[WikiEN-l] The Nature of "Facts"

[Apoc 2400]

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> The other day I ran across what is perhaps for me, one of the most bizarre situations with references I've yet to encounter.
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> Webster's has produced a book.? I found it in some random Google books searches I was doing on a subject.? It states certain facts and a few of them I knew to be without evidence, which made me wonder where they'd come from.? After a few minutes of scanning back-and-forth I realized that their source citation, which is only cited as (WP) stands for.... Wikipedia.
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> Checking the Wikipedia article on the same subject, that "fact" is no longer present.
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> I hope we can all see what horror Webster has now unleashed upon us, by this act of intellectual graffiti, not to mention amateurish citation.? They need to be taken to the woodshed.
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> This is not published by the "real" Merriam–Webster, but Icon Group
International. That is company that computer generate enourmous numbers of
useless books that fill up Google Books. These "Webster’s Quotations, Facts
and Phrases" books that are made from excerpts of Wikipedia articles are
especially annoying, as people who don't check their sources properly create
circular references. I search for these occasionally and remove them from
articles.