# Another "Common Knowledge or Fascinating Anecdotes... that unfortunately aren't true" Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 11, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225 "2009-11-11T20:24:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/21 "2009-11-12T00:31:48Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Many Americans, when polled, think we spend 15-25% of the federal budget on foreign aid. > > [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-74799773.html](http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-74799773.html) > > [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2003\_05/001282.php](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2003_05/001282.php) > > The real figure is less than 1%. Ditto welfare and food stamps. Federal welfare payments (TANF) adds up to $17 billion per year while the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) is another $60 billion. A lot of money absolutely and that’s far from all social assistance programs and it’s only federal/not state, and there certainly is a lot of fraud, but if every single recipient really were a the rumored mother of 12 eating bon-bons and using her SNAP to buy T-bones and lobster tails (and of course most are legitimately in need) then added together they still wouldn’t pay the interest on the recent bailouts. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/22 "2009-11-12T00:35:01Z")
The teenager in 1969 that, had AIDS is false. This black teen has been consistantly listed as a “pre-80s” HIV case. The problem his tests were contaminated and no one has been able to replicate any further proof he had it. So basically you had black teen who tested positive with a contaminated sample and never tested again. So did he have HIV? Most likely not. But it is all over the Internet and it’s too powerful to be erased. I’ve even quoted sources and put it on Wikipedia only to consistantly to have it removed because it’s considered “AIDS denialism” which is taboo. As for Kitty Genovese the problem with cases like this is a lot of these revisons come far to late to be valid. I’ve read NY Times accouts of the incident online in back issues of the paper and a lot of the current “this isn’t true” lies from “updated” incidents. Someone changes their story later on. For instance, people will say they called the police, but we have no records now to back anything up. So back memories are worthless and the truth won’t really be known. Almost everything has an interesting “side story” to it. Did Bell invent the telephone? This is wide open because Bell and his rival Elisha Gray, were only two of MANY people working on the idea. It only seems interesting because Gray came to the patent office just hours behind Bell. There were certainly other people working on it to that had similar versions but failed to go to the patent office for whatever reason. Very few things have a clear cut example. For example it is said Google founders used to check the SAT score of all engineers who applied for a job before they went public. This is accepted as true, and I would agree, as a GENERAL statement. Certainly they did check MOST but there are enough people who didn’t get checked to prove it false. After all it only takes one to disprove a true statement. But I can see the reasoning in accepting the idea Google founders checked the SAT scores simply because the overwhelming majority of people were checked. Another example I’ll use is to distinguish between TRUTH and ABSOLUTE TRUTH. For example, rabies is regarded as universally lethal. Yet we have a handful of cases (including one in Brazil a few years back) of a woman with Rabies who recovered on her own. If somene asked me is rabies absolutely lethal, I’d say “Yes,” even though that isn’t ture, simply because in all recorded history there are so few cases of people getting rabies and living. That’s why colums like the “Straight Dope” are so fun, because a lot of the elements of the question can be regarded as “truth,” even though they are not the “absolute truth” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/23 "2009-11-12T00:47:13Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I read this sentence and thought, “Geez! **Sampiro** ’s older than I thought!” A few of my pics [from](http://www.flickr.com/photos/28949748@N06/4097037920/) back [in](http://www.flickr.com/photos/28949748@N06/4096279511/in/photostream/) the [day](http://www.flickr.com/photos/28949748@N06/4096279469/in/photostream/).😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/24 "2009-11-12T01:00:40Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > If somene asked me is rabies absolutely lethal, I’d say “Yes,” even though that isn’t ture, simply because in all recorded history there are so few cases of people getting rabies and living. A close friend of mine who had to have rabies shots a few years back (from a dog bite sustained in Atlanta of all places- [story here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6457392&postcount=11)) said the doctor who treated him had actually done a study on coon hunters in the deep south and found that most of them tested positive for rabies. This isn’t to say that they were attacked by a rabid coon/dog/hogzilla or anything, but had somehow in contact with their animals or their prey come into contact with it, and had never been sick from it. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/25 "2009-11-12T01:12:44Z")
Honey bees do no tell other bees where there is food by dancing. It is true that they “dance” but it is purely coincidental and other bees do not read the dances. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/26 "2009-11-12T01:32:47Z")
