Pass this on.....it is the truth.........

Although a recent post celebrated the advent of emails (but also the annoying Spam by-product) this article discusses how rumours disseminated on the internet have a lasting effect.
When Barack Obama went on the offensive, responding to allegations he's secretly a Muslim and was sworn into the U.S. Senate on the Koran, he was responding to a smear campaign that has been propogated by emails.
What made Obama's statement so extraordinary is that it wasn't in response to a comment made by one of his opponents, or an attack ad broadcast by a sleazy interest group. No one in fact, knows exactly where all the rumours he's a Muslim are coming from.
Although rumours and gossip have been around for as long as humans have been able to speak, thanks to the internet, false information can reach thousands, even millions, of people in a manner of weeks.
Several years ago, an official-looking e-mail began circulating - from the "Manheim Research Institute," which doesn't exist - claiming that the bacteria that cause flesh-eating disease had been found on bananas from Costa Rica cost the banana industry over $30 million in lost sales. The claim was completely untrue.
Rumours spread over the internet can be malicioius, deliberate acts of mischief or deceit, or rumours that start by accident.
Experts say it's not that surprising that internet rumours get started - after all, people have been lying for centuries. What's most interesting, they say, is what makes people pass them on.
A number of well-researched websites - chief among them www.urbanlegends.about.com and www.snopes.com - keep a running tally of most of the rumours circulating around the Internet, including which ones are true and which ones are false.