Online Training For Serious Software Users

lynda.com

"About lynda.com

"lynda.com is an award-winning provider of educational materials, including Hands-On Training™ instructional books, the Online Training Library®, CD- and DVD-based video training, and events for creative designers, instructors, students, and hobbyists.

"The lynda.com Online Training Library® and CD-ROM courses include such subjects as Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Office, digital photography, Web design, digital video, and many others. lynda.com's all-star team of trainers and teachers provides comprehensive and unbiased movie-based training to an international membership of tens of thousands of subscribers...."

There's a subscription fee, but once you've paid that you can use as many of the online training resources you want - or need - or have time - to use.

Lynda.com is, I think, more for the professional or very serious hobbyist, than for general use. But for people with specific training needs, this looks like a good resource. I'll admit that I'm biased. I'm logging on after this post, to learn more about using Hexagon, a 3D modeling tool.

More, at

• "Online Software Training: This Resource Looks Promising"
  Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind (December 17, 2008)

Missouri Mom Indicted in Megan Meier's Death

Megan Meier's suicide is in the news again.

The woman, who almost certainly hounded the teenager until the kid snapped, was indicted today in the case. It won't bring Megan back, but some good may come from a trial.

The indictment accuses Lori Drew of ""Conspiracy: ... Accessing Protected Computers to Obtain Information; ...Aiding and Abetting and Causing an Act to Be Done".

"Missouri Woman Indicted in MySpace Cyber-Bullying Case That Ended in Teen's Suicide"
FoxNEWS (May 15, 2008)

"A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted a Missouri woman Thursday for her alleged role in a MySpace hoax on a teen neighbor who committed suicide after being spurned by the 'boy' in the fake profile.

"Lori Drew, of Dardenne Prairie near St. Louis, was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress on the girl."

None of this will bring Megan Meier, the 13-year-old who hung herself, back to life. But, the legal action may help establish that there are legal consequences, even if you use computers and the Web to attack others.

It is remotely possible that all the publicly-available evidence points in the wrong direction, and that Lori Drew did not act, with some help, to

• Masquerade online as a rather hunky teenage boy
• Worm her way into the confidence and affection of a 13-year-old girl
• Top of 'hurtful' statements by writing that the world would be better off without Megan Meier

Possible, but improbable.

I have little sympathy for an adult who would abuse a fragile young teen like that. Even if the adult suffered a loss of status and esteem in the community as a result of the abuse.

Other posts about the online predation of Megan Meier:

• "How to Read the News: Or, Missouri Teen Suicide, Lori Drew, and Victims"
  (December 7, 2007)
• "Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
  (December 6, 2007)
• "Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems"
  (December 6, 2007)
• " 'Murder?' Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead"
  (December 4, 2007)
• "Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace"
  (November 13, 2007)

The Web: Are You Surfing More Now, but Enjoying it Less?

"25 Ways to Break Your Online Procrastination Habit" CollegeDegree.com (March 12th, 2008)

"The Internet is full of all kinds of valuable tools that can make researching, staying in touch, and amusing yourself easier than ever. For these very same reasons, the Internet can also be a huge source of distraction."

Twenty five bits of good advice, from "Install an online time tracker" to "Unplug."

Fine Art, Digitized and Sized for the Desktop

"Desktop Wallpaper Collection"

Images from fine art, from the Mona Lisa to Nighthawks, 136 of them, sized for desktop display. I've no idea what the intellectual property status of these images are: but they're quite attractive.

History Online

"10 Colleges and Universities Offering Free History Courses Online" at Education Portal.

From Massachusetts Institute of Technology to Utah State University. And Berkeley.

Online Privacy Tips

"Tips For The Privacy Minded"

Some of these actually make sense.

Where to Start When Writing That Paper

"Top 7 Websites to Visit Prior to Writing Your Research Paper" - in StudentHacks' opinion, anyway.

How to Read the News: Or, Missouri Teen Suicide, Lori Drew, and Victims

"Neighbors shun Missouri family over Internet hoax and suicide; police step up patrols"
Minneapolis Star Tribune (December 6, 2007)

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, offers another view of Megan Meier's suicide last year: and some information that hasn't been widely published before.

