User:IntrigueBlue/Common sense

Wikipedia is a great learning resource thanks to the sheer volume of material available. However, quantity doesn't always equal quality, and it is necessary to read any article with a grain of salt. Not everyone edits with the same diligence, so doubtful, fallacious, and downright dangerous statements have a tendency to stay articles longer than they should. Tagging statements with, , , and so forth is all well and good, but sometimes a statement is so laughably false or has been tagged so long that removing it is the only logical course of action.

Naturally, it's possible that some of the statements I have removed were in fact true. That's a calculated risk that one must take in trying to keep Wikipedia clean of unreliable content. If I have undeservedly removed something for which you can provide a reliable citation, by all means re-add it to the article and let me know. Until then, I think that Wikipedia will be better for its absence.

The following is a collection of some of the more unlikely content that I have removed from various Wikipedia articles, arranged by how long the statement had been tagged by the time it was removed.

Never tagged

 * "In the Babylonian and Assyrian Empires, the King would often be spanked by the High priest to remind him of how much of a fool he was in comparison to the gods." –April Fools' Day (an article to be taken with even more grains of salt than usual)


 * "Also relevant is the fact that this was one of the platforms awarded to German Efromovich's company Marítima, despite the fact that it had no prior experience of platform construction.
 * "In 1994 Marítima was a small company providing diver services to Petrobras, operating out of a house at the foot of a slum on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. One year later Efromovich's small company, with total assets amounting to less than U$1 million, was awarded contracts worth billions. To impress his clients, Efromovich would schedule meetings at the Sheraton Hotel, in Copacabana. Two hours before the meeting, he would take a bus from the cheap hotel where he was staying clear across the city to the Sheraton, to pretend he was staying there.
 * "Petrobras was under a deadline established by the Brazilian oil sector regulator ANP to begin producing from as many fields as possible before losing its monopoly, and therefore issued an invitation with a clause establishing a deadline of 18 months for completion.
 * "Although the other bidders, with proven expertise, said this deadline was too short, Marítima claimed they could deliver the platform on schedule and also submitted the lowest bid. They failed to deliver the platform on time, however, partly because the project was subcontracted to a Canadian shipyard on the banks of a river that, unbeknownst to Marítima, froze over every winter. They were forced to transfer the platform to another shipyard. " –Petrobras 36 Oil Platform


 * "Brein does not possess any legal right to do anything about illegal activities." –Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland (I may not approve of their goals or methods, but that doesn't mean that changing reality is the solution)

Tagged for 3 years or more

 * "In Canada, conversely, federal cabinet ministers often have dual citizenship with France or the United Kingdom and this in the past has not been an issue to their security clearances ." –Multiple citizenship

Tagged for 2–3 years

 * "The Scandinavian source of porphyria has been traced to the Sámi ethnic group." –Porphyria (just what we need, scientific racism minus the science)


 * "Named after the computer in the Stanley Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL is the name of the inventory replenishment system used throughout the American chain of Virgin Megastores. It got its name from many of the Virgin staff who were tired of the way the program works. " –Virgin Megastores

Tagged for 1–2 years

 * "As such, it escaped German occupation during World War II." –International Bureau of Weights and Measures (that would be a bit hard, considering that it wasn't given extraterritorial status until 1969)


 * "A number of Kerr's oldest friends on the Labor side of politics never spoke to him again. The residents of the street in Balmain where Kerr had been born posted him thirty pieces of silver (a reference to Judas Iscariot)." –1975 Australian constitutional crisis


 * "The AUC has allegedly helped Darién Gap travelers in isolated instances." –Darién Gap (I hope nobody tried to act on that advice)

Tagged for less than 1 year

 * "About a dozen aluminum cents are believed to still be in the hands of collectors, although they are now considered illegal, subject to seizure by the Secret Service." –Penny (United States coin) (one of my best friends was shot by the Secret Service for being found in the possession of a penny!)


 * "Fireless steam locomotives might, possibly, make a comeback because of their ability to use steam generated by rubbish incinerators or solar collectors. They could even use steam generated by nuclear reactors." –Fireless locomotive


 * "The Korean People's Army (KPA) had made numerous attempts to grab UNC personnel from CP#3 and drag them across the bridge into North Korean territory.
 * "According to some sources, Senior Lt. Pak had at some point stated that the tree had been planted by Kim Il-sung himself." –Axe Murder Incident


 * "Following Tsoi's death, more than 65 adolescents all over the Soviet Union committed suicide, because they believed their life lost its meaning without their cultural hero." –Viktor Tsoi


 * "In 1782, a certain Mrs. Fitzherbert is reported to have suffered from an attack of hilarity while she attended a performance of The Beggar's Opera. When Charles Bannister appeared on scene as Peachum, she burst into an uncontrollable laugh so loud that she had to be expelled from the theater. She laughed continuously all night long and the day after, dying early in the morning, the following day." –Death from laughter (I did find this anecdote on Google, albeit on a somewhat questionable site, but it's poorly written and fairly insignificant in the context of the article)