Bad Internet Information

 No, this isn't about politics, science non-facts, or social media trolls.  It is about "just plain wrong".

I was watching a political debate from 2 candidates from Pennsylvania the other night and for some odd reason, it occurred to me that I couldn't recall what city was the capital of that State.  I knew it wasn't either of the 2 largest cities.  State capitals are usually not the largest cities.  

That sort of memory-blank bothers me.  Not that I think I'm losing my mind, just that when not recalling basic facts annoys me.  I tried to think likely cities.  I considered Altoona.  When I finally checked, it was Harrisburg.  LOL!

I mention that to mention this.  While looking up the capital of Pennsylvania, I found a site called "World Atlas".  Which one might assume is generally accurate and managed by knowledgeable individuals.  I'll mention that it seems to be a non-US site.  It said the capital of Pennsylvania was Philadelphia.  I checked around other sites and found that wrong.

It also said some 18th century Pennsylvania resident (David Rittenhouse) "discovered" Venus.  OK, that really made me laugh.  Venus was known to the Ancients and some previous astronomers had observed it though telescopes for a couple of centuries.

So I considered that the site might be a humor site like The Onion.  But most of what was there was accurate, lacking any hint of humor or sarcasm.  My best guess is that they were serious about what they wrote.  So, it was like they said the Capital of Russia was Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad).

Looking up "David Rittenhouse", I discovered that he was actually only researching the orbit of Venus by examining its transit across the Sun.  

Where did these "World Atlas" people get their information?  I can only laugh (and shake my head in amazement) at such bad information.  Even legitimate-sounding sites can be astonishingly wrong.  

But I also want to mention (thinking about Venus) what Carl Sagan once said about thoughts on Venus.  And I paraphrase:

1.  Venus has an opaque atmosphere.  You can't see through it with a telescope.  So what did some scientists conclude in the 1800s?

2.  The atmosphere is all clouds.  What makes clouds?  Water.  Venus must be very wet.

3.  If Venus is very wet, it was be mostly swampy.  What grows in swamps?  Ferns.

4.   What eats ferns?  Dinosaurs.  Therefore, Venus must have dinosaurs.

5.  From not seeing anything at all, they concluded there were dinosaurs on Venus!

We now know, from probes and better equipment, that Venus is a desert and the atmosphere is made up of mostly noxious chemicals that would prevent any life as we know it.  Even relatively modern people can think in bizarrely illogical ways.

I'm not exactly blaming them.  I dread to think about some things we currently think to be accurate and logical will seem bizarre to our descendents.  Well, at least I won't be around then to experience the embarrassment!

But, still, that "World Atlas" stuff really cracked me up!

Edited to add:  I just noticed the Weather Channel's "10 Day Forecast" includes 14 days!  ROTFL...