h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Aargh and double aargh. I've been ranting for years now about the ignoramuses who prevent the internet from reaching its full potential as a reference source. You know the people I mean: the ones who think they're clever because they have opposable thumbs. These appendages allow them to hit CTRL+C and CTRL+V, thereby passing on wisdom from somebody else's website to their own - the one THEY get Adsense revenue from.

And thus proliferating misspellings and misinformation of all kinds.

Ages ago, I was taught how to trace the genealogy of parchment texts using 'scribal error' as my guide. This is a really useful skill if you're trying to figure out how a manuscript passed from some monastery and Turkey, all the way to the far north of Scotland. Just follow the typos. I'd never really thought how vital this skill was going to be in the internet age, though. But take a look at this.

1. Incredible statement in 2014:

'Believe it or not the Ancient Egyptians created papyrus signs and steel carvings to advertise their goods in 2000 BCE.'

http://www.weberinternetmarketing.com/history-of-advertising/

Er, yeah. Believe it or not. Hm, where did this COME from?

2. Hm. In 2011, somebody created a really cool 'educational' page that states:

'Four thousand years ago Ancient Egyptians invented advertising by carving public notices in steel.'

WHAT? Are you envisioning this? 'Violators will be prosecuted.--Pharaoh.' Carved in steel. Where? Oh, probably on the corner of the First National Bank of Thebes.

Website, so you'll know I didn't make it up: http://mashable.com/2011/12/26/history-advertising/

Now, I'm a palaeographer, not a papyrologist. I wouldn't even begin to tackle a steel engraving. But I do have the advantage of having tried to figure out misspelled words in numerous dead languages. Like English, apparently. It's impossible to find any examples of these steel ads on the web. But maybe...just maybe...there was an accident involving 'scribal error', a careless copyist, and an overactive Word program. Could it be...?

3. 'The Stele of Taimhotep'.

http://www.tyndalehouse.com/egypt/ptolemies/hpms/taimhotep_ii_fr.htm

Possibility: somebody copied 'stele', thinking, 'Yeah, it was a way of promulgating announcements.' Okay, okay, people who do this sort of thing don't use words like 'promulgate', but you get the idea. And then the bossy Word program did what it always does - which is why I have to proofread Word docs. It changed the unfamiliar 'stele' to 'steel'. The cyberscribe missed it, natch, and the next dumb bunny who copied it just...hit CTRL+C and CTRL+V. Well, perhaps this textual crux is now resolved, perhaps not. Shall we send a paper to 'Notes and Queries'?

PS: Alas, we have searched in vain for the steel engravings of ancient Egypt's Madison Avenue (conveniently located near Times Square, Memphis). But we can comfort ourselves that today, at least, STEEL+EGYPT+AD will yield this on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWEINcSqWq0

O brave new world, that hath such people in it.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsteel.htm

never seen a pyramid here (britain) "they'll nick owt"

Nice one, Dmitri!

We're all at risk of misinterpreting things when we research.

We can write things which unintentionally mislead, but sometimes, too, we can say things ironically, which are taken as legit by our readers.

Much of this can be ironed out by a good peer review function.

Good point, Icy - proofreaders are worth their weight in gold-pressed latinum.

Hi Dmitri

As always this is most interesting, you make me want to post about a dilemma I have been puzzling over for several years.

To avoid taking this I have added a brief entry about the subject A87847087

Everyone is, of course, welcome to read and comment

I would love to read any thoughts you have about this. I do know that the family gave middle names for the children and ms-represented the parent's ages in the US census.



F S

Yeah, that's still down in the bronze age.

Those census takers have a lot to answer for.

I read your excellent report, did a bit of searching, and left you a message. I hope at least some of it is useful.

By the way, this fits in nicely with what Create are doing for February. They want us to dig up good ancestor stories.

I don't see why it has to be YOUR ancestors. You could adopt one...

Thanks Dmitri

I will reply to your post in the other thread later.

But I will add a few thought here about my personal experience with the US Census. For those reading who are not familiar with US law - the Census is required to be held every 10 years by the US Constitution. It is supposed to count every citizen and is used to adjust the number of Congress persons from each state, it is also used for the dispersal of Federal funds.

Each listed home is sent a form to fill out listing the residents. After a period of time temporary workers are sent to each home that has not returned their form for a personal interview. Most homes receive a simple form that only asks for names, ages and occupation. Some special 'long forms' http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/pdf/d-61b.pdf are sent at random to obtain more intimate details about the home.

My wife and I were sent a 'long form' while we were living on our 5-ton sailboat. We had great fun filling out the part that asked about the details of our home

'How many rooms (not counting the bathroom> are in your house?' 1

'Do you have a telephone?' Yes (at least when we're connected to the pier)

'Do you have hot and cold running water?' no (we do have a pump connected to the tank and a hose on deck)

'Do you live in a gated community?' Yes (you need to be issued a key to get on each pier.)



F S

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/uk-census/index.html

same here

bet loads still lie

A long time ago, I explained it in : A65249085

Yeah, and you can sometimes find your ancestors' entries in old census lists, which can be useful.

But I like applying all those data to a boat.

What if you are temporarily outside the country? Like on the International Space Station?

That would be fun.

no sense'us in sending a form up to them eh!