Miter Saws, the Dummy Version

Sliding Compound Miter Saw

Ever had a parrot? Neither has anyone here at the Antisocial Network, though one staffer had a cockatiel for a while. Anyway, everyone knows that parrots can talk, and we hope that everyone knows that the birds don't know what the words they're saying mean. We see the same thing a lot with freelancers: they parrot miscellaneous information they've picked up somewhere (usually by looking at lists of words used in search engines) and try to make a few bucks for their misinformation. Take, for instance, hubbie June Campbell: We already caught her pretending to know about hand tools, now we found her over at EzineArticles.com pretending to know about the "Miter Saw – An Indispensable Tool for the DIY Woodworking Enthusiast."

Forstner Bits for Dummies

A Forstner bit in a drill press

It's been a while since the Antisocial Network team has nailed someone for a fake tool review, but that doesn't mean we don't turn them up on a near daily basis. After all, the damned things are everywhere on the 'net. Some are the "I didn't use it but my hubby did" type, and some are of the "I heard you can make lots of money reviewing tools" type. Today's entry, compliments of a heretofore untapped source of dumbassery, is that latter type. It's "Forstner Bit Reviews," posted by some guy claiming the name Tested_to_Destruction at Wizzley.com. Oh, joy, another content farm to mine...

Biofuels for Dummies

Algae biofuel generation

If you stick your head in the alcove where our research staffers park their laptops, it's a safe bet that you'll soon hear a snort of derision from one of them. That usually means someone has found a clumsy job of rewording. You see, most content farms were deathly afraid of plagiarism, and immediately expelled anyone who merely copied something word for word. The "contributors" at eHow.com quickly learned, however, that a thesaurus is your best friend when you're trying to reword a Wikipedia article... and that's pretty much what a staffer caught Max Roman Dilthey doing in "How Does Biofuel Work?" at ItStillRuns.com.

Hinge Mortises for DIY Dummies

Mortising the door for a hinge

We understand completely when the person asking a question doesn't know the exact words to use. What we don't understand is when the person (supposedly) answering the question doesn't seem to know, either. Take, for example, the question "How to Make Grooves for Door Hinges":¹ we know that the proper name for that "groove" is a mortise. Based on what he wrote at HomeSteady.com, however, eHowian John Walker didn't know the word. Otherwise, he might have used it... but he didn't.

Screen Door Hinges, the Dummies Version

Pretty sure that's not Emily...

The nice people at Leaf Group have been laboriously moving old eHow.com content into niche sites, we assume the better to suck eyeballs at search engines. Sadly, it seems to work: quite often we see decade-old garbage content filled with errors at the top of the results when we Google (or Bing, etc.) a how-to question. They even seem to be replacing some of the more crapalicious content, as evidenced by all the red-letter entries on our DotD by name page. Sometimes, however, the replacement is just as bogus as the original, such as Homesteady.com post "How to Install a Spring-Loaded Hinge on a Screen Door" from the keyboard of Emily Patterson.

Ground Anchors for Dummies

ground anchor screw

Although most of our DIY DotD awardees win for mangling the instructions they've cribbed, occasionally we find someone who – more or less – gets it right but manages to completely blow the lead-in to the instructions. That's how we spotted today's candidate, John Walker of HomeSteady.com: it was because of the desperately doofus introduction he penned for an article entitled "DIY Ground Anchor."

Basketballs and Freelancing Dummies

Well, it's Christmas morning and all the Antisocial Network elves are finally resting after the lo-o-o-ong holiday buildup. It seems to start earlier and earlier: one elf swears she saw Christmas decorations in a local store the day after Labor Day! Whatever the case, in the interests of a short blog post today, we've found a DotD candidate with just one stupid mistake for us to mock. That does not, however, mean that Alexander Callos is not deserving of the award for his SportsRec.com post, "How to Restore a Grip to a Leather Basketball."

