Saturday, December 19, 2009

The Accuracy of the Internet

Example
A repost from this blog circa August, 2004

Some of the stuff on the internet really is amazing. I got a call the other day from a fact checker on the West Coast that is editing some kind of general dog book. They wanted to know if it was true that a Jack Russell terrier had killed 3 tons of rats in one day!

"Uh no, that would be a lie or a very serious mis-statement," I replied. I explained to the woman that Brian Plummer claimed his TEAM of dogs had killed 3 tons of rats over the course of a YEAR in the mid-1970s, and that this was certainly possible, though still impressive and, oddly enough, there were no pictures. Oh. And the dogs were not Jack Russells.

By they way, I inquired, where had she gotten this little nugget of misinformation that she was about to pass on between two bits of cardboard and charge a price for?

She steered me to this web site which describes a Jack Russell Terrier as a dog that weighs 7 pounds and is 10 inches tall. According to this web site the dog originates in Germany, and the prefered color is black, "but black/tan, red or dark gray are also allowed."

According to this site, the Rev. John Russell crossed Trump with bull terriers and pocket beagles to get the modern Jack Russell.

Sure he did. And yes, it's a 7 pound dog from Germany, and the best color is black. Absolutely!

.

No comments:

Post a Comment