So who’s the bewigged individual that keeps shouting “Ordah! Ordah!” on CSPAN?
Ah, but a Census Area is not a city.
I’d believe it. Home turf advantage for the burglar.
And my bible (Catholic edition) identifies the last book as The Revelation to John.
“Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.”
What?
“You may be surprised to learn that college football outdraws pro football by more than 2-to-1.”
You…you mean there are actually enough different places where people watch college football that they might actually outnumber the 16 places where NFL games are being played!!!
::faints::
In the King James Version (or at least the Holman Edition thereof), the book is titled The Revelation of St. John the Divine.
“The name Brazil is derived from the Portuguese and Spanish word brasil, the name of an East Indian tree with reddish-brown wood from which a red dye was extracted. The Portuguese found a New World tree related to the Old World brasil tree when they explored what is now called Brazil, and as a result they named the New World country after the Old World tree.”
Okay. But does that tree bear the Brazil nut? If not, they were wrong. My dictionary states a Brazil nut as being a South American plant, the Bertholletia excelsa. Anyone here that can decipher for certain?
In other words, a hog is a term for a big pig?
No, actually, they aren’t, since there’s no such thing as “the peach family”. Both almonds and peaches (along with apricots, cherries, nectarines and plums) belong to the genus Prunus, which is itself a member of Family Rosaceae - the Rose family.
And if you go down that page one more item you see the reference to the actual city of Nome, which is only 13.79 sq. mi.
Nome is also the name for a census area, as Diceman points out, which seems to be the equivalent of a county in Alaska.
Ah, yes, I stand corrected. I knew there were a some huge cities in Alaