Wikipedia: Pros and Cons
Wikipedia has been in the press a lot recently, and has received a lot of flack for some of the flame wars that have erupted on controversial posts/topics
But at the same time, Wikipedia is a great resource for so many other things–especially those topics that aren’t “hot-button” primarily those which are out of the main stream.
That’s not to say that it should be taken as being authoritative–but at the same time, it’s a tremendous jumping off point.