What If You Had An Online Bulls**t Detector As A Browser Plugin?

from the might-be-useful dept

Mon, Aug 28th 2006 10:41pm — Mike Masnick

There's a ton of crap online. You can't trust anything you read at all... yet plenty of people still fall for the most ridiculous things they read. Apparently, the Japanese government has had enough. The Raw Feed points out that the government is funding a project to build an online lie-detector that will surf along beside you and alert you when whatever you're reading trips their "this is full of crap" meter. Of course, there are plenty of questions about how this actually works (or, more accurately, whether it actually works). Chances are that it won't work, and the software itself will be full of crap -- but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be nice to have a computer pre-analyze some of the crap you're probably reading.

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41 Comments

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Sohrab, 29 Aug 2006 @ 12:03am

that would make an awesome toolbar!
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Paul, 29 Aug 2006 @ 12:10am

Government...
If it is made by a government then it prolly won't be a 'lie' detector so much as a 'what the government doesn't approve of' detector.

Oh look a blog about democracy *CRAP*

This guy is selling 3,000 pounds of rice for 2 only dollars? *OK*
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Kame, 29 Aug 2006 @ 12:27am

We are talking about japanese government, not chinese dominion!
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Tim, 29 Aug 2006 @ 1:16am

So instead anything about Nanking gets labelled a lie and the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere was a glorious idea destroyed by the evil western colonials?
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charlie potatoes, 29 Aug 2006 @ 1:48am

sons of nippon
so long as they eat whales, believing it keeps their tiny weenies hard they are as backward as their yellow bretheren who kill tigers and rhinos for like reasons.
They are still sneaky lying back-stabbing and can only be trusted when we have our foot on their throat.
Too damned bad we stopped at nagasaki. I know of the bataan death march and the rape of naking. who can trust these sons of nippon?
but our young say that was a long time ago.. if you don't remember your history lessons you're doomed to repeat them.
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k, 29 Aug 2006 @ 1:53am

Re:
Whats wrong with China?
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VPR, 29 Aug 2006 @ 2:20am

Whoa there Chuck Taters. I've been to Japan as well as have many friends from there. The younger generation don't have the mindset of those who did those crimes, nor yours (thank god). Seems to me that nationality seems to hit a sore spot with you. Get over it.

I guess we should skin all Germans as well? Afterall, they shot and baked (lets not forget gassed) their POWs.

Hell with it, let's just off everyone except you. Would that make you happy?
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Not Funny, 29 Aug 2006 @ 3:44am

Re: sons of nippon
You total bigot... every race and ethnicity is guilty of some attrocity in their history -- so do us all a favor and keep your worthless comments to youself! (By the way, 'm European and still find you totally offensive, jackass).

This forum is for those who can either make meaningful contributions or funny (sometimes) comments... not hateful and racist remarks. Loser. Die alone... soon...
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Music Pirate, 29 Aug 2006 @ 4:16am

I know a few people who talk nothing but bull****. Wish I had one of these detecters by my side all the time! XD
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Ziggy, 29 Aug 2006 @ 4:24am

Mr. Potatoes
Chuck, you ignorant slut... iD respond to what you said... but iD rather be content to know ppl like you will eventually die after living a perfectly miserable life. Have a GREAT day.
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DreadedOne509, 29 Aug 2006 @ 5:15am

WTF!?!?!?!
I call this entire article BS!
Not really, but was fun to type.

I can't imagine a software based (or hardware for that matter) device capable of detecting bullshit online or off. Look how long the lie detector has been around and it is still not 80% accurate. How in the hell are they going to write a program (small enough to run in or along side a browser) to detect BS? I think it's an admirable idea doomed to fail with current technology. I call bullshit on it!
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Mike w/covad, 29 Aug 2006 @ 5:25am

Something like that would never work well. If I came accross a site critical of the US Government, the meter would peg. If I claim to get 90-100 miles per gallon on my site, true or not, it would peg. It would be a virus technically, it would have nothing on its mind ecxept self-preservation.

I would report it to McAffee.
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Gabriel Tane (profile), 29 Aug 2006 @ 5:52am

Prediction Time
Let's see here... we have a technology which some would see as promising, but few see as actually working, or even capable of working.

I'm laying odds that not too long from now, a US company will try this, make it actually work... then get sued by another company who "had the idea before" and claims to have actually patented it.

This story just couldn't end without a patent suit getting started.