Amperes for the Dummy Electrician

We here at the Antisocial Network often hear complaints that scientists and technologists talk too much in "jargon." Our staffers, most of whom are scientists and technologists point out that everyone talks too much in jargon: ever listened to a business type rattle off "biz-speak"? or a social worker speaking of "empowerment" or "incarcerated persons"? Scientists are (somewhat) less likely to speak in buzzwords, but that's mainly because so many of those "jargon" words have quite specific meanings.

All this is a way of introducing one humanities type, history student Michael O. Smathers, and his failure to understand the "jargon" of physics in "Capacity of a 15 Amp Circuit [sic]"¹ at Sciencing.com...

Cement Board Skirting for the Clueless Mobile Home Owner

That's skirting, Tim...

Abraham Maslow is credited with the saying, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." We like that, not least because we feel as though the Antisocial Network has plenty of tools that aren't hammers. We mean that in both the metaphorical and literal senses, by the way... Unfortunately, some freelancers have just a hammer... eHow.com's Tim Anderson is one such writer, a guy who has only one arrow in his quiver as he deftly proved in the HomeSteady post, "How to Do Cement Board Skirting."

Diamagnetism, the Clueless Explanation

Diamagnetism, ferromagnetism, and paramagnetism

Opera singers aren't multilingual: even though they sing in multiple languages – French, German, Italian... – in some (or all) languages they've had to learn unfamiliar words' pronunciations phonetically. We often catch our DotD candidates trying to do the same thing in a written form, but when we inspect their content we see that they've merely thrown unfamiliar words at the page in semi-coherent order so that they don't really mean much. One of our favorite examples is serial dumbass Joan Whetzel, who we found fumbling through the terminology in an old eHow.com post (now at Sciencing.com) titled "What Materials Do Magnets Repel?"

Splicing Lumber for the Dummy Carpenter

Think you could cut this joint with a jigsaw, Nathan?

Our staffers argue quite a bit about what form of dumbassery is most egregious. Is it the copy-reword-paste job in which technical terms get misinterpreted? Is it the mashup of two sources that are actually about different topics? Or is it the specific answer to a general question that nevertheless gets it wrong? The argument continues... but for today, at least, it's Type III: meet eHowian Nathan Fisher and his specific and, quality-wise crappy, answer to "How to Splice Lumber" at Leaf Group niche site HomeSteady.com.

Deleting Browser History for Dummies

data recovery - recover deleted files

If we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times: you can't trust the bull some random person threw at the internet just to earn a few bucks. Oh, sure, some freelancers are selective and only write about topics "in their wheelhouse," so to speak. The problem is that too many others, especially those at content farms, have merely googled a question and reworded the first half-coherent search result. A lot of them seem to have or be working on "communications" and journalism degrees, which they seem to believe makes them capable of writing about anything. They're not: witness Melissa King attempting to explain "How to Permanently Delete the Internet Browsing History on a PC" for ItStillWorks.com.

Fuel Filters for Mechanical Dummies

Carburetor vs Fuel Injectors

It's been a while since our staffers visited HubPages.com, perhaps because they've been having so much fun patrolling all those niche sites Leaf Group has been stuffing with old eHow content. Be that as it may, there's still plenty of dumbassery over at the hub, it's just that the site's organization makes it harder to drill down to it. Whatever the case, we do occasionally feature a hubbie as DotD, and today's one of those days. Meet returning awardee Joanna Millar (msmillar) and what we suspect to be another entry from her "my hubby did this, so I'll write about it" file: "Replace a Fuel Filter - Common." Don't ask us what that whole "- Common" business is supposed to mean...

Chronometric Dating for Dummies

biostratigraphic dating

We're not certain about everyone, but we figure that when most people ask a question they expect a straightforward answer that contains facts; not some vague rehash of a website the writer (claims to have) read. We do know that if you don't know the answer, we'd prefer that you admit it instead of spreading around a load of bull – that's the main reason we publish this blog. Unfortunately, not everyone who "answered" questions for eHow.com was that honest... take, for example, Adrian Grahams, who penned the article "What Is Chronometric Dating?" that now appears at Sciencing.com.