The article also serves as an example of why it's a good idea to read the news carefully. It also, in my opinion, shows how a community can protect itself, when a finely-tuned and sensitive legal system doesn't.

The article's main story line gets sketched out in this series of selected quotes:

"Almost Tribal?"

" ... But the suicide of a teenage girl _ and allegations she had been tormented by a neighbor over the Internet _ have brought a reaction that is old, almost tribal, in its nature."

" 'It's like they used to do in the 1700s and 1800s. If you wronged a community, you were basically shunned. That's basically what happened to her,' said Trever Buckles, a 40-year-old who lives next door to the Drews."

"Drew became an outcast after she participated in a hoax in which a fictional teenager by the name of 'Josh Evans' exchanged online messages with 13-year-old Megan Meier. Megan received cruel messages from Josh that apparently drove her to hang herself in her closet in 2006.

"Through her lawyer, Drew, a mother of two in her 40s, has denied saying hurtful things to the girl over the Internet, and prosecutors have said they found no grounds for charges against the woman. Nevertheless, the community reaction has been vengeful and the pressure on the Drews intense."

"Clients have fled from Drew's home-based advertising business, so she had to close it. Neighbors have not seen Drew outside her home in weeks...."
(Star Tribune)

But isn't Lori Drew the woman who drove a fragile teenage girl to suicide? The "Star Tribune" has, or implies, an answer:

"Only ... Polite Messages"

"A teenage employee of Drew's named [name withheld by this blogger] said she created the 'Josh' account on MySpace after a brainstorming session with Drew and her daughter, according to a prosecutor's report. Drew said the girls approached her with the idea, and she told them only to send polite messages to Megan.

"[name withheld] sent Megan many of the messages from 'Josh,' and Lori Drew was aware of them, prosecutors said.

"On Oct. 16, 2006, there was a heated online exchange between Megan and [name withheld], who was posing as Josh. A few other MySpace users joined in, calling Megan names. It ended when 'Josh' said the world would be better off without Megan...."
(Star Tribune)

Shocking! A modern community shunning a woman and her family, and for practically no reason at all. Lori Drew, it seems to me, is being painted as a victim of circumstance. The implication is that Ms. Drew's employee is the guilty party, and implicated Ms. Drew.

What's Written: And What's Not Written

My favorite line in the article is "prosecutors have said they found no grounds for charges against the woman." As a writer, I admire how the Star Tribune, by omitting a detail, imply that there is no evidence that Ms. Drew is the leader of the "Josh" project.

Other articles discussed motive, means, and opportunity for Ms. Drew's involvement: and that no charges were filed because the harassment of Megan Meier was done over the Internet - a realm that the American judicial system is only beginning to deal with.

Facts, Possibilities, and Self-Defense

Two final thoughts:

1. I think it's remotely possible that Lori Drew is not guilty of hounding Megan Meier until the teenager hung herself in her closet. However, I also think that, based on publicly available information, it is very unlikely that Ms. Drew is not responsible for the deliberate online deception of Megan, which led to her taking her life.
2. I believe that, in general, the people who share a town with Lori Drew are acting reasonably. By cutting their ties with Ms. Drew, they are minimizing the chances that Ms. Drew will decide to attack members of their own families. This assumes that Ms. Drew is motivated by the occasional discomfort that comes with her current status.

It is a near-certainty that Lori Drew decided to deceive Megan Meyer by inventing a fictional boyfriend, and then decided to torment the vulnerable teen by having the "boyfriend" dump her in a very cruel way.

I acknowledge that Megan Meier decided to hang herself with a belt in her closet. However, I think that there is very little doubt that Lori Drew is responsible for strongly encouraging Megan to do so. And, I think that it is not safe to treat someone with an ethical system similar to Lucretia Borgia's as if she's a typical member of the community.

Other posts about the online predation of Megan Meier:
"Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
(December 6, 2007)
"Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems"
(December 6, 2007)
" 'Murder?' Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead"
(December 4, 2007)
"Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace"
(November 13, 2007)

Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power

In this case, power to protect.

At least, I hope so.

