10 More Common Misconceptions
Published on December 3, 2008 - 212 Comments
I can not tell a lie: I love misconceptions lists - I love writing them almost as much as I love reading them. Therefore, I have put together a third list on the topic! Regular readers will know that we have already presented two such lists. They can be found here and here. Enjoy the list - and if you have any misconceptions of your own to debunk, feel free to do so in the comments!
Common Misconception: Humans use only 10% of their brain
This is utterly false. No one really knows how this myth started - but what we do know is how it has been perpetuated for so long. When people first began making this false claim, psychics “decided” that this explained why some people had paranormal abilities and others didn’t: paranormal powers were unleashed in people who had developed the use of more than 10% of the brain. They believed that some region of the brain, if tapped, could provide psychic abilities. This certainly helped their bottom line as thousands of books have since come out aiming to “teach” people how to develop this power. So, the truth of the matter? Humans use 100% of their brain - that is why it is there! Here is a case in point: a hemispherectomy - this is the surgical procedure that removes an entire half of the brain. When this surgery is performed, the patient becomes paralyzed in half of their body.
Common Misconception: Shaving makes hair grow back thicker or coarser
The reason that so many people believe this is that uncut hair ends up developing a taper - or split ends - both of which feel softer than freshly cut hair. It is for this reason that a man’s beard feels soft, but stubble feels rough. Of course, if this myth were true, every man going bald would simply get a hair cut in order to make his hair grow back thicker - true also for women with thinning hair. It is surprising that so obvious a myth (when you really think about it) is believed by so many!
Common Misconception: You can extend your penis or widen its girth with special devices or medications
This is patently untrue and the source of millions of spam emails sent around the world every day. Vacuum pumps, pills, stretching techniques: none of them make one iota of difference to the size of your manhood (and consequently the engine size of your car). The only way to enlarge your penis is to have enhancement surgery. This is, obviously, extremely expensive, extremely painful, and extremely gruesome - or so I am told!
Common Misconception: Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is evil and must be avoided at all costs
First off, MSG is a naturally occuring substance found in things like tomatoes, mushrooms, and seaweed. It was first isolated and presented in pure powder form in 1907 and 1909 respectively. MSG is a flavor enhancer that excites the fifth taste sense umami (the others being salt, sweet, sour, bitter). MSG is to umami, as sugar is to sweet. Another term for umami (and a relatively good description of it) is “savory”. When you add MSG to a bland soup or stock, it can greatly increase the flavor and add a roundness that can not be obtained elsewhere. Most fine chefs will use natural MSG when possible - through the inclusion of tomatoes or mushrooms, but many will also use the powder directly. It is a myth that MSG makes you ill - thanks to media scares around the world, people have an great horror of MSG, but those self-same people have no problems scoffing chips and other fast-food and pre-packaged foods, almost all of which contain it. The English “ready-made” gravy granules “Bisto” contains a large amount of MSG, as do many seasonings and sauces that are available at the supermarkets of the world. MSG is E number E621 and is labelled as “flavour enhancer 621″ in Australia and New Zealand. Australian study on “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” - showing no link to MSG: “[R]igorous and realistic scientific evidence linking the syndrome to MSG could not be found.” Enjoy MSG!
Common Misconception: Half, or more than half of all humans ever born, are alive today
This is a myth - probably perpetuated by eugenicists and other people who believe the planet should be saved by population control of the human species. This is not a new myth either: in 1798, Thomas Malthus predicted that population growth would surpass the world food supply by the mid 1800s. The Population Reference Bureau estimate that the earth has held over 106 billion humans throughout history. With a current world population of over 6 billion, that means that roughly 6% of people ever born are alive today. A significantly lower number than that given by population explosion alarmists. What is perhaps more frightening, is the fact that many nations today are not producing enough children to replace the population with no growth at all, in other words, many countries are suffering negative birth rates (see chart above).
Common Misconception: Plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen
I suspect this will come as a surprise to most people, but while plants do produce oxygen, they do not do it by converting carbon dioxide. The process by which this all happens is called photosynthesis and is a relatively complex process, but to put it simply, plants convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrate precursors and water (fuel for the plant). This is a light independent process - it doesn’t need light to perform this task. So how do plants make oxygen for us to breathe? It uses a light dependent process - this requires light. It takes the light and converts it to potential energy - the byproduct of this process is oxygen.
Common Misconception: The North Pole is north and the South Pole is South
Actually, in terms of physics, the North Pole (while geographically in the north) is actually a south magnetic pole, and the South Pole (geographically in the south) is a north magnetic pole. When your compass is pointing north, it is actually pointing to the south pole of Earth’s magnetic field. 780,000 years ago, this would not have been the case, as the magnetic poles of the earth were reversed (this is called a geomagnetic reversal). Oh - and just to complicate things further, the poles drift around randomly - they are not in a fixed spot. This is most likely due to movements in the molten nickel-iron alloy in the Earth’s core.
Common Misconception: A mirror image reverses left and right
When we look in a mirror, our left and right sides appear to be reversed - left is right and right is left. In fact, what has really happened is that the mirror has inverted us front and back. The reason that we think it is a left-to-right reversal is that we are used a person’s left and right being reversed when they face turn to face us. So what is the mirror doing? Imagine a person with their back to us doing a hand stand to face us, rather than turning around - their right and left remain the same but their top and bottom swap. Looking in to a mirror has the same effect: nothing reverses in the mirror - not bottom and top, not left and right.
Common Misconception: Glass is actually a very slow flowing liquid
First of all, this is not true. Secondly, the reason many people believe it is due to the nature of old panes of glass in which the bottom appears to be thicker than the top - suggesting that the glass is “melting” and pooling at the bottom. The reason for this distortion in the glass is the method of manufacturing in the past. You will notice that you don’t see this “melting” behavior in modern glass windows. Glass is actually an amorophous ceramic.
Common Misconception: Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves
In fact, it freed little or no slaves. Why? Because the emancipation proclamation (1862) declared the freedom of all slaves in the confederate states - that is, the states over which Lincoln and the Union government had no control. Furthermore, it did not free slaves from any of the states that were already under union control. This would be (in a sense) like Australia trying to declare a law binding on New Zealanders - when they are two separate nations. The emancipation proclamation was, effectively, worthless. It was not until the Thirteenth Amendment (December 6, 1865), that slavery was officially abolished in full.
Contributor: JFrater
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1. cheesedrummer - December 4th, 2008 at 1:45 am
wow.. this is great.
so what’s the deal with MSG then? if it’s okay to have, why has the media pumped it up so much?
im loving the australian/new zealand references
2. Einar - December 4th, 2008 at 1:45 am
Nice to know I’ve got a lot more brain kicking in for exams =)
3. jfrater - December 4th, 2008 at 1:53 am
cheesedrummer: I think there was a legitimate scare at some point in the past, which the media grabbed and ran with - but it turned out that the health issue was caused by something else. Unfortunately all of the people who “love” to be allergic also decided they were allergic to MSG and we still haven’t heard the end of it. Frankly - MSG is in so much food eaten by people these days that any person who says they are allergic is a liar.
Let us not forget that anti-salt stuff we see now too - salt is essential for the body and an “overdose” of salt (hard to do) is still relatively safe as the body flushes it out in urine - and yet people still refuse to cook with salt (and ruin every dish accordingly).
And finally - the low fat craze - low fat or no fat - the problem is, eating shitloads of no-fat carbohydrates will still make you fat - because the carbs turn to sugar which turns to fat (if it isn’t burnt off). The way to lose weight is not to eat and cook low fat, low salt - it is to cook great food but have small portions.
