Information You Can't Trust

I couldn't resist this one.

According to news sources, army troops from Nicaragua invaded Costa Rica this week. Apparently that part is true. What is interesting, in terms of information literacy, is that they did so based on inaccurate information published by Google maps.

It's a challenge to find real-life examples of what happens when information is accepted at face value. I'd say this story qualifies. Would Nicaragua have crossed into Costa Rica had the map not been mis-drawn? Maybe not, although it sounds like Nicaragua took advantage of the situation, which they thought was in their best interest.

Other examples of information literacy faux pas are not impossible to find. I think a collection of such examples would help those who work with students to make the point that accepting information at face value can have ugly or embarrassing consequences: not always an international incident, but financial loss (recall the United stock debacle) or a missed assignment (see the story of Calamity Jane Austin).

I'd love to hear examples you've collected.

Looking in the Wrong Place and the Power of Words

When Google introduced background images for its search page, I was an early adopter. I selected an image of a landscape that I found particularly pleasing (see below).

Whenever I went to Google to search--which is often--I'd see this image. My interest grew. Where is this city?

Trying to get information about the image wasn't successful. Using view page source, I found the image file but it is not descriptive, just a bunch of letters and numbers. I searched in vain for descriptive information. Nothing worked--though this is a challenge you might like to try.

I've traveled Alaska coastal waters and this looked like it could be from that part of the world. Searches for Alaska port cities were not fruitful. I even resorted to looking at the coastline using Google Maps, looking for landforms that matched. That was similar to finding a particular puzzle piece.

Then a different shot of the town showed up in an L.L. Bean commercial on TV. Same landforms. Now I was really curious. This gave me a new set of keywords.

It wasn't until my son-in-law commented on the commercial--he was also interested in determining the mystery location--that he heard the city was in New Zealand. I'd been looking in the wrong part of the world.

That was the clue I needed. New Zealand LL Bean commercial was finally effective in determining the city. With the name of the city, I used Google Maps and confirmed that the missing puzzle piece was found: parallel peninsulas.

I'd be curious to know what other searches you might use to find the name of the town, if you didn't know the location was in New Zealand (which is a powerful keyword).