Is the Web a gift or a curse?

[qdog1955]

  In the process of trying to find information on low temp pasteurization of raw milk, I once again run into the problem of a lot of opinions, but very little empirical evidence.
  Now I clearly remember the days of encyclopedias, dictionary's, and running to the library to do research----not convenient at all. The W.W.Web has certainly put tons of information at our fingertips---but a lot of that info is questionable at best----not to even mention the idiots that intentionally put harmful info out there.
   Having run into this dilemma before in everything from medical to automotive to veterinarian----I have learned to try to verify a source----not always possible.
   What do you cheese folks think and do in this electro-geekery age?
Is it a curse or a gift?

Qdog 

[awakephd]

Yes.

[pastpawn]

Caveat scrutator - Let the searcher beware! 

Found on the walls of ancient Roman internet cafes. 

[pastpawn]

Not certain if beer pastuerization is similar to milk, but I use this graph (from a brewing book) to gauge safe temps and time. 

[edit] I'm sure this graph doesn't apply to milk, on second thought.  Beer has low pH and alcohol that inhibit growth of much bacteria. 

[ArnaudForestier]

Caveat scrutator - Let the searcher beware! 

Found on the walls of ancient Roman internet cafes.

Yeah, and look what happened to them.  Overtaken by a bunch of hairy celts.  My great-great......great grandpa!

[Digitalsmgital]

so you're saying 'twas the Celtic hackers brought down Romulus Augustus' servers and wrought the Dark Ages?

I think you added an extra "great" to pad your age! 

[ArnaudForestier]

so you're saying 'twas the Celtic hackers brought down Romulus Augustus' servers and wrought the Dark Ages?

Why yes.  Exactly, yes.

I think you added an extra "great" to pad your age! 

Believe me brother, this dude don't feel he needs any more paddin', in any sense of the word!

[chevre au lait]

QDog, the web is of course both a blessing and a curse.  I feel it's just a more modern version of the old issues. 

For me, it's a blessing, as I don't have a well-stocked library to run to, and it takes weeks for interlibrary loans to arrive.  Before the internet, I would go to the well-stocked library that I lived near, then, and get at least three books on a topic I was interested in.  Invariably, two would be pretty comprehensive and be in 95% agreement with one another, and they would fill in each other's information gaps.  The third book would be evidently suffering in the research, editing, and proofreading departments, though the pictures might be pretty, and possibly useful if correctly captioned.

Prior to the age of books, I guess one would ask as many people as one felt confident were qualified to answer intelligently, about what one wanted to know.

And there has always been good old hands-on experimentation, where one expands the field of knowledge, one's self.

But in the internet age, and not being near a library, I like online forums (forae?), which are interactive, and one can judge the credibility of an "expert" by their overall performance on the forum and support of their views by other "experts", and you can read others' responses and experiences, and converse with them for clarification.  It does take time to filter through all the facts and factoids, but so does critical reading of books, and so does tracking down qualified people to speak with.  And good old, take-a-deep-breath-and-enter-the-unknown experimentation, takes time--and guts, too.