[/end rant]
4. jfrater - December 4th, 2008 at 1:55 am
I forgot to say - if you are particularly interested in the MSG thing, here is a great thread on its use in home cooking from eGullet - the best home-cooking/professional cooking forums around. You can read it here.
5. ligeia - December 4th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Mmmmmm, MSG………..
I remember being told number 5 in science class. Is this something they only figured out recently or have they been feeding us lies in school? (well, more lies than I thought)
6. Pyderz - December 4th, 2008 at 1:56 am
OH NO!! SO YOUR TELLING ME MY PENIS PUMP ISNT GOING TO WORK?!!
all them hours gone to waste…
7. cheesedrummer - December 4th, 2008 at 2:10 am
thanks for that jfrater.
yeh i totally get you with the craze thing.
i mean people waste so much time with ‘fads’.
everything in moderation i say!
8. jajdude - December 4th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Satiated guns on the list, g - I knew about MSG before though. When are we going to see an Africa-related list?
9. darren - December 4th, 2008 at 2:25 am
this is actually a good list lol
sick
x
10. jfrater - December 4th, 2008 at 2:26 am
jajdude: if someone submits a good one I will post it - but in the meantime I will keep it in mind in case I can think of something
cheesedrummer: you are welcome
11. hi - December 4th, 2008 at 2:29 am
Plant doesn’t turn light into oxygen. It turns H2O into oxygen. The light energizes the H from the H2O and releases O2. Light is the source of energy for that reaction. Just fyi…
12. sugen - December 4th, 2008 at 2:35 am
I strongly believed 10, 9, and 7. As for 1, and 5 I knew the truth. From my basic biology, I know the light and dark phases of photosynthesis and glycolysis. However, I had not broken it down as you have. I know plants require Carbon (IV) oxide or co2 and that the process of photosynthesis releases oxygen.
interesting list
13. Daithi - December 4th, 2008 at 2:49 am
I just logged in to say what sugen has said. Oxygen is a product of photosynthesis.
14. ZedroZ - December 4th, 2008 at 3:08 am
Great list,
I use copius amounts of salt in all my cooking and its never done me any harm
Much like MSG, why was there a blasting rant about salt intake anyway?
15. Tricia - December 4th, 2008 at 3:19 am
I wasn’t sure if MSG was good for you or not, but after reading everything that has “natural flavorings” or whatever the heck the labels have it as, I stopped trying to avoid it.
I also saw on Good Eats (Alton Brown’s my hero) that you can eat salt as much as you like. His theory is that you just have to have enough water to go with it so it gets washed out of your body. His word is gospel as far as I’m concerned so I haven’t worried about it since. Frankly my cooking is much better for it.
16. Tricia - December 4th, 2008 at 3:23 am
My comment about water and salt is odd. Let me clarify. I meant you have to drink enough water during the day, not water down your cooking. I don’t have watery food.
17. McSquida - December 4th, 2008 at 3:25 am
We’re all saying how good MSG is here, but it is a serious trigger to any asthmatic, which isn’t noted. I have been hospitalized after eating food that contained MSG; yeah, it might have been something else because it’s a little hard to prove that sort of thing, but it’s not something I felt like testing, being as it may stop me breathing and all…
18. McSquida - December 4th, 2008 at 3:26 am
“This is not a new myth either: in 1798, Thomas Malthus predicted that population growth would surpass the world food supply by the mid 1800s.”
Known as the Malthusian Dilemma - that we would out-stretch our resources. And we’re NOT doing this?
19. arkz - December 4th, 2008 at 3:32 am
see see and people call me crazy when i say Lincoln is overrated
20. yen - December 4th, 2008 at 3:38 am
I’m sorry to tell you, but the MSG scare is very much real - at least to a certain percentage of us. Often you might get a dry mouth, nothing to serious. But in some people, they may get a full-on asthma attack.
21. Kris - December 4th, 2008 at 3:47 am
Tricia: I know what you mean about Alton Brown. The man’s a genius. He lives a little over an hour away from me too! I might get to meet him one day!
Great list!
22. PirateXxEsque - December 4th, 2008 at 3:55 am
I love that you occasionally throw something in about Australia + New Zealand - it’s good to know you’re educating people about stuff they wouldn’t otherwise know or try to find out
I think I get the mirror thing. I think.
The hair one has always puzzled me.
Though why does fair hair, if shaved enough, turn black??
23. guy - December 4th, 2008 at 4:04 am
hey this is the closetst ive been to the top yet. i only had to stay up till 5:03 to do it.
i think that lincoln knew that the emancipation proclamation wasnt lawful towards the confederate states at the time but once the union(USA) was back together would go into effect soon enough. he was an awesome guy.
cool list too, last time i comment drunk
24. lily - December 4th, 2008 at 4:07 am
Wow this list is great. And I believed most of the things on the list? And jfrater if north is actually south(in terms of physics) and vice versa then we can also say that east and west are also mixed up. And some people say that there is no north,south,east, and west because the world is round. Boy is this confusing.
25. Tricia - December 4th, 2008 at 4:07 am
Kris: SO jealous! He lives in Georgia right? All I have to do to convince my husband to cook something a certain way is to say that Alton says it’s right. He cooks the way we should cook.
26. Rusty - December 4th, 2008 at 4:31 am
Regarding 1 - use of the brain:
* We may use ‘all’ of our brains but do we need to?
There are cases of infants with undetected ‘water on the brain’ (Hydrocephaly) that has reduced the brain mass to no more than a bump on the spine. I have seen a documentary on one woman who had better than average functioning with hardly any brain mass at all. And recently Lancet featured a French man who had only a thin film of brain cells yet with a decreased IQ still functioned well at a government job (!).
“If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrocephaly
* If you divide the healthy brain hemispheres at an early age, it may be possible to grow up with two normally functioning brains. They learn to cooperate for shared tasks.
Not that I would advocate labotomys (See Walter Freeman’s dismal history).
New Zealand author and poet Janet Frame was due to have a lobotomy because of a diagnosis of mental illness. She was saved from this procedure by receiving a literary award the day before her operation was to take place.
However the brain is quite plastic, particularly when young and many young people undergoing Hemispherectomy do remarkedly well.
http://www.newyorker.com/archi.....703fa_fact
27. jhoyce07 - December 4th, 2008 at 4:35 am
cool list once again!ü
28. Tommy - December 4th, 2008 at 4:38 am
YOu obviously, or luckily have not eaten at a restaurant that uses HUGE amounts of MSG. The reason why this was a big story, is because restaurants need to use it in moderation, and not overuse it to make food taste better. There are others, learn how to cook better.
Your argument is quite weak here. Saying that it is naturally occuring in food mean its not bad. Its like saying sugar is not bad because its in rice.
Its all about quantity here.
29. lily - December 4th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Oh just read the comment on salt. High blood pressure runs in our family so we tend to go lightly on the whole sodium intake. Its not that we want to ruin the food but your taste buds get used to it after a while and the change has made us healthier. So it is a problem for some and not to be thought as a “fad”.
30. Borka - December 4th, 2008 at 4:41 am
Jfrater,in every list there is Australia and New Zeland in some way,i`m starting to think it`c center of the earth
Anyway,very nice list,very nice.
31. McSquida - December 4th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Borka - Oceania IS the centre of the earth, there can be no doubt about this. Australia is the very centre, but NZ isn’t too far off.
