“Steamed Bun Little Sister"

[Viking12]

Botched Coal Astroturfing: Linguistic Analysis Reveals Hundreds Of Fake Names On Coal Ash Petition

The U.S. coal industry is so deeply unpopular, it has now turned to its imaginary friends for help.

That’s according to a linguistic analysis of a recent petition opposing new regulation of toxic coal ash. The petition, which was sent to the White House by the coal industry last year, featured more than two thousand Chinese names. That raised the curiosity of the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). So the organization commissioned an analysis of the signatories.

EIP says the analysis shows that hundreds of the names are complete fakes. When translated, many of the Chinese “people” supporting the coal industry’s petition have names like “Steamed Bun Little Sister” and “Come to China Donkey.” The translator who examined the signatures determined that “most of the Chinese names in the petition are not authentic, and … appear to be generated by a piece of software or a group of individuals.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/28/508226/botched-coal-astroturfing-forensic-analysis-reveals-hundreds-of-fake-names-on-coal-ash-petition/

[RKP5637]

1. Sometimes this does make me wonder if a unique traceable ID

is a good thing for petitions, etc.

The privacy side of that bothers me, but for certain petitions, etc. maybe a unique ID is valid to prevent fraud and cheats. Then again, it smells like a voter ID.

Damn, too bad so many organizations/people are filled with lies and cheating these days.