We love tales of people acting stupid. All the better when they are doing stupid things amidst natural splendor. So this New York Times article about people being stupid in National Parks is delightful.

The article isn't really about people acting stupid in parks, per se. (Though that would have been just fine with us.) Ostensibly, it's about how technology is causing people to act stupid in parks. It opens with this charming vignette, of a woman filming her husband running at a buffalo:

"Watch Donald get gored," she said as her companion hustled toward a grazing one-ton beast for a closer shot with his own camera.

Seconds later, as if on cue, the buffalo lowered its head, pawed the ground and charged, injuring, as it turns out, Ms. Hayes.

We'd like to think that the buffalo wasn't even thinking about goring anyone until it heard some idiot tourist say "Watch Donald get gored," and realized now was the chance to become a viral video hero, maybe score a few SUV commercial gigs out of it.

Other people trek into the wilderness with nothing but a GPS device, forgetting that the human body also needs such things as food, water, and adequate clothing. Our favorite is this story of almost unbelievable idiocy in the Grand Canyon:

Last fall, a group of hikers in the canyon called in rescue helicopters three times by pressing the emergency button on their satellite location device. When rangers arrived the second time, the hikers explained that their water supply "tasted salty."

But technology also prevents people from being stupid! Like the guys who tried to pee into Old Faithful at Yellowstone: They were caught by a 24-hour webcam that had been installed so "people could experience Old Faithful's majesty online." What we would give to have some two-girls-one-cup-style reaction shots from the people who were taking in Old Faithful's "majesty" via webcam and instead saw some bros piss into that legendary hole.

[Picture of Old Faithful by Saucy_Pan]