Reason Morning Links

- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says it's time for a debate on legalizing marijuana.

- Student plants fake quote in Wikipedia entry for recently deceased composer, quote gets picked up by several Indian, British, and Australian newspapers.

- Federal bankruptcy judge orders dissident Chrysler lenders to reveal their identities.

- Bush torture lawyers likely won't face criminal charges, but could face disbarment.

- The different flavors of white supremacist movements.

- Citing swine flu concerns, Afghanistan quarantines the country's only pig.

Comments

[phalkor]

Student plants fake quote in Wikipedia entry for recently deceased composer, quote gets picked up by several Indian, British, and Australian newspapers

By my count the score is:
Internet: 1337
Newspapers: 0

Welcome to the future; where information is an opinion (unless properly cited).

[Hugh Akston]

However, the hoax remained undiscovered for weeks until Fitzgerald e-mailed offending newspapers to tell them that they had published an inaccurate quote.

If there is a good argument for nationalizing newspapers, it is that, like most mentally challenged individuals, journalists have a difficult time making it without some kind of public assistance.

[robc]

Fitzgerald is a winner in the wiki game I created (others, obviously, play it without knowing it, I just created it with rules).

Put a fake fact on wiki. Set a time limit. If your fake fact survives the time limit you score points based on a number of factors.

How obviously bogus your "fact" was.
The popularity of the page you changed.
Any outside references you get to your "fact".

[robc]

Okay, having now RTFA, Fitzgerald's quote kept getting removed by the wiki mods. But he put it back enough for newspapers to see it and use it.

I still award him the outside reference points. 🙂

[SugarFree]

Welcome to the future; where information is an opinion (unless properly cited).

Fitzgerald's quote kept getting removed by the wiki mods. But he put it back enough for newspapers to see it and use it.

Uh, at this point can't he just properly cite the quote from the newspapers it was printed in?

[Hugh Akston]

Sugarfree, a made-up quote from Wikipedia, which was picked up and reprinted by "reputable" sources, then cited as a quote from those sources, could create a time paradox, the result of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe.

Granted, that's a worst-case scenario.

[phalkor]

ouch Nutra, that's so meta it makes my head hurt! DOES TRUTH NOT MATTER ANYMORE!?!?!?

and around and around we go

[P Brooks]

Because bids need to be made in a week under the proposed timeline, there isn't enough time for parties to make due diligence required for a competing bid, the holdouts said.

"Due diligence"? What's that?

We got HOPE. And printing presses.

[jester]

How did I know that all comments thus far would be directed at the Wiki-hoax? Libertarian minds think brilliantly on the spot.

We were all attracted to this I-told-you-so story. Journalism does suck, truly. If Journalism were the imagined Pillars of Democracy then Democracy would equal Mob Rule...wait, uh sorry.

[Citizen Nothing]

"Mujahideen fighters then ate the deer and rabbits and shot dead the zoo's sole elephant. Shells shattered the aquarium.
"One fighter climbed into the lion enclosure but was immediately killed by Marjan, the zoo's most famous inhabitant."

[J sub D]

? The different flavors of white supremacist movements.

Did not RTFA, but I'm going to guess the flavors anyway
Shit, crap, puke, vomit ...

My father, hardly an enlightened man regarding race, labelled these folks "a bunch of ignorant redneck losers".

+1 for Dad.

[P Brooks]

+1 for Dad.

seconded

[Atlanta Matt]

I'm always amazed how many people think the KKK and like groups are hiding behind every rock and tree, waiting to jump out and initiate race-war.
I've lived my entire life in the South, as well as being involved in the "gun culture" and I've yet to see any legitimate member of these organizations. Not saying they aren't out there, just that they must be damn few and far between.

[Warty]

I hate Illinois Nazis.

[jester]

Mattlanta,

Hate to break the news but our current president is ...

[bigbigslacker]

I don't think white supremacy is at all common. I have never met (in real non-internet life) a person who believes white people are superior to all others. I've met several who think the black "race" is inferior to other races in general, but they were also not supremists. It's more of an "I'm not all that great, but you suck" sort of racism. You see that at ggermania.com (you can google that one or just guess on the two first letters I left off the URL web number) where they welcome people of all races and all religions, except....

I pop in there for a laugh now and then. I could watch a train wreck for hours, but only if there are bodies scattered about.