32. Hemza3000 - December 4th, 2008 at 5:36 am
Awesome list, but you lost me at numbers 4 and 3.
33. MadMonkey - December 4th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Good list… too bad you’re dead wrong on a few of them.
34. downhighway61 - December 4th, 2008 at 5:53 am
Well MadMonkey, care to enlighten us?
35. rushfan - December 4th, 2008 at 6:25 am
When I found out I was pregnant I went online to find out what I should and shouldn’t eat and MSG was on the shouldn’t list. The more I read about it, tho, the more I found out how many things it’s in and how the info was kinda questionable.
36. Kreachure - December 4th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Excellent list!
But the explanation to #3 is really confusing. I personally don’t understand the difference when you say that “what has really happened is that the mirror has inverted us front and back” and then you say “nothing reverses in the mirror - not bottom and top, not left and right”! Plus imagining someone doing a handstand to turn around? I don’t get how that helps picturing a mirror effect either! There HAS to be an easier explanation for mirror images.
37. Jasmine - December 4th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Perhaps MSG is not bad for everyone but I used to eat things with MSG in it and had diabilitating headaches. Now that I avoid it I no longer have headaches. I guess some people are just more “sensitive” to it
38. Kreachure - December 4th, 2008 at 6:47 am
Also, the explanation to #10 is far simpler than you imagine:
Since the brain has specialized zones for different functions (vision, memory, motor coordination, etc.) then these zones are active only when they’re needed, so you’re not gonna need the whole brain to fire up if you’re only reading a book, for example. So, early neurologists noticed that only certain neurons on certain regions of the brain fired at any given time, but they didn’t understand why, and thus the myth of the “10% at a time” began.
But there are a few other reasons for the myth to become popular. This Wikipedia article has more info on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10%25_of_brain_myth
39. Jessy - December 4th, 2008 at 6:48 am
The mirror thing and the poles thing are both miles over my head.
As for the MSG, I have a friend who says she can only eat small amounts of it- food that’s high in MSG apparently gives her headaches. She’s been like this since I’ve met her (our early teens), so dunno if she’d be inventing the idea. Her mother might have come up with it tho… that whole family is insane health nutty.
Jfrater: dunno how to address this to you, but often when I go on this site there’s some pop-ups that mess with my system. This has happened both at work and at home, and it tends to freeze my computer/shut down my internet. Dunno if you have any bearing over what ads are on this site, but if you do, make them stop!
On a separate note: You need to talk about Canada more often!;)
40. chershey - December 4th, 2008 at 7:03 am
I remember trying to explain the shaving-gives-you-thick-hair one to a coworker of mine. She’s nice but so very very naïve. I unfortunately think “get fired get fired go away go away you’re stealing my oxygen omg so dumb” many times at work.
41. Randall - December 4th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Excellent list, Jamie.
42. fudrick - December 4th, 2008 at 7:08 am
19. arkz - December 4th, 2008 at 3:32 am
see see and people call me crazy when i say Lincoln is overrated
This.
43. pandapop87 - December 4th, 2008 at 7:11 am
i have proved so many people wrong with your lists
44. Dr. Bob - December 4th, 2008 at 7:32 am
My father will not eat take out Chinese food because he gets horrible headaches, dry mouth and chest pains when he eats food with excessive MSG (and thus becomes extremely agitated and short-tempered). I can eat the same food and not have any symptoms. Not sure if it is an allergy or if it is just an effect that MSG has on certain people’s bodies–like how some drug effects are felt stronger by certain people.
As for the population, the fact that many countries have negative population growth doesn’t take away from the fact that many more nations have greatly-increasing populations (India for example). I think that the population is a topic of concern and it’s possible future generations will have a serious food shortage problem to deal with.
45. Mom424 - December 4th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Good List Jamie, although the mirror description could be a little clearer.
For the high blood pressure/salt phobia. They’ve done further studies and salt only effects blood pressure in very few; people who are considered salt sensitive. More concerning than the salt is the fat content of salty foods (not salt in cooking), potato chips/crisps, processed meats, frozen dinners. Cook real food with salt, its not a problem - eat gross fat/salt combo pre-prepared foods - it’s a problem. You’ll get fat and your blood pressure will go up.
PirateXX - Blond hair doesn’t turn black if you shave it enough, not ever; hair colour is determined in the follicle, underneath the skin. Geez. Hair will appear darker if you shave it all the time because is doesn’t get a chance to be bleached by the sun. Also as Jamie said, the hair doesn’t get a chance to get worn away, it has a blunt end and no taper so it appears darker, but it really isn’t.
46. Wally - December 4th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Randall, you have been a bit quiet lately. Whats consuming your time? Work, play, personal crises? I just might post a list to light your yuletide fire…
47. SMD - December 4th, 2008 at 7:52 am
It’s a common misconception that we only use 10% of the brain. The reality is that we only use about 10% of the brain at any one time, but the majority of the brain does actually get used. To say that we only use 10% is to imply that pretty much all of the brain is useless meat.
48. rushfan - December 4th, 2008 at 7:59 am
“Jfrater: dunno how to address this to you, but often when I go on this site there’s some pop-ups that mess with my system. This has happened both at work and at home, and it tends to freeze my computer/shut down my internet. Dunno if you have any bearing over what ads are on this site, but if you do, make them stop!”
Same thing happens to me. When a click on the name of the new day’s list to read it each day, I get a popup instead of the list!
49. STL Mo - December 4th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Jamie - great and fascnating list! If the shaving one were really true, then my bald bro would have hair so thick it would make every 80s haircut band jealous!
I must strongly disagree with Lincoln and the slaves, though. What you’re actually relating there **IS** the misconception. The belief that the Emancipation Proclamation freed no slaves is a myth that’s been around for at least 50 years.
The best source to counter that myth is Allen C. Guelzo’s marvelous “Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America.” He makes the case that the reason why emancipation happened the way it did is because Lincoln sought a means that could survive any court challenge. And since the United States NEVER recognized the Confederate States of America as legitimate, Lincoln had fully authority to free the slaves in Confederate states.
Also, Philip Paludan, author of the excellent and scholarly “The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln” (one of the University of Kansas’ American Presidency series) wrote:
“Lincoln did not, as some charged, free the slaves only in places where he could not reach them; he freed the slaves in the only place that he could legally reach them — in places that he ruled under presidential war powers. The language of the great deed had to be a lawyer’s language because Lincoln was taking a legal action. He was placing the great ideal of freedom within the constitutional fabric—the only place that it could have life in a constitutional republic.” (p.188)
In other words, war powers — which Congress agreed to — gave him the authority to legally ban slavery as a wartime measure whereever a state of rebellion existed, e.g., the entire Confederacy. The proclamation served until it was later codified in the 13th Amendment. The proclamation was neither worthless nor toothless. It did exactly what it needed to do.
50. rushfan - December 4th, 2008 at 8:17 am
STL Mo ~ Thanks for that! That is great info.
51. SteveO - December 4th, 2008 at 8:25 am
The 10% of the brain myth comes from experiments performed on mice where they would run a maze, then have their brains removed piece by piece. They discovered that the mice could run the maze successfully with only 10% of their brain remaining.
52. dole - December 4th, 2008 at 8:29 am
.49 Stl Mo
#1 on this list is correct. The Emancipation Proclamation did nothing to end slavery in America and was never intended to. To try and explain away or bog this fact down in legalise is akin to using misinformation and lies to deny (for example) that the Holocaust ever happened.