Solving Formulas for Algebra Dummies

sphere volume formula

Well, Minerals Week was fun and we found a couple of new serial dumbasses to follow around the internet, but it's time to get back to other topics. Today's topic is mathematics, a subject that appears to be extremely "tough" to lots of people (not to mention a '90s-era Barbie Doll). Today's DotD nominee is a bit of a serial candidate himself, having already been featured four times in these pages. He's Mark Kennan (a.k.a. Michael Keenan), here to attempt to explain "How to Find the Volume of a Sphere in Terms of Pi¹" for Sciencing.com.

Crystals, the Dummies Version

Quartz vs glass structure

One of the defining features of minerals is that they have an "ordered internal structure," which is a fancy way of saying that every mineral has crystalline structure at the atomic level. That's why yesterday's DotD was off base, by the way: glass is a noncrystalline solid. Believe it or not, there's a discipline of science that does nothing but study the "ordered internal structure" of crystals and how that affects their appearance and physical properties. It's a safe bet, however, that eHowian Ezmeralda Lee (sometimes known as Civita Dyer) did not study crystallography: if you want proof, consider her Sciencing.com post "What Is a Crystal and How Does it Form?"

Pumice and Minerals for the Dummy Geology Student (Minerals Week 6)

Glassy pumice sample

The editorial staff had some concerns about whether or not to include the post featured today in Minerals Week, since its natural home might seem more closely aligned with a "Rocks Week" [note to intern: Check out the possibilities?]. The word "minerals," however, is in the title of the subject post and the author did manage to contribute to the stupidification of the internet by his post, so the nominee stayed. Here, without further ado, is Lee Morgan and "What Minerals Make Up Pumice?" at Sciencing.com.

Beryl, the Dummy Version (Minerals Week 5)

Not all beryl crystals are gems

It's Thursday, and the Antisocial Network researchers still find themselves awash in bogus information about rocks, minerals, and crystals. The editorial board, however, remains convinced that it wouldn't be wise to expand Minerals Week to Minerals Year, even if it seems quite possible. Instead, we'll finish up our last three entries and move on to other subjects in which freelancers routinely contribute to the stupidification of the internet. Speaking of which, here's today's nominee: Tiffany Garden and her Sciencing.com post, "What Is the Mineral Beryl Used For?"

Rocks, Crystals, and Minerals, Dummy Style

kidney stone composition

If the reader has more than a passing familiarity with the topic, it can be quite easy to spot a freelancer spreading around the bull. That's one reason why we're running Minerals Week: we have a couple of rockhounds on staff and it's easy for them to spot fakery from the misstatements and misinterpretations our candidates have published. We're talking misstatements such as those made by Gwen Nicodemus in her EzineArticles.com post, "What's the Difference Between Rocks, Crystals, and Minerals?"

Quartz vs. Calcite for Dummies (Minerals Week 3)

conchoidal fracture in quartz

Just like mineral grains are (usually) "little things," our research team members are finding that it's often the little things that trip up the freelancing fools to whom we award the DotD. Whereas real freelancing journalists (e.g., Mary Roach) investigate their topics in depth, our candidates often merely skim a wikipedia article or two and reword realistic-sounding phrases¹. It's those details that caught our staffer's eye while perusing "Physical Properties of Calcite & Quartz" at Sciencing.com, the article that earned Patrick Stothers Kwak a nomination.

Clay for Dummies (Minerals Week 2)

Oops, Elizabeth: I see iron...

It doesn't matter what the subject of a content-farm post is, there will eventually be someone who reads it and reacts. The reaction depends on both the stimulus and the person who reacts, but it can range from mild amusement to inchoate rage. Today's DotD candidate, an eHowian claiming the name Elizabeth Jennings, managed to stir a fairly mild reaction – "Whaaaaa?????" – in the Antisocial Network staffer who ran across the content she wrote at OurPastimes.com under the title, "What Is Primary Clay?"

