# Common Misconceptions Many Reasonably Intelligent People Have and Your Corrections **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 9, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226 "2011-05-09T02:24:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/101 "2011-05-10T02:44:46Z")
On the taxes; yes, tax deductible just means you’re getting a (at maximum) 35% or so discount on something (that you presumably had an independent reason to buy). Not too bad if you were going to buy it anyhow. But there **is** free money in the Tax Code – a **tax credit** is a dollar-per-dollar reduction in the amount of tax you owe, which (money being fungible) means the $10 you spent on X comes back to you at the end of the year in $10 reduction in your tax liability. Cool/horrible depending on who’s getting the credit, what is being incentivized (credits tend to apply toward perceived social goods, such as investments in renewable energy), whether you believe the government should be trying to bribe consumers into particular behaviors. I got new windows in my place last year basically for free due to a $1500 tax credit for high-insulation-factor EnergyStar compliant home improvements. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/102 "2011-05-10T02:49:21Z")
Freemasonry is not a “secret society”. A secret society is one whose existence is not acknowledged by its members. Freemasonry is not a religion. A 33rd Degree Mason is not “the highest type of Freemason.” A 33rd Degree Mason is the highest degree _of the Scottish Rite,_ which is an optional “appendant body” to regular Masonry which most Masons are not part of in any way. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/103 "2011-05-10T03:09:30Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > You can in a few states as well. Personal rent for an apartment is deductible in Massachusetts for the state but not for the feds. Still, there is no need to get hung up on legal trivia in a thread like this. Just wanted to clarify (especially since it was given as an absolute statement). It is the SDMB, after all (and I do find it interesting that personal rent can be deducted from state income taxes in some states. I would not have guessed that.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/104 "2011-05-10T03:17:26Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Freemasonry is not a “secret society”. A secret society is one whose existence is not acknowledged by its members. Well, I guess that depends on your definition of “secret society.” I (and many others) use it to mean something closer semantically to “secretive society.” [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_society), and the [Random House and Collins dictionaries](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/secret+society) for what its worth, agree. I think the Freemasons would qualify under all but the most restrictive definitions of “secret society.” ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/105 "2011-05-10T03:44:01Z")
“Don’t put mulch right up against the trunk of your tree. It will rot the base of the tree.” I’d really like to know how mulch that forms naturally in the world’s forests and jungles is some how cleared away from the trunks of trees. Maybe menehunes and leprechauns clear the mulch away every night? This is absolute crap. I have been putting up to six inches of mulch right up against the trunks of my fruit trees and any other tree in my yard for over 20 years and I have nothing but healthy trees and more fruit than I can eat. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/106 "2011-05-10T03:45:39Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > You will be glad to hear the when my five-year-old last produced a “book” for me, she was careful to include an index. > > Bunnies, 1-3 > Bunny holes, 2 > Carrots, 3 😃 ---
**Author:** ![conspiracy\_of\_doves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@conspiracy\_of\_doves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conspiracy_of_doves)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/107 "2011-05-10T05:51:32Z")
Bacteria and viruses are two separate things. I’ve heard a lot of confusion on this lately from the reasonably intelligent – someone on TV talked about viruses as if they were a type of bacteria, while an engineer I know thought viruses were produced by bacteria. Neither is true, although viruses can infect bacteria, and a viral infection can of course increase one’s susceptibility to bacterial infection. Bacteria are cells that can reproduce independently; viruses are generally smaller, relatively simple constructions of genetic material, protein, and not much else, which require a host to replicate. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/108 "2011-05-10T06:18:25Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Likewise, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has PSAs that proclaim, “Water and Alcohol Don’t Mix”. I always scowl and explain to whomever I’m with that they most certainly do. What the PSA is saying (and I’m reasonably sure you know this): Don’t drink and boat! ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/109 "2011-05-10T06:32:09Z")
> [@ReticulatingSplines](#): > > This reminds me of another one - it really bugs me when someone describes a shy or quiet person as “antisocial.” Antisocial doesn’t mean “That guy doesn’t like to talk to people.” It means “That guy doesn’t give a shit that you’re in your house while he starts burning it down.” Why do you object to colloquial meaning to a word? Do you believe people (i.e. people outside the menta health field) actually read the DSM? ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/110 "2011-05-10T08:27:34Z")
