# Amazing bullshit true facts that are in fact true. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 27, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514 "2013-01-27T03:44:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/121 "2013-02-04T17:09:24Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The hill could have been excavated for landfill in the 19th century - much of Boston is built on fill. Much of Beacon Hill was used to turn the Back Bay from a mudflat into a neighborhood, for instance. This is why I responded the way I did – it wasn’t unknown to borrow fill from the hills (present-day Beacon Hill in Boston isn’t even the OLD Beacon Hill – it’s the _valley_ between the original GBeacon Hill and one of the other hills that’s no longer there. Boston used to have three hills on it. They used two of trhe hills, the top of Beacon, and more to fill in the old Mill Pond, Back Bay, and the South End. ) ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/122 "2013-02-04T23:10:01Z")
Hmm, everyone I’ve tried the nose and foot thing on has worked out. Maybe I need to expand the test group…:0) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/123 "2013-02-04T23:11:04Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > On April 1st of some year (late 90s, early 2000s), I wrote a corporate memo stating that, by my analysis, 40% of sick days occurred on either Friday or Monday. This pissed-off my stepmother to no end, and she was planning on having a big-old group bitchfest with all the employees until I had to let her in on the joke. She was never very good at math, (or people for that matter, which is why the company is out of business less than 5 years after it was given to her). I worked at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL back in 1994. We actually had a company-wide meeting (the 3rd shift employees met at the animal show’s amphitheatre) to hear about the new company policy re: sick days. Management had figured out that just over 40% of all employee sick days were either on a Friday or a Monday, thus giving the “sick” employee a 3 day weekend. Henceforth, any employee calling in sick on either Friday or Monday would be required to provide a note from a doctor or other health care professional, or their sick day claim would be denied. First offense would result in a warning, 2nd offense would result in termination. It took 2 weeks of us non-management types arguing and showing math worksheets to get management to agree, in writing, to drop the new sick leave policy. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/124 "2013-02-05T02:36:03Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I worked at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL back in 1994. We actually had a company-wide meeting (the 3rd shift employees met at the animal show’s amphitheatre) to hear about the new company policy re: sick days. > > Management had figured out that just over 40% of all employee sick days were either on a Friday or a Monday, thus giving the “sick” employee a 3 day weekend. Isn’t an amusement park open seven days a week? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/125 "2013-02-05T12:53:18Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > A dentist came up with an idea for a bat bomb, where canisters containing live bats with incendiary devices attached would be dropped from planes over Japan. The idea was taken seriously and an estimated $2 million dollars spent on testing and development, despite incidents such as the bats setting a New Mexico airbase afire. Holy incendiary mammals! Legendary Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell was the only broadcaster to be traded for a player. [Two Ocean Creek](http://usends.com/Explore/Parting/index.html) is the only stream on the continent that sends its water to two oceans. ---
**Author:** ![Vicullum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Vicullum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicullum)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/126 "2013-02-05T13:37:59Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > A dentist came up with an idea for a bat bomb, where canisters containing live bats with incendiary devices attached would be dropped from planes over Japan. The idea was taken seriously and an estimated $2 million dollars spent on testing and development, despite incidents such as the bats setting a New Mexico airbase afire. Since you brought it up, some of the more goofier weapon ideas that the military has seriously pursued: [Using chickens to keep nuclear mines from freezing.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/3588465.stm) [A “gay bomb” to make their enemies drop their guns for start the intimate man dance.](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,281217,00.html) [Building enormous iceberg aircraft carriers.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk) [A cannon that fired whirlwinds at enemy aircraft.](http://discaircraft.greyfalcon.us/FAULKER%20FEUERSTURM.htm) [Dogs trained to run under enemy tanks and blow them up.](http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/the-soviet-suicide-dogs-of-wwii/20048) [Using surgically modified cats to spy on embassies.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_Kitty) [Pigeon-guided missiles.](http://io9.com/5828298/pigeon+guided-missile-could-have-changed-the-course-of-world-war-ii) [Explosive rats.](http://io9.com/5924747/how-british-special-forces-used-exploding-rats-to-fight-the-nazis) [Floating balloons across the Pacific ocean to bomb America.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_balloon) [A combo tank/glider.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_A-40) [A flying submarine.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_submarine) [The flying jeep.](http://jalopnik.com/5588981/flying-jeeps-what-could-possibly-go-wrong) ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/127 "2013-02-05T13:38:00Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > A dentist came up with an idea for a bat bomb, where canisters containing live bats with incendiary devices attached would be dropped from planes over Japan. The idea was taken seriously and an estimated $2 million dollars spent on testing and development, despite incidents such as the bats setting a New Mexico airbase afire. Actually it could have well worked. I mean they did set some buildings on fire, which was kind of the idea. IIRC the main reason they quite working on it was the Abomb was ready to go. Released bats setting fires to thousands of buildings at about the same time across a large area of a city is probably a recipe for an out of control blaze. There has been a book written about the project. I haven’t read it but supposedly its a pretty decent read. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/128 "2013-02-05T14:00:19Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Released bats setting fires to thousands of buildings at about the same time across a large area of a city is probably a recipe for an out of control blaze. Not too different from the Civil War technique of tying an oil-soaked cloth to a cat’s tail, setting it on fire, and releasing said cat into the area you want to burn. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/129 "2013-02-05T14:13:25Z")
A goofy weapon idea not seriously pursued by the military: One part of the plot in [Indecent Exposure by Tom Sharpe](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58514.Indecent_Exposure) is letting loose exploding ostriches. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/130 "2013-02-06T21:27:29Z")
A goofy idea that was pursued by the military (Japanese): [Hot air balloons](http://legionmagazine.com/en/index.php/2009/08/the-west-coast-balloon-attack-air-force-part-34/) full of incendiary devices that used the Westerlies to fly over the Pacific Northwest timberlands and set fire to them in WW2. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/131 "2013-02-06T21:41:13Z")
Prince Charles and Princess Diana were the same height. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/132 "2013-02-06T21:50:00Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Hmm, everyone I’ve tried the nose and foot thing on has worked out. Maybe I need to expand the test group…:0) I think they are measuring the nose/pinky thing wrong. If I go horizontally from tip to cheek it is one knuckle like they are reporting. But if you go from tip up the bridge to the brow my nose is pretty damn close to being the length of my pinky. For me the foot and forearm is pretty damn close as well. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/133 "2013-02-06T22:50:27Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Not too different from the Civil War technique of tying an oil-soaked cloth to a cat’s tail, setting it on fire, and releasing said cat into the area you want to burn. It (allegedly) goes back [considerably further than that](http://www.historytoday.com/james-waterson/mamluks). Rats are better, though, I should think–they’re more inclined to get into hidden, hard to reach places where the fire can spread unnoticed for a while. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/134 "2013-02-06T23:16:24Z")
A well known Harvard psychologist (B. F. Skinner) received a Navy contract to develop a guided bomb-guided by trained pigeons. I don’t know if it actually worked. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/135 "2013-02-06T23:54:11Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > It (allegedly) goes back [considerably further than that](http://www.historytoday.com/james-waterson/mamluks). It (allegedly) goes back [even further than that](http://bible.cc/judges/15.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/136 "2013-02-07T07:18:29Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Not too different from the Civil War technique of tying an oil-soaked cloth to a cat’s tail, setting it on fire, and releasing said cat into the area you want to burn. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “Put the cat out!”. ---
**Author:** ![Pacific420](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Pacific420](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pacific420)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/137 "2013-02-09T05:22:41Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Jimmy Stewart movie actor was a hardcore war hero with ice in his veins. > [James Stewart - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart#Military_honors) Love Jimmy Stewart…he was a great actor and seemed to be a genuinley nice person ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/138 "2013-02-09T06:44:28Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Isn’t an amusement park open seven days a week? I don’t want to hijack this thread too much with this topic, but yes, Universal Studios Orlando is open 7 days a week. Much of the regular office and clerical staff had regular M-F work weeks. BUT where it gets really stupid is that the technical staff, which made up the bulk of the park’s employees, had work weeks of 4 10-hour days, with the 4 days being either Sunday-Wednesday or Wednesday-Saturday. Believe me, management at the park back then wasn’t all made up of Ivy League grads and rocket surgeons. We had one guy, a VP or Director of ---------- (can’t remember his title, but he was the big boss of a division) who had 4 or 5 DUIs which caused him to lose his Driver’s License. So USO provided him with a car to drive while on property. He then got caught driving drunk _on property_ because, IIRC, he got in an accident on property that was so bad it required county fire personnel to extract him from the wrecked vehicle. After that, again IIRC, he wasn’t fired or sent to rehab; they just gave him his own special golf cart to replace the car. We used to have a pool on how long it would take him to wreck the golf cart, but I quit before it happened. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/139 "2013-02-09T07:57:43Z")
Can’t find the cite; but couldn’t find anything that disproves it. As always, take with a grain of salt. Aborigines oral traditions are extensive–as far back as the tail-end of the Pleistocene epoch. Specifically, it spoke of an island off the coast of Australia long ago, which was eventually covered by the waters. When a marine survey was performed, they found the submerged island off the coast. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514/140 "2013-02-09T15:56:30Z")
I had to research the John Tyler story. It is amazing. A [link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyon_Gardiner_Tyler)for anyone interested. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazing-bullshit-true-facts-that-are-in-fact-true/648514.md?page=8)