Arizona Gems for the Rockhounding Dummy (Minerals Week 1)

Some people prospect for gems, Bob!

A surprising number of posts about minerals have come across our desk in recent weeks, enough that the staffers decided that it was time for another "theme week." This time, it's Minerals Week. Here to show that some freelancers will say anything just to collect a few pennies, even if they can't tell a mineral from a hole in the ground, is eHowian Robert Adams. Robert's post "How to Find Gems in Southern Arizona"¹ (OurPastimes.com) was of particular interest to our staff geologist, a graduate of the U of A: Bear Down, Wildcats!

Divergent Margins for Tectonic Dummies

Rift cross-section showing sedimentation

Your grandmother may remember the long-ago quiz show called "Name that Tune," where contestants tried to identify a popular song from just the opening notes. Well, every once in a while one of the Antisocial Network staffers who patrol the internet can spot a DotD candidates in just one word. That's the case today, compliments of eHowian Rebecca C. Jernigan and her Sciencing.com post "Type of Rock Found in Divergent Boundaries." As always, any grammatical and logical errors in the title belong to the OQ: eHow.com only changed (some) spelling errors...

Dueling TV Antennas for Dummies

Two antennas, one output

The eHow business model was simple: pluck search terms including the word "how" from the internet (later, they also included "what" and other interrogative words) and let a contributing writer answer the question. The problem was that, too often, that contributor knew nothing about the answer and merely found what appeared to be a good answer somewhere on line, then reworded that text. In other words, a sort of online version of the game "telephone," in which the answer came out garbled – just like the answer Alexander Callos gave at niche site Techwalla.com to "How to Hook two Antennas to One Coaxial Input" (any violations of AP guidebook rules for capitalization are eHow's).

Roof Plans for the Dummy Builder

new roof sheathing (decking)

We're still confused about how anyone ever expected some random college student (even if he is one of those fantastically gifted J-school grads) to be able to write intelligently about roofing even though he's never done any construction... but that was the eHow.com model. That, in fact, was why the mother lode of stupidification of the internet allowed some guy named Alexander Callos to publish rubbish under the title, "How to Calculate Roof Plans" (it now lives at niche site HomeSteady.com¹).

Cooling Fans for Sweaty Dummies

Where's that wall plug, Kurt?

One of our staffers here at the Antisocial Network regularly checks our entries to make certain they're up to date. He's the one responsible for the blue "Leaf Group has deleted..." footnotes and the red entries in all those Dumbasses by Name pages. He also reminds us when it's been a while since we featured a serial dumbass, which is why – five months since his last appearance – eight-time DotD Kurt Schanaman is back. This time, it's for his HomeSteady.com article "How to Make a 12 Volt Cooling Fan Run Backwards."¹

Polenta for the Clueless Cook

Polenta in some of its many forms

One of our staffers ran across an early eHow.com contributor not long ago and was, to be honest, gobsmacked by her work. At first, she thought the problem was the author's choice of topics (geometry), but a bit of research turned up a topic supposedly in her wheelhouse. It was just as bad... So, meet today's DotD nominee, Julie Richards, and her answer to the eternal question,"What Is Polenta?"¹ at the mother site.

Planers for the Dummy Woodworker

A planer in action

The business model of Demand Media Studios (DMS¹, now known as Leaf Group), parent company of eHow.com, was straightforward: get as many eyeballs on your content as possible through high search-engine placement. Accurate information, as most now know, was never the object. That's why so much of the technical content was cobbled together by liberal arts majors (English and journalism, mostly) in as short a time as possible. The result? Too often, it was rubbish like the HomeSteady.com article "Types of Planers,"² contributed by Charles Pearson.

The Diagonal of a Square for Dummies

The question said "measure"...

