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Los Angeles Times: Go ahead, just ask a question:

From the Los Angeles Times
COLUMN ONE
Go ahead, just ask a question
By Alex Pham
Times Staff Writer

April 25, 2007

WHAT'S the optimal temperature for storing white wine? How old is too old to sleep with a teddy bear? Can you make liquor from broccoli?

Ask Peter Trask. He will tell you that white wine is best stored at 50 degrees, that he occasionally sleeps with a teddy bear at age 48 and thinks it's fine, and that broccoli can be made into liquor but not a very tasty one.

The accountant from Pembroke, Mass., spends a couple of hours every night answering questions like these posed on answerbag.com, where members post queries on topics as diverse as philosophy, math, dancing and religion. He's offered more than 1,000 pieces of advice since stumbling onto the website a year ago.

'I'm a wealth of useless knowledge,' he said. 'I have more contact with some of these people than I do with my own brothers and sisters.'

The Internet is packed with specialty sites devoted to just about every ailment, passion and topic. But millions of people also seek answers from armies of volunteers such as Trask on sites like Answerbag, WikiAnswers and Yah"

...
"I get withdrawal symptoms when I don't go on," said Jacinta Rachel, a biology student in Liverpool, Britain, who spends up to five hours a day fielding questions on Answerbag under the moniker "Carmella." "Like if you leave home for a while, you can feel quite homesick — that's the feeling I get."...