The Questioning Librarian

While I'm on the subject of email hoaxes, I thought I'd address another of these pernicious lies that seem to start with a randomly forwarded email. They then come to take on a life of their own where they become "true" because everyone agrees after having read the same email and failed to even take the most basic checks on it. This time, I'm talking about the persistent lie about the Presidential dollar coins. I've been forwarded this email twice, both times having been disappointed that the sender (same person) failed to fact check, and apparently forgot that I already replied as to the untruth of the email. The substance of the email claims that, first, the national motto "In God We Trust" has been removed from the new dollar coins, and it is such an outrage that everyone should refuse them if offered. Further, in the conspiracy-mindset of many in this country, they claim that this is yet another strike in the liberal-atheist "war" o...

I have email! In my inbox yesterday, I had been forwarded an email by a friend purportedly telling about the exciting new discovery of the Bakken Formation in the Dakotas and Montana where, this email claimed, the United States had more oil than "the entire Middle East!" Further, it made the astonishing claim, allegedly backed up by the US Geological Survey, that this formation contains 500 billion barrels of oil, which would not only end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and give Americans their light sweet crude at "just $16 PER BARREL!" But wait, there's more! The deposit will fuel the economy "for 2041 years." Here I can only assume that the unknown author meant we would have enough until  2041. Sounds good, doesn't it? Smells like snake oil to me. The fact-checking website Snopes.com kicks this one to the curve. The Bakken Formation is, in fact, real, but the projections given are, naturally, vastly inflated. Given that, according to Snopes, ...