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ventaThe pedants are revolting...
Someone just sent me via email a list of "surprising facts".
Mostly, I'm surprised that these lists of facts are forwarded around so frequently, despite being largely bollocks.
So, cutting out the cutesy pictures, here's the list (sic, throughout):
Now, some of those - the kangaroo and the equestrian statues - were old-hat urban legends when I was a kid. I've grown up knowing these things were untrue - are there really still people believing them?
A couple are true: that is, I think, the derivation of cemetery, and the multiplication is correct. Some of the others I'm not actually sure about.
Elephants can't jump (and, in fact, according to Wikipedia there's some interesting stuff about their gait). I've never seen an earthworm jump, though, so I'm not convinced about "only animal". If they mean "only animal that looks like it might", then I don't know; maybe that one's true. Apparently, crocodiles really can't stick out their tongues.
Some (like the third) I can't even quite make sense of. What does it mean? An average person fears spiders 59% but only death 37% ? Saying starfish have no brain is technically correct, but a bit unfair on the average echinoderm. And that's possibly the least convincing etymology for OK that I've ever heard - and I've heard quite a few.
What intrigues me, though... do people believe these lists ? Do they just regard them as entertaining diversions on a work-day afternoon, and that it doesn't matter whether they're correct or not ? Do you forward/receive lists like this ? Am I taking it all a bit seriously ?
Shall we make our own up ? Anyone want to volunteer a "fact" (for best results, make it one which is hard to prove false by a one-stop visit to Wikipedia) ?
Someone just sent me via email a list of "surprising facts".
Mostly, I'm surprised that these lists of facts are forwarded around so frequently, despite being largely bollocks.
So, cutting out the cutesy pictures, here's the list (sic, throughout):
- Elephants are the only animal which cannot jump.
- The body's strongest muscle is our tongue.
- Stastically, people are more afraid of spiders than they are of dying.
- All polar bears are left-handed.
- Crocodiles cannot stick out their tongue.
- Butterflies taste with their feet.
- A cockroach can live nine days without it's head. It only dies because it cannot eat.
- A duck's quack has no echoe, and nobody knows why.
- Each King on playing cards represent a real King in history. (Spades: King David, Clubs: Alexander the Great, Hearts: Charlemagne, Diamonds: Julius Caesar).
- It is impossible to sneeze with your eye's open.
- Starfish have no brains.
- Multiplying 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
- A statue in a park with a soldier on a horse with it's two feet in the air means the soldier died in combat. If the horse has only 1 foot in the air, the soldier died of injuries from combat. If the horse has all 4 feet on the ground, the soldier died of natural causes.
- Mosquitoes have teeth.
- Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark.
- The word "cemetery" comes from the Greek koimeterion which means dormitory.
- When the English settlers landed in Australia, they noticed a strange animal that jumped extremely high and far. They asked the aboriginal people using body language and signs trying to ask them about this animal. They responded with "Kan Ghu Rhu" the english then adopted the word kangaroo. What the aboriginal people were really trying to say was "we don't understand you", "Kan Ghu Rhu".
- During historic civil wars, when troops returned without any casualties, a writing was put up so all can see which read "0 Killed". From here we get the expression "O.K." which means all is good.
Now, some of those - the kangaroo and the equestrian statues - were old-hat urban legends when I was a kid. I've grown up knowing these things were untrue - are there really still people believing them?
A couple are true: that is, I think, the derivation of cemetery, and the multiplication is correct. Some of the others I'm not actually sure about.
Elephants can't jump (and, in fact, according to Wikipedia there's some interesting stuff about their gait). I've never seen an earthworm jump, though, so I'm not convinced about "only animal". If they mean "only animal that looks like it might", then I don't know; maybe that one's true. Apparently, crocodiles really can't stick out their tongues.
Some (like the third) I can't even quite make sense of. What does it mean? An average person fears spiders 59% but only death 37% ? Saying starfish have no brain is technically correct, but a bit unfair on the average echinoderm. And that's possibly the least convincing etymology for OK that I've ever heard - and I've heard quite a few.
What intrigues me, though... do people believe these lists ? Do they just regard them as entertaining diversions on a work-day afternoon, and that it doesn't matter whether they're correct or not ? Do you forward/receive lists like this ? Am I taking it all a bit seriously ?
Shall we make our own up ? Anyone want to volunteer a "fact" (for best results, make it one which is hard to prove false by a one-stop visit to Wikipedia) ?