Over the years, we've found that reading the short biographies of contributors to what used to be Demand Media Studios (former parent of eHow.com, SFGate, Livestrong, etc., now known as Leaf Group) can be very revealing. Take today's DotD, Jana Sosnowski: her little bio mentions (of course) a degree in journalism, along with a stint as a "curriculum writer for a math remediation program." Based, however, on "How to Measure the Length of the Diagonal Line of a Square" at Sciencing.com, however, it appears that she might need some math remediation herself.

Power Saws for Dummies

Using a miter gauge on a table saw

Our woodworkers and carpenters are always on the lookout for interesting posts about their crafts, whether the topics are how-tos or tool advice. We don't visit EzineArticles.com all that often, but the staffer who turned up today's DotD suggested that it might be fertile ground for dumbassery based on the quality of several articles she perused. Without further ado, then, here's "Circular Saw Vs Table Saw – Pros and Cons," barfed up onto EA by one Ted Oliver.

Re-hanging Upper Cabinets for Dummies

Installing upper cabinets
using a cabinet jack

We're big fans of DIY here at the Antisocial Network, and our staffers have tackled a wide variety of jobs over the years. In "olden days," we'd research new tasks in our DIY library, but here in the online age there's a huge variety of help out there. We've learned, however, that a lot of that help is worth exactly what we paid for it: nothing. That's because the people who wrote the advice, freelancers like Jill Leviticus (aka Holly McGurgan) of HomeSteady.com, have no idea what they're talking about – as Jill amply demonstrated in "How to Raise Kitchen Cabinets."

Vinegar and pH for Dummies

Acetic acid, found in vinegar

Another day, another scientifically illiterate liberal arts graduate... or, perhaps in this case, someone who just didn't quite get what the OQ was asking. Today, we'll visit Leaf Group's Hunker.com, where longtime eHowian Janet Beal will address the topic of "How to Adjust the pH of Water with Vinegar." What the reader ends up with is a half-baked answer that definitely doesn't rise to the level of "sciencing" (whatever that is...).

Unfortunately, in transferring the post from its original home at eHow, Leaf Group lopped off Beal's references, so we can't see where she came up with the moronic definition of pH within her introduction:

Trapezoids for Geometry Dummies

Ummm, Audrey? these are hexagons, not trapezoids...

In case you haven't noticed, we tend to be rather dismissive of the Demand Media Studios (DMS¹) family of websites... well, they're the Leaf Group family now, but six of one, half-dozen of the other. That's because they so often allowed innumerate and scientifically illiterate liberal arts types to write about math and science in articles fact-checked by other scientifically illiterate and innumerate liberal arts graduates. Sigh. Well, today we have another example: BA and MA English graduate Audrey Farley, attempting to explain "How to Find Angles in a Trapezoid" at Sciencing.com.

LDPE Plastic Explained for (and by) Dummies

LDPE structure vs HDPE structure

There's a logical fallacy known as "to beg the question." Contrary to popular usage, it doesn't mean "to raise the question"; instead it's a form of circular reasoning. Today's DotD doesn't exactly beg the question when she attempts to tell her readers "What Is LDPE Plastic?" for Sciencing.com, but it's pretty clear that Amanda Hermes didn't know enough about the topic to actually answer the question.

Charging Batteries for Dummies

charging a car battery

We often notice that our DotD candidates manage to get a few kernels of  accuracy in their posts, but whenever they stray more than a couple of "degrees" from their areas of expertise, they tend to botch the details. Such is the case of today's candidate, Cameron Holmes (like Madonna, Cher, and Rihanna; known only by her first name, at least to eHow.com). Observe her attempt to explain "How to Charge a Car Battery Indoors," which Leaf has moved to ItStillRuns.com.

