Please Do Not Delete Forward This Email
Forwarding Emails Forwards Misinformation
Here is an easy, fun theory to test how quickly information degrades from authenticity into audacity:
Purposefully tape a piece or two of toilet paper to the bottom of your shoe, and exit into a public, but “controlled” arena, such as at the office. Make sure a colleague or even a friends takes note of your faux pas. Before long, a cute anecdote is circulating around the office email pool about how silly you looked or how embarrassed you were when you came out of the bathroom with toilet paper stuck to your shoe; and before long, by the end of the day, absurdity morphs the anecdote into asininity and before you know it, you shit your pants at the office.
Sorry for the graphic imagery, but you are already very likely thinking of a very similar situation exampling the contrast of the authentic against the comprehension of the asinine twists of the former? If the above experiment were carried out, even to a different less degrading depiction without shocking terminology about defecation, who would be the victim of the misinformation? Certainly you may feel victimized if a story were taken out of context and passed around as the truth, and rightfully so. Is the only “innocent” victim the one misreported? What about the recipients of the wrong information? Are they victims of being misled? Don’t be too quick to come to theirs, or even your own, defense.
This is exactly what happens to each of us nearly every time we receive an email forwarded to us. You recognized them at once:
- Please Forward
- Please Read
- Please Do NOT Delete
- I Don’t Normally Forward Emails, But This ONE is Really IMPORTANT
These are just a few examples of subject and opening lines to emails that anyone with an email account receives. For that matter, I get more of these than emails from Bill Gates offering me ten cents for every time I sent and get others to resend emails for their tracking and testing; I have yet to see a guest on Oprah, Good Morning America, or even a local paper story or picture of anyone holding up a huge check from Microsoft or Bill Gates making them an overnight millionaire. I am more inundated with emails from friends, family and colleagues that require my immediate attention, reading, action and forwarding to everyone I know on a daily basis than the times I have won the Internet Lotto or failed to help some heiress in Africa get her late father’s wishes and money to me. What is so important that my friend who never finds it important enough to forward emails to everyone she knows to send this one to me for my immediate consideration and call to act?
Read and Forward THIS Email Examples
Here are a few examples of emails that I have received demanding my attention and begging for my reaction
- No Presidential Prayer Day Proclamation for 2010
- UK to Outlaw Holocaust Education
As time, energy and frustration dictates, I will periodically revisit, edit and add to this entry with link over to others that are expamples.
The bottom line up front (BLUF) for me is multiform for me, I guess. First, the emails are malicious; they are meant to be hoaxes from the starting gate with the juvenile goals to see how far the farse will travel and bogging down lanes on the information superhighway. Secondly, I suppose I am a bit offended by receipt of such emails; my sensibilities are offended. Finally, I am struck by the very audacity and ignorance of those who continue to readily jump on a phantom bandwagon and then ask everyone they know to realize their ignorance while lending a hand to help them up onto the audacious and ignorant wagon with them.
Ignorance v. Stupidity
For me, there is a fine but definitive line between being ignorant to the facts or about the knowledge of something and the stupidity of further promoting and propagating untruths without the simple expenditure of a couple of keystrokes and a minute of time. In essence, it also comes down to an exercise in common sense. When we see an ad too good to be true, we almost automatically look for “the catch.” Where is that “sixth sense” when we read an email so full of pathos it is an obvious assault on our sensibilities requiring the same speculation and suspecting of the all-too-good advertisement?
Let Your Fingers Do the Walking
Before the Internet killed the yellow pages star the oft quoted and re-used slogan of the Yellow Pages, “Let your fingers do the walking,” was applied across the spectrum of academia, not just to finding a reputable plumber on a Sunday. When I didn’t understand a word, my grandfather and father were quick to point to a dictionary and let my fingers do the look-up so my brain would remember the definition and meaning. When you receive an email that begs you to get involved and forward, do yourself, your credibility and your sensibilities a favor and let your fingers type on over to a few verity checks before becoming an accomplice to stupidity:
- Google – yep, Google – put that pathetic subject line in the search engine and see what comes up; probably the real answer or a link to Urban Legends who give the “rest of the story” to these too oft BS emails. For example, if I search Google for “2010 prayer day canceled by obama” the first link to appear is to Urban Legends and merely from the viewing of the SERP (search engine results page) I can clearly read “False:…” and the story and link are a click away.
