THE trouble with online 'encylcopaedia' Wikipedia is that anyone can add to it - however insane or mischievous they may be.

Take the tale of the village of Denshaw in the Pennines, where the Wikipedia entry said its population was devastated by a tapeworm outbreak, those who survived relax by throwing sheep or shooting cows, and it gets no more than four hours of sunlight every day.

The village's entry last week said it "attracts people from many different locations mainly due to the competitive sports held in the village including rock rolling, cow shooting and sheep hurling".

And it went on: "Due to the complex hill formation surrounding the village, sunlight is only visible for four hours a day, come say a contributing factor in the local population's health problems such as obesity and severe malnourishment."

Another claim included that the village football pitch slopes at an angle of 35 degrees.

Now it all becomes familiar to many of us in south Wales.

Substitute rugby for football and we are in the strange world of the late, great Gren's Aberflyarff.

Thankfully for the village, the offending entries have now been removed.

However, other pranks on Wikipedia have included Sharon Stone and Demi Moore allegedly once heading the Soviet secret service, David Beckham being named as a Chinese goalkeeper in the 18th century and Tony Blair's middle name being placed on the site as 'whoopdedo'.

But that's the internet for you - all the information in the world may be out there, but just how much of it is real knowledge?

THE net is also being used to try to break down the wall of apathy between voters and the Assembly.

Tools being used include electronic petitions, and an improved web TV service, senedd.tv.

Broadband users are being promised the ability to watch different types of assembly debates in much better quality than was previously available.

So they are going head-to-head with videos of free-running, Far Eastern prisoners dancing to Michael Jackson and badly-behaved pets.

I don't fancy the chances of Rhodri, Ieuan and co.

AND finally...

GWYNETH DUNWOODY MP, who died last week, is a real loss to the political world.

She asked so many awkward questions that iin 2001, the government attempted to oust her as chairwoman of the House of Commons' transport select committee. A backbench revolt saved her.

But she also had a keen wit. In 1998, shortly after Tony Blair's election, she managed to hijack the new prime minister's agenda during an official visit to see President Clinton in the White House.

Mr Blair found himself defending the right of a New York museum to retain ownership of a Winnie the Pooh doll after Mrs Dunwoody publicly appealed for its return to the UK.

She said she "detected sadness" in the glass case display.