By the way, if I was using more than 10% of my brainpower I might be able to figure out numbers 3,4 and 5.
53. Reynan Retazo - December 4th, 2008 at 8:31 am
The inner core is the center of the earth (smiles triumphantly)
54. Kreachure - December 4th, 2008 at 8:39 am
For those with pop-up problems: Maybe it’s a problem with Listverse itself, or ad-ware in your hard drives. Either way, I strongly recommend using Firefox like I do; I’ve NEVER had a single pop-up from this site using it, for almost an entire year.
You might want to check your PC for ad-ware and spyware too, of course. I recommend Ad-Aware (which is free but is all you’ll ever need): http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
55. STL Mo - December 4th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Um…Dole, please. I would direct you to the sources I listed. Guzelo and Paludin are among the most respected Lincoln scholars in the world. They know what they’re talking about. Read those and similar works thoroughly, and then get back to me with your foolish Holocaust-denial analogy.
56. warrrreagl - December 4th, 2008 at 8:47 am
North magnetic and South magnetic? Heck, Roland Deschain could have told you that the world has moved on, time slips, and the directions of the compass are in flux. At least until the beams are restored and the Dark Tower is saved, say thank ya.
57. Jayme - December 4th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Your explantion on the window thing wasn’t clear. You answer the question. Glass is moving because it is a liquid.
58. Renee Pussman - December 4th, 2008 at 8:55 am
In fact, Plants DO turn CO2 into O2. As you stated O2 is a byproduct of photosynthesis. CO2 is a primary agent in this process. After the process is complete they release O2 as a byproduct. Therefore, plants DO convert CO2 into O2.
Dummy
59. copperdragon - December 4th, 2008 at 9:02 am
too much MSG upsets my stomach (as evidenced when I eat at certain fast food Chinese places)
i only use 10% of my brain on purpose
the emancipation proclamation only freed PAID FOR slaves. some of us are still slaves to fashion, electronics and spouses.
for some reason, NONE of my plants convert co2 to o2.
and, when I look in the mirror, I see old people.
60. name (or nickname) - December 4th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Some of your explanations are ridiculous and shows you totally misunderstood the “misconceptions”.
61. Shadow - December 4th, 2008 at 9:03 am
So then, someone explain to me why I get sick as hell, and my blood sugar and blood pressure go through the roof, if I so much as taste MSG?
62. heartshapedbox - December 4th, 2008 at 9:05 am
the mirror one is so confusing.. does anyone understand it?
63. chrissy - December 4th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I’m just going to chime in here about the pop-ups- they are seriously annoying and I wish you would get rid of them. I’ve been reading this site for over a year everyday, and these damn pop ups might make me quit.
Back to the subject, interesting list, some of the explanations were a bit confusing though.
64. historydave - December 4th, 2008 at 9:09 am
STL MO is correct in explaining why the Emancipation Proclamation was the way it was, why it wasn’t what it wasn’t, and what it did. The fact that the Confederates defied it (which you would expect, given the whole “treasonous rebellion” thing they had going on) does not deny its validity. Legally those slaves were free, and eventually the reality caught up with that.
Perhaps more importantly, the Emancipation Proclamation committed the Union forces to abolition in a way that they had not been before that. Whatever its actual effects, the symbolic effect of the EP was to make the cause of saving the union and the cause of freeing the slaves functionally identical. The 13th amendment grew directly out of this - had the south surrendered prior to the EP, they may well have been allowed to keep their slaves.
Either way, the EP freed the slaves.
65. Brickhouse - December 4th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I understand the mirror misconception…
As an example: I was talking to my husband last weekend about moving our furniture around the living room. He suggested taking our chair diagonally across to the other side (from the left of the room on one side to the right of the room on the other) and the loveseat diagonally to the other side (basically switch the two items on the other wall). I suggested a mirror image of the chair and loveseat - put them on the opposite wall directly across from where they are. He didn’t understand what I was saying, as he was thinking mirror image would cross them over (like his suggestion) and not bring them directly across.
I hope this helped… I couldn’t understand why he would think “mirror-image” means the image crosses over itself until this list! Thanks!
66. sdggrant - December 4th, 2008 at 9:15 am
The emancipation proclamation would of only been worthless if the Union had lost to the Confederacy. As we moved in to each state of the confederacy we freed all of the states slaves, I fail to see how that is “worthless”.
67. amitabha - December 4th, 2008 at 9:29 am
oygen comes from light ! What the f*** .i used 2 believe in what i read in this site but now i will have 2 question my beliefs.
68. EAL - December 4th, 2008 at 9:32 am
JFrater-
I don’t think your explanation of photosynthesis is very clear. You are correct that the oxygen gas that plants produce does not originate from CO2, but you make it sound as if new oxygen molecules are created from solar energy. The oxygen that plants give off comes from water that they absorb through their roots. Water is split into hydrogen and oxygen molecules and the oxygen is then converted to gaseous O2 in a process that is assisted by light energy.
69. heartshapedbox - December 4th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Thanks, Brickhouse. I guess I was confused because I was thinking of it as the way it really is, and got confused reading the misconception of it.. idk.
70. Blogball - December 4th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Another great Common Misconceptions list!
(My favorite of the three so far)
But like the others some people will always believe some of these misconceptions no matter how hard you try to convince them otherwise. It’s like in their DNA to believe some of this stuff especially the shaving thing.
71. REHuntJr - December 4th, 2008 at 9:36 am
The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves only in theory and not in practice because, of course, Lincoln’s armies did not exercise military control over the parts of the South still in rebellion.
Thus, the EP was primarily a military maneuver by Lincoln whose aim was to saddle the South with the extra burden of having to control slaves that now *believed* they were free. That took money, time, men and effort away from the Southern war machine.
Lincoln also knew that the EP would be a powerful political statement. “Then, thenceforward and forever more be free” were immensely powerful words that the US government could never take back. In one stroke of his pen, Lincoln established the moral aim of the war and put the South on the defensive. What started as a sectional struggle morphed into a remorseless revolutionary death match that neither side could back down from short of total surrender.
Furthermore, the EP convinced the British to stay on the sidelines. Even though the British textile industry was hurting big time from the blockade of Southern cotton, there was no way the British crown was going to side with the slave South after the EP was signed.
As a practical matter, the EP was useless. As a military move, it drew strength from the Southern war effort. But as a purely political measure, it was a stroke of genius.
72. Kreachure - December 4th, 2008 at 9:43 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis
“Photosynthesis is a metabolic pathway that converts light energy into chemical energy. Its initial substrates are carbon dioxide and water; the energy source is sunlight (electromagnetic radiation); and the end-products are oxygen and (energy-containing) carbohydrates, such as sucrose, glucose or starch. This process is one of the most important biochemical pathways, since nearly all life on Earth either directly or indirectly depends on it as a source of energy.”
As Mr. Frater said, it’s a very complex process, so saying “light transforms into oxygen? that’s wrong wrong wrong” obviously aren’t getting it.
73. inb63 - December 4th, 2008 at 9:47 am
amitabha, oxygen actually comes from water through a process called photolysis of water. Water molecules are split using the energy from light.
74. STL Mo - December 4th, 2008 at 10:00 am
REHuntJr - disagree in part. As a practical matter, it was very useFUL. That’s why he made it to be a legal document that could withstand challenge. And it wasn’t just theory, because he had the authority. The Union armies were the teeth behind that authority, as you point out.
But it wasn’t primarily a military manuver. It was very much political, too, and a very risky one at that. (Y’all really should read Guezelo’s and Paludan’s books. You’ll truly understand the how and why behind emancipation.)