- Urban Legends – click on over and you’ll see the Paul Harvey version of your email and a verity of its authenticity in seconds; a great way to educate yourself and the sender of the email to you! Using the above example, here’s the rest of the story on the 2010 Prayer Day issue.
Keep your credibility and sensibilities in tact – suspect and check the authenticity of those outlandish emails with passionate pleading to forward to everyone you know; else everyone you know may know may know ….
Ohms Will Not Kill You
Amps Will Kill You
Amps Will Kill Ya!
A few weeks ago my son and I got off on a digression that led to a nearly two hour debate about which was the killing factor in getting electrocuted. I honestly got so engrossed in the debate I really cannot even recall how the subject came up; but somehow I ended up making the comment, ” … it’s not the voltage that will kill you, it’s the amps,” to wit my teenage son was all too eager to correct, stating “… it’s not the amps, it is the ohms that is the cause of death in electrocution.” Okay, game afoot, please clarify.
Tyler decided that he had been convinced by a former teacher and science textbook that it was in fact the very fact that the human body had a natural resistance (ohms) that made would cause its death should electricity be introduced. Really?
So most assuredly, we “debated” the issue back and forth for some time, swapping analogies, examples and factoids to better make our respective cases … all to no avail; we simply could not agree. Ironically, we really seemed to be talking about the very same thing, but we were looking at it from different perspectives and understanding it from different points of view. But honestly, I really felt we were talking about the same thing and merely using and understanding the definitions on different levels. My position was that the “introduction” of electricity into the body was an unnatural offense to it and the fact that the body has a natural ohm was not the culprit, but the electricity that contained enough amps (0.5 amps by the way is all it takes to kill a human) to kill the individual, while Tyler maintained that the body’s ohm resistance being present stopped the electricity from passing through the body and hence rendered it “dead”. Hmm … let’s think on that a moment; nope, back to arguing!
Communication Failure
After unsuccessful attempts and an hour later trying to prove my case, I did not give up, but I did offer a challenge and reward. I would allow Tyler access to my computer, books and any reference material he could find within an hour and if he could prove me wrong, by an authoritative source, I would give $10 for helping me see the light … sorry, the pun just slipped. However, as a former non-commissioned officer in the Army, I was taught to make use of available resources which I have tried with little success to impart to my children. As such, I felt it only fair to also offer up my phone for the research … “Call your grandfather who spent over 40 years of his life as an electrician, meaning that every single day of his career and the majority of his life, he’s had to live or die by the very knowledge which you are seeking.” With that, I handed him my phone and walked away to allow him optimal concentration and use of faculties for proving me wrong. Good luck.
Now, I knew the answer, not because of my own education, but from my father who survived life as an (electrical) lineman with the knowledge that a little amp goes a long way. After a few minutes, I re-entered the room to find my son busily typing at the computer researching the Internet looking for any source that would prove him right, and me wrong … and apparently grandpa too!
“What did Grandpa Gordon say?” I asked upon entry to the back of Tyler’s slumped over body steadily pecking at the keyboard.
“Amps will kill ya!” and then he hung up, Tyler informed me.
Yep, sounds like grandpa – short, succinct and sure; case closed. Not so fast …
Communication Errors Kill
What started out as an intended correction of the old man to put me in my place, migrated over to a debate, and evolved into an exercise in communication. Again, in essence, we were really talking about the same thing: the amps are the “killing agent” in electrical shock and because of the body’s natural resistance, it is almost always a deadly introduction when the two meet. However, we were so headstrong in our positions and being proven right, that we failed to see the common ground that we were standing in – we were talking about the same thing but failing to hear the commonality enabling us to reach an agreement and move forward …
You know, maybe ohms do kill you … if you’re too resistant to communication?
Thanks to Tyler for the education in communication; I’m never too old to learn – I hope!
