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The Nerds, They Are A-Changin'

Summary: When I was a kid, being a nerd meant wanting to go to Pluto. Well now we have gone to Pluto and all my fellow nerds want to talk about is Comic Con and the latest Marvel movie. It seems seeing a trailer for a movie they're all going to see anyway is more important than viewing landscapes as yet unseen by human eyes and unlikely to be seen again. And no, my peevishness has nothing to do with my being the chief editor of the Pluto article. Well, maybe a bit.

For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of July 12 to 18, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Suicide Squad C-class 1,817,973
DC Comics' ramshackle crew of pressganged supervillains, forced to do the will of a shadowy organization or let their heads explode, are the stars of one of the most anticipated films in the upcoming DC Cinematic Universe. This week, at San Diego Comic Con, Warner Bros released the film's first trailer, which, from the Wikipedia views, seems to have gotten the fans more excited than the upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie.
2 Joaquín Guzmán Loera B-Class 1,671,857 This ruthless narco-trafficker, boss of the Sinaloa cartel and reportedly the world's 14th richest man, became an enduring folk hero and the subject of a hundred "narcocorridos" (folk songs glorying the deeds of the great drug lords) after he escaped from a top-security prison in 2001. He was on the lam for 13 years before his recapture in 2014. And now, get ready to tune up your guitars mariachis, because he just did it again. On 11 July, he escaped his prison cell through a tunnel under the shower; by sheer coincidence the only blind spot for the surveillance cameras. If, at this point, you're having flashbacks to The Shawshank Redemption, ditch them: the tunnel was professionally constructed, contained electric lighting, was 1.7 metres tall and 1.5 km long, and included a motorcycle. And no one noticed it being built. Apparently. Oh, and despite being the world's most wanted fugitive, he apparently has an active Twitter account with half a million followers. Frustratingly (but appropriately) the views for this article are a bit dodgy, since they all appear to be for his longer name, which is a redirect. Still, the mobile count is good and the topic is valid, so I can't really argue.
3 Suicide Squad (film) Start-Class 1,608,426
See #1.
4 Pluto Featured Article 1,491,263
Does it ever astonish you how often things work? We had one, just one, chance to get this right, and after 11 years in political limbo, three years in development, and nine years in space, everything hinged on a series of pre-programmed actions performed over the course of just 22 hours by a computer 4.7 billion miles away. During that time, the probe was radio silent; we had no idea if it had survived or not. If we hadn't received its bleep of hello then the entire mission would have been for nothing, and it is doubtful I or any of you would have seen the results in our lifetime. Think on that. And then remember that this event was out-viewed by an escaped drug lord and the trailer for a comic book movie.
5 Satoru Iwata C-Class 1,253,657
The famously ebullient CEO of Nintendo, who often incorporated bananas and caricature puppets into his presentations, winning him the admiration of gamers, died suddenly of cancer this week at the age of just 55. The first CEO of the company not related to the founding Yamauchi family in its 128-year history, he nonetheless strictly maintained its ethos that Nintendo products were for everyone, not just children or adults. In a moment that could have come from one of their games, a rainbow appeared over Nintendo's Kyoto HQ on the day his death was announced.
6 Novak Djokovic B-class 857,933
The Wimbledon Men's (sorry, Gentlemen's) singles final wasn't held until the 12th, which meant that Best Tennis Player of All TimeTM Roger Federer got all the attention last week, before his final defeat at the hands of this Serbian wunderkind, who appropriately now gets his due. And he should; he won last year too.
7 Baahubali (film) C-Class 853,839
At $41 million, this sprawling, two-part historical epic is the most expensive film in Indian history (no, it isn't actually Bollywood, since it was made in South India, much to Bollywood's chagrin). Starring the Telugu actor Prabhas (pictured), the first part, subtitled "The Beginning", broke box office records upon its release on July 10, earning Rs 2.15 billion ($34 million) worldwide in just 5 days.
8 Ant-Man (film) C-class 846,555 Personal editorial alert: As an avid fan of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz (I said I was a nerd), I was wary when writer/director Edgar Wright unceremoniously dumped the highest-profile project of his career because Marvel Studios refused to give him full creative control, particularly since Marvel kept this project alive for a decade mainly because he was interested in it. Afraid the damage caused by his departure would be irreparable, I began to speculate if there was a "Number 12 curse"; that no studio, no matter how beloved or respected, can go 12 movies without a critical bomb. Pixar's 12th was Cars 2; this was Marvel's. Well, they managed to avoid the critical mauling (the film's RT score is a decent 79%, though critics in my UK home have been crueller- no doubt in solidarity with Edgar), but the box office is somewhat iffy; while it opened at #1 (like every other Marvel Studios film to date), it had the lowest per-screen average of any film in the franchise. The film could still be buoyed by good word of mouth however.
9 New Horizons B-class 839,290
The fastest spacecraft ever launched finally reached its destination after 9 years of traversing the interplanetary void. It may not be as cute as Sojourner but it is a stalwart little thing which, as several memes pointed out this week, cost less taxpayer money than several refurbished stadiums. And its mission isn't even over yet; the team hopes to redirect it to another Kuiper belt object before it leaves the Solar System's charted regions.
10 Roger Federer Good Article 791,565
The man widely regarded as the best tennis player of all time lost the Wimbledon title to Novak Djokovic in a titanic 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 showdown.

















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