OT: Name some things that drive you fucking nuts

[dare2be]

I guess I should have been clearer. Everything in the article, not just the science, was made up. Halliburton never made an announcement about solar panels, WIT doesn't exist, the whole thing is a lie.

But it's not written like a satire, it's written like it's true. So either the author just made a bunch of stuff up and wrote it to trick people, or he tried satire and failed miserably. Satire is not supposed to be that subtle. Especially when not getting it could cause major problems.

I actually am leaning toward "outright and intentional lie to deceive people," though.

Well, it worked...they (nationalreport.net) fooled me. If there was a think tank named WIT, I wouldn't have put it past Halliburton to commission such a study.

Anyway, satire sites like that are extremely dangerous. I see even Fox News and other supposedly reputable news outlets have been fooled by the site and used "information" in actual articles/reports.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

Well, it worked...they (nationalreport.net) fooled me. If there was a think tank named WIT, I wouldn't have put it past Halliburton to commission such a study.

Anyway, satire sites like that are extremely dangerous. I see even Fox News and other supposedly reputable news outlets have been fooled by the site and used "information" in actual articles/reports.

When so many people can't even figure out that The Onion is satire, I'm not sure the satire sites are entirely to blame.

A few of my favorites:
Congressman thought parody article on Planned Parenthood was real
Fox Nation readers confuse Onion article with real news

Or this entire site: Literally Unbelievable

 

[forty_three]

Yeah, though I think those are more designed with "future expansion" (read: never gonna happen) in mind rather than changed their minds.

There's one unfinished exit that I drive past frequently. They built and graded the entire thing, just never bother to pave it. Stuck a couple Jersey barriers in front of it at both ends and called it a day. Now they have to send trucks out a couple times a month to move the barriers back into place because people move them out of the way and use the exit anyhow. Might be because it was originally designed as the only exit for a 5 mile stretch (as in it's currently 5 miles between exits and this was supposed to be about halfway) and because the two "real" exits on either side get horribly backed up.

I guess if they really are thinking future expansion though, it would be good, since they don't normally think that way around here. For example: the final major interchange for the outer loop was built as a terminus interchange about 10 years ago because the highway ended there at the time. But rather than building it as a full interchange but just not using a portion of it until the rest of the road opened, they're now spending approximately $90M of our taxpayer dollars to completely re-build that interchange.

They're also talking about the need to widen I-77, which runs immediately to the west of downtown and is the major north/south commuter route in the area. They're saying that an approximately 10 miles stretch will likely cost north of $1B (yeah, that's right, that's a B...as in billion) or $100M per mile. In that 10 mile stretch I think they said there's something like 8-10 bridges they need to pass under and only 1 has capacity to add more lanes, so all the rest will need to be completely re-built. And the state sold off almost all of the right-of-way alongside the highways, so they would need to purchase all the land. Yeah, $100M per mile.

I guess I didn't travel enough around Charlotte. My sister lives just across Lake Wylie in SC, and when we first went down there an visited we were kind of impressed how all the roads were plenty wide and even though there wasn't a lot of business or houses out there yet, you could tell they were planning. I thought it was the same the whole area. Guess not.

100 mil per mile is ridiculous. And they don't have any type of light rail or anything, correct?

That bil could be better spent, perhaps.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

I guess I didn't travel enough around Charlotte. My sister lives just across Lake Wylie in SC, and when we first went down there an visited we were kind of impressed how all the roads were plenty wide and even though there wasn't a lot of business or houses out there yet, you could tell they were planning. I thought it was the same the whole area. Guess not.

100 mil per mile is ridiculous. And they don't have any type of light rail or anything, correct?

That bil could be better spent, perhaps.

Some parts of SC are a lot better. Take I-77 for example. Through much of the stretch between Columbia, SC and the state line it's a 2 lane (each way) highway. Starting around Rock Hill, SC (~15 miles south of the state line) it starts to widen, eventually becoming 4 lanes each way plus some temporary interchange lanes. Then when it hits the state line, it immediately drops to 3 lanes, which and stays that way for approximately 10 miles (the billion $ stretch) before becoming a jumbled mess of 3-5 lanes depending on exits and such. This lasts for about 3 miles to the I-85 interchange, when it becomes 3 lanes plus an HOV. This lasts for about 6 miles when the HOV lane disappears. About 2 miles past that, the outerbelt comes in and the same 3 lanes last for just under 2 miles and the road then narrows to 2 lanes in each direction. This is less than 15 miles north of downtown.

There is a light rail option, but it's pretty minimal right now. It runs about 10 miles south from downtown along a road called South Blvd. which more-or-less runs parallel to and about 1.5 miles east of I-77. They're also working on an approximately 10 mile expansion that will run northeast from downtown towards the university area. They're also working on an approximately 10 mile (notice a pattern here?) east-west section which will run through some low income areas in the hopes of jumpstarting some gentrification of those areas (if you look at an income map of Charlotte, it looks kinda like an hourglass). There are plans for various other routes that aren't under construction yet, but it's a bit of too little too late. The city is so sprawled out that it would take an absurdly extensive network to cover it all.

 

[Darkstone42]

Well, it worked...they (nationalreport.net) fooled me. If there was a think tank named WIT, I wouldn't have put it past Halliburton to commission such a study.

Anyway, satire sites like that are extremely dangerous. I see even Fox News and other supposedly reputable news outlets have been fooled by the site and used "information" in actual articles/reports.

When so many people can't even figure out that The Onion is satire, I'm not sure the satire sites are entirely to blame.

A few of my favorites:
Congressman thought parody article on Planned Parenthood was real
Fox Nation readers confuse Onion article with real news

Or this entire site: Literally Unbelievable

I think it's important to specify satire, or be sufficiently over-the-top that it's obvious. I think The Onion does a good job of being either sufficiently innocuous with their topics and information or sufficiently over-the-top that people should recognize the satire even when they're not familiar with the site. However, they may be well-served to indicate their satirical intentions overtly on the site.

Lesser-known satire sites, though, and satire written for actual news sources need to be extra clear to prevent misinterpretation and the resulting spread of misinformation. This site/article failed miserably there, and that's what drives me nuts.

 

[Comeds]

When so many people can't even figure out that The Onion is satire, I'm not sure the satire sites are entirely to blame.

A few of my favorites:
Congressman thought parody article on Planned Parenthood was real
Fox Nation readers confuse Onion article with real news

Or this entire site: Literally Unbelievable

Well so far thats about 45 minutes of time well spent at that site. Thanks!

 

[forty_three]

Well so far thats about 45 minutes of time well spent at that site. Thanks!

Agreed. Several people on my friends list were taken in by the Biden butterfly knife one.

 

[dare2be]

I think it's important to specify satire, or be sufficiently over-the-top that it's obvious. I think The Onion does a good job of being either sufficiently innocuous with their topics and information or sufficiently over-the-top that people should recognize the satire even when they're not familiar with the site. However, they may be well-served to indicate their satirical intentions overtly on the site.

Lesser-known satire sites, though, and satire written for actual news sources need to be extra clear to prevent misinterpretation and the resulting spread of misinformation. This site/article failed miserably there, and that's what drives me nuts.

Yep, the Onion is well-done satire, that reads as actual news but once you delve into the story, you can tell that they are fake. I blame the reader who gets fooled by it.

It looks like NationalReport is trying to spoof NationalReview readers, as it reads just like NationalReview (name and articles) which is an actual right-wing opinion site. I just thought NationalReport was just another clone of a NationalReview type site, and not a spoof.

 

[Darkstone42]

Yep, the Onion is well-done satire, that reads as actual news but once you delve into the story, you can tell that they are fake. I blame the reader who gets fooled by it.

It looks like NationalReport is trying to spoof NationalReview readers, as it reads just like NationalReview (name and articles) which is an actual right-wing opinion site. I just thought NationalReport was just another clone of a NationalReview type site, and not a spoof.

Looking at other articles on the site, it's pretty clear it's a satire page. But just seeing that one article, I wasn't entirely sure.

 

[dare2be]

Hell, NationalReview reads like a satire site, hence my confusion.

 

[elocomotive]

Or this entire site: Literally Unbelievable

This is an awesome find.

 

[elocomotive]

By the way, Energy Secretary Steven Chu jokingly commenting about one of the Onion articles as if it were real is the most hilarious one I've seen so far.

LINK

 

[Comeds]

This is an awesome find.

I spent an embarrassing/awesome amount of time there today.

 

[forty_three]

I spent an embarrassing/awesome amount of time there today.

As did I. I was shocked at the number of people who believed the one about the guy who died after a 4 year battle with a gorilla.

 

[elocomotive]

As did I. I was shocked at the number of people who believed the one about the guy who died after a 4 year battle with a gorilla.

I spent an embarrassing/awesome amount of time there today.

I did as well.

The most shocking to me are when a news outlet quotes them.

 

[Darkstone42]

I didn't go through everything, but was the Bill Nye dies in baking soda and vinegar experiment accident one on there? I love that one.

 

[Darkstone42]

So The University of Arizona recreation center charged a surprise $55 dollar fee to all graduate students' accounts on the 21. No announcement, didn't get it approved by the relevant committees, just charged us the money.

I sent an email to the director who charged us the fee and, conveniently, they took a 10-day vacation starting the day after the fee was assessed.

I do not like being charged extra, unannounced, unapproved fees. Especially for something which is already covered in our current fees. Especially especially when our current fees are 4.5% of our total annual stipends before taxes.

I sent a strongly worded email.

 

[Comeds]

The gorilla story just seemed to confuse a lot of people. The article "Dick Van Dyke: I'm The Zodiac Killer" had me teary eyed from laughing.

Mo lestTech was good too

 

[elocomotive]

The gorilla story just seemed to confuse a lot of people. The article "Dick Van Dyke: I'm The Zodiac Killer" had me teary eyed from laughing.

Mo lestTech was good too

I don't know why but the one about Sochi putting all the euthanized street dogs back on the streets response was hilarious. "why are they putting these dogs on the street if they are dead?!?"

I think the ones where even if you had no idea what the Onion even was you'd have to be insane to think it is real are the funniest of all.

 

[elocomotive]

PS - that's ridiculous, Darkstone. When you're already paying $10s of thousands, it's just an insult when they sweat the $55 fee.