75. STL Mo - December 4th, 2008 at 10:01 am
whoops, sorry, I didn’t see that you had said it was political, too.
76. Anon - December 4th, 2008 at 10:02 am
MSG,
(Hope no one has addressed this.)
I trust it isn’t another misconception that every substance in strong enough doses will poison (even water, if you could drink enough without drowning!), and everything in sall enough doses can be beneficial.
Also many things cause allergies or other hypersensitive reactions to certain individuals, even in amounts which do not affect the majority of the population.
77. amitabha - December 4th, 2008 at 10:05 am
the oxygen which plants release after photosynthesis comes from the water which is involved in the process and not from sunlight .sunlight is a form of energy not matter like oxygen
Glass is amorphous solid(as mr frafter said ) and amorphous solids are also called pseudo solids or super cooled liquids because like liquids they have a tendency 2 flow.(though very slowly) therefore the panes are found 2 b thickr in old builings and when ur new bulindings become old they will also have the panes thicker at the bottom though we may not live 2 see that lol.!.
78. Callie - December 4th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I’m confused by the mirror thing too.
Somewhat regarding the MSG/other things that are bad for you in food, is anyone else annoyed by those high fructose corn syrup commercials in the US?
1: Here, have this juice
2: Nooooo…It has high fructose corn syrup! You know what they say about that!!!
1: What? (In an all knowing tone)
2: Well..uhh..ahh…umm..err…I’m stupid.
1:It’s healthy!
2: Let’s drink copious amounts of juice!
…are you kidding me?
By the way, that plant one came as a big amazement. I’m hunting down my 7th grade science teacher.
79. jfrater - December 4th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Rusty (26): you are right - in many cases people who have a hemispherectomy are eventually able to recover much of what they lose as the other half of the brain adapts to the tasks of the missing part. Oh - and thanks for the mention of Janet Frame - she was amazing!
80. rushfan - December 4th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Callie ~ Yeah, how do they get away with that crap?
81. Christine - December 4th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Jfrater- I can attest to your comment about losing weight. My husband and I have lost roughly 40lbs of weight combined. While we do exercise (relatively light for about an hour a day), we also eat whatever we want, just in smaller portions.
82. PhDinBiology - December 4th, 2008 at 10:21 am
The plant thing - so, yes, photosynthesis is complicated, and to make matters worse, there is not just one kind of photosynthesis (e.g., CAM, C3, C4). So the precise mechanisms by which CO2 is converted into carbohydrates and O2 is given off differ slightly depending on what type of photosynthesis you’re dealing with (including what happens during light and dark reactions). Indeed, CO2 is also given off by plants (they respire, too!). In short, the list is correct - regardless of which type of photosynthesis you’re talking about, the O2 we breathe comes from water, not from CO2. And just to be clear, light is NOT converted into oxygen - not even a little bit.
83. jake ryder - December 4th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Got me on the glass as a liquid one, otherwise I did pretty well. Does anyone ever click on those penis enlargement spam email?
84. ZedroZ - December 4th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I’m athsmatic, is MSG really so bad for athsma sufferers?
I’m not calling anyone a liar but how does that work, the digestive system and respiritory system are two quite different things.
can anybody elaborate?
85. Anon - December 4th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I was just rushing off to eat my MSG-filled lunch, so forgot to note that my 76 referred to MSG. Also skimmed the posts quickly and so missed that the point had effectively already been made. Sorry.
86. ZedroZ - December 4th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Sorry for the double post, this may sound rather dense but is MSG the ingredient chinese buffet restraunts include a lot of in their food?
To give the person eating, a sense that they have eaten enough food?
just curious
87. psychosurfer - December 4th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Posts 38 and 54 by Kreachure: Who are you? me? I was going to post the exact same things about the brain and Adblock plus. Weird.
Anyway, another fact regarding the brain is that it is mainly a “depressor” system, that is, it has to shut a lot of functions to prioritize others, so if we “use” or activate too many of its neurons we wouldn´t be able to function properly and would suffer an epileptic crisis, which is mainly that, an electrical overstimulation of the central nervous system.
Great list by the way.
88. Freshies - December 4th, 2008 at 11:28 am
You will have to convince my old physics teacher from high school about glass not being a colloid.
89. amitabha - December 4th, 2008 at 11:28 am
list universe rocks!!
90. Talanic - December 4th, 2008 at 11:30 am
My mother actually had an MSG allergy for a while–after she had surgery (for something else, obviously) it inexplicably went away. Obviously enough, it wasn’t the MSG’s fault.
Other things on the list: You’re right, it’s not true that half the people to have ever lived are alive now, but world population IS growing–particularly in the poorest parts of the world. Historically, that’s almost always been a buildup to disastrous wars, as people run out their food supplies; hopefully we can work something out before it gets to that point, but there is a maximum population that the world can comfortably support. I don’t pretend to know what it is, but it’s a very simple concept to grasp that if we keep on reproducing unchecked, we’re going to run out of planet eventually.
As far as the magnetic poles from a physics point of view, the poles were named based on what part of the compass they attract–and opposites attract in magnetics. Anything that attracts the North pointer of a compass is actually a South magnetic pole. The way we named it is counter-intuitive, but there’s physics for you; for another example, we messed up when naming the charge on electrons; if you want to give an atom a negative charge, you have to ADD electrons rather than strip them away.
91. `¬` this. - December 4th, 2008 at 11:42 am
The classic, and very wrong visualisation of the structure of an atom is still disturbingly widespread today, I would consider it a large misconception.
92. Yun - December 4th, 2008 at 11:48 am
As far as I know #10 stems from the fact that humans do only use 10% of their brains for conscious thought. The underlined part somehow got left off in the retelling, and eventually the abridged version became conventional wisdom.
#7 comes from the fact that there is a not insignificant portion of the population who are severely allergic to MSG. As above, the actual news got mutated into “MSG makes people sick.” The actual facts of the case make MSG about as dangerous as peanuts, however.
#5 is rather poorly written, such that you come across as saying that plants convert light into oxygen. Converting energy into matter would require an amount of energy far greater than the amount of sunlight hitting a single plant.
#4 is interesting as some scientists believe that an upcoming geomagnetic reversal is one of the possible explanations of modern climate change. These would be the ones who aren’t blindly clinging to the “it’s all our fault” theory while refusing to even consider any other explanation, of course.
93. Linc Allen - December 4th, 2008 at 11:50 am
number 6 is ridiculous and wrong. we have high unemployment and poverty around the world. the countries that have less people are typically places that have good sex education and abortion rights. 6 billion people is by far the most people this planet has ever sustained at one time.
94. Yun - December 4th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Apparently LU doesn’t accept underline tags :-\
“for conscious thought” was the underlined part I was referring to.
95. tw - December 4th, 2008 at 11:54 am
The G in MSG is a member of the gluten family. Gluten is a protein. Some people have auto immune reactions to gluten. Check out the wiki on glutamic acid and you will see why some people have issues with it.
96. Anon - December 4th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Nº6 draws on one statistic as a claim to disprove a related but far more comprehensive hard fact. Whether or not half the people who ever lived are alive today or not is irrelevant to the wider and extremely disturbing picture.
Human population growth has become undeniably exponential and shows no sign yet of slowing on a global scale. Data as follow are taken from ‘Atlas of World Population History’ (1975): (numbers in parentheses are millions):
BC 500 (100). BC 250 (150) AD 1 (170). AD 250 (190) AD 500 (200). AD 750 (210) AD 1000 (265). AD 1250 (360). AD 1500 (425). AD 1750 (720). AD 2000 (ca 6000).
