Mud Weight as Explained by Dummies

lithostatic and hydrostatic pressure

Some of the freelancers we run across are highly skilled (to use LinkedIn's terminology) are the old CRP... copy-reword-paste. They are, unfortunately, hard to spot if one isn't well-versed in the topic they've chosen or been assigned; perhaps because they've honed their cribbing skills over many a post. Still, failure to actually understand what they're writing about can be both a clue to their ignorance and a problem for their readers. Take, as an example, the Paul Scott post "What Is Mud Weight?" at WiseGEEK niche site AboutMechanics.com.

King Studs for Dummies

Header, jack studs, and king studs

We have no one on staff who attended journalism school, but we suspect that the notion that any "communications" graduate can write knowledgeably on any topic is a J-school tenet of faith. We respectfully disagree, since some people can't write knowledgeably about anything. We'll cut them some slack, though; and admit that, given some background, most people could at least sound knowledgeable about most things. Then again, there's WiseGEEK.com's Mary McMahon (formerly known as S. E. Smith)... our bullshit detector simply went wild when we read, "What Is a King Stud?" (now, believe it or not, at AboutMechanics.com).

Gamma Ray Logs for the Clueless

Sample gamma ray log

When we happened not long ago upon some dumbassery at WiseGEEK.com about petroleum exploration, we tasked our house geologist – who has many years of experience in the “awl bidness” – to take a look through some of their related content. We based that on the assumption that, as often happened at Demand Media, freelancers would write several related articles because their research made them experts. She turned up several articles, including “What Is Gamma Ray Logging,” by B. Turner (now, for unknown reasons, at AboutMechanics.com).