[LINK] Urban myth in the making: Was: Ex IBM Employer reveals TV abandonded analogue band for RFID

Robin Whittle rw at firstpr.com.au
Fri Jul 17 11:08:21 AEST 2009


Hi Rachel,

You wrote:

> I did say I couldn't verify the article myself ;)

Yes, you did march 20 paces in front of the thing, waving a large red
flag - which is entirely appropriate.


>> When I first heard of this story on the AH list, I tried to find the
>> original source, found the michaeljournal.org page, and decided it
>> wasn't credible enough to mention to anyone.
> 
> What you say about amplification is very interesting. 
> I could not find anything either.  I got it from a different list.  Then 
> I saw it on AH myself.  I had not heard the meme before then, though.

It took me a lot of effort to figure out, as best I could, what the
original source was.

> Very sorry if I naively spread unmitigated rubbish but I thought there
> was substance in the article!

I think there's little risk on Link for stories like this to be
accepted as real.

So much for my theory of wider dissemination:

The Google hits for 4PM yesterday and 11AM today:

  RFID "Patrick Redmond" "ex-IBM"    94  76

  TV IBM RFID "Patrick Redmond"     115  99

Maybe there is tough competition in the blogosphere for conspiracy
theories.   I still reckon this one has staying power and will be
floating round for years to come.

  - Robin




More information about the Link mailing list