OH... And I know that responding to Potato Fucker over there just eggs him on, but oh well. As someone said earlier... Die. Soon. Please.
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Kilroy, 29 Aug 2006 @ 6:23am

The new trick then would be to learn how to cheat a lie detector much like the way people cheat search engine ranking systems.

Also, if I'm a company, what do I have to do to make sure my content doesn't get flagged as BS? Hypothetically, the way I deliver my content may trip the BS alarm.

It will be interesting to see how they categorize, content into "crap" and "non-crap" and what ends up in the corresponding bins.
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nixmith, 29 Aug 2006 @ 6:42am

Re: online bull detector
I have a better idea. A good education which includes critical thinking especially as it applies to current events and mass media. You can't fool all of the people all of the time.
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ForkBoySpam, 29 Aug 2006 @ 6:51am

Off the Wall...
Maybe we can get the W3C to approve a BS metatag to help implement this new technology. We could have BS levels, I'm thinking we could color code em. Google can go through and mark and appropriately rate each page. Course this would lead way to MS BS Defender, and/or possibly something from Yahoo. Think of the economic growth this venture promotes! A BS detector....wish I'd thought of it....I'd prob make as much money as the chick that invented white out.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Aug 2006 @ 6:53am

Re: Re:
Whats wrong with China?

Do a google search for 'China human rights' - if you get no replies, you're likely in China - and they have that search blocked...

Enough said, I'd think... lol
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nunya_bidness, 29 Aug 2006 @ 7:04am

Already Available
There is already a plugin available that will actually detect numerous forms of bullshit encountered on the internet. It is called a brain.
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akharleylady, 29 Aug 2006 @ 7:12am

Re: Re: online bull detector
Thanks nixmith, I was waiting for someone to state the obvious.
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Vishy, 29 Aug 2006 @ 7:18am

Anyone heard of Bullfighter?
Deloitte put out a Word plugin a few years ago called Bullfighter. This ditty would analyze the bullshit quotient of a document, as measured by the occurrence of intentionally obscure phrases. It's poetic that it was a management consultancy company that produced such a plugin--they must surely possess unique qualifications to judge what is bull shiitake, being purveyors of the art form themselves.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Aug 2006 @ 7:24am

What if they set it up and connected it with a Wikipedia database, so that it would go through and check the wiki on the article to see if it's BS or not?

That'd be l337
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Wanda, 29 Aug 2006 @ 7:24am

overloaded
There's no way a BS detector would survive being pointed at a political patry web site. No way.
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Faz, 29 Aug 2006 @ 7:40am

Re: sons of nippon
so un called for.. seriously... we are suppose to be adults debating topics, not being mean...

Also, biggest concern is "who will guard the guards", if a government starts calling the great depression as bullshit... or more important historical facts as bullshit... *THINKING*
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He is right, 29 Aug 2006 @ 7:44am

Don't forget that the Germans started a SECOND war...maybe we should have kept our boots on their throats a little longer. Japan's only got one under the belt - is it really that ridiculous to by wary? He shouldn't be so racist of course but I feel like if you fought in that war and saw your friends mutilated by Japanese troops...doesn't that give you some right to be a tad bit racist?

First post!
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Lay Person, 29 Aug 2006 @ 8:07am

Chill Everyone...
Everyone here needs to chill!

Look there are people like Charlie Potatoes in the world. Perhaps he is as old as he says and that he really did experience WWII. Fact is that he harbors animosity due to witnessing a major war. He clearly never got over his animosity.

I'm sure there are plenty of you, who call him a bigot, who would do the exact same thing if you've been there and experienced it. I'm not defending him but I understand generational, sociological perspectives.

Old people carry old ideas with them to the grave. That's just the way it is. For most of them it consumed 1/3 of their lives on Earth. Some died, some went crazy, a few live to tell their story. Others take the time and effort to keep flaming their beliefs, if for no other reason than to give purpose to their anguish.

I know of this old German guy who did my friends roof. He must have been 100 yrs old while doing the roof! Anyway, he still believed that Hitler was the greatest leader of all time! When you talk to him he reminisces with a sense of pride and nostalgia. It's weird, almost like he has no idea the war is over or that the world views Nazi Germany as evil. He acts as though it were a dear, lost friend.

Clearly, hate towards certain peoples is generational. Problems occur when people start to train the youth in this hate. It would be best to just ignore all haters so that the youth don't get tarnished with ideas of difference.
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Little humor added, 29 Aug 2006 @ 8:07am

Pluto is a planet....BS!!!

