If it's not a hoax, what is it?

Dennis O'Connor and I are running a "Model Lesson" workshop tomorrow at the Midwest Educational Technology Conference in St. Charles, MO.

As part of the session, we're offering up four different challenges that demonstrate search and evaluation techniques. For this, we're using a spin-off of the RYT Hospital site: genochoice.com.

While students may not be able easily to detect the fictive nature of the site, the site is loaded with Red Flags.

What is not easily understood by seasoned investigators--and I expect most of the participants in tomorrow's session--is whether the site is a hoax or not. There is sufficient evidence to suggest it is not a hoax, contrary to numerous .edu sites that include genochoice on their hoax lists. The hoax theory starts to unravel the more you tug at it.

But if it isn't a hoax, what is it?

That's the challenge.

And it's a pretty good (i.e., deep) one. I'd like to hear readers' opinions on it. Why does this site exist?

By the way, the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus is another site that is likely in this shadowy category. Sure, it's bogus. But what is the purpose of the site?  Why would someone go to the trouble of keeping it fresh and perpetuating the fiction of a tree octopus? If you've never asked your students to figure that out, they've missed a real investigative challenge.

A Shark, a Kayak and a Tree Octopus

Back in May 2009 I posted a visual information fluency challenge about a shark and a kayak.

I'm revisiting that challenge because of a new tool I came across recently. Error Level Analysis is a software application that can be used to detect possible jpeg image tampering or touch-ups. To keep it simple, digital images are composed of pixels. Every time an image is copied, the pixels lose some of their original sharpness. The more an image is copied, the more it degrades. Then if something is touched up or added to the copied image, the new part of the image has less error than its surroundings. Read more here.

If you subject the edited image to error level analysis, the newer parts stand out against a background of noise. A good example of this is found at http://errorlevelanalysis.com/ -- roll over the picture of the model on that page.

I ran an information fluency workshop last week at ICE (Illinois Computing Educators) and we used this tool with the image of the shark and the kayak. We also tried it with an image from the infamous Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus site, shown here.

Try it. The original Shark and Kayak picture is attributed to Thomas Peschak. Using error level analysis, the jpeg on his website does not appear to be the original image.  Go to http://errorlevelanalysis.com/ and paste in the url of the image: http://www.thomaspeschak.com/storage/White%20Shark%20KayakThomas%20P.%20Peschak.jpg.  See the white outlines of the copyright text? You know that wasn't on the original. The outlines around the shark and kayak are unmistakable.

This poses an interesting investigative situation. Based on all the evidence, except for error level analysis, I'd have to conclude that what this photo shows actually happened. There is so much going for the validity of the story: published in a reputable magazine, a credible author/photographer, even Snopes.com says the image is real.

Then why does it appear to be touched up? And what is the extent of the addition? Maybe the shark and the kayak were merely enhanced. Maybe they were added later. Hard to tell.  One thing's for sure: something is different about this image since it was first snapped.

A second image that HAS to be fake comes from the tree octopus site.  There's no doubt that the tree octopus is a fabrication. Yet when you do error level analysis with http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/treeocto.jpg, you see what an image that hasn't been photoshopped should look like.  The original photo could have been some type of stuffed or toy octopus intentionally posed on a tree limb--although the octopus appears to have an outline that makes it look out of context.  Blowing up the image might reveal something about that outline.

Clearly, you still have to use your brain and other evidence to tell when an image is real or faked. A tool like error level analysis can help in doing investigation, but you can't rely on it alone.

Challenge: try some favorite images from the web and see what they reveal. Any surprises?

The Trivial Nature of Search Challenges

If you google internet search challenge, the top results are published by 21cif, including this blog. But there are other challenges out there:

Internet Search Challenge

Kim Bauman put together 10 questions that can be answered using a search engine, such as:

1. Define garrulous.
2. Who stated that The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do?
3. Where is Mosi-oa-Tunya located?

The answers are on the site and may be used as a quick set of challenges using Google.

Jr. High Internet Search Challenge

St. Marys Schools (OH) published this 73-item pencil and paper trivia information challenge with items such as:

1. Find a copycat recipe for Outback Steakhouse’s Bloomin’ Onion
2. Who was the voice of Darth Vadar in the Star Wars movies?
3. Who is the current head coach of the Arena Football League’s Columbus team?

They link to it as a Junior High Search Challenge, although the url or the pdf doesn't describe it that way. Searching for 73 items would take a pretty good block of time, but it's possible to select fewer items. No search key provided.

Internet Search Challenge

This one or two player game published by Boise State University has automated features, like dice to select the type of search tool to be used, and timed search challenges. The objective is to find the correct answer to the question before the hourglass runs out (there's also a stop watch function). Sample questions include:

1. What was the name for one of the first computers invented in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania?
   Bonus: How much space did it take up?
2. What is the name for a number followed by 100 zeros.
   Bonus: How do you write this number with exponents?

Internet Search Challenge

Tom Sloan at University of West Virginia has posted a search exercise (9 items) for his English 102 course, including questions like:

1. What is the real name for Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan?
2. What is the meaning of the Welsh word "cymru?"

The directions for this exercise include explaining how the answer was obtained.

As this sampling makes clear, the task in most search challenges is to locate obscure information, usually intended to be of interest to the searcher. In addition, the task may be to use a specific type of tool in the process and to keep track of one's search to explain how an answer was found (a difficult thing to remember, actually). The task in all these is what I consider 'speculative searching': you don't know for certain what words to use or where to look.

There are few 'investigative searches,' yet this is where students need the most help. They tend to accept information uncritically; they don't often have investigative questions in mind when they search. So let me leave you with one: what is the author's real reason for producing the site: Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus? It's a hoax site, but why? Why does the author invest the energy in keeping the site fresh (and misleading)?

This is a deeper type of search challenge and requires more thought than answering trivia. In fact, the answer is not known. It's a real challenge. If you or your students want to tackle the question--what motivates the author of the Tree Octopus site?-- feel free to add your comments here.