Why do people insist on being right when they're 100% wrong? It's because of how it feels when you're wrong...
- Thread starter Mendel
- Start date
FatPhil
Senior Member.
I remember the bin/bear/intelligence comment from years back, but am unable to find a source.
The earliest I can find is an unsourced post on /. from 2006:
-- https://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=191810&cid=15757347Re:Even if done by M$FT, it's still spyware... (Score:5, Interesting)
by theonetruekeebler ( 60888 ) on Friday July 21, 2006 @11:50AM (#15757347) Homepage Journal
Back in the 1980s, Yosemite National Park was having a serious problem with bears: They would wander into campgrounds and break into the garbage bins. This put both bears and people at risk. So the Park Service started installing armored garbage cans that were tricky to open -- you had to swing a latch, align two bits of handle, that sort of thing. But it turns out it's actually quite tricky to get the design of these cans just right. Make it too complex and people can't get them open to put away their garbage in the first place. Said one park ranger, "There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists."
I've forgotten why I mentioned this, but it had to do with the considerable overlap between our individual opinions of an "average user."
I don't remember theonetruekeebler, thus his reliability, I'm from a similar era on the site. However, the comment was considered believable enough for Bruce Schneier to reproduce it on his blog ( https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/security_is_a_t.html ). However, at the moment, I fear it's apocryphal. It may even have been said by a ranger, but that doesn't make the statement true, it could have been a joke.
