Ever wondered about why the majority of dinosaurs became extinct? No, not something that has kept me awake at night either. I say the majority because supposedly birds are avian dinosaurs and therefore very much alive and far from extinct, unless you listen to the RSPB who think all birds are on the verge of extinction.

Theories as to what wiped out most dinosaurs from the face of the planet range from super volcanoes through to asteroid impact and prehistoric climate change. They could all be right, who really knows? Let’s face it - it was a long time ago. Other theories suggest that their bodies became too big for their brains and they were unable to function and started doing stupid things.

In her article in Live Science ‘Are Big Brains Smarter?’ Jeanne Bryner suggests that: “If this were true, then perhaps big-headed people wouldn't be so pea-brained”.

Apparently one thing scientists do agree on according to Jeanne is that: “A big brain alone doesn’t equate with being smart. If it did, elephants and sperm whales would win all the spelling awards”.

So while an elephant noggin, at 10.5 pounds (4,780 grams), could squash a human think box in a purely physical battle of brains, you and I take the cake in a war of wits says Jeanne with our brains, which weigh an average of 2.7 pounds (1,200 grams), accounting for about 2 percent of body weight, compared with an elephant's under one-tenth of a percent.

As the difference in brain size between humans are relatively small, why is it that some people are (or appear to be) more stupid than others?

Now someone told me a tale recently of a relative of theirs that left his luggage on the coach at the airport and did not realise until he was on the wrong side of passport control and security. Some would say that’s a stupid thing to do. Others would put it down to forgetfulness, stress of travelling, being in a hurry or just plain bad luck.

I once whilst on a family holiday in Portugal, having got changed after spending the day at a waterpark some two hours from our villa, starting frantically looking through my bag for the car and house keys. In an ever increasing state of panic I nearly ripped said bag apart before rushing out to the rest of my family shrieking “the keys, the keys, I can’t find the keys”. Mrs F calmly said “what these keys?” holding said car and house keys out in front of her.

Rather than calming down I wailed, “What prat gave you the keys?” – you are ahead of me, I can sense it…, for which the reply was, “you did.” What would you have done in this situation? Acknowledge quietly that you had clearly forgotten you had handed them over and were grateful for someone having control of things? No not me, I just went into what has been described as a creditable Basil Fawlty impression, jumping in the air repeatedly clapping my forehead, screaming repeatedly, “I’m the prat. I’m the prat.”

It still brings tears to many an eye when this subject gets raised, which it does.

On another family holiday whilst visiting a zoo I see a magnificence vulture, sadly in a cage. The bird did inspire me for some reason, I don’t know why but instead of just saying to my eldest lad, “Look Steve, it’s a vulture”, I just kept repeating time and time again, “it’s a vulture, it’s a vulture”, after which Steve responded “I can see it’s a f….. vulture, how stupid do you think I am”.

There must be, ……no correction…., there are many other occasions when I, someone who has two degrees and a MBA and nearly 43 years continuous local government experience, have done something stupid whilst not under the influence of any alien substances.

In his article ‘Why do we act so dumb?’, Dr Michael Colgan, whilst not answering the question gives some insight:

We get a bit arrogant about how smart we are, even though we share 80% of our DNA with a banana, and over 98% with a chimp. We prefer to forget we are primitive simians, who evolved somewhat late in the game, on a rock spinning at a thousand miles an hour, orbiting a star at 67,000 miles an hour, itself hurtling through the Milky Way much faster than that.

We never want to be reminded we are mostly hot air. Three of the gases that made the stars, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen make up 78% of the human body, plus 18.5% carbon to hold it all together. That’s 96.5% of you and me, gas and dirt.

Blogger Shamelle, posted in February 2007 suggesting nine reasons why smart people do stupid things sometimes. Note the number 8 is missing, not sure why:

1 Emotions get in the way of logical thinking - This is the battle between logic and emotion. Where, logic is derived out of smartness and emotions outshine the logic.

2 They react on Impact - For example, immediate reaction to something you just heard (this is somewhat related to 1).

3 Ego - Some smart people like to polish their ego. Let me phrase it differently. If they feel their ego is endangered, they might say/do something stupid. For example, not admitting you are wrong even when you know you are wrong.

4 Assumptions, Carelessness or Over-Confidence - I find it a bit difficult to differentiate the 3, so I took the lazy way and made it one reason.

5 Self centered - What I think, I want, My Needs. Aha, Needs. The root of all heartache! I am sure you can find a few examples that can be listed here.

6 Fear - Doing something (stupid) out of fear. Again, can be related to #1.

7 Deafness - Failing to listen falls into this category.

9 Living in the NOW - Some decisions may be made based only on the present. Whereas, it should have been made with the future in mind.

10 Center stage with stupidity - Even smart people are not perfect. We are all human. Sometimes mistakes do happen. If the person is humble, he/she will accept responsibility and apologize. Then, you really know the person is smart!

As for the dinosaurs let’s put their demise down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time as opposed to doing something stupid. As for us, let’s remember the next time we see someone acting stupidly, it might just be that they are the sane ones.

“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself”
― Earl Nightingale