Are We Just That Naive? Gullible? Stupid?

I just received one of those lovely forwards with little known facts. You know the one...it is physically impossible for a human being to lick his/her own elbow. Yeah, you've got it too, haven't you?

There are some things in there I know are true; like the world's most difficult tongue twister. But there are several other things which leave me scratching my noggin and asking, "Hmmmm."

Call me skeptical, but I'm not sure a study of 200,000 ostriches was done over eight years and that the study turned up not one instance of an ostrich burying it's head in the sand. Really? Do we have nothing better to study than quarter of a million ostriches who may or may not stick their head underground?

Then again, we do live in America...the country thatt, in the 1980s, spent millions studying bovine methane emissions. Yes, cow farts. And don't take my word for this...I read it in U.S. News when I was a kid! So anyway...this E mail brings me bback to the question that kicked all this off...are we just that naive?

And the answer is yes. Check snopes.com and you'll see bazillions of urban myths that have been proven false; the gang that will kill you if you flash your headlights, the kid who's dying wish is to collect a million get well messages, that sorta stuff. For whatever reason, it seems that anything that is written down, we believe. And yet, I sit here with my laptop and the power to blast a message to millions(nay, billions of people) world wide about how a study has been done that shows eating ketchup 10 times per day will give you an instant goiter. C'mon! I could, but why would I?

Some must get off on the power. And they have a willing audience of we lemmings that seem ready to swallow any info that comes down the pike. Not sure about you, but due to the fact I don't enjoy egg on my face, Ii don't forward anything that can't be proven. Maybe ostriches don't stick their heads in the sand, but when it comes to fact checking, people sure do.