Fact or Fiction?

And you think you've had a bad day!!!

It happens all the time. You open up your email inbox and there you are confronted by a fantastic image. The accompanying message pushes the boundaries of the believable all the way to the fringes of your better judgement. Initially, the more critical part of your mind casts a shadow of doubt but at the same time you are intrigued by the possibility, "What if this is really true?"

Much to my own embarrassment I recently succumbed, to the kind of judgement found in the latter category, when I embraced one such piece of urban legend folklore. I was able to save a small measure of pride in the fact that I didn’t forward this message to anyone else, but I did show it to several members of my family with great evangelistic zeal. The above photo was accompanied by this explanation:

“Although this looks like a picture taken from a Hollywood movie, it is in fact a real photo, taken near the South African coast during a military exercise by the British Navy. It has been nominated by National Geographic as ‘The photo of the year’”

Not too much later I stumbled across a website specializing in bringing down those of us who allow our heads to drift high into the clouds of contemporary myths. snopes.com My jaw dropped when I found this link (the reality of sharks and helicopters), which unravelled the very picture I had touted to my grandparents and even my father-in-law.

Urban legends are as old as our imagination. The “snopes” website even makes an interesting case when it explores the role they play within the tapestry of our society. In all honesty I must admit I had a long hard laugh when the infamous "shark & helicopter" photo was first sent to me. Yet, with this being said I want to be sure that the “interesting little tidbits” I share from this point forward have a bit more fact and a lot less fiction. No doubt, in an age of digital photography, photo editing and digital animation we can no longer claim, “the camera doesn’t lie!”