THE DANGERS OF COPY AND PASTE

As a teacher I am always warning students of the dangers and unethicality of copying and pasting the work of others with neither permission nor accreditation but next time I will have this cautionary tale from Catania to back up my admonitions:

A candidate in the municipal elections for the town of Paternò in Catania Province has promised, in his manifesto, to improve the city's finances by creating a port there - the only problem being that Paternò is inland, lying 43 kilometres from the Port of Catania and 142 km from that of Messina.  

It turns out that the unfortunate candidate copied the election manifesto of a candidate from Genova and the  "port" promise was left in by mistake.  Our undoubtedly now red-faced candidate noticed his error too late, for a group called "Paternò a Mare" [Paternò-on-Sea] has already appeared on facebook and members are enjoying themselves creating images of the city surrounded by water.  The "Maritime Republic of Paternò " has also been proclaimed on the page.

I understand that the US State Department proofreads press releases around 35 times before these are made public. Perhaps Sicilian electoral candidates should take note.