Sources and the Internet

There are few people in the internet that is worth it to read. Mark Cuban and his blog over at blogmaverick just talked about how blogs can form truth in a media that's turning away from journalism. If one blog reports it, then another reports on what that blog reports it, it must be true then, right? Well, unfortunately, there is a lot of that out there. Take a read over on his blog to get his take and the whole story.

Kinda makes me worried about reading print, just check your sources I guess.

Echo On the Internet

Washington Post's Peter Baker got robbed. He did the time and research for a well written article to all but have his by-line cut and a link at the bottom of the page that all but gives the Washington Post writer his due. The linking site, rawstory.com didn't deserve the 1200+ diggs. "This according to the Washington Post" and the link at the bottom doesn't absolve the fact that someone else's original research was being rebroadcasted.

I realize that a blog's purpose is to regurgitate the web for its own purpose, but at least give your constituency some level of opinion on the article instead of truncating it and posting. And grats on the Digg user for not having the brains to link the original article as it says in plain text on Digg's site when you submit an article (second bullet down).

I guess in the end what bugs me most is the lack of authorship on the web and seeing it get rewarded. You have people who blog under a company, people who do it like a pseudo job-hobby and seem to be doing well from it, and people who do it just to throw words out on the internet. Don't be the third category and just mince quotes into a new article. That is borderline disrespectful.

I'm all for voice on the internet, but if all you are is just a faint echo then what's the point?

Woman Arrested for WoW Love Affair

"She was a 31 mage, he was a 17 warrior. Unfortunately, we're talking about their ages."The synompsis is short, a 17 year old American NC boy meets 31 (admittedly kinda cute) Aussie from World of Warcraft and agree to meet in the States. In fact the 17 year old boy (or as the Aussie's family suggest, the parents of the 17 year old) fund the ticket for her to come and visit and immediately gets picked up by police. Unfortunately for her, a year is all that seperates prison and freedom. Now the big question, if it was an Aussie man visiting an NC girl, there would be an outrage. It'd be on the news everywhere and Hannity and Colmes would be interviewing everyone and their brother, touting justice has been served. Since I was 17 years old once, I feel like I could say how I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with the situation. If this was a 27 year old and a 41 year old, this wouldn't even be a blip in interest, so the difference? The law, apparently, and the fact that I wouldn't trust the love judgements from a 17 male WoW player. If I was a judge, I'd probably just extradite her and give her a year in prison or serveral years of probation. Yeah, 18 is the law but its not some magical number. In the end, I don't get the 'sicko' feeling and more like 'the law pwned you hardcore'. Life lesson learned kids: Wait another year IMO.

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