You’ve probably all heard about this one before, but: “The Great Wall of China is visible to the naked eye from space [or from the moon], and is the only man-made feature on Earth about which this can be said.” It took a concerted effort by my former boss to get this nonsense taken out of all the many textbooks my former company produced. In truth, the Great Wall is arguably visible _from low Earth orbit_ (though only to someone with unusually good sight) – but so are several other man-made features, including some of the larger highways. It’s questionable whether it can be seen from “space” (e.g., the exosphere) and it certainly isn’t true of the moon. [Wiki on the subject.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_wall_of_china#Visibility_from_space) ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/27 "2009-11-12T01:36:33Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > Honey bees do no tell other bees where there is food by dancing. It is true that they “dance” but it is purely coincidental and other bees do not read the dances. No, as far as I can tell, this is actually true. It seems there is still some [dispute](http://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/adrian-wenner/sound-communication-in-honey-bees/) about the [mechanisms](http://www.ibra.org.uk/articles/20090915_5), but I found a [bunch](http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026764.800-maths-helps-bees-read-the-waggle-dance.html?feedId=life_rss20) of [studies](http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20080606-17443-2.html) that [support](http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8176000/8176878.stm) the [idea](http://www.pnas.org/content/104/5/1703.abstract)that bees are communicating directional information to each other. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/28 "2009-11-12T01:37:59Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > A close friend of mine who had to have rabies shots a few years back (from a dog bite sustained in Atlanta of all places- [story here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6457392&postcount=11)) said the doctor who treated him had actually done a study on coon hunters in the deep south and found that most of them tested positive for rabies. This isn’t to say that they were attacked by a rabid coon/dog/hogzilla or anything, but had somehow in contact with their animals or their prey come into contact with it, and had never been sick from it. Whoa. That’s so creepy–that you can get it just from being in contact with animals that have it…and then not realize. What if they HAD gotten sick? It makes you not ever want to be in contact with wild animals ever. Do they know why those coon hunters don’t show symptoms? Is it common? Like, are there people who are exposed/test positive and just never show symptoms, apart from those hunters? ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/29 "2009-11-12T02:18:05Z")
I have a few Titanic-related ones: 1. Bruce Ismay was not trying to beat any sort of speed record. For one, _Titanic_ couldn’t have beaten the fastest speed if it tried. The fastest ocean liner at the time was the Cunard line’s _Mauretania_, which got up to speeds of about 27 knots. The fastest Titanic could go was about 24 knots. White Star’s principal focus was not on speed, but luxury. Second, there was a coal strike going on at the time, so the ship was running on just the right amount to get to New York–speeding up would have wasted coal, not to mention the ship would’ve been forced to dock for another day or so once they got to New York. 2. Third-class passengers were not locked in their corridors to allow the first-class passengers first access to the lifeboats. There were barriers between the classes, but these were mostly to prevent the spread of infectious disease, and were about waist-high. If you really needed to hop the barriers, you could have. The reason many third-class passengers didn’t make it up to the lifeboats was because there was no ship-wide PA system, so the only way to communicate that the ship was sinking was to send a steward around to knock on doors and tell folks to get into their lifebelts. Many of these passengers didn’t speak English. Others waited for instructions that never came. There were, however, about 20 or so _crew_ that were supposedly locked in their cabins. They worked in the a la carte restaurant, and were of French and Italian descent. They were locked in their cabins because it was believed they would try and rush the lifeboats. 1. No one shot anybody trying to get into the lifeboats. Deck officers were issued sidearms, but the only shots fired were in the air, in order to frighten men away from the lifeboats. It also depended upon which side of the ship you were on. Charles Lightoller (stationed on the port side) only allowed women and children into the lifeboats, and prevented men from getting near them. William Murdoch (stationed on the starboard side) was less picky. He let anyone–men, women, children, first class, third class–who was on deck at the time into the lifeboats. This is all off the top of my head, so I may have some numbers wrong. My cite is Lee Merideth’s _1912 Facts About Titanic_. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/30 "2009-11-12T02:18:37Z")
> [@emmaliminal](#): > > You’ve probably all heard about this one before, but: “The Great Wall of China is visible to the naked eye from space [or from the moon], and is the only man-made feature on Earth about which this can be said.” This is my favorite example, in part because it can pretty much be disproved with logic if you know the approximate dimensions of the Great Wall. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/31 "2009-11-12T02:33:00Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > A few of my pics [from](http://www.flickr.com/photos/28949748@N06/4097037920/) back [in](http://www.flickr.com/photos/28949748@N06/4096279511/in/photostream/) the [day](http://www.flickr.com/photos/28949748@N06/4096279469/in/photostream/).😉 Your photostream was worth the price of admission. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/32 "2009-11-12T03:00:43Z")