A very quick review of Megan Meier's death, and the online predator who drove her to suicide:

• Last year Megan Meier, a young teenage girl with somewhat above-average levels of teen angst, was driven to suicide by Lori Drew.
  • Lori Drew's daughter was an on again, off again, friend of Megan
  • Megan and Drew's daughter had a falling out
  • Ms. Drew decided to set up an fake MySpace account - she says to find out what mean things Megan was saying about her daughter
  • The fake MySpace account was set up with the help of two teenagers, one an employee of Ms. Drew.
  • Ms. Drew set up a fictional teenage boy, and manipulated Megan until the teen accepted "Josh" as her boyfriend
  • Then, Lori Drew had "Josh" turn on Megan, attacking the fragile teen's character, and finally rejecting her.
  • Then Megan Meier killed herself
  • One of Lori Drew's accomplices, a teenage employee of Ms. Drew, is getting psychiatric treatment now.
• This month, Lori Drew got good news: she won't face charges, because she used the Internet to torment Megan Meier.
• The American legal system is ponderously adjusting to Information Age technologies.
• Quite a number of people are saying mean things about Lori Drew on the Web.
• A particularly vile blog, called "Megan Had It Coming," attracted a great deal of attention when its author claimed to be Lori Drew.
• Lori Drew claims to not be the blogger who runs "Megan Had It Coming."
• Ironically, if "Megan Had It Coming" is written by someone impersonating Lori Drew, Ms. Drew may be protected by laws which her foul actions inspired.

At this time, there seem to be extremely limited protections for people who are vulnerable to online predators.

I'm not using the usual "allegedly" disclaimer in this post, since there seems little to no doubt that Lori Drew drove a vulnerable girl to suicide, and scarred the mind of a teenager who had the misfortune to have her as a boss.

I've compared the Internet to the American West of the mid-to-late 19th century. In both cases, we have a great many people moving into a new territory, developing a new society, dealing with new technologies, with negligible law enforcement.

It's an exciting, and potentially rewarding, place to be. It's also dangerous at times. Particularly to people who have chinks in their psychological armor.

I think it is unlikely that the American judicial system will effectively protect the innocent online any time soon. For this reason, I believe that it is reasonable to share some publicly-available information, and a concern.

The people in Dardenne Prairie, MO, where Megan Meier lived, and the Drews own a house, are probably well aware of the Curt D. and Lori J. Drew household. Dardenne Prairie is a suburb of St. Louis with a population a little under 5,000. That's about how many people live here in Sauk Centre. In places this size, people stay informed: particularly about dangerous neighbors.

However, I'm not so sure about the people in O'Fallon, where Mr. Drew works, and Ms. Drew has an advertising business. O'Fallon has about ten times as many people as Megan Meier's home town, and so provides some of the anonymity of larger cities.

Both towns are part of the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area.

I'm not entirely comfortable about identifying the company that employs Curt D. Drew. For one thing, Mr. Drew seems to have known about, but not participated in, the hoax that killed Megan Meier and drove one of Lori Drew's employees insane. For another, Mr. Drew's employer has nothing to do with the death of Megan Meier.

Lori Drew's advertising business, Drew Advantage, is another matter. Ms. Drew's use of one of her employees in the online stalking of Megan shows that she is quiet capable of using her company, and her employees, for immoral, if legal, purposes - like driving a teenager to suicide. And driving another insane.

Lori Drew may strike again.

Anyone considering doing business with her advertising company, Drew Associates, might consider what might happen if Lori Drew felt that she had not gotten what she wanted.

And, although it's hard to be picky when looking for a job, I would hope that anyone considering employment with Drew Associates think very carefully about what services Ms. Drew might demand.

Lori Drew's company is:

Drew Advantage
2977 Hwy K, Ste 200
O'Fallon, MO 63368
[Blogger's Note, December 6, 2007: I learned that

1. The company name is Drew Ad Vantage
2. According the "Star Tribune" of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, Ms. Drew's "home-based advertising business" has closed
3. Business directories give at least two addresses for Drew Ad Vantage

(Relatively frequent changes of address in start-up businesses is hardly unusual. I found an alternate address at Merchant Circle) I am assuming that the "Star Tribune's" assertion that Ad Advantage closed, due to a lack of clients, is true.]

