Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    An experiment on the gullibility of today's yoof: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2011/02/tree-octopus-exposes-internet-illiteracy/


    Researchers asked students to find out information about the endangered Pacific Northwest tree octopus. Students had no problem locating a Web site dedicated to the cause, http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ “but insisted on the existence of the made-up story, even after researchers explained the information on the website was completely fabricated,” according to a press release.

    Also from the PR:

    Most students "simply have very little in the way of critical evaluation skills," he said. "They may tell you they don't believe everything they read on the Internet, but they do."



  • Moved to sidebar.



  •  I can't be bothered with your stupid octopus, I have a dangerous chemical to ban



  • @DOA said:

     I can't be bothered with your stupid octopus, I have a dangerous chemical to ban

    It's so dangerous and addictive at the same time ! Everyone I know his addicted to it and the few that try to loose their addiction die ! It's so much worse then cocaine or crack. And to think it's so easily available ! Please somebody think of the children !



  • Wow, welcome to 1998. Why is this popping back up now?



  • @TheMugs said:

    @DOA said:

     I can't be bothered with your stupid octopus, I have a dangerous chemical to ban

    It's so dangerous and addictive at the same time ! Everyone I know his addicted to it and the few that try to loose their addiction die ! It's so much worse then cocaine or crack. And to think it's so easily available ! Please somebody think of the children !

    What's even worse is that in most locations, traces of it can be found throughout the environment, and the Government does nothing about it.  In fact, the Government actively tries to maintain higher than natural levels of it in the Western US.



  • The study also found that students shunned search engines in favor of typing what they think is the right site directly into the address bar, such as Georgewashington.com. When they did use a search engine, they skipped right over legitimate pages ”because it didn’t look like what they had in mind,” Leu said.

    “That’s what children do with their rock stars and their other cultural stars. They are accustomed to typing in the name and adding ‘.com.’ That often doesn’t work for real academic research,” Leu said.

    I call bullshit. People actually do the opposite of what the article says, Googling for something as simple as "facebook login".



  • " They may tell you they don't believe everything they read on the Internet, but they do."

    No surprise there. That is, after all, why cons and scams work.



  • @MiffTheFox said:

    I call bullshit. People actually do the opposite of what the article says, Googling for something as simple as "facebook login".

    Yup.

    And the foundation of one of Google's biggest scams. "Do no evil" indeed.



  •  [quote user="That tree octopus article"]They are accustomed to typing in the name and adding ‘.com.’ That often doesn’t work for real academic research.[/quote]

    It doesn't?



  • @PSWorx said:

     [quote user="That tree octopus article"]They are accustomed to typing in the name and adding ‘.com.’ That often doesn’t work for real academic research.

    It doesn't?

    [/quote]

    I've always found ctrl+enter to be more than adequate.



  • @MiffTheFox said:

    The study also found that students shunned search engines in favor of typing what they think is the right site directly into the address bar, such as Georgewashington.com. When they did use a search engine, they skipped right over legitimate pages ”because it didn’t look like what they had in mind,” Leu said.

    “That’s what children do with their rock stars and their other cultural stars. They are accustomed to typing in the name and adding ‘.com.’ That often doesn’t work for real academic research,” Leu said.

    I call bullshit. People actually do the opposite of what the article says, Googling for something as simple as "facebook login".

     

    I remember comming accross this years ago, its entirely possible that this thing was written back before google took over the search world, and all that was available for search was shitty sites like webcrawler, yahoo, and excite. I am almost certian that the article is over a decade old.

    *EDIT* Or at least those particular quotes quoted above are over a decade old. The article linked by the OP seems to be a re-hashing of this by some teacher in san antonio, i.e. this is what the teacher does every year, but now decided to blog about it, and has little to no actuall information in it. I do know this is actually a very common lesson plan among teachers of the lower grades.



  • @esoterik said:

    I remember comming accross this years ago, its entirely possible that this thing was written back before google took over the search world, and all that was available for search was shitty sites like webcrawler, yahoo, and excite. I am almost certian that the article is over a decade old.

