Thursday, February 22nd, 2007,
by Fred (,
history, Jamestown, science, wikipedia
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If you are a conservative, then Conservapedia should be embarrassing to you. Formed ostensibly to counteract perceived anti-Christian and anti-American bias in Wikipedia, the effort wouldn’t pass muster in a reasonably-challenging public middle school. Take, for example, the entry that came up for me when I asked for a random page:
Pilgrims
Pilgrims were people (mostly puritans) in the 1600’s that traveled to the American Colonies because of persecution in England. These settlers started the very first settlement in the American colonies, Jamestown.
It’s amazing you can get that much wrong in only two sentences. The pilgrims were mostly puritans, but they came as part of the Plymouth Company in 1620 to Massachusetts. Jamestown was established in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London, not by pilgrims. The 144 settlers did not flee Anglican persecution when traveling to Virginia. And Jamestown, while the first permanent English colony in the New World to survive, was not the first attempt. It was the 19th.
Try it for yourself - Random Conservapedia page.
Since the site’s existence hit the blogs, there have been some efforts to improve the inanity. Compare the current page on faith to what it originally said:
Faith is a uniquely Christian concept that means trust or complete confidence in something unseen. The term lacks a precise definition. In English the word comes from the Latin word “fidere”, meaning “to trust”.
The concept of faith does not exist in other major religions. While faith is mentioned 229 in the New Testament, faith is mentioned only twice in the Old Testament (KJV). In an English translation of the Koran (Islam), the concept of submission to Allah is mentioned 11 times, but faith in Allah is only mentioned once.
The term “faith” is often misused to describe the belief systems of other religions.[1]
There are clearly problems with Wikipedia. It is generally, but clearly not always, accurate. Pages on controversial topics are often riddled with bias, leading to lockdowns to prevent edit wars. It keeps the learning curve intentionally high to prevent the unwashed masses from participating. But the Conservapedia is ridiculous.
[via Pharyngula]
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Thursday, March 9th, 2006,
by Fred (,
Anti Semitism, history, Holocaust, Holocaust denial, politics
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The Holocaust History Project is one of the largest repositories of information relating to the Holocaust on the Web. For the last ten years, an international staff of volunteers has worked tirelessly to make information on the Holocaust, and on those who would deny it, easily accessible to students, scholars, and anyone who has an interest in the truth.
Among the material on the site are essays about various events and people, scientific and legal analyses, original Nazi documents, expert witness testimony, transcripts of many of the Nuremberg trials, and the complete texts of two seminal works, Jean-Claude Pressac’s “Auschwitz” and Robert Jay Lifton’s “The Nazi Doctors.” In addition, THHP volunteers personally answer emails from thousands of students each year who are looking for information to further their studies.
THHP has been the target of denial of service attacks for years, probably for speaking the truth in the face of Holocaust deniers. Now, the project appears to have been the target of arson. Orac, a blogger who is affiliated with THHP, puts it this way:
Arsonists targeted the offices used as a mailing address for the Holocaust History Project (THHP). (Video here, but only if you have IE and Active X installed, unfortunately.) The fire caused considerable damage to a warehouse complex and caused smoke damage to nearby businesses. Although the perpetrators have not been identified, there is good reason to suspect that it was not the business that was targeted, but rather THHP. The business sold and exported educational materials for schools. It is not too much of a stretch to conclude that the most likely suspects are people or organizations opposed to the educational mission of the THHP fighting Holocaust denial.
These scumbags have been trying to silence the truth through violence for sixty years. That they’d use fire is both fitting and futile. They can’t handle the truth, but they can’t silence it either. Click the link - by visiting the site you show that the deniers are loud, but the truth prevails. Other bloggers are doing the same thing - see Orac’s update post.
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Friday, February 17th, 2006,
by Fred (,
Billboard, history, Music
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Kevin Kelley’s Cool Tools today features an UnCool Tool: TV-B-Gone. This is a keyfob-like device that operates as a universal remote with a single button. Push it, and it sends 200 power signals for the most popular TV models in rapid succession, so you can turn off any nearby sets. Old news, but it still makes me really mad, so I’ll renew my objection. Hey, annoying TV moralist — don’t like the TV in you local pub or restaurant? Leave. Just because something annoys you does not mean you get to make choices for other people about what they can do with their personal property.
Shame on you, Kevin Kelley.
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