Talking of the accuracy or not of estimates. In 1975, when the book was published, the world figure was 3 billions, 900 millions. The authors themselves forecast the remarkably close figure of 5 billions 750 millions for the year 2000, a mere 25 years later.
Certain religious organisations in particular have prophesied world growth will naturally level off by 2040. (Those same people pooh-poohed false prognostications of Global Warming, by the way!) Take the figures I quoted above and reconstruct the graph I lifted them from. Then take that along to a qualified mathematician and ask him to bring the graph to a natural level without incurring the sort of abrupt, unnatural curve or bend that would indicate a catastrophe, either in natural or mathematical terms. It looks to me as if that could hardly be achieved much under two or three times our present world figure, which is estimated as the absolute maximum carrying figure for the planet with little or no space left for wildlife, and no room for the merest hitch in food production (even at a far more efficient level than now). And certainly with no hope of a reasonable quality of life for most.
But that has by no means fed all the relevant data into the equation. The most obvious one is implied in the last paragraph: our living on a finite-sized planet with finite resources of many kinds. Friends I knew in the 1970s weren’t bothered by that. They were quite convinced humanity would be migrating off to other parts of the universe around the year 2000!
The French government consulted one of its top demographers about the need to level off the population. He pointed out this was impossible without a massive catastrophe or voluntary or enforced euthanasia. The reason is a Catch 22. The number of unproductive and dependent aged (that’s me, folks!) grows relentlessly with the growth of population and in turn demands an even bigger growth to provide vigorous younger, fit workers to *keep* them (that’s why old race horses, etc. are bumped off). His estimate was the need for 3-4% growth in perpetuity. At present that shortfall is being met by poor immigrants in several first-world nations whose population growth has fallen below the critical level. However, it could be said that is no more than a stop-gap which may be storing up problems not worth thinking about for the future. We also see from China what centralised attempts to deliberately control population figures can result in.
There is no obvious solution, but as the authors of the book I quoted above end up, “The human race has solved its problems so far, and it is reasonable to suppose … it will learn how to achieve a numerical level which optimises living standards.” Amen to that say we all. However, their expert guess, made a mere 33 years ago, was an ultimate world population of around 8-9 billion. …
NOTE: 1 billion here is an imperial billion, i.e. 1000 millions.
97. Linc Allen - December 4th, 2008 at 11:57 am
and number 1! as they took back control of southern states they abolished slavery there. they weren’t in control at the time he announced it, but over time it had enormous effect. it made sure that the international opinion of the war was against slavery, so there would be no opposition, as there had been before.
98. DK - December 4th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Shadow (post # 61) Does this mean that you can’t eat anything that contains either tomatoes or mushrooms?
99. Cedestra - December 4th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
58. Renee Pussman: Oh, great. You’re back again. Hooray.
It’s been mentioned, before and after your shining wit played out that plants do not convert carbon dioxide to oxygen directly. That’s Jfrater’s point. Yes, eventually it does turn to oxygen, but not immediately or without a complex process. Dummy.
100. DK - December 4th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Oh, and in response to Linc Allen (94), nobody is saying that there was a time in the past that there were more humans on earth at one time, I think you are misunderstanding,
The misconception is that people are saying that the number of people on earth now, is equal to half of the total of all people ever born since humanity began, and that is Utterly wrong.
101. pmistert - December 4th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
your comment on msg is, at best, misleading and borders on completely false.
102. JK - December 4th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Nice list.
I never really believed that shaving myth, but unfortunately, “everyone” around me (friends and family) believe it.
I didn’t get no. 3, that mirror mirror one. Seemed as complex as understanding the tenth dimension. Or maybe its just that I didn’t pay attention.
My favorite from the list was no.4 , about the magnetic poles. A new one for me and a really amazing fact. Brings a question to my mind, so why didn’t we just make the maps upside down (obviously, these maps weren’t made 780 000 years ago) and call the north “north” and the south “south” ?
103. khen913 - December 4th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
From what I remember from high school biology and my own experience, I don’t think number nine is necessarily a misconception. While I don’t contend that shaving your head will grow back a balding person’s hair, it does for other parts of the body. Due to a torn meniscus, I had to have knee surgery. While to surgery was very unobtrusive by most standards, I obviously still had to have my knee and surrounding areas shaved. A week or two later, I had more hair on my knee than ever before (my doctor told me to shave the other knee so it would match). Out of curiosity, I asked my biology teacher if this was normal, and he pointed me to the textbook that I usually neglected and sure enough, it was in there. Growing hair is a defense put up by some parts of the body.
104. DK - December 4th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
To add to my question I posed in post 99, for anyone who claims to have “allergies” to MSG, I already used tomatoes & mushrooms as examples, but in doing some research, I found that Parmesan cheese, (as well as other cheeses), oysters, Worcestershire sauce, Vegemite & Marmite all have high glutemate contents.
105. w_boodle - December 4th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
If we use 100% of our brain (presumably from birth on) where do the lifetime of memory, experience and education get stored?
Hmmm?
106. BooRadley - December 4th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
jf: I have a good pop-up blocker, which always indicates there were pop-ups trying to happen when I use this site. For some reason, though, that STUPID “Dumb Test” always comes in on a full screen and causes my computer to freeze until it is loaded. Can we do something about the Dumb Test? If not, don’t worry, I’ll still be here every day, as usual. I love this site!
107. psychosurfer - December 4th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
#106. w_boodle - December 4th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
If we use 100% of our brain (presumably from birth on) where do the lifetime of memory, experience and education get stored?
Hmmm?
================
Have you ever heard of the subconscious mind?
108. segue - December 4th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Good lord! I’m entirely redundant. Every point I would have made has already been made!
The only one you tricked me up on was #2. I had read, in several sources, that glass was an extremely slow viscous liquid, but would take thousands or millions of years to flow, not the hundreds shown in the window glass of the photo.
109. Lizzyxo - December 4th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
JF: Great List!
Yun: High 5 to your response of number 4.
Randell! I have missed your comments.
110. JB - December 4th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Wrong, wrong, wrong on item #7 for aleast a few people like me. I am among a number of people with a food allergy to MSG. I used to have serious migraine headaches, but after a careful monitoring of my food intake, discovered that I have a reaction to MSG’s that was causing my headaches. This is not suggestive thinking either, because often I will suddenly acquire another headache only to discover, after going back over my diet for the previous 24 hours, that an item I ate had MSG’s and I didn’t realize it until further reseach was done on the item.
111. GTT - December 4th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I have the pop-up problem too! Only mine gets really bad… I will get more than 50 pop-up windows at the same time… It´s horrible!!
@ MOM424 (35)- Where did you get that info? My father has had heart problems for most of my life and every single doctor he´s ever been too tells him not to eat salt. The explanation (as I understand it and in very simplistic terms): salt makes you retain liquid, which makes you bloated which makes your heart have to work harder. A weak heart does not need the extra strain.
112. jfrater - December 4th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
GTT: I have questioned the advertisers about that - I will do so again - thanks for brining it to my attention.
Oh - and on the salt issue - water flushes salt from the system in the form of urine - it is the body’s natural method of keeping the balance right. You can die from not enough salt, but it is very hard to die from too much.