Mine works : ) lol
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charlie potatoes, 29 Aug 2006 @ 8:09am

Smirk
gee...die? miserably? hahah...you gentle sensitive souls can be sooo mean spirited.
im properly chastised. let's all be nice. maybe walk around naked and smoke flowers? then there would be no more wars.
let's forgive and forget. we let the jews attack and kill our sailors in their private little ocean when we tried to listen to their radio signals. whoa..wait..im doing it again.
ok..then how about this..all i really want is for the lying sacks of shit to stop murdering whales. let them kill koreans and eat them. kill two birds with one stone. ohhh i said kill....i hope i didn't offend anyone. smirk.
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Daniel Barbalace, 29 Aug 2006 @ 8:23am

I got your B.S. detector right here.
I've got the code right here for the B.S. detector.

public double getBsLevelAsPercentage (String url)
{
....if (url.indexOf(".gov") != 0)
........return 1.00;
....else if (url.indexOf("slashdot.org") != 0)
........return 0.80;
....else if (url.indexOf("icann.org") != 0)
........return 0.50;
....else if (url.indexOf("myspace.com") != 0)
........return 2.50; // a mathematical paradox
....else
........return 0.00;
}
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Aug 2006 @ 8:35am

lol
nice bs detector... although, if it were implemented by the government, I am sure that would be in reverse order. screw the racist guy, we need trace that guy's IP and get him shot. Chances are, he is some slack jawwed faggot that never served his country. A worthless amphibious piece of sh*+ Most honorable servicemen do not carry that demeanor.. especially from the Marine Corps.
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Ladle, 29 Aug 2006 @ 8:45am

Also at the risk of being overly obvious, why not just make the "program" a toolbar badge that says "Bull Detected"? It would be right 95% of the time, and no one would know the difference anyway.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Aug 2006 @ 8:56am

Eggs on
w*w.fightthebull.com/
you can download bullfighter here.
What would be better than a BS detector would be a way to automatically reject off topic posts from obvious trolls. Maybe the comment section would actually have some intelligent discourse instead of these tired flame wars.
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I H8 Spam, 29 Aug 2006 @ 9:13am

No good
Come on people, an anti-BS app would never work!
Look at the Spam issues - every year Spam is on the rise even though most everyone hates the stuff.
If we can't keep BS out of our inbox we sure as heck can't keep it off a browser.

Just my 2 cents.
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Mike Shizzle, 29 Aug 2006 @ 9:58am

Re: Government...
Oh look a blog about democracy *CRAP*

You're an idiot. Go read about japan and then comment.
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claire rand, 29 Aug 2006 @ 11:16am

filtering & scoring web pages
well we now have computer software that scans emails and finds the bs pretty well. Through a bayesian routine at a web page and see what it comes up with, the benefit being yes it can mark pages as probably rubbish. but more allow it to follow links on a page (e.g. a google listing, or a link farm page) and will find the ones you liked etc.

its possible, but the local database to drive it could get somewhat large and its probably not going to be fast.

doable, but the people who would want and install it are frankly probably not the people who need it.

as for anything being 'government' backed, well that probably means it won't work, nothing more just it won't work.
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PapaSmurf88, 29 Aug 2006 @ 11:17am

Re: sons of nippon
Its people like this that make a thumbs down button useful.
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Joe Smith, 29 Aug 2006 @ 12:33pm

readability
I would certainly like to have a tool we could use to filter the output from my office to test for readibility. I know that some of our staff are routinely producing documents that need a college degree to understand and sending them to clients who read at a grade six level.
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zarquon, 29 Aug 2006 @ 8:03pm

Re: sons of nippon
that's not history so much as a fanatical genophobic rant. chill. have you ever been to japan? have you ever been to china? or are you just some ignorant long nose with a personal vendetta? "Too damned bad we stopped at Nagasaki"? That's what you do when your opponent surrenders. You stop! BTW: In WWII, China was our ally.
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zarquon, 29 Aug 2006 @ 8:07pm

Re: Re: Re:
have you tried from within china?
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zarquon, 29 Aug 2006 @ 8:26pm

Re: Smirk
because whales are soooo much more important than an entire civilised nation or two, right? you're saying that Koreans are less human than whales by careful use of the words 'murder' and 'kill'. open your mind, bigot.
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Beerhunter, 30 Aug 2006 @ 12:38pm

At this point I wish I had a racist filter!
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2006 @ 12:56am

MY Parents NEED one of these, hurry up!
Seriously,

I need then to have this!
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