Wells, Septic Systems, and Water Pressure for Dummies

well vs. septic system

At staff meetings the most common question (besides, "Who ate the last muffin?") goes something along the lines of "Would you let this person do the job he described?" Sure, no one would voluntarily let their plumber pull a tooth or ask their barber to lay a brick wall. Still, hundreds of "communications," journalism, and English lit graduates appointed themselves "freelancers" for Demand Media and pumped out utter bull about home repair for eHow.com, much of which is now at HomeSteady.com – utter bull like the post "Water Pressure in a Well & Septic System," cobbled together by Charles Pearson.

Curves and Angles for Dummies

Road curvature angle

We may have mentioned this before, but what the heck: you probably didn't read it. We're aware from both first-hand experience and observation that many a Demand Media Studios (DMS) writer would grab several "titles" that appeared related and then pound out variations on the same answer for them all. Since the people  supposedly fact-checking the articles (aka content editors) only checked for format, the result is something we call "compound ignorance" – and today's DotD is a prime example. Ryan Menezes dipped his pen into the algebra well (at least) three too many times, one of which is "How to Find the Angle of a Curve" at Sciencing.com.

Latitude and Longitude for Total Dummies

Latitude and Longitude in DMS vs. DD

Although we don't have a cartographer or a geographer on the Antisocial Network team, we do have staffers who've done extensive work with mapping software and all that entails. As a result, they've absorbed more than a little knowledge of map projections and their use. We suspect that experience is much more on point than the life experience of Alan Li, who posted "How to Read Longitude and Latitude" to eHow.com (which Leaf Group moved to Sciencing.com)¹.

Trex Deck Repair for Dummies

Composite decking

Sometimes our research staffers have to read through online articles a second time to come to the realization that they're being fed a line of bull. Sometimes it's obvious right up front – if the staffer has the requisite experience or background. Today's DotD candidate has already distinguished himself five times for pretending to know what he's talking about when he doesn't, so welcome back Owen E. Richason IV and his HomeSteady.com post, "How to Repair Trex Decking."

Self-Employment Taxes, the Dummies Version

IRS schedule SE

You would think that someone who picks up few bucks here and there as a freelancer would have become pretty familiar with the process of calculating and filing self-employment taxes. You'd think that someone who claims to be a "a writer... specializing in personal finance and business topics" would have an especially good handle on the topic. That's why we were taken aback by the sloppy job Michael Kennan (aka Mark Keenan) did in his PocketSense article "How to Figure Self-Employment Taxes."¹

Wooden Octagons for Dummies

octagon birdhouse construction

Several Antisocial Network staffers make little wood craft projects for around the house, and one of them is also an armchair birdwatcher. That means she sits in her chair and watches the birds at the feeders on her deck... When it comes to building birdhouses, they've learned that the critters have fairly exacting standards, so they typically research the plans at a site like Audubon.org. It's for darned sure, though, that eHowian Patrick Williamson didn't do much research, however, when creating the plans he barfed up for "How to Build an Eight-Sided Birdhouse"¹ (now at GardenGuides.com sans his byline).

A Homemade Gold Sluice Box, Dummies Style

The original sluice box as botched by Gomez (and Fleury)

We're told that the "rules" of Demand Media Studios (aka DMS¹) precluded the use of Wikipedia articles as references; not that most of the self-appointed "freelance writers" didn't immediately go straight to the site when "researching" a topic. It's interesting that, somewhere about 2012, DMS prohibited using its own content as a reference. That message apparently didn't get to eHowian Vivian Gomez, however, since Gomez seems to have merely reworded an older eHow.com article for her post titled "How to Build a Wooden Sluice Box," now firmly ensconced at OurPastimes.com.

Heating with Oil for Dummies

Oil-fired forced-air heating system

When we looked this morning, the thermometer at Antisocial Network HQ had dipped below freezing again and the furnace was running full bore. We use natural gas here, but several of us have lived at one time or another in homes heated with oil furnaces. That's why, when one of our research team spotted Brenda Priddy holding forth in a HomeSteady.com post about "Oil Used to Heat Homes,"¹ we took a closer look in hopes of learning something. Unfortunately, though, our two-time DotD winner dropped the ball... just as we expected.

