Surfing among flotsam and jetsam

Surfing among flotsam and jetsam Due: Feb 8(A) / Feb 10 (B/C)

This assignment is to be completed individually.
flotsam: 1. n. the wreckage of a ship or its cargo found floating on the sea (cf JETSAM) || accumulated objects of little value.
jetsam:n. the cargo, gear, etc. thrown overboard from a ship in distress to lighten the load.
[Taken from the new lexicon Webster's encyclopedic dictionary of the English language, Canadian Edition.]

The goal of this exercise is to have fun, while getting some first hand experience with the misinformation and "accumulated debris of little value" (garbage) available on the web, and learning how to find more reliable information on the web. You will design a web page which presents links to both types of information available on the web and provide your critique of each. The steps to be followed are outlined below.

1) choose a topic of some relevance to psychology (very broadly defined) and find a web page that presents the most absurd information or "scientific based" claim you can find on the WWW. The claim, or information, must be presented on the web page(s) you find as if it were "scientifically proven" or at least supported (or that has to be strongly implied). (Here is one of Peter McLeod's favorite examples.)

2) find a web site (or related sites) that present(s) contrary scientific arguments against the claims made in the pages you found in part one.

3) Create a web page (.htm file) that provides:

your name,
the topic (definitions as appropriate)
link 1 or links to page with the absurd claim (print the page to be handed in with your assignment)
link 2 or links to page which presents arguments against claims of link 1 (print the page to be handed in)
comments after each link describing content and your comments as to what you believe and why

Ensure that it is clear to the reader which page (link 1) contains information you find absurd and which page presents scientific arguments that you find more credible (link 2).

4) Save your web site (.htm) file to your axe account. It should be saved in the following folder:
G:/www/user/username/filename.htm where username is your login name (e.g. 0123456s) and filename is the name of the webpage you've created (e.g. flotsam.htm). Once your file has been saved in this location (verify using windows explorer), you're webpage should be accessible by typing the following url in a internet browser
http://axe.acadiau.ca/user/username/filename.htm

Once you have ensured that your web page is functional and accessible print out a copy of your webpage.

5) Email Jill (Jill.Sullivan@Acadiau.ca) your topic, and the url to your website.
Hand in the printout of your website, and attach the printout of each of the pages you are linking to.

Quick instructions on making htm (html) formats

Data are not information.
Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
There is no information highway. At best, the web is a data highway. At worst, a mis-information highway (given the high proportion of debris out there). It will never be a knowledge highway, and while there are pages full of wisdom out there, the wise surfer remains skeptical… dude.

"The Web brings people together because no matter what kind of a twisted sexual mutant you happen to be, you've got millions of pals out there. Type in 'Find people that have sex with goats that are on fire' and the computer will say, 'Specify type of goat.'" - Rich Jeni

(From the 1999 annual "Just For Laughs" festival in Montreal, listed by the Montreal Gazette Newspaper (Sunday, August 15th) as the 8th best joke of the festival.