> [@Maiira](#): > > I have a few Titanic-related ones: 1. It is also _not_ true that Harvard students must pass a swimming test before graduation due to the the death of George and Harry Widener. ([snopes](http://www.snopes.com/college/admin/swimtest.asp)) Plus I seem to remember that other survivors did not think Ismay was cowardly for boarding a lifeboat and said that he did not take a seat from anyone else; nobody else was around. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/33 "2009-11-12T03:29:30Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > The teenager in 1969 that, had AIDS is false. This black teen has been consistantly listed as a “pre-80s” HIV case. The problem his tests were contaminated and no one has been able to replicate any further proof he had it. > > So basically you had black teen who tested positive with a contaminated sample and never tested again. So did he have HIV? Most likely not. But it is all over the Internet and it’s too powerful to be erased. I’ve read this section several times and I’m still not sure what it’s saying. Can you clarify, please? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/34 "2009-11-12T03:54:16Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I keep having to dispell the “Eskimos have X number of words for snow” one in psych class. The response I got was along the lines of “Okay, it may not be literally true, but the concept illustrates our theory that…” Really? > [@](#): > > However, if we must confine ourselves to Eskimo talk, I can still come up with quite a few terms, as long as you’ll let me throw in some words for ice too: kaniktshaq, snow; qanik, falling snow; anijo, snow on the ground; hiko (tsiko in some dialects), ice; tsikut, large broken up masses of ice; hikuliaq, thin ice; quahak, new ice without snow; kanut, new ice with snow; pugtaq, drift ice; peqalujaq, old ice; manelaq, pack ice; ivuneq, high pack ice; maneraq, smooth ice; akuvijarjuak, thin ice on the sea; kuhugaq, icicle; nilak, fresh water ice; and tugartaq, firm winter ice. > > If we wish to include peripheral items we may speak of iglo, snow house (igloo); haviujaq, snow knife; puatlrit, snow shovel; uvkuag, block of snow for closing the door of a snow hut. I imagine after-dinner chats in Eskimoland must get a bit monotonous after a while, considering the restricted range of subject matter. Fortunately, they have about 20 words for trout to liven things up with. The author of the quote is… kinda well known around here. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/35 "2009-11-12T04:59:44Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > The author of the quote is… kinda well known around here. Obama? ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/36 "2009-11-12T05:35:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Bell’s interest in electric conduction of sound began in hopes of enabling his wife and his mother [two different women, but both of them deaf] to gain hearing.) To expand on that. Bell was really into the concept of residual hearing. The telephone was supposed to be an “auditory trainer” ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/37 "2009-11-12T05:37:46Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > 1. It is also _not_ true that Harvard students must pass a swimming test before graduation due to the the death of George and Harry Widener. ([snopes](http://www.snopes.com/college/admin/swimtest.asp)) > > Plus I seem to remember that other survivors did not think Ismay was cowardly for boarding a lifeboat and said that he did not take a seat from anyone else; nobody else was around. That first one I haven’t heard. But yeah, I haven’t heard any survivor’s accounts that indicate that Ismay stole passage onto a lifeboat. He was the one who ushered a lot of stewardesses into the lifeboats so that they could set an example for other passengers. It was the media frenzy afterward that demonized him. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/38 "2009-11-12T07:09:55Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Whoa. That’s so creepy–that you can get it just from being in contact with animals that have it…and then not realize. What if they HAD gotten sick? It makes you not ever want to be in contact with wild animals ever. > > Do they know why those coon hunters don’t show symptoms? Is it common? Like, are there people who are exposed/test positive and just never show symptoms, apart from those hunters? No idea but I have to mention that I have been innoculated against rabies if I have to go in for an animal bite, because now I titre out to a false positive. And it is well within reason to me that they could have picked up a subclinical dose from blood contact in skinning out an infected animal and been able to fight it off - if the animal in question themselves was still in the very early stages and the bacterial load was minimal … perhaps. Maybe the people in question somehow picked up enough in random contact with infected peltrie to make them titre out after triggering the antibody production? ---
**Author:** ![\_cc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/e19b73/32.png) [@\_cc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_cc)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/39 "2009-11-12T08:45:03Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I assumed he was a racist based on when he lived/where he was from Wow. Irony, thy name is Sampiro. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225/40 "2009-11-12T14:27:23Z")
> [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > No, as far as I can tell, this is actually true. It seems there is still some [dispute](http://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/adrian-wenner/sound-communication-in-honey-bees/) about the [mechanisms](http://www.ibra.org.uk/articles/20090915_5), but I found a [bunch](http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026764.800-maths-helps-bees-read-the-waggle-dance.html?feedId=life_rss20) of [studies](http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20080606-17443-2.html) that [support](http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8176000/8176878.stm) the [idea](http://www.pnas.org/content/104/5/1703.abstract)that bees are communicating directional information to each other. Here is a [PDF which details an experiment](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=5&ved=0CBYQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.biolbull.org%2Fcgi%2Freprint%2F144%2F1%2F107.pdf&ei=UBr8SvaQD5PgtgPk4qWEAQ&usg=AFQjCNE9sBnQO4xDDNxunsP1DVbL9lPiCQ&sig2=6DP14yyGZXgmJCych8sMeg) that says that new bee recruits find food most by odors. The PDF is about 25 pages long. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-common-knowledge-or-fascinating-anecdotes-that-unfortunately-arent-true-thread/517225.md?page=3)