Least Squares Linear Fits for Dummies

line of best fit

A staffer who, for a while, wrote for Demand Media Studios (DMS¹) says that it was common for a freelancer to "claim" many similar topics and rewrite the same post several times. Of course, if – like eHowian Ryan Menezes – the freelancer didn't know the answer in the first place, subsequent answers were likely to drift ever farther from factual. Such seems to be the case with our J-school graduate when he attempted to explain "How to Calculate the Slope of a Line of Best Fit" at Sciencing.com.

Propeller Pitch Defined by Dummies

Pitch in red

No one of our staffers knows everything (none of them is a J-school grad, after all), but all of them are smart enough to know what they don't know. That's why we don't mess much here with questions about medicine, law, and high finance. None of us has ever owned a boat, either, but even total landlubbers like us could recognize that Cecelia Owens was full of hooey when she attempted to explain "How to Calculate Prop Pitch"¹ for OurPastimes.com.

Dredging Gold for Dummies

This is a dredge, Melanie...

One of our staffers noticed that as the Leaf Group migrates old eHow content into new niches, they usually keep the images submitted by the original author. In this case, that was the first thing that tipped our staffer off that she'd spotted a good candidate. That's because for an article titled "How to Build a Gold Dredge"¹ at OurPastimes.com, eHowian Melanie Fleury submitted a picture of pyrite. Yep, the aptly named "fool's gold."

Shimano Flight Deck for Dummy Cyclists

Shimano Flight Deck Computer

Sometimes you have to read all the way through a freelance post before your dumbassery detector sounds the alarm, and sometimes the condition is pretty much in your face. Today's DotD candidate was closer to the "read all the way through" end of the spectrum for the staffer who turned it up, but the Antisocial Network's chief bicycle mechanic recognized the stench of bull immediately. The awardee? returning candidate Matthew Ferguson (tapped twice already for misinformation about bicycles). The topic? SportsRec.com post "How to Shift Gears With a Shimano Flight Deck Shifter"...

Radial Arm Saws for Dummies, Redux

Dewalt Radial Arm Saw

Unlike some online sites, we make a habit of checking our content for broken links. That's how we find out when a website (especially in the Leaf domains) has deleted the original content and redirected the link to something that – at least in their eyes – corrects its "errors" (hence the red entries in our index of DotD winners). The problem, of course, is that the same people are vetting the new stuff, which may or may not be (and often isn't) any better. That's where we are today, with a little piece at HomeSteady.com called "How to Use a Radial Arm Saw,"¹ which was penned by eHowian Michael Straessle.

Booting from a Flash Drive for Dummies

Bootable USB drive

A long time ago, we figured out that the minimum word count (MWC) at Demand Media Studios^1,2,3  provided "cover" for a lot of people who, to be blunt, had no idea what they were talking about. The most common symptoms of a freelancer faking it are often answering the wrong question, throwing all sorts of factoids at the page to meet the MWC, or a combination of both. Today's DotD nominee, Blair Williams (not the hunky actor from "LA Law") tried both methods in pretending to answer the question "What Files are Needed to Boot From a USB?" at ItStillWorks.com. We said "pretending to answer" because... well, because he didn't.

Downspouts for Dummies

Residential gutter and downspout

After one of our staffers lived for several years in desert climates, he moved to the Gulf Coast. The first time he cleaned out his gutters, he was a bit surprised to find big, fat downspouts. He'd been used to the 2" x 3" downspouts common in low-rainfall areas, so the 4" x 6" downspouts on that house near Houston seemed yuuuuge! But at least he understood why: rainfall during tropical storms often exceeds ten inches per hour. Unfortunately, Nicole Schmoll, journalism grad and eHow contributor, was completely bamboozled by the question, "How to Measure Your Downspouts."