I want to stress that I do not suggest or advocate that any illegal or immoral action be taken against Ms. Drew or her family.

On the other hand, there's a remote chance that someone who is about to get involved with this person will read this, and re-consider the wisdom of associating with someone with such apparently flexible ethics.

My thanks to this post, "Why Outing Lori Drew Was The Right Thing To Do," for discussing a rationale for providing information about Ms. Drew.

Posts, including this one, about the online predation of Megan Meier:
"Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
(December 6, 2007)
"Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems"
(December 6, 2007)
" 'Murder?' Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead"
(December 4, 2007)
"Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace"
(November 13, 2007)

Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems

"MySpace Mom Linked to Missouri Teen's Suicide Being Cyber-Bullied Herself"

I'm doing two posts on the death of Megan Meier today. This is the first, and is today's harangue on the subject. The other is much calmer, I think.

There's a blog called "Megan Had It Coming." The blogger's attitude is summed up in the blog's name. The "Megan" is Megan Meier, the Missouri teen hounded to death by Lori Drew.

A bit of background:

---

Lori Drew is the mother of an on-again, off-again friend of the late Megan. The two girls had a falling-out, so Lori Drew thought that Megan was mean to her daughter. Ms. Drew says she just wanted to find out what Megan was saying about the Drew daughter.

There's a pretty good description of what the St. Charles prosecuting attorney said, in the "St. Charles Journal's" "UPDATE: No charges to be filed over Meier suicide."

Thanks to there being no law specifically prohibiting interfering mothers from driving their children's friends to suicide, Lori J. Drew is off the hook, legally speaking.

Which should be a big relief for her and her husband, Curt Drew.

---

Turns out that the teenager who Lori Drew paid to help set up the ersatz MySpace account profile was a temporary employee of Ms. Drew's company, Drew Advantage. That teenager is getting psychiatric treatment, now. The kid's understandably upset at being an accomplice in un-murder. Or whatever it is that Ms. Drew did.

Chalk another one up for Ms. Drew.

My guess is that driving an employee crazy isn't illegal, either: providing that the internet is involved.

Back to that "Megan Had It Coming" blog:

An article published today quotes a December 3 post:

"It's time I dropped the charade. Yes, I made this blog. Yes, I'm Lori Drew," the blogger wrote.

The post gave a detailed account of what was done to Megan Meier. Then, the blogger makes a request.

"My daughter had nothing to do with this, ... Everyone needs to leave her alone. None of you can possibly know her involvement, and none of you can possibly know what she's gone through. She's just a kid. She doesn't deserve these brutal verbal attacks. Please stop."

Fair enough. Of course, Megan was just a kid until she committed suicide, and so is the former employee of Drew Advantage - at least for someone my age.

Now, Lori Drew says that she isn't that blogger. So does her attorney.

That could be true.

I don't blame her for denying connection to the blog. Comments on that "I'm Lori Drew" post included phrases like "You have psychological problems," and one that ended with "Don't burn in hell. Instead, I hope you rot in the dirt with the maggots and other disgusting vermin, since that's the only thing you deserve."

The blog service (blogger.com - the same one I use) says that there's no reason to believe that Lorid Drew isn't the "Megan Had It Coming" blog. Impersonation is against their TOS.

Now, the St. Charles County Sheriff's Office is looking into whether the "Megan Had It Coming" blog and other postings falsely attributed to Drew have violated any online harassment laws.

The irony of this is that, assuming that "Megan Had It Coming" is the work of a troll, and not another example of Lori Drew's efforts at self-expression, the impersonator may face criminal charges - thanks to what Ms. Drew did to Megan Meier.

Posts, including this one, about the online predation of Megan Meier:
"Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
(December 6, 2007)
"Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems"
(December 6, 2007)
" 'Murder?' Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead"
(December 4, 2007)
"Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace"
(November 13, 2007)

"Murder?" Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead

"Prosecutor: No Criminal Charges in MySpace Suicide"

Megan Meier, a 13-year-old, killed herself after "Josh," her online boyfriend, turned on her.

Here's the punch line: Josh isn't real. He never existed.

