I got this thing in my e-mail the other day: a list of “Did you know?” stuff…some of these things really baffle me. Like for example “A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.” How do they determine this? Do they tell the goldfish something and then ask him a question about it 4 seconds later and if he doesn't answer? Or do they put food in the tank and if he stops eating after three seconds, it's assumed he forgot where the food was? Maybe he's full!
Another aspect of this type of thing that baffles me is the time and effort someone puts in to determine the answers, unless we're just all being scammed.
Like “There are more chickens than people in the world.” Did someone actually count the number of chickens vs. the number of people in the world? How time consuming is that???? And how can you be sure you got all the remote areas where there might be either a person or a chicken?
Or “A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.” First of all, someone stays face to face with this shark until he blinks with both eyes? Brave soul! And as for all the other fish, again, how do you know, in the great big, deep blue sea, that you've encountered all the other fish, and also, how long did someone stay face to face with each of them to make sure they couldn't blink with both eyes? How long does a job like this take, and how much does one get paid for such a job? (Not to mention, what's their job title?)
Another one I've heard several times before, that again, baffles me a bit, is the one about not taping on a fish tank with goldfish in it, because it gives the goldfish a headache. How do we know this? I don't know, food for thought.
