Local Nonprofit Part of Boston Bombing Hoax

Photo of little girl from past Virginia race co-opted in viral fib.

Organizers of the annual Joe Cassella 5K in Great Falls are outraged a photo from the race was circulating as part of a hoax in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings Monday. "We would like to clarify that the picture circulating on the web and Twitter of a little girl wearing a Joe Cassella 5K bib claiming to have been killed at the Boston marathon is being used fraudulently," the Joe Cassella Foundation wrote on its Facebook page on Tuesday. The photo was used along with the claim that the girl in the picture, age 8, died while running in Boston in honor of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting victims. The information from @HopeforBoston (now disabled) went viral (even though children are not permitted to run in the Boston Marathon …

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Tackling Technology

Don't Spread Internet Germs

As the flu season begins in the 'real world', do your part to not spread internet 'germs' in the online world

How many of these posts have you seen on your Facebook wall? Did you know that all of these are either false or misguided readings of the facts? How many have you shared yourself? I will confess that in reading through dozens of posts of my Facebook wall or in a crowded newsfeed on my Twitter account that I have hit 'like', 'share' or 'retweet' on something that was probably too shocking, too unbelievable or too easy to be true. Tale as old as time  None of this is new, people have shared gossip and rumors face-to-face, by telephone, over radio call-in shows, via regular mail, via email, via graffiti and who knows, probably by telegraph, carrier pigeon and message in a bottle. Before Facebook posts there was chain mail, and after that …

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