113. twister - December 4th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
#4 Not right. The origin of the word ‘North’ pole of a magnet is the end of the magnet that points towrads (’seeks’)Earth’s north pole. The word ‘North’ originates as a geographic, not magnetic, direction. Earth’s magnetic ‘North’ pole has been in the vicinity of its geographic ‘North’ pole since recorded human history. The magnetic poles apparently have flipped numerous times in the geologic past and presumably will do so again, it’s just not clear when or how fast that will happen.
#2 Is a loose play on terminology. Calling glass a liquid depends on how one defines liquid. The basic ’states’ are gas (flows to occupy entire container), liquid (flows to occupy container and an unconfined upper surface level with gravity), and solid (doesn’t flow or deform on its own). The distinction between solid vs liquid is time dependent and is generally differentiated based upon perceptible deformation in, say, a human lifetime or ca. 100 years. Glass acts as a solid when struck with a hammer (short time frame), but does indeed flow perceptibly over millions of years. (A better example is silly putty which acts like a fluid when pulled slowly but cracks like a solid when struck or yanked.)
‘Amorphous’ means lacking orderly atomic structure, which is true for glass - it is amorphous (by definition). But distinguishing solid vs. liquid based on atomic structure is invalid. Crystalline solids will also deform over time intervals of millions of years … and don’t forget about liquid crystals (as in LCD) - very low viscosity liquids which have order in their atomic arrangement.
‘Ceramic’ is irrelevant here; it doesn’t define a state as do ‘liquid’, ’solid’, and ‘gas’. Glass isn’t a ceramic but most ceramics are made of glasses. Ceramic is an engineered (sometimes naturally occuring at volcanoes) rigid substance that is lightweight, porous, and sometimes permeable and that retains physical properties of the glass compound such as fire & electrical resistance.
114. Bob - December 4th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
What on earth??? Why was my comment asking about my comments removed? What is the problem???
115. jfrater - December 4th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
From a study on MSG (Chinese Restaurant Syndrome):
Full article here.
116. Parker - December 4th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I recently got to wikipedia’s list of common misconceptions from somewhere I can’t remember..but the list is full of many other interesting things:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_misconceptions
117. Anon - December 4th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
“You can die from not enough salt, but it is very hard to die from too much.”
Unless, apparently, you are adrift on the high seas in a small boat and try to fend off thirst by drinking sea-water!
118. jfrater - December 4th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Anon: ah of course - but that is because you are constantly topping up the salt - faster than the water can flush it. You actually can survive on sea water if you drink very small amounts of it. The problem is that the salt makes you so thirsty that you succumb and drink a poisonous amount. But someone with strong will should be able to manage it. That, for the record, would not be me
119. ABrutalKind - December 4th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Coinciding with #1, the Civil War was not fought over slavery but rather over states’ rights.
Just another of many misconceptions about US history that has been presented by the US public school system.
120. Jackie - December 4th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Anon and jfrater: Isn’t that why they tell you to drink your urine if you are adrift at sea instead of the saltwater? You will survive doing that because drinking the saltwater will actually dehydrate you.
121. Bass - December 4th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Another one that always gets me?
“Pitbulls are vicious, vicious animals. If you scare them or annoy them, they will attack.”
Seriously?
It’s not the dog thats vicious, it’s the conditions in which it is raised. If you raise one in a loving, caring environment, it’ll be friendly. If you hate it, it will hate.
Goddamn, a little itty-bitty dog could be turned into a killing machine if it’s abused or treated badly.
122. Bob - December 4th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Wrong. Pitbulls are dogs who have been bred to be violent, vicious, dangerous dogs. Wolves were originally bred to be tame and domesticated (not just nurture–nature, too, even if coerced). Pitbulls are dogs that have been both bred *and* trained the other way. Goes with the animals who usually own them.
123. godiva - December 4th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
wow now i don’t know what to believe. a book about myths and misconception that i read once said that glass IS actually liquid. and now you’re saying it is untrue.
the world is so full of know-it-alls…
124. billyrules! - December 4th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
We just finished discussing the emancipation proclamation in my U.S history class, so i already knew it didn’t do anything, but its still nice to read stuff like this.
125. Vera Lynn - December 4th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Callie (78) I hate those ads too. Completely inane.
Talanic (90) Food shortages? We grow so much food here in the states they pay farmers NOT to grow it because the market will bottom out. We send food all over the world but the people in charge (the illustrious leaders) trade the food for weapons etc and let their people starve. We do grow enough food to feed the world. We just cannot get it to the people who need it.
126. dofnup - December 4th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Then what the **** am I allergic to, then? Because I am not imagining the rash or the vomiting, and neither is my mother who also suffers from it. The reaction also varies according to the amount of MSG in the food. A lot of MSG will create a rash that goes from my face down to my chest and violent vomiting. A little MSG will only give me a slight rash on my jaw/face.
So all these years, when I’ve eaten at a restaurant and forgotten to tell them “no MSG” and gotten a reaction, while eating at that same restaurant but specifying “no MSG” and I get NO reaction, what then? Psychosomatic? In both my mother and myself? Shared hysteria?
Just because thousands of people cried wolf about their allergies to MSG, does that mean no one on the face of the planet can be allergic to it?
Does my post even matter since apparently “every person who claims they are allergic to MSG is a liar”? What if I am allergic to something else but all these years have thought it was MSG? I’m a liar? Or just didn’t know? Sheesh!
127. mollym - December 4th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
ok for those who think glass is a liquid or is confused about that read this:
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/.....glass.html
128. DiddyP - December 4th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
.126 dofnup
“Psychosomatic? In both my mother and myself? Shared hysteria?
It happens during church services all the time.
129. Vera Lynn - December 4th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Bye STFU FAGS. See ya
130. Vera Lynn - December 4th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
BTW STFU FAGS What is a “looser?”
131. Precision - December 4th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Regarding the liquid v solid question for glass, a liquid can be classified under the broader heading of “fluids”. A fluid is a substance that deforms continuously when acted on by a shearing stress of any magnitude (i.e. flows). Note: fluids can be liquids or gases. In contrast, while a solid may deform slightly under a shear stress it will not be continuous.
Applying this definition, for a glass to be liquid (and hence a fluid) it must continuously deform under shear. As twister implied (127), the timeframe for deformation must be taken into account. Unfortunately it is impossible to accurately examine the deformation of glass over millions of years (for obvious reasons). Examining the deformation of ancient glass samples today is irrelevant unless they have the same chemical composition as window glass.
The link provided by mollym (127) is quite interesting and after a bit of thought I am comfortable in calling window glass a solid. If a couple of million years from now someone were to bring me a sample of window glass from 2008 that had deformed significantly I would graciously acknowledge my error and buy that person a coke
One final point - of course the difference between solids, liquids, and gases is also dependent upon temperature and pressure. I have assumed that these parameters are constant (heat glass up hot enough and it will definitely become a liquid!).
132. Precision - December 4th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Apologies, twister’s post was actually 113 not 127. My bad.
Great list by the way…I was already aware of most of these and don’t find it very hard at all to believe those I did not know. The MSG issue is probably the most controversial to me, especially after reading through the comments.
I hope that next year when I’m on tour in Europe my tour guide will tell everyone that the old glass windows are “melting”. Then I can smugly correct him/her, make myself look like a smartass, and lower my tour buddies’ opinions of me. I can’t wait
133. Yun - December 4th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
@dofnup: The problem isn’t MSG, the problem is your body. JFrater never said MSG wasn’t dangerous to anybody, he said the danger to the average person has been exaggerated because a few people have had severe allergic reactions. MSG is no more dangerous on average than peanuts or shellfish, by which I mean it’s dangerous only to a select few who happen to be allergic.
