# Basic facts you learned late in life that you didn't really know. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 19, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711 "2010-02-19T23:37:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/141 "2010-02-26T00:39:23Z")
> [@Vorpal\_Blade](#): > > When I was a kid I thought boxers defended themselves with their fists. That is, to block a punch, they hit the other guy on the fist. Fist-to-fist. I used to think that when I was a kid, until I saw Rocky. Dismissed due to youth. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/142 "2010-02-26T02:59:14Z")
Until a thread I read a few months ago, I thought that soldier was a catch-all for anybody in the military instead of referring just to people in the Army. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/143 "2010-02-26T03:42:59Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > This whole time I’ve been trying to tie the excess off while it was on the can, and it never worked. Really? Works for me all the time. I suppose taking it off first might be easier, but I’ve never found it so difficult that I was looking for other options. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/144 "2010-02-26T06:06:35Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > Every Subway shop I’ve ever been had its walls decorated with maps of the NY subway system and old news clippings about the opening of the first subway (mass transit not sandwich) service in New York in the early 1900’s. You are excused. But not excused for eating there 😃 I was about 22 when I learned how the tilt of the earth created the seasons. I thought the earth magically tilted back and forth. I always wondered, “How does it know when to stop?” ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/145 "2010-02-26T06:08:36Z")
Well, at least you didn’t think it had to do with the Earth’s distance from the sun. > [@rhubarbarin](#): > > I always though ‘hero’ was a bastardization of the proper Greek spelling, ‘gyro’. I thought so too, for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/146 "2010-02-26T06:19:05Z")
Until recently I thought that to shift from 2nd gear to 3rd in a manual transmission car, you had to move the stick shift in a zigzag formation. My husband finally informed me that all you have to do is push back on the stick shift and it will move over into the 3rd gear path all on its own. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/147 "2010-02-26T10:26:07Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Until recently I thought that to shift from 2nd gear to 3rd in a manual transmission car, you had to move the stick shift in a zigzag formation. My husband finally informed me that all you have to do is push back on the stick shift and it will move over into the 3rd gear path all on its own. Well, it might depend on the transmission in your car. In my car, I push it out of 2nd, then push it into 3rd. It pops into the middle of the tree by itself, but if I were to push it straight back, I might grind 1st gear a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/148 "2010-02-26T10:45:19Z")
How many folks you know still type in ‘www’ when entering a web address? I see it all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/149 "2010-02-26T11:03:06Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > How many folks you know still type in ‘www’ when entering a web address? > > I see it all the time. Well, isn’t it usually part of the address? Though, it’s worth mentioning, it’s not always the case. For instance, [http://skippyslist.com](http://skippyslist.com) works but [www.skippyslist.com](http://www.skippyslist.com) does not work. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/150 "2010-02-26T11:38:22Z")
Hmm, that sounds like an invitation to spoof (if such is allowed in those circumstances). It seems better form to allow the www to work anyway. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/151 "2010-02-26T12:24:08Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > How many folks you know still type in ‘www’ when entering a web address? > > I see it all the time. It appears that they’ve fixed it, but while I was attending a couple of years ago, my university’s web site only worked with “www” at the beginning. Leaving it off would bring up their online Outlook client. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/152 "2010-02-26T13:30:19Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > How many folks you know still type in ‘www’ when entering a web address? > > I see it all the time. I see a lot of folks still typing out **.com** (on Windows machines) instead of ctrl+enter. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/153 "2010-02-26T14:56:56Z")
My point is, just typing [skippylist.com](http://skippylist.com) works. At least in my browser. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/154 "2010-02-26T15:30:12Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Hmm, that sounds like an invitation to spoof (if such is allowed in those circumstances). It seems better form to allow the www to work anyway. The person who controls the domain can specify any number of subdomains. On the domain I administrate, [www.ourdomain.com](http://www.ourdomain.com) resolves to a 3rd-party webhost, [and.ourdomain.com](http://and.ourdomain.com) resolves to a server in our offices with another role altogether. There is a webserver installed on it, simply to reroute web traffic to our public webserver. There isn’t really a danger of spoofing with this. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/155 "2010-02-26T17:09:35Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > How many folks you know still type in ‘www’ when entering a web address? > > I see it all the time. Well, I do. Not out of ignorance, in my browser it’s not always necessary, but it just seems better form to do so. Dropping the three W’s just seems half-assed somehow. Maybe thats just me then though. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/156 "2010-02-26T17:31:53Z")
Not only do I type out the “www” and the “.com” parts, I also type the “http://”. Because I just **do** , dammit. _wanders off grumbling about the days when Gopher was awesome and Mosaic accessing this “World Wide Web” thing was interesting but low on content, and get off my lawn, already…_ ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/157 "2010-02-26T20:03:30Z")
This message board is [Straight Dope Message Board - Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb). There’s no WWW. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/158 "2010-02-26T20:59:37Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > I see a lot of folks still typing out **.com** (on Windows machines) instead of ctrl+enter. Well, this is the first time I’ve heard of this; but I tried it, and typing .com is still faster for me. Hitting the ctrl key involves a slight left-hand-twist that takes longer than just punching four keys right under my fingers. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/159 "2010-02-27T06:05:50Z")
I didn’t know until I read it here a few years ago that your tongue normally rests on the roof of your mouth rather than at the bottom of it. That is a pretty weird fact for such such an important and obvious body part that sits so close to your brain. Lots of people die never realizing that. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/160 "2010-02-27T06:51:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Until recently I thought that to shift from 2nd gear to 3rd in a manual transmission car, you had to move the stick shift in a zigzag formation. My husband finally informed me that all you have to do is push back on the stick shift and it will move over into the 3rd gear path all on its own. > [@Raguleader](#): > > Well, it might depend on the transmission in your car. In my car, I push it out of 2nd, then push it into 3rd. It pops into the middle of the tree by itself, but if I were to push it straight back, I might grind 1st gear a bit. Yes, I said it will move OVER into the 3rd gear path on its own. I think we’re saying the same thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711.md?page=9)