Lori Drew, whose daughter knew Megan, wanted to find out what Megan was saying about her daughter online. So, naturally, she

• Hired an 18-year-old to help her set up a MySpace account
• Created a non-existent but totally hot "Josh"
• Strung Megan along with this ideal boyfriend
• Then had "Josh" demean Megan's character and dump her

Ms. Drew's defense lawyer says that she didn't mean any harm at all, and was just trying to find out if Megan was mean.

Terrific.

After Ms. Drew and her employee drove Megan to suicide, the suburb of St. Louis where the hit happened, Dardenne Prairie, adopted a law making Internet harassment a crime. I suppose that, after a few more people are killed, the state of Missouri may follow suit.

I've harangued on this murder already, in "Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace (November 13, 2007), so I'll stop now.

Posts, including this one, about the online predation of Megan Meier:
"Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
(December 6, 2007)
"Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems"
(December 6, 2007)
" 'Murder?' Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead"
(December 4, 2007)
"Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace"
(November 13, 2007)

Good Stories Getting Passed Around and Intellectual Property Rights

My last post, "The Christmas Letter," showed how a well-written piece can be copied and spread across the Internet.

Often without the permission, or name, of the author.

My guess, in the case of "Fun_People Archive - 9 Dec [1998] / Christmas is coming.......Erma Bombeck / Martha Stewart" and "Dear Darling Son (and That Person You Married)" from Collage 322, H u m o u r N e t, 25 Dec 1996), the originals were written by people on a bulletin board. In each case, the board's TOS (Terms of Service) probably spelled out that anything submitted to the board became either the intellectual property of the board's owner, or public domain.

At least, I hope that was the scenario.

I understand that there are people who don't expect to be rewarded for their efforts, literary or otherwise. Benjamin Franklin, for example, helped establish the American Patent Office. But, despite inventing bifocals, the Franklin stove, and a number of other items, Mr. Franklin never took out a patent.

On the other hand, many writers want to be paid for their efforts. Or at least get the courtesy of having their names listed as author.

With echoes of the sixties still echoing in today's culture, the idea of exchanging money for work seems crass and bourgeois to many people. I'm not one of those people. I've done work for free, and still do: but that's the exception, not the rule.

When I wrote advertising copy, I didn't expect public recognition as the author of those fliers and order forms. There aren't bylines in advertising. But I did expect to get paid. And, for ten years I supported my family by exchanging my writing skills for a fairly regular paycheck: an arrangement I was satisfied with.

This may seem old-fashioned, but I believe that it's a good idea to reward people for creating things that other people enjoy. Art for art's sake, and a refined disdain for crass material gain is all well and good: But being paid, so you can put potatoes on the table for another week, is also a worthwhile goal.

Related posts, on Intellectual Property Rights

Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace

"Josh" targeted Megan, a thirteen-year-old girl, making her think that he was a true friend - and boyfriend. On a MySpace account, it's not hard to be anyone you want to be.

In the real world, Megan was thirteen, overweight (but working on that), had ADD, and had problems with depression.

Then, "Josh Evans" told Megan Meier "I don’t know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I’ve heard that you are not very nice to your friends." Things went downhill from there.

Finally, Megan killed herself.

"Josh" doesn't exist. He's a MySpace account created by the parents of a girl Megan knew. These alleged grown-ups decided to teach Megan a lesson, because their daughter and Megan weren't friends any more.

So, they created "Josh," and used him to torment Megan until Megan killed herself.

I'm skipping the usual "alleged" stuff here, because the police told Megan's parents that there would be no charges in the case, since no law was broken.

Sweet.

---

Assuming that hounding a teenage girl until she kills herself is legal, as long as you do it online, we've got a serious problem.

I'm concerned about at least two of the possible futures we're looking at:

• Laws don't change, official attitudes remain stuck in the world that was -
  With individuals and families left to protect themselves online
• Lawmakers have one of those paroxysms of legislative passion, and create a techno-illiterate, draconian, zero-tolerance/zero-sense piece of legislation that will keep courts and lawyers employed for decades.

Until that distant day comes, when people in leadership positions have a clue about email, the Web, and other information technology(1), we're on our own.

I think that includes letting our kids know that people they meet online may not be as-advertised.

