I love the Internet, it's such an amazing source of information. I may still reach for a book first when it comes to reports and papers, but when the library fails (and sadly, where I live it fails often), the Internet can fill the gaps. It also lets me connect with people from all over the world via message boards and other forums. It even lets me have some fun with games that would never work on a home console. Best of all, the Internet lets me speak my mind in a way that lets many of you read my articles (though why you'd want to is another matter).

Unfortunately, the ability for people to reach so many also causes a few problems. Unlike newspapers, news shows, and other printed forms of information, there is no check on the Internet. Anyone can write something, and with the right dressing it can look like anything you want it to. What's worse is that you can say anything at all, and you don't have to know anything about what you're writing about. Thanks to the Internet misinformation, and outright lies are spread throughout the world at nearly the speed of light.

On Youtube I saw a video of a woman screaming about some government conspiracy concerning the water supply. Her evidence: her sprinkler produced a rainbow one day when she ran it. More recently, CERN faced lawsuits, protests, and even threats over the new Large Hadron Collider. Someone had posted on the Internet that the LHC would create mini black holes that would destroy the planet. More websites, and later news organizations who should've known better carried the story throughout the world. All of this culminated in the suicide of a 16 year old in India.

The most dangerous piece of information floating around the Internet right now is the idea that vaccines are harmful. For decades now some have claimed that vaccines cause a whole range of problems, from cancer to autism, to death. Time and time again doctors have shown these claims to be false, but the anti-vaccine groups keep coming back with the same claims. Right now, a battle is being waged in Australia between anti-vaccine groups and the government health departments over it. Children have died of preventable diseases because their parents wouldn't get them their shots.

2012 is 2 years from now and the Internet is full of doomsday prophecies. The movie of the same same name used these as marketing, and the advertising powerhouse that is Hollywood let these crackpot ideas reach many eyes and ears. NASA ended up having to make press releases refuting the nay-sayers because they were getting questions from teenagers asking if the world really was going to end in 2012, and if so, they would go ahead and commit suicide to avoid the end of the world.

Am I calling for a control of the Internet? Honestly, I'm not sure, but I don't want to see that happen if we can avoid it. Despite the hoaxers, the crackpots, the trolls, weirdoes, the sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads, the Internet is an invaluable source of information about the world and universe. But be smart as you read, and be ready to question everything you find. Back up your research with books and reviewed articles. Mixed research sources are always the best. And never hesitate to share your thoughts about anything.

See you on the Information Super-Highway!