Since I posted it on Raven (and to several other lists), the "Railroads and
Horses" piece has drawn two types of reactions. The first, the vast
majority, both on Raven and in private emails, was that of people who had
something of value to add to the subject: confirmation, denial, links to
other such "urban myths" and loads of trivia about railroad gauges, all of
which (to me) has been interesting, amusing and just the reason that I put
the piece on Raven in the first place.

The other reaction has been a debate on email plagiarism, which, while it
may very well be a welcome development in itself, was NOT my intention.
However, since I have effectively been accused of plagiarism (without
anyone bothering to address me directly on the matter), I would like to get
my two cents in.

Like many other people who spend several hours a day in front of a
computer, I get about an average of 50 emails a day. A lot of what I get is
jokes, anecdotes and various "cute" or "clever" pieces, mainly from friends
who think, often correctly, that I might be interested in that particular
item. Most of what I get, I forward to others, trying as best as I can to
be selective, since some people don't appreciate certain kinds of mail.
There are even some things that I find so tasteless that I don't forward
them to anyone at all. The few things that I have posted on Raven have been
items that I have thought would either interest or amuse the general UTC
community, and, judging from the reactions, I've usually been correct in my
assessment. I then delete most of it. 

The vast majority of these types of items are unattributed, unchecked and
unverified. That's what makes them "urban legends". Although they often do
have the email addresses of the last 5 dozen computers they have passed
through, I usually "clean them up" before sending them on, since I don't
like to have to scroll down long lists of names and signatures before
getting to the actual item, and I assume others don't either. I usually
also try to leave a few lines between the end of the I tem and my
signature, so as not to make it seem as if this was something that I had
composed, but I sometimes forget.

In any case, in my opinion, there is a vast difference between such items,
when presented as "fact" in the classroom, in a public lecture or in a
published paper, where I appear as a professional, writing on my field of
academic expertise, and such a forum as Raven (or emails between friends),
where the effect is that of "Hey, did you know that…?" I welcome being
corrected, told that the whole thing is a myth, or finding out that there
was actually documentation available. I certainly did not intend to present
myself as the author. Maybe I should be more careful about adding a line
stating that "this is something that I was emailed". In any case, I would
think that most of the people on Raven would be able to tell the difference
between an apocryphal anecdote and a scholarly article. 
















Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.