Days (ie. hours of daylight) get longer during the Summer. Actually they get shorter.
According to the scientific definition, alligators are order Crocodylia, family Alligatoridae. Crocodiles are order Crocodylia, family Crocodylidae. (Cite) I suppose you could argue that it’s okay to use the term “crocodile” colloquially to refer to anything in order Crocodylia, in which case there would be crocodiles in Florida. But if we draw a distinction between alligators and crocodiles, then there are only alligators in Florida.
I think he may be referring to American crocodiles. They are rare (about 2000 in the wild) but they do exist in Florida.
I call them all crocogators, and don’t worry about it. The people who know the difference, know the difference. The people who are confused still know approximately what I’m talking about.
You’ve never seen a pigment color wheel? I wouldn’t have known about additive and subtractive primaries if it hadn’t been for a game called Zork: Nemesis.
Probably, because we call it that because the Canadians consumed it commonly, and we’re in very close proximity to Canada. I always thought it was completely obvious that “Canadian bacon” wasn’t “bacon that they eat in Canada,” but rather “a ham-like substance that’s called peameal bacon” in Ontario.
Maybe my border proximity influenced me (e.g., I also have no objection to homo milk). Can any American, non-border Dopers confirm whether at some point in their lives, “Canadian bacon” was thought to be “the type of bacon instead of real bacon that’s eaten in Canada”?
No, Florida has about 2000 American crocodiles, Crocodylus acutus, family Crocodylidae. On the other hand, in Florida alone there are between 1 and 1.5 million American alligators, Alligator mississippiensis, family Alligatoridae.
I know it’s not on-topic, but I just wanted to say that is pretty damn funny.
There was a report back in the 1990s, I think, about a crocodile sunning itself on Miami Beach. Couldn’t find a cite with a quick google, but I found this report of an encounter in Miami from a couple in a kayak. There is also (or maybe used to be) a road sign in the upper Florida keys warning of “Crocodile Xing.” I lived in Florida for many years and never saw a crocodile. Alligators are everywhere though.
I don’t know how common this misconception is, but it was featured in a major motion picture, so it must be held by some people.
According to the movie Elephant, you can order scary looking guns and have them shipped to your doorstep and then use said guns to shoot up a school.
In reality, shipping a firearm to any place that isn’t a gun store is a serious fellony. You can indeed order guns off of the internet, but by federal law, they must be received by a gun store, and that store has to transfer the gun to you via the normal method (background check, taxes, any applicable waiting period, etc.)
Before I get nitpicked, there are some exceptions:
-Muzzleloading weapons (old timey guns that you load from the front) are not legally considered firearms so they can be shipped anywhere.
-Same goes for antique guns, wether they’re muzzleloading or not. I think the law specifies any gun made before 1898 or something like that.
-You can apply for what’s called a C&R (curio and relics) license which allows you to mail order certain military surplus or historically significant guns. But the rifle in that movie definitely didn’t fall under this definition.
Hmm, I thought I’ve seen people from other countries with that misconception, too, but perhaps it is just the US. Anyway, you’re still all wrong. 
Before Columbus made his journey, people never believed the Earth was flat. People knew it was a sphere since ancient times. It was only the size that was in dispute.
However, they may make the air where you’d be sitting cooler than if they weren’t running, if they’re circulating air and moving cooler air toward the sitting area.
The overall amount of heat, however, is indeed going to increase a bit.
I’ve heard many times that the Puritans were grumpy types who didn’t like fun.
I’m not sure it’s a “misconception” per se, but it seems commonplace now to believe that people in the past all wore drab clothing, mostly brown and black and such. If you were a Viking, add some horns; if a Scot, add a kilt. In fact, people throughout history have tried to wear colourful clothing and with few exceptions all the costuming you see in film is wrong (William Wallace wearing a kilt is about as historically accurate as him wearing a Yankees cap.)
(bolding mine)
Okay, I have to dispute that statement because of the word never. It would be more accurate, methinks, to say that educated persons in the time of Christopher Columbus new that the Earth was spherical. But that fact is far from intuitive. The fact that Aristotle and Eratosthes and their ilk devised proofs that the Earth isn’t flat would seem to indicate that the idea had some currency, as do a couple or three references in the Bible and other myths.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go get my shotgun. Someone will be along momentarily to make a remark about Terra actually being an oblate spheroid and I wish to be prepared.
I do have to wonder about uneducated people. Would a common farmer know the shape of the Earth?
That’s my point. You can find people today who are dubious of the notion of the Earth being spherical. And I’m not talking about the Flat-Earth Society, but people I know who grew up in rural areas and had little education. I find it difficult to believe that the average peasant in 1400s Europe knew that the Earth was not basically flat.
It’s worse than this: There are people who believe that Columbus discovering the New World proved the world is round.
What?
Inland farmers, anyway.
I would thing that people living in coastal regions, including sailors, had some inkling.