Thanks to the magic of the Internet, we have a billion facts and figures at our fingertips. Although the information superhighway is pretty amazing, it’s also full of potholes and wrong turns: believing everything you read could get you into trouble pretty fast.
Wikipedia, for example, is the sixth most visited website in the world. It bills itself as “the free encyclopedia,” but there’s just one problem – you get what you pay for. According to a recent study from Penn State, 60% of Wikipedia entries contained factual errors. Even the Wikipedia entry titled “The Reliability of Wikipedia” admits that controversial topics and current events are bound to reflect the bias of the people editing their pages.
It’s not all Wikipedia’s fault, though. Misinformation has always been a danger, whether you find it on a website or hear it around a campfire. Even Shark Week includes some tall tales like the “fake” documentary entitled: Megalodon: The Monster Shark That Lives. When the scientific-based Discovery Channel is making things up, who can you trust? Personally, I’ve found the website Snopes.com to be a great resource. On Snopes, you can search for stories and confirm whether they’re true or just another urban legend. Take the following story, for example:
A Charlotte, North Carolina man, having purchased a case of rare, very expensive cigars, insured them against (get this) fire! Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of fabulous cigars, and having yet to make a single premium payment on the policy, the man filed a claim against the insurance company.
In his claim, the man stated that he had lost the cigars “in a series of small fires.” The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigars in a normal fashion. The man sued – and won! In delivering his ruling, the judge stated that since the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that the cigars would be insured against fire, without defining what it considered to be unacceptable fire, it was obligated to compensate the insured for his loss.
Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company grudgingly accepted the judge’s ruling and paid the man $15,000. After the man cashed his check, however, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of arson. With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used as evidence against him, the man was convicted of intentionally burning the rare cigars and sentenced to 24 consecutive one-year terms.
So, what do you think – fact, or fiction? Only Snopes knows – and you, if you decide to click the link.
Don’t believe everything you read this weekend,
Bob