Thanks to my Dad, William G. Mineo, for the education, experiences, and humility to enable turning the other ear! (And the short, direct, and on-point answer / phone call couldn’t have been better scripted.)
Thanks to my own grandfather, William L. Mineo, and great-grandfather, Robert T. Mineo (for whom (Robert) Tyler is named) for their ever-consistent ethos, and stubbornness, that resonates throughout our generational lineage that empowers our logos and drives our pathos!
Thanks be to God for them all!
Another Year Closer to Ashes
Happy Birthday to Me
Another Year Closer to Humus
I ended my birthday with an MRI this year; damn it sucks getting older. As I lay in the very loud thumping noise of the MRI machine with my shoulder even further restricted by a special image capturing device, my mind was racing. I was wondering what ever happened to the grand daughter of my old neighbor’s who’d been born on my 8th birthday over 30 years earlier. I was wondering if I had thanked everyone on Facebook who’d posted a reminder to my age earlier in the day; surely I left someone out, but hopefully they all knew I was grateful. I was wondering where and how I would celebrate next year; hopefully not confined in an MRI machine! But then it dawned on me … I really don’t like to celebrate birthday’s anyway. Then I really began to wonder – why was I wondering about a day I would personally prefer to be another day? I’m not vain about my age, but the idea of birthday celebrations after a certain point just seems pointless. Unless of course, you reach another plateau range which is in itself noteworthy; when my great-grandfather turned ninety and later ninety-five, now that’s worth commemorating in my book!
Birthdays – Annual Reminder of Mortality
So if you are reading this and I’m between the ages of 21 (which I have long surpassed) and 80 (that’s my “goal” year) do not feel it necessary, an obligation, or a necessity to remind me of my passing mortality, the aging process in and of itself is reminder enough … daily.
Election Year Distractions
Auguest 2010 Jackass Award: Xenophobic Hypocritical Citizens
Don’t Detract From Democracy Via Distraction
Can we mix politics, religion and democracy?
Okay, I admit it, that was a bit long for a title and subtitle, and you are probably expecting a really long dissertation to explain it … probably not going to happen; we’ll have to see how it types out. It is really simple, but as you can see, a long, complicated, or confusing title could easily lead into an entire diatribe when some simple dialog will suffice. It seems to never fail, with every major election year, we have to drum up major issues to distract us from real problems that politicians fail to fix.
“We will not forget” is an oft used statement among several organizations, groups and countries, most especially here in the United States; I am reminded not only of that statement, but the commitment with which it comes as well, every day that I display the POW/MIA flag with its similar, somber message, “You Are Not Forgotten”. Both of these terms took on special meaning for the entire world on the morning of September 11, 2001. While the generation a few years before me will always remember where they were, with whom they were with and what they were doing when Jackie was assassinated, when Brother Martin was gunned down, or when Bobby was taken from us too. Similarly this generation will always remember with painful clarity the morning, the moments, and the mourning of 9/11. We could not forget, should not forget, never forget the events of 9/11; but let us not turn the remembrance of those lost into a misguided trip onto distraction drive by politicians who do not have real answers to our real problems.
2010 Election Year Distraction Delegate: Mosque at Ground Zero
The Mosque at Ground Zero, more appropriately should be referred to as the mosque near ground zero, first off. Then again, Newt, Ann and other ranters would not have gotten nearly the press play that they did had they titled their discussions (diatribes really) more appropriately and accurately. While religion is just that and should not be equated to race, that is exactly where detractors and distractions are trying to lead the discussions, to an unjustified question of an us versus them mentality … an attempt to race bait.
While I am personally not in favor or the mosque near ground zero, it has nothing to do with anyone’s religion. Actually, it is my concern, that irrespective of the intention of the Islamic center at this location, it will be a target for heated debated, discussions and potential hotbed for violence by all those whipped up in a frenzy over its existence. We have the opportunity and yes, even the obligation, to show the world that we are truly that beacon on a hill that we have always aspired to be and be the tolerant, respectful and freedom loving people of the American ideal. Blocking the building of a religious center would accomplish what? Blocking the building of the mosque at or near ground zero will only serve to show that we are no more free than the theocratic, oppressive political systems we openly abhor.