134. General Tits Von Chodehoffen - December 4th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Is it true that MSG messes up your taste buds so you cant taste as well after eating it? Also if I can remember psych class correctly when you have half your brain taken out you can still do things sort of normally. I believe Florence and Lashley are the researchers who looked into that
135. Mom424 - December 4th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
GTT: I couldn’t find the original study, but I did find this article among others that stipulates “in salt sensitive individuals”. I can’t remember the exact percentage, but it wasn’t very high. That said, being on a low salt diet is prudent if you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure or heart disease. Even if you’re not salt sensitive, in order to keep within the sodium guidelines you’re going to have to cut out most processed foods. It’s a win - win situation.
http://www.americanheart.org/p.....ifier=4650
The point I was really trying to make is that if you actually cook your own food, from fresh or frozen, and eat proper portions, you can salt your food and make it taste good without guilt or worry.
(btw - I’m a sea salt convert; it has better flavor/you use less overall)
136. Blogball - December 4th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Wow I was just skimming over the latest comments and noticed Vera Lynn’s #131 comment and was shocked to see a comment like that from her and thought wow she must be really having a bad day or something. Then I was pleased to notice she was addressing the previous commenter’s name.
I wonder if that guy acted the same way when he was a kid and found out there was no tooth fairy?
At least he wished us all “peace” in his final comment so maybe he’s just having a bad day.
137. Tommy - December 4th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Yun: The problem isn’t MSG, the problem is your body. JFrater never said MSG wasn’t dangerous to anybody, he said the danger to the average person has been exaggerated because a few people have had severe allergic reactions.
“exaggerated” and “few” are questionable.
I think it is his simple explanation that MSG can be found naturally, that makes it ok.
As I have said before, because sugar is found in rice. Does that make sugar not bad?
138. Vera Lynn - December 4th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Blogball (136) His postings have been deleted. He was acting the fool. You’re right; I’m not normally so flippant.
139. mollym - December 4th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Tommy (137)
sugar is not bad. Alot of sugar is.
moderation is the key. but this could be the same for msg.
140. dofnup - December 4th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Oh, and in my rant I forgot to mention one thing about MSG that I agree on: it’s not only in Chinese food. A lot of the fast-food cheap mexican food places use it, too. My unscientific way of finding out is, you guessed it: if I have a rash the next morning.
141. dofnup - December 4th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Oh, and Yun, jfrater’s comment (#3) specifically states “MSG is in so much food eaten by people these days that any person who says they are allergic is a liar.”
That’s what made me post without reading any other comment, mostly because I really love this site and this is the first time I read anything that gets my goat … being called a liar gets my irish up … which is odd, because I’m mexican >_>
142. Jono - December 4th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Tricia:
I must say Alton Brown is one hell of a culinary genius, but don’t take his word without a grain of salt. Another famous chef, Antony Worrall Thompson, published a recipe that reccommended Henbane as one of it’s ingredients. Henbane is a green leafy flowering plant that also happens to be toxic. Once this error was discovered a correction was sent out to all readers of the magazine. Luckily nobody had died from eating this herb yet though.
143. Firestar - December 4th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Number one is quite interesting. Great list!
144. Anon - December 4th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Jackie, (120) & Jamie, (118),
Sounds like the ultimate emergency thirst when remedy adrift on the high seas might indeed be to drink your urine, failing all else. You certainly wouldn’t be likely to become addicted to any more than the minimum needed to survive, methinks! Presumably one could go on recycling, but with a gradual attrition of the vital water content via dehydration.
The best solution to pee rotation is not to get shipwrecked. Second best: get shipwrecked with enough fresh water to reach land from any point. Third option: be somewhere where rains are frequent, but not as storms strong enough to capsize you. Fourth best is liquid obtained from pelagic sea dwellers such as turtles and fish.
See ‘Survive the Savage Sea’, Dougal Robertson, pp. 201-204. Urine is not considered by Robertson, but he advises drinking any amount of sea water to be dangerous and useless. However, to avoid dehydration, he recommends constant soaking of the skin with sea water (when conditions are not too cold).
145. The Anachronism - December 4th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Callie, my friends and I make fun of those commercials all of the time! While I don’t think we can directly blame corn syrup for obesity, I find those commercials annoying and just plain misleading. The fact that corn syrup has the same calories as sugar and honey isn’t the point. The point is (1) it has a different sugar makeup, and is worse for diabetics and people in general than other sweeteners and (2) there is no reason, other than companies trying to save money, to dump corn syrup into products to make them sickeningly sweet.
146. Anon - December 4th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Sorry about garbled first sentence .. . emergency thirst remedy when adrift …
147. Matt - December 4th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
re: Lincoln not freeing any slaves. That’s a common misconception, but in fact the Emancipation Proc freed hundreds of thousands of slaves. It just took awhile to take effect. The EP meant that whenever the feds reconquered any rebellious territory, all the people they found living there were already legally free. The troops didn’t have to return runaways, or reimburse masters for using their slaves, or stand aside when masters punished their slaves. The local blacks could be taught or hired just like real people. Reconquered southern states often tried to reenter the union with slavery intact — a compromise many northerners were OK with — but Lincoln wouldn’t let them. He said the EP was law, and all those slaves were already legally freed. He made a promise and stuck with it.
The EP only applied to the CSA because the president doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally change the law in law-abiding states (like Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky) but he has that authority in a war zone. The 13th Amendment only freed the slaves in the areas that remained loyal to the union.
148. Dave S - December 4th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
From number 3 - …we are used a person’s left and right being reversed when they face turn to face us…
The theory is hard enough to understand as it is without the grammatical errors ha ha
Great list though :o)
149. bigski - December 4th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Too much MSG is probably no good for some people ,but there`s no need to further damage your health with so much passion dofnup.People who own American Pit Bulls are not animals Bob, but your right there born and bred to kill other dogs. A responsible owner is paramount ,but you always have to be on the lookout.Personally I wouldn`t own one.
150. bigski - December 4th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
About the EP, generally and practically speaking J F is correct. Stragically and legally STL Mo is correct. My take.
151. theallseeingallknowingdrunkone - December 4th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
good work j, good work.
152. astraya - December 5th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Re item 9: I suspect that this misconception arises in part because when adolescent boys start shaving, their facial hair does grow thicker and stronger, but purely as part of the maturation process.
153. John - December 5th, 2008 at 3:26 am
#22 Yeah, those of us not from Australia or New Zealand would never be “educated” to know or find out about anything about those two countries if it were not for Listverse.
Give us a break. Thanks.
154. nick - December 5th, 2008 at 4:25 am
#7 I thought the problem with MSG was that you consumed a lot more sodium this way than by using only Table Salt by itself. Allergic reactions are beside the point to the misconception pointed out by the author that “people think that using MSG in even small quantities is necessarily a deadly proposition”.
#5 I think the author’s point is well made that the O2 from plants does not come out of the “O2″ in CO2 but is a by-product of photo-synthesis (maybe it could have been better explained whether it actually comes from the H2O taken up from the plant’s roots or wherever).
#4 The North Pole was named because the north poles of a bar magnet pointed towards it. Magnetism was only understood better in modern times and what was discovered was that north and south poles attract each other. Hence, the north pole of a bar magnet actually points towards the South Magnetic Pole.
#3 The author’s point maybe better understood by making a drawing of a figure with some water paint and labeling the left and right hands. N