[robc]

I've lived my entire life in the South, as well as being involved in the "gun culture" and I've yet to see any legitimate member of these organizations. Not saying they aren't out there, just that they must be damn few and far between.

In 1975, to protest busing, the Klan marched one block from my house.

At my concealed carry training class, one of the guys in the class had tiny swastikas tattooed between his thumb and index finger.

The I Ride With Forest bumper sticker I have mentioned previously.

In 39 years, that is my interaction with those types. 1 every 13 years, is that a lot or minimal?

[robc]

Forrest.

Sigh. Damn preview button.

[ed]

There are no pig farms in Afghanistan and no direct civilian flights between Kabul and Mexico. "We understand that, but most people don't have enough knowledge..." Saqib said.

Clearly our work in Afghanistan will not be done until the people get more pig knowledge.

[Citizen Nothing]

Are our troops in Afghanistan denied bacon? Just curious...

[Solanum]

Hate to break the news but our current president is ...

Near?

[ed]

The troops can get bacon. It just can't be pig bacon. And it has to wear a veil.

[bigbigslacker]

At my concealed carry training class, one of the guys in the class had tiny swastikas tattooed between his thumb and index finger.

The I Ride With Forest bumper sticker I have mentioned previously.

In 39 years, that is my interaction with those types. 1 every 13 years, is that a lot or minimal?

I know a woman who's ex-husband had the spider web tattoo thing going and some other nonsense white power/pride stuff. He isn't racist today - says that was some stupid shit he got while in the joint.

I think what you saw might be more a sign of a guy who had a wild and crazy and not-so-intellectual life as a young adult rather than a sign of a guy who wants to put more Jews in the oven. Same as with my friend's ex.

The whole racist movement and militia threat thing is just an excuse to maintain government agencies that track these things. It would suck if the people in those jobs had to go out in the work force and have to actually produce something like the rest of us. Meanwhile, I'm looking for a no-show advisory position on a board that montitors non-existant and hyper-inflated threats. If anyone has any leads, I'd relly appreciate it.

[Dello]

"Student plants fake quote in Wikipedia entry for recently deceased composer, quote gets picked up by several Indian, British, and Australian newspapers."

History is written by the victors! Or at least by a college student with a paper due.

[Telly]

"The I Ride With Forest bumper sticker I have mentioned previously.
"

I guess I'm not racist, because the first thing that came to MY mind was Forrest Gump.

[aPheasantPlucker]

I guess I'm not racist, because the first thing that came to MY mind was Forrest Gump.

I had to google it, even then the only thing that gave it away was the stickers were being sold by someone at conferateasshole.com

[Tom]

It was stupid of those media outlets to rely on Wikipedia for anything, let alone an unsourced quote.

But I still can't stand the nonchalance -- even glee -- that some human beings have about disseminating false information. Maybe I'm just too neurotic and obsessive (no "maybe" about it, actually), but I dislike stuff that makes the world spin less efficiently than it has to. And that includes fake crap that intentionally conveys inaccuracies, imprints wrong first impressions, and forces other human beings to spend time sorting it all out.

That includes everything from fake posts on message boards to April Fool's Day pranks at news sites to officially sanctioned government lies. All of it sucks.

[robc]

Forrest Gump

Was named for....

[Nick]

Tom, I used to agree with you wholeheartedly about efficiency. And, while I still appreciate efficiency in my own life, on the grand scale I take the opposite path and hope for enough calamity to cause all sorts of chaos...as long as

[Nick]

wtf happened to the rest of my post?

[Nick]

I'm not too inconvenienced. Too many people are too stupid to change peacefully.

I want libertarians to force the issue and lead the revolt OR get out of the way while the others destroy themselves and then pick up the pieces. The world is shitty. I don't want it to be that way forever. Efficiency will come when our ideas are embraced.

[Nick]

There we go, my 2:30 picks up where 2:25 left off.

[jtuf]

"Studies have shown there is impairment with marijuana use," DeVore said. "People can get paranoid, can lose some of their initiative to work, and we don't live in some idealized libertarian society where every person is responsible completely to himself. We live in a society where the cost of your poor decisions are borne by your fellow taxpayers."

I motion that we amend the bill on marijuana legalization to include a provision for ending welfare. That should allay DeVore's concerns.