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

[Bronius Motekaitis]

As long as there are good netizens like Wisniewski out there, I feel safe.
She seems to be doing a pretty good job.



On 7/18/06, Dr. Tim McGuire <mcguire at shsu.edu> wrote:
>
>  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<http://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/
>
>
>
>
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