I’m sure everyone who reads this blog has already read the silliness about Google Earth and Atlantis, so I won’t comment on it’s don’t-eat-that-elmer quality directly, but the whole thing is instructive for a couple of reasons. First, from a rogueclassicism-blogging point of view, I now know that when my spiders fetch a pile of similar articles from news sites I have never heard of, there’s likely something nutty behind it. Second, it is clear that some folks really shouldn’t be allowed to have writing implements because it is clear they are reading much below grade level. For example, the Daily Mail coverage of this stuff included the following quote from a Google spokesnerd:

‘It’s true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth – a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species, a fringing coral reef off the coast of Australia, and the remains of an ancient Roman villa, to name just a few.’

By the time the story was filtered through something called eFlux, that became:

Google Earth may have been used to find the remains of an Ancient Roman villa in Mozambique, however, Atlantis is yet to be found.

• Atlantis revealed at last… or just a load of old Googles? (Daily Mail)

• Google dismisses ‘Atlantis find’ (BBC)

• Google Earth Atlantis Discovery Excites Treasure Hunters (NewsOxy)

There’s a lot more, but you’ve probably seen it …