More, on:

• Blogger News Network
• Wentzville Journal
• St. Charles Journal

Don't be surprised if you don't make a connection: Their servers seem busy this morning.

---

(1) People get into high-level executive positions, in business and government, in their fifties (forties, for over-achievers). So, my guess is that it will be thirty or forty years before we have leaders who understand the Internet as well as today's leaders understand the telephone.

Posts, including this one, about the online predation of Megan Meier:
"Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
(December 6, 2007)
"Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems"
(December 6, 2007)
" 'Murder?' Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead"
(December 4, 2007)
"Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace"
(November 13, 2007)

Pretty Good Marketing Advice

"13 Ways to Earn the Trust of Online Purchasers" is a pretty good how-2 summary for gaining customer trust. Unless you suffer from triskaidekaphobia, of course.

Never Heard of Quechup? Lucky You!

"Spam alert! Just say no to Quechup" explains what Quechup is, and why you shouldn't sign up for the service.

It looks like good advice. I did a quick search, and found "spam" and "sting" repeated in reference to the service.

Dress This Squirrel

"Virtual Paper Squirrel," with drag-and-drop clothing and accessories, is just plain fun.

And, with a little work, printable.

Stealing Intellectual Property Isn't Nice

An earlier post today, "Worst High School Analogies, plus Gilbert and Sullivan," introduced me to a good parody of a Gilbert and Sullivan song.

It also introduced me to another example of Internet users' fast-and-loose treatment of intellectual property rights. The lyrics of "I am the very model of a Newsgroup personality" are funny, and for the most part well-written. They've also been spread across cyberspace, sometimes without an author being claimed. "Tom Holt" may have written the piece, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,"(1) but I wouldn't want to be flattered this way. It's not just pride of authorship, although that's a factor. I'm trying to support my family, partly through income generated by my writing. Writers, particularly those who are so 'inartistic' as to desire monetary rewards for their efforts, may not want their work to be distributed without

• Consent
• Acknowledgment of authorship
• Pay

For professional writers, and writers trying to make a career of using their talent and skill, this sort of casual theft can be a serious matter.

A Google search for "I am the very model of a Newsgroup personality" yielded over a thousand hits. Google's de-duping system pared it down to 22. Here are the links that were still working, and had lyrics at the linked page.

• http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=997390
• http://www.luxumbradei.com/parody/newsgroup.html
  (Tom Holt credited)
• http://sillysoft.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9749&view=next
  (this post acknowledges that the words were "found online.")
• http://www.talkaboutagriculture.com/group/uk.business.agriculture/messages/151534.htm
  (poster acknowledges source! "Newsgroup Ditty - original poster (Australian newsgroup) unknown")
• http://groups.google.com/group/rec.travel.asia/browse_thread/thread/90d69feaaf5f2fa6
• http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiNEWSGRP.html
  (another "Tom Holt" credit)
• http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiNERDSONG.html
  (without "Tom Holt" credit)
• http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t75374.html
  (the poster acknowledges, "This appeared on usenet many, many years ago.")
• http://world.std.com/~mhuben/gsonline
  (Kudos! The poster is open, and curious: "This turned up in my e-mail. If anyone knows of the original source or a site that really hosts this ditty, I'd like to find out. M. Huben")
• http://p70-144.acedsl.com/xywrite/2000/msg01131.htm
  ("Subject: 'Roadkill' Gibson sings Gilbert and Sullivan")
• http://www.talkaboutculture.com/group/soc.culture.thai/messages/506150.html
• http://www.c4vct.com/kym/humor/rns.htm

I ran the last entry, "c4vct," past the free version of Copyscape. The results were interesting: 10 hits, with a promise of more with the paid version of the service.