> [@mcgato](#): > > Neither did [John von Neumann](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann), but a lot of intro computer science texts seem to think so. The credit in the US is probably best given to [John Mauchly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mauchly) and [J. Presper Eckert](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Presper_Eckert). I haven’t read enough about the recent declassification of the history of Bletchley Park to speak to what was happening in England. Von Neumann is another good one. He effectively stole many of his best ideas from Turing, to whom he’d offered a job as a research assistant after he finished his PhD thesis under Church at Princeton. The first thing that Neumann did, when he joined the EDVAC project, was make the engineers read Turing’s _On computable numbers…_. What’s now known as the Von Neumann architecture was first elucidated in Turing’s monograph _Proposed Electronic Calculator_, delivered to the UK’s National Physical Laboratory in early 1946 (outlining the design of the ACE, a project they later cancelled :smack:). Von Neumann’s monograph on the EDVAC was incomplete and didn’t really describe the architecture that came to bear his name! But then again, I don’t think anybody disputes that Von Neumann stole most of his best ideas: “Johnny borrowed (we must not say plagiarized) anything from anybody”, in the words of his biographer, Norman Macrae. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/111 "2011-05-10T12:45:47Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Do you know that large, horned animal that roams the plains of North America? The one that Buffalo Bill hunted? The one that inspired the lyric ‘O give me a home where the buffalo roam’? > > It’s a bison, not a buffalo. You say “bison”, I say “buffalo”. Regardless of what it is called in the scientific classification scheme, the _name_ of the animal is “buffalo”. To argue otherwise is like saying the Holy Roman Empire shouldn’t be called that because it wasn’t holy, wasn’t Roman, and wasn’t an empire. So what! that was the name of the entity. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/112 "2011-05-10T13:12:05Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > You say “bison”, I say “buffalo”. Regardless of what it is called in the scientific classification scheme, the _name_ of the animal is “buffalo”. To argue otherwise is like saying the Holy Roman Empire shouldn’t be called that because it wasn’t holy, wasn’t Roman, and wasn’t an empire. So what! that was the name of the entity. Obviously if you’re a descriptivist you might think that, but then where does it all end? Is the name of the large reptile that lives in the swamps of Florida “crocodile” just because some people don’t know that it’s really an alligator? ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/113 "2011-05-10T13:19:44Z")
Misconception #287 Baby carrots aren’t grown that way. They are cut from larger carrots using specialized machinery. Originally, developed as a way to use mishapened carrots that would go to waste, now the majority of all carrots grown are cut into baby carrot sizes for marketing purposes, as they are preferred by consumers. ---
**Author:** ![Kiber](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiber/32/317_2.png) [@Kiber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiber)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/114 "2011-05-10T13:26:39Z")
That Al Gore claimed he invented the internet. He didn’t. That there is no gravity in orbit/space. There is. That you put toast in a toaster. You don’t. That Saddam had something to do with 911. He didn’t. That they are called Canadian Geese. They’re not. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/115 "2011-05-10T13:42:25Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Misconception #287 > > Baby carrots aren’t grown that way. They are cut from larger carrots using specialized machinery. Originally, developed as a way to use mishapened carrots that would go to waste, now the majority of all carrots grown are cut into baby carrot sizes for marketing purposes, as they are preferred by consumers. Actually, SOME baby carrots are grown that way. Either they are small varieties, or they are harvested before they reach their full growth. However, these are pretty rarely seen in the average supermarket, as they are much more expensive than the cut and peel carrots which are generally sold as baby carrots. Carrots are not all rather long and tapering, or even orange. Some of them are short, blunt, with almost no taper at all, and others are globular, like radishes or beets. But for the most part, what appears in supermarkets are indeed regular carrots that have been peeled and then cut down in size. And I have to admit that I prefer them, both as snacks and as ingredients, to the point where I only buy the cut and peel carrots. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/116 "2011-05-10T14:48:11Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > You say “bison”, I say “buffalo”. Regardless of what it is called in the scientific classification scheme, the _name_ of the animal is “buffalo”. To argue otherwise is like saying the Holy Roman Empire shouldn’t be called that because it wasn’t holy, wasn’t Roman, and wasn’t an empire. So what! that was the name of the entity. From [the Wikipedia article:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bison#Name) > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Some consider the term “buffalo” somewhat of a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two “true buffalo,” the Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo. However, “bison” is a Greek word meaning ox-like animal, while “buffalo” originated with the French fur trappers who called these massive beasts bœufs, meaning ox or bullock – so both names, “bison” and “buffalo,” have a similar meaning. **In reference to this animal, the term “buffalo,” which dates to 1635, has a much longer history than the term “bison,” which was first recorded in 1774.** The American bison is more closely related to the wisent or European bison. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/117 "2011-05-10T15:35:08Z")
So instead of _Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo_, it should be Buffalo bison Buffalo bison buffalo buffalo Buffalo bison? Not nearly as fun. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/118 "2011-05-10T16:19:27Z")
I’m guessing _tatanka_ predates them all. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/119 "2011-05-10T16:26:08Z")
_sigh_. Fine. Then: Beau Fleuve tatanka Beau Fleuve tatanka buffalo buffalo Beau Fleuve tatanka. 😃 (Please humor me and accept Beau Fleuve as true.) ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/120 "2011-05-10T16:36:20Z")
All rivers flow south. Past the pineapple trees. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226.md?page=7)