Popular Myths

February 9, 2006 8:47 AM
Related Categories: Crazy

I am a bit of a sucker for popular / urban myths.  Not that I always fall for them, but I really like them.  It reminds me that we really are not as smart as we think we are.

Anyway, here are a few tidbits and some links to sites where you can learn more.

From Live Science

You get less wet by running in the rain. (True)

Chickens can live without a head. (True)

It takes 7 years to digest gum. (False)

Water drains backwards in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Earth's Rotation (False - it is based on the sconstruction of the sink - yes the Simspons lied to us)

From Snopes

Email claims that ... (False) any email claiming anything is virtually always false.  Really. You will not get money, Oliver North did not say those things, nor did Cindy Sheehan, etc.  and Bill Gates will not give you money for forwarding that damn email.

A number of amazing coincidences can be found between the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. (False - most ot the coincidences are silly, misleading or false)

President Bush was 'amazed' at encountering supermarket scanners for the first time (False - though I wish it to be true)

E-mailed accounts warn of death and disease caused by rat urine on soda cans (False mostly).

A significantly large percentage of U.S. currency bears traces of cocaine. (True)

NASA spent millions developing an 'astronaut pen' which would work in outer space, while the Soviets solved the same problem by simply using pencils. (False)


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Comments (moderation on)

The NASA statement is true. There are pictures of Gagarin (the first human in space) writing reports while his short travel - he used a pencil!
# Posted By Klim | 2/10/06 2:05 PM
Ah, but I think NASA also used pencils at first. At least I think that is the part that makes it false. We didn't invest in anti-gravity working pens. Some other company did it anyway, and we were already using pencils.

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp...
# Posted By Joshua | 2/10/06 2:12 PM

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