| Tuesday, September 20, 2005 |
| Unbelievable |
I once heard that "you can tell a man that there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure."
A couple of weeks ago a friend emailed about 20 of her friends--including me--an interesting story. The email said that this August would be a great time to view Mars. It said that Mars would be closer to the Earth than it had ever been. Experts said that it'd be the closest that it had been in 60,000 years.
There was one problem, though. The email was a recycled email from two years ago. The dates had been changed. The event actually took place in August 2003. Granted, Mars is closer than it has been in the past. But in 2003 it was 35 million miles away. Now its' distance is 43 million miles and growing.
And then today a friend emails me a captivating story with three pictures of a large crocodile. The email stated:  This crocodile was found in New Orleans swimming down the street. 21 FT long, 4,500 lbs, around 80 years old minimum. Specialists said that he was looking to eat humans because he was too old to catch animals. This crocodile was killed by the army last Sunday at 3:00 pm, currently he is in the freezer at the Azur hotel. The contents of it's stomach will be analyzed this Friday at 2:30pm.
If you do a little research, you'll find that the story isn't accurate. The crocodile pictured above was shot and killed in the Republic of Congo, Africa. The reptile's vital statistics fell short of the claims made above: he was estimated to be 50 years old, about 16 feet in length, and weighed about 1,900 pounds.
Besides the research, there are some glaring problems. 1) The North American crocodile is rare and is only found in Florida's Everglades. 2) Why wasn't this story published anywhere else? 4,500 pounds is huge! The largest land animal in North America is the bison that weighs around 2,000 pounds. Our largest alligator weighs about 1,000 lbs.
Isn't it funny how people will believe just about anything they see on the Internet or email; or TV; or conversations overheard? Both the Mars and crocodile emails were sent with all seriousness and awe because the sender wanted to believe it or were comfortable believing it.
So I challenge you, the reader. Challenge complacency. Think. Commit. If there is such thing as truth, and if different views contradict one another, then make sure that the one you choose is the right one and that you have good reasons for believing it to be so.
Oh, look another email. Did you know that babies are born without kneecaps? Apparently, they develop them between 2 and 6 years of age.
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posted by Joe Napalm @ 7:31 PM   |
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| 2 Comments: |
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So are you telling me that Bill Gates is not going to send me $50,000.00 because I use Internet Explorer and I have responded to an email and sent it out to all my friends? Next you will tell me that nothing will happen to my luck or health if I break an email chain. Sheesh.
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No, and you can't make money by sending a big check to Nigeria. And the phone will certainly not ring after you send an email. And, no, the USPS is not going to start charging a nickel for every email to make up for lost revenue.
But did you know that turtles can breathe through their butts?
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So are you telling me that Bill Gates is not going to send me $50,000.00 because I use Internet Explorer and I have responded to an email and sent it out to all my friends? Next you will tell me that nothing will happen to my luck or health if I break an email chain. Sheesh.