Amethyst for Total Dummies

Natural amethyst crystals

Among the many limitations on the usefulness (not to mention accuracy) of the eHow.com canon was that no one ever made money saying, "That's not possible." After all, Demand Media expected 300-500 words with an introduction and three steps (all beginning with "action verbs"), so three words wouldn't cut it... even if they are true. Since the alleged editors at the site rarely, if ever, checked facts, it was easy for some of the more "creative" to publish utter bull for their stipend. That's how the site became peppered with articles like "How to Grow Amethyst Crystal" by Stephanie Williams, a post that now lives at Sciencing.com

Helium Production for Dummies

Helium

We here at the Antisocial Network are firm believers in the idea that people shouldn't be allowed to remain ignorant when the remedy is readily available (and painless). In other words, when someone makes a stupid mistake, we have no objection to correcting them: it's to their benefit, after all. So if someone were to ask us, "How Is Helium Mined?" we would gently point out that helium isn't mined, because it's a gaseous element. Then we'd tell them how helium is recovered, produced, or extracted – whatever verb you prefer. We'd probably do a better job than Aminah Paden did for Sciencing.com, though... (weird: Leaf Group has stripped off her byline...)

Permeameters for Dummies

permeable concrete

When there are two different meanings for a term, it's only natural for perfectly ordinary people to find themselves confused about its use. When that happens, we – of course – use the opportunity to look to an authority for clarity. That only works, however, if the authority is actually authoritative. The precise opposite occurred at wiseGEEK.com when they allowed someone calling itself Alexis W. to write a post entitled, "What Is a Permeameter?" (now at AboutMechanics.com, but still stupid).