Blog Reflection 5

For a brief moment, I epitomized the characterization of Aggies in not recognizing that Dihydrogen Monoxide was in fact water. Seeing that the website was listed as a .org domain, I was initially caught off guard. Even though I have nothing but suspicion when I look on the web, I was taken for a ride. Just as Professor Butz's appallingly idiotic explanation for the Holocaust, this website was under the radar because most people only perfunctorily glance at where the website comes from. The fact that it lists reputable websites such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, Sandia National Laboratories, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace leads one to believe that there may be a grain of truth to the assertions until one does what the internet has impeded and that is think. This website was obviously created to make a solid point. That or the author really had very little to do with his or her time. It is a bit funny when one reads that it is loosely affiliated with the US Environment Center and it's division on creating awareness of the dangers of water. When I typed in the URL on altavista.com, the second entry is wikipedia's page on the DHMO hoax. Then a website devoted to the Dental Health Maintenance Organization comes up. Go.com provides the very same results. Yahoo.directory.com only provides sites connected to the website in question and another entry on uncyclopedia.wikia.com which is clearly nothing but nonsense. Teoma.com provides the same results. In looking for the author through easywhois, I discovered that Tom Way from Newark, Delaware was the sole author. I find it hard to believe a single individual,especially if he is from Newark,Delaware. In using this web source, it was hard for me to give any weight to what was written on the website. In using archive.org, I discovered that practically nothing had changed on the website from the time it was first created to the present date. I would imagine that if water were really that detrimental to the community and the health of its members, there would be some kind of development, but like the movement to save the tree octopus, there is nothing to it. Even if one does not want to go through the trouble of looking up the specifics about the website, one must merely read about hos dihydrogen monoxide is related to cult rituals, the KKK, the NAACP, death camps, school violence and other sinister aspects of life, to realize that it is merely a joke. The truth is that even before the dot.com bubble and the new Web 2.0 renaissance, people tended to be rather gullible. Why else would advertising be so lucrative and so much money spent on figuring out how to direct customer behavior? The sad fact is that people will believe almost anything. This website, like the website about harvesting velcro and nineteenth century robots, is a good joke. Unlike these two examples, one can almost be taken in if the reader only briefly looks at the site and lazily uses it in a report. It is almost as good as allaboutexplorers.com, but anyone who received a C in seventh grade science will remember that two plus two is four and the H20 is water. Likewise, anyone with any common sense will read through that site and realize that the information provided is sprinkled with complete nonsense.