Time for a little myth busting

I received an email forward in my inbox today. It is one of those, "Bill Gates will send you x amount of dollars for forwarding this email to x amount of people." emails. It went on to say that this was covered in a two page story in USA today and on the Today Show and Good Morning America. One problem. It is a hoax. It was never covered in a two page article in USA today or on any morning news show. Folks. Plain and simple. you are not going to get anything for free by forwarding an email. No free stuff from Microsoft, You are not going to receive free anything from anywhere by forwarding an email. There is no email forwarding tracking system. The email also says it was confirmed by a lawyer that this is indeed true. Again, no it was not. I certainly would not want to be a client of any lawyer who would state this is true. The only reason the morning news comment and the, "This has been confirmed by a lawyer" comment were included to give the story more believability. Anyone can make up a story and claim it was seen on Good Morning America a while back because the person making the story up knows that most people are not going to check it out. In many peoples minds the mere presence of a source whether it is true or not makes the story believable to them. A simple rule to follow. If it sounds to good to be true than it is. Any variation of the forward an email and get free stuff is false. It continually amazes me the number of these emails I get from family and some friends. Even after sending them the proof they still send me this stuff. The funny thing is these things are very easy to check out. Simply go to http://www.snopes.com/ The urban legends web page and a quick search will tell you if that email you received about Woman allegedly being abducted at wal mart is true or not. It is false by the way. The email about the Bill Gates hoax included the line, "What do you have to lose by forwarding this email," I'll tell you what you'll lose. The respect of your friends who will then think you are very gullible and believe everything you are told. Many members of my family on both sides have a problem with believing everything they are told. A couple of examples. My brother in Law Tony on Thanksgiving. was trying to tell his daughter that tryptophan in turkey makes you tired. The fact is that it does not. Tryptophan only works on an empty stomach when taken with no protein so therefore it is impossible for turkey to cause drowsiness. But he insisted that his daughter not listen to a word I was saying because according to him tryptophan is a very bad drug. He had no evidence to prove this when pressed. All I got was a elbow in the ribs from my sister. Not sure what that was supposed to prove accept the fact that they had no real argument so they had to try something. I just kept stating the facts but he wanted nothing to do with that. After all, why let a silly thing like the truth get in the way of a childs education. The funny thing is all he had to do is look it up for himself.. Also he failed to note the fact that if tryptophan were that dangerous you could not give turkey to a child since if it were strong enough to put an adult to sleep it would probably kill a child. A point which I made in my email to him the next day. Obviously he does not think of these things or he would realize this. Another family example. My mom would tell us when we were younger that you had to wait one hour after eating before going swimming or you would have terrible stomach cramps that would make you drown. Now at an early age I knew this was a bunch of bunk since I had never heard of a case of this actually happening. When pressed for details my mom just said she knows it is true because her mom told her. Ahhhhh a real reliable source. When pressed for more info I was told to shut up. In other words my mom had no real evidence to back up her claim but did not want to admit it so she thought telling me to shut up was going to stop the argument. She also belived that you needed eight glasses of water a day no matter what. Again, I for a long time believe this to be untrue since common sence would tell you that if you aren't doing much activity than you don't need very much water. On the other hand if you are lets say lifting lagre chuncks of concrete for eight hours a day in 90 degree heat you obviously need more water. I would point this out to her but still she insisted she was right and I sh0uld just lean to eccept what she says as being the truth. Thank God I did not listen to that advice. Sure enough I found proof the eight glasses of water a day was an old wives tale and false. I've sent her many a snopes link over the years. My mom is the queen of believing everything she hears. She also believed the Pepsi and the pledge hoax. I of course sent her the proof that it was a hoax and she had to change her thinking on that one. Where did she hear it, in church. Yes she will believe any rumor if she hears it in church because people who go to church don't lie. If you believe that one, I have some bonzi kittens to sell you. My wifes cousin sent me that once. I sent her the info that it was a hoax. She then sent me an email stateing that if it was false to read the page she found on the ASPCA website. Upon reading the page I found that the page she told me to read also said it was a hoax. I told her this and she said she must have missed that part. Funny, it was in the first sentence of the page. My mother in law is not quite as bad but she has been fooled by a few. The funniest one, she would not lick envelopes because she had heard they contained roach eggs. She swore she saw it on CNN. I again went to trusty snopes dot com and found the link sent it to my father in law. My mother in law doesn't use the computer, and when presented with the proof that it is indeed false she had to admit it. The most agrivating thing is It is so easy to check these things out. .My wife and I have always questioned things and weather they are real or not. It seems that others in our families especially mine and many other people will just believe any rumor they hear without question.

The place to check out the littleflurry and zman show podcasts

Ok, I'm haveing trouble getting the website to post in the links section so here is the link to check out all fifty six of our shows so far. I'll put the link in the links section as soon as I figure out what I'm doing. You would think since I can operate seven radio stations putting up a link would not be that difficult We usaually do one show a day during the week and take the weekends off. Here's the webpage for the littleflurry & zman show
www.candidradio.com

Newsflash, sound does not travel through walls and over carpet very well

It has been a while since my last blogg entry but there's been something on my mind and it has to do with sound travel. I'm referring to the people in my life who don't understand that sound does not travel very well across a heavily;u carpeted house, up several flights of stairs, or around corners. Not to sound sexist but it seems the women in my life are the most guilty. I'm speaking of my mom and my wife. Perfect example. When I lived at home, my mom would holler from the basement all the way up three flights of stairs that she had no hangers to hang cloths. She would yell three or four times and be astonished that noone could hear her. She would then come up stairs and yell at us for not listening to her. I would point out to her that sound does not travel well from the basement around corners and up three flights of stairs. She would then say something real brilliant like, "what walls and stairs." Then get mad at me for bursting out in laughter and calling her an idiot. I'd further point out to her that she was in the basement and I was up stairs so therefore the sound of her voice had to go up three flights of stairs and around several corners. Now any intelligent person would realize that sound cannot travel very well around all those obsticals. she'd then throw a temper tantrum about how noone has any respect around here. Anytime you would confront her or prove her wrong her way of handling problems was to throw a temper tantrum.
My wife is guilty of not realizing that sound does not travel well but unlike my mother, My wife admits she does it. Here's the usual example. First some back ground information. Our house is a long skinny house. It is a long way from the East end of our house where the living room is witch has the computers, TV, etc. The bathroom id near the West end of the house. Also our hose is heavily carpeted. I could be watching a ball game on TV or over at the computer, my wife could be in the bathroom or the kitchen. Both on the West end of the house. She'll holler something at me that she knows I cannot hear because most people realize that sound does not travel long distances across heavy carpet. She'll yell three or four times and then wonder why I cannot hear her. She has been told many more times than I can remember that sound does not travel well across our house yet she does this at least once per day. You'd think she'd wait until she comes back in to the room before saying something when she knows I can't hear her. She also does this if I'm on the computer wearing headphones. Instead of coming over and tapping me on the shoulder to get my attention, she'll say something form the couch and then wonder why I cannot hear her. One night she even asked if something was wrong. Apparently wearing headphones and listening to a ball game signifies to a woman that something must be wrong. That's a new one for me. I got even though. I started talking to her while she's wearing headphones and now I think she gets the idea. Now if I can just convince her once and for all that sound does not travel across our heavily carpeted house we'll be making progress.