[Shacs] Re: Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.

[Dr. Tim McGuire]

Factual Error Found On The Internet:
http://www.shsu.edu/~csc_tjm/humor/FactualErrorFound.html 
<http://www.shsu.edu/%7Ecsc_tjm/humor/FactualErrorFound.html>

>       LONGMONT, CO--The Information Age was dealt a stunning blow 
> Monday, when a factual error was discovered on the Internet. The error 
> was found on TedsUltimateBradyBunch.com, a Brady Bunch fan site that 
> incorrectly listed the show's debut year as 1968, not 1969.
>
>  
> Above: The shocking error.
>
>       Caryn Wisniewski, a Pueblo, CO, legal secretary and diehard 
> Brady Bunch fan, came across the mistake while searching for 
> information about the show's first-season cast.
>
>       "When I first saw 1968 on the web page, I thought, 'Wow, 
> apparently, all those Brady Bunch books I've read listing 1969 as the 
> show's first year were wrong,'" Wisniewski told reporters at a press 
> conference. "But even though I obviously trusted the Internet, I was 
> still kind of puzzled. So I checked other Brady Bunch fan sites, and 
> all of them said 1969. After a while, it slowly began to sink in that 
> the World Wide Web might be tainted with unreliable information."
>
>       Following up on her suspicion, Wisniewski phoned her public 
> library, the ABC television network, and the office of Brady Bunch 
> producer Sherwood Schwartz--all of whom confirmed that "Ted's Ultimate 
> Brady Bunch Site" was in error.
>
>       Attempts to contact the webmaster of "Ted's Ultimate Brady Bunch 
> Site," identified as Ted Crewes of Naugatuck, CT, were unsuccessful. 
> The page has been taken offline by its host, Cheaphost.net, which 
> released a statement Tuesday.
>
>       "We at Cheaphost were deeply saddened and disturbed to learn 
> that one of the millions of pages we host contained a factual 
> discrepancy," the web-posted statement read. "Please be assured that 
> we are doing everything within our power to ensure that nothing of the 
> sort happens again. We will not rest until the Internet's 
> once-sterling reputation as the world's leading source for 100 percent 
> reliable information is restored."
>
>       Paul Boutin, senior editor of Wired, said the error is likely to 
> have a profound effect on how the Internet is perceived.
>
>       "Will we ever fully trust the Web again?" Boutin asked. "We may 
> well be witnessing the dawn of a new era of skepticism in which we no 
> longer accept everything we read online at face value. But regardless 
> of what the future holds, one thing is clear: The Internet's status as 
> the world's definitive repository of incontrovertible fact has been 
> jeopardized."
>
>       Peter Luyck, 30, a Dallas-area graphic designer and frequent 
> Internet user, was crestfallen.
>
>       "If it happens once, it can happen again," Luyck said. "I 
> shudder to think that, one dark day in the future, misinformation 
> could again make its way online. In fact, it may already have. How do 
> we know that trusted sites like the Drudge Report are as accurate as 
> we instinctively trust them to be? Can we blindly trust that 
> SpideyRulez.com is correct in its reportage that the upcoming 
> Spider-Man sequel will feature Christopher Walken as Dr. Octopus? 
> Pandora is out of the box."
>
>       Though the Brady Bunch error is the first confirmed instance of 
> false information on the Internet, scares have occurred in the past. 
> In 1998, an e-mail sent to a woman in Warner Robins, GA, made an 
> unverifiable claim that she could earn thousands of dollars from an 
> initial $5 investment. The claim was never conclusively proven false, 
> and no charges were filed.
>


Bronius Motekaitis wrote:

> oh.. oops:
> http://www.snopes.com/science/mars.asp
> yeah, I should have known. 
> ..but.. but it was on the Internet!!
>

-- 
Timothy J. McGuire, Ph.D.
Department of Computer Science
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, Texas  77341-2090
(936)294-1571	mcguire at shsu.edu	http://www.shsu.edu/~csc_tjm/


-------------- next part --------------
Skipped content of type multipart/related