd: Hello? Spambot here. Just checking in.

Specific exclusions this week:
- Mill (grinding): No apparent reason for this two-day spike; an adbot, perhaps?