Once you pop, you just can't stop!

One of the characteristics of the 'modern' era, as my sister pointed out quite recently, is that it seems that it is no longer socially acceptable NOT to know something, or more accurately, NOT to know EVERYTHING! 

Whilst there has long been a general thirst for knowledge, we have historically been satisfied to have discovered the answers to life's questions, at some point in the (sometimes distant) future, rather than within the next 14 nano-seconds.

Scientists have actually* discovered that for millions of years, our brains have been 'hard-wired' to create a reflex reaction, whenever a question is asked, that forces our index fingers to 'tap', seemingly uncontrollably, 6 times. Once straight ahead, twice slightly to the right; once straight ahead again; once again to the right; and finally once to the left.

Whenever somebody asks a questions such as: -

"...is Jimmy Tarbuck still alive?" or,

"...who were the first Question of Sport team captains?", or

"...how old is Bruce Forsyth?"

our index fingers will start to tap in this way. Don't believe me? See what happens when you're next asked a question.

Interestingly, in the archaeological remains of the most developed ancient societies, small indentations have been found on slate and other writing materials that have matched this very same "tapping pattern".

However, it was not until 1996 when, in Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, matched these "reflex" tapping movements with a computer keyboard and invented the first "search" engine, and that search engine was called....

'FIIFKQ'

Not unsurprisingly, FIIFKQ didn't really catch on!

However, the story goes that one evening, several months later, a cleaner accidentally moved the scientific equipment fractionally to the right and the following day GOOGLE was born!

Everybody now knows everything, or can do if they want to, just by 'searching the interweb'.

To test this theory consider this question and see what happens to your finger:

"What is the best way to treat a blister? Pop it, or leave it?"

The views of our friendly Gurkha Regiment army medic, will be provided on a posting soon.

* the use of the word "actually" in this posting does not imply any significant degree of truth/honesty or accuracy.