3billion - Scholastic

numbers
in the news
3billion
number of cars
the International
Monetary Fund
forecasts will be on
the road in 2050,
compared with about
700 million today.
SOURCE: The eCoNoMiST
60 %
percentaGe of
Twitter users who
abandon the service
after one month.
SOURCE: NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH
$0.0005
cost of eiGht ounces
of tap water, compared
with $1 for a singleserve
bottle of water.
(See p. 26.)
SOURCE: The New YorK TiMeS
2.3 billion
number of years
scientists say Earth
will stay habitable
before the sun makes
it toast.
SOURCE: TiMe
14
number of years
that Husly Rivera, 18,
a June graduate of
the Academy of Urban
Planning in Brooklyn,
N.y., attended school
without missing a day.
He plans to attend John
Jay College of Criminal
Justice in Manhattan.
SOURCE: The New YorK PoST
media
the perils of wikipedia
w
hen a French
composer
named
Maurice Jarre died in
March, Shane Fitzgerald
added a fake quote
to Jarre’s Wikipedia
biography. Fitzgerald,
a 22-year-old sociology
major at University
College Dublin in Ireland,
says it was simply an
experiment to see how
the Internet affects
media accuracy. But the
results offer a cautionary
tale to anyone using the
Web for research. The
does surGery
belonG online?
t
he point of Shila
Mullins’s brain
surgery was to
remove a tumor that
threatened to paralyze
her left side. But
Methodist University
Hospital in Memphis,
Tennessee, also saw
an opportunity to
promote itself—with a
webcast of her surgery.
Mullins had an awake
craniotomy, which
means she remained
awake and talking
during the surgery. (The
video shows Mullins
fake quote immediately
appeared on newspaper
Web sites around the
world—even though
Wikipedia twice caught
its lack of attribution
and removed it. A month
later, Fitzgerald alerted
media outlets to the
hoax. “I am 100 percent
convinced that if I hadn’t
come forward,” he told
the Associated Press,
“that quote would have
gone down in history
as something Maurice
Jarre said, instead of
something I made up.” •
reciting ABC’s while
doctors separate the
tumor from her brain.)
The hospital’s marketing
department promoted
the webcast—which was
not broadcast live, like
other surgeries at the
hospital—in infomercials
and newspaper ads, and
Don’t try this at home: a brain surgery webcast
Media watchdog shane Fitzgerald
the web
tracked the number of
viewers and the number
of appointments made in
response. Hospitals are
using unconventional
methods, like Tweeting
from operating rooms
and posting surgeries
on YouTube, to attract
patients, donors,
and doctors. But
some ethicists say
these practices raise
questions about patient
privacy. As for Mullins,
although the surgery
didn’t prevent partial
paralysis of her left arm,
leaving her unable to
work, the video includes
her testimonial praising
the hospital’s care. •
SEPTEMBER 7, 2009 5