Related posts on Apathetic Lemming of the North:

• Stealing Intellectual Property Isn't Nice
  (August 29, 2007)
• Mis-Matched and Unattributed: Double Whammy for These Blog Posts
  (August 26, 2007)
• Intellectual Property Rights: A Borderline Post?
  (August 22, 2007)
• Intellectual Property Violation: What to Do
  (August 15, 2007)
• Intellectual Property Violation: This Time With Laughs
  (August 10, 2007)
• Copyright Material Ripped Off? You're not alone.
  (August 9, 2007)
• Plagiarism-Finder Site: Copyscape
  (August 9, 2007)
• Another Abuse of Copyright: If This Isn't Illegal, it Should Be!
  (August 9, 2007)
• Copyright: a List You Shouldn't Myth
  (August 8, 2007)
• Copy, Steal, Rob, Whatever: Another Violation of Intellectual Property Rights
  (August 3, 2007)
• Copyright Infringement, YouTube, and Video Sharing
  (July 28, 2007)
• Sploggers: Intellectual Property Thieves
  (July 28, 2007)

(1) Charles Caleb Colton, "Lacon," volume I, no. 183

Statistics for the Non-Statistician

Unless you're of the "my mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts" school, or know more about statistics than the average liberal arts major, you'll want to read "Statistics Every Writer Should Know." (RobertNiles.com)

It's a short, relatively painless, introduction to what words like "mean," "median," "Percent," even arcane terms like "standard deviation" and "normal distribution."

Also, a little about how sample sizes, and a few links to reliable sources of information.

---

Blogs, Facts, and "I Saw an Article"

The U.S. Navy carrier Lincoln almost ATTACKED a Newfoundland Lighthouse in 1995!!

And I HAVE PROOF!!!

"Divert your course," a Washington blog post, dated August 1, 2005, reveals the ACTUAL TRANSCRIPT, released by CANADIAN AUTHORITIES!

If you don't believe it, a photocopy of an ACTUAL NEWS STORY is posted HERE!!!

This is how it ends:

"AMERICANS: This is the Aircraft CARRIER US LINCOLN, the second largest ship in the United States Atlantic Fleet. We are accompanied with three Destroyers, three Cruisers and numerous support vessels. I DEMAND that you change your course 15 degrees north. I say again, that's one-five degrees north, or counter-measures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of his ship.

"CANADIANS: This is a lighthouse. Your call."

THE PRIDE! THE ARROGANCE! WHAT KIND OF BULLYING FOOLS DO WE HAVE IN THE MILITARY?!!!

---

Now, take a deep breath, count to ten, and think happy thoughts.

This post, up to the short gray line, is bogus. Only the links are real.

The "Divert your course" link is to a Washing student's blog. State or D.C., he doesn't say. The student may not believe the story: "Divert your course" is in a "jokes" directory.

The graphic may be a joke, too. I'll let you decide, if you're interested. I'm about as certain that it's a fake as I can be about anything. I know that I could put together a "news story" like that, complete with cut-marks and blurry type. It's still a pretty good fake, though.

Snopes discusses this hoax, at "The Obstinate Lighthouse," and the U.S. Navy, "'The Lighthouse Joke'."

Apparently, the USS Coral Sea, USS Missouri (decommissioned on 31 March 1992), and USS Nimitz have been buzzing that lighthouse, too.

With all that traffic, no wonder they need a lighthouse!

I've run into the bogus news article rather frequently when bumping through StumpbleUpon. And I found it on a page on Digg where it appeared in the comments. To be fair, one of the responses to the comment read, "Stop digging this up you idiots...".

Seriously, this is a good example of why bloggers, or anyone else on the Internet, should think a little before believing what they see.

"Trust, but verify" might be a good principle to apply here. The Internet is a gold mine of information, but there's a lot of iron pyrite lying around, too.

I'd say that it's particularly important to verify information when it perfectly backs up your beliefs and is from a source you don't know, or when the story is too good to be true. It probably is.

I enjoy this story, and think that it's a good fable for illustrating hubris.

I may even re-tell it, someday.

But, when I do, I'll be sure to identify it as fiction.

---

Writing Right for the Web

This is a close to a must-read for anyone who is serious about writing on the Web

For anybody who is serious about writing on the Web, "How Users Read on the Web" is about as close to a must-read as I've seen since this blog began. (That was July 22, 2007, not all that long ago.)

Online technology has changed a great deal since "How Users Read on the Web" was written (October 1, 1997).

Human beings haven't.

The advice is practical, and includes a table that shows a control paragraph, three revisions of the text, and a fourth revision which combines features of the first three.