- View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

Column

Odds and Ends: McCain's plagiarism flap, China's baby gymnasts and D.C.'s bicycle project

Date published: 8/14/2008

The world is a strange place--so strange that no mere CNN or Fox News can possibly hope to capture all of the outrageous occurrences that take place every day. In recognition of this fact, it! has taken upon itself the task of providing you with a sampling of miscellaneous news that might have slipped through the cracks during the past few weeks, and which we hope you will find a bit more intriguing than the latest Gallup poll.

STRAIGHT TALK EXPELLED?

The Washington Post detailed an interesting facet of higher education on Sunday with an article about the travails of two college students kicked out of a University of Virginia summer program due to violating the school's honor code ("An Education in the Dangers of Online Research").

The students' infractions occurred when they paraphrased material from the much-maligned online resource Wikipedia and then failed to cite it properly in their research paper. While some students cried foul over this implementation of U.Va.'s strict honor code, an unusual event a day after the article was published served as a reminder that plagiarism, intentional or not, can befall anyone--even a presidential candidate.

Political Wire blogger Taegan Goddard pointed out Monday that John McCain, in a speech addressing the escalating conflict between Russia and Georgia, presented an overview of Georgian history using phrases oddly similar to some found on the country's Wikipedia page.

While McCain, himself, had nothing to do with writing the speech, it should be noted that, were he a student at U.Va., he would likely be facing a trial by fellow students and staff rather than some vague criticisms from left-leaning blogs strewn across the Web.

FROM THE CRADLE TO THE NEST

As everyone knows, there's been a fair bit of controversy surrounding China's hosting of the 2008 Olympics. But one issue that has been remarkably absent from the firestorm has been the alleged use of underage athletes by the gold-medal winning Chinese women's gymnastics team.

Of course, we use the term "women's" loosely here since the athletes in question are required only to be 16 years old. Even so, The New York Times has reported on allegations that some of the country's gymnasts may be as young as 14 and carrying fraudulent passports.

Follow us on

Date published: 8/14/2008