49.9 Percent

Allegedly, the sophistication of the Homo Sapien's brain is among the top 5 on the planet right now.  Hmm?  Come Again? Another person died in Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday this week, June 7th.  From The Missoulian (newspaper in Missoula, MT):

Rangers suspended their attempts on Wednesday to recover the body of a man who wandered from a designated boardwalk and fell into an acidic hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, another in a string of incidents raising concerns over visitor behavior.

The full story can be read here.  It's just the latest in this year's growing list of demonstrations of the "power" of the human mind:

• Teen burned after falling into Yellowstone hot spring (also Tuesday, June 7), 2016
• Men face federal charges for walking into Yellowstone hot spring (story from May 17, 2016)
• Man who put Yellowstone Bison Calf in SUV gets probation (incident date May 17, 2016)
• Woman shooting photos gets too close to Yellowstone mama bear (incident from late May or early June 2016)

A few paragraphs from the last article in the list are worth quoting:

If last week's bear jam is any indication, no matter how much information park managers publish or broadcast about the illegality of such incidents, folks either aren't getting the message or just don't care about the rules meant to ensure their safety, as well as to protect wildlife and the park workers called to the scene of such incidents. 

Last week when the woman photographer boldly advanced across the narrow road, I thought for a second that I would witness a bear attack. Luckily the mama bear showed more sense than the woman and moved away from the crowd and up the hill, along with its cubs. 

Yet the incident makes many regular park visitors and staff wonder: What is going to happen next? Or maybe less politely: How stupid can tourists be? No wonder some park workers refer to visitors as "tourons," a combination of the words tourist and moron. Last summer it was bison gorings and people falling from cliffs that made headlines. This year is anyone's guess.

Perhaps the name "Yellowstone National Park" is misleading.  Too gentle.  In our modern world, a "park" is now a place where things are ordered, sculpted, domesticated, and sanitized for your protection.  It's a place for careless romping and playing, where the flowers lack thorns, playgrounds have soft, foamy landing surfaces and there are no sharp edges.  No rules are needed to keep us safe from ourselves in a park.  Maybe Yellowstone needs to be renamed to something more along the lines of "Yellowstone National Danger Area Where Lots of Things Can Kill You Because the Wildlife Are Actually Wild Not Caged or Trained and There Are No Safety Rails So THINK.  Also, Old Faithful Does Not Operate By Pushbutton or Computer Timer." (Yes, there is a story behind that last part, too.)

I will conclude with this fact:

49.9 percent of the population is, by definition, below average intelligence.