    *EDIT* Or at least those particular quotes quoted above are over a decade old. The article linked by the OP seems to be a re-hashing of this by some teacher in san antonio, i.e. this is what the teacher does every year, but now decided to blog about it, and has little to no actuall information in it. I do know this is actually a very common lesson plan among teachers of the lower grades.

     

    The quotes may be, but either the whole tree octopus operation isn't or it became an internet meme without anyone noticing. At least there is apparently new tree octopus merchandise from december 2010

    <edit><ot> Somewhere else on that site there is also this hilarious conspiracy theory spoof involving SpectateSwamp's former employer and... um... Big Foot. Coincidence? I think not! </ot></edit>



  • @esoterik said:

    I remember comming accross this years ago, its entirely possible that this thing was written back before google took over the search world, and all that was available for search was shitty sites like webcrawler, yahoo, and excite. I am almost certian that the article is over a decade old.

    The author's talking about an article from February 2010, but it could be that none of the people who complained about the login page in response to that particular piece were actually confused.



  •  I reeally like that page.It's a gem. Lot's of links to other goofy sites, like the Flying Squid and the Monster of Rock Nest. But best of all, the this tree dwelling mollusk is endangered because Sasquash is preying on it.

     

    Awesome. Must have been lot's of fun to make.



  • @PSWorx said:

    The quotes may be, but either the whole tree octopus operation isn't or it became an internet meme without anyone noticing. At least there is apparently new tree octopus merchandise from december 2010

    It probably just became a meme before anybody cared about memes. I can guarantee that tree octopus site was up when I was a freshman in college, around 1998. It's contemporary with Bonzai Kitten, Zombo.com and Lobster Magnet. I've been following memes for a long time. (Just because the site's still updated, doesn't mean it's new!)

    Here's a reference to it from Nov 29, 2000: http://web.pitas.com/skeptilog/01_12_2000a.html


  • Garbage Person

    @blakeyrat said:

    It probably just became a meme before anybody cared about memes. I can guarantee that tree octopus site was up when I was a freshman in college, around 1998. It's contemporary with Bonzai Kitten, Zombo.com and Lobster Magnet. I've been following memes for a long time. (Just because the site's still updated, doesn't mean it's new!)
    LOBSTER STICKS TO MAGNET.

    Why is that shit still in my brain? And really, if this is coming around again, we're almost due for All Your Base again.



  • @Weng said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    It probably just became a meme before anybody cared about memes. I can guarantee that tree octopus site was up when I was a freshman in college, around 1998. It's contemporary with Bonzai Kitten, Zombo.com and Lobster Magnet. I've been following memes for a long time. (Just because the site's still updated, doesn't mean it's new!)
    LOBSTER STICKS TO MAGNET.

    Why is that shit still in my brain? And really, if this is coming around again, we're almost due for All Your Base again.

    Maybe it's cyclic, but we just haven't had the web long enough for a single cycle to pass. Scary thought. Although I kind of look forward to seeing Hyakugojyuuichi!! again.



  • "They may tell you they don't believe everything they read on the Internet, but they do."
    We need to write "don't believe what is written on the internet" all over the net and then laugh at their confusion.@Weng said:
    Why is that shit still in my brain? And really, if this is coming around again, we're almost due for All Your Base again.
    What to you mean "again"? I don't think it was ever gone.

     



  • @Zecc said:

    "They may tell you they don't believe everything they read on the Internet, but they do."
    We need to write "don't believe what is written on the internet" all over the net and then laugh at their confusion.@Weng said:
    Why is that shit still in my brain? And really, if this is coming around again, we're almost due for All Your Base again.
    What to you mean "again"? I don't think it was ever gone.

     

    Some things go in 20-year cycles. Like how in the 70s, the 50s were popular so they made Happy Days. Then in the 90s, the 70s briefly became popular, so all of a sudden Happy Days was on TV again, which was 90s nostalgia for the 70s for the 50s.

    Or as a better example, every popular cartoon from the late 80s is now turning into a feature film 20 years later. Or how the Garfield movie was made almost exactly 20 years after Garfield reached his peak of popularity.

    So the point is, Internet memes might be on a 20-year cycle, but it just hasn't been long enough to go through one cycle yet.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Some things go in 20-year cycles.

    For TV shows at least, the reason is quite simple. All the people who watched shows as children in the year t are in the year t+20 just old enough to have children on their own and/or go into the OMG CHILDHOOD MEMORIES phase.

    Time will tell if this effect works on internet memes as well, but I find it very likely.

    @Weng said:

    LOBSTER STICKS TO MAGNET.

    Exhibit A.

     



  • @MiffTheFox said:

    The study also found that students shunned search engines in favor of typing what they think is the right site directly into the address bar, such as Georgewashington.com. When they did use a search engine, they skipped right over legitimate pages ”because it didn’t look like what they had in mind,” Leu said.

    “That’s what children do with their rock stars and their other cultural stars. They are accustomed to typing in the name and adding ‘.com.’ That often doesn’t work for real academic research,” Leu said.

    I call bullshit. People actually do the opposite of what the article says, Googling for something as simple as "facebook login".

     

    Keep in mind that we live in a world where you have to know that looking for "job listings" implies "monster", and "buy books" translates to "amazon".  Given such high-profile examples where the principal site for a search target bears no relationship whatsoever to the thing being searched for, why even waste time typing in the keywords?


  • Considered Harmful

    @PJH and now they're gone. there is not a single tree octopus in the entire coastal rainforest. it is as though they never existed.


  • BINNED

    @Gribnit
    I blame global warming


  • 🚽 Regular

    @Gribnit said in Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus:

    @PJH and now they're gone. there is not a single tree octopus in the entire coastal rainforest. it is as though they never existed.

    It was loss of habitat because of aggressive spaghetti tree planting, very sad:

    BBC: Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino | Switzerland Tourism – 02:29
    — MySwitzerland


  • 🚽 Regular


  • Considered Harmful

    @Zecc said in Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus:

    @Cursorkeys said in Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus:

    habit

    @

    Mmm, no, habit is accurate. It's a strange and depressing story indeed.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @Gribnit said in Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus:

    @PJH and now they're gone. there is not a single tree octopus in the entire coastal rainforest. it is as though they never existed.

    It's a conspiracy! They cut off two of the legs and claim it's not a hexapod, but I'm not fooled one bit!



  • @Gribnit said in Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus:

    @PJH and now they're gone. there is not a single tree octopus in the entire coastal rainforest. it is as though they never existed.

    @blakeyrat said in Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus:

    Wow, welcome to 1998. Why is this popping back up now?

    INB4: /post/152308



  • Since I can't see the original article "for legal reasons", can anyone tell me whether the students in question were biology majors? Was the latin name of the species given?
    If not, then then did the original hoax page give direct indicators of being a hoax, such as contradicting itself or presenting impossibilities recognizable by knowledge of high-school level physics?

    We have beavers with duckbills and poisoned talons, that lay eggs AND lactate cluttering up the highly theoretical family tree of species, so I wouldn't blame the students for not recognizing tree-climbing squid as a hoax. Also, even with good search engines, you can't prove inexistence of anything.

    Not helped by the basic school curriculum which fails to teach basic critical thinking. I mean, half the planet thinks that peppered moths live on tree trunks land on tree trunks randomly (turns out they search for a spot matching their camoflage).

    Edit:
    Corrected by Googling search on moth behavior.



  • @PSWorx said in Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus:

     [quote user="That tree octopus article"]They are accustomed to typing in the name and adding ‘.com.’ That often doesn’t work for real academic research.[/quote]

    It doesn't?

    It did when I needed to do academic research about Homestar Runner dot com.




  • 🔀

    @hungrier said in Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus:

    @everybody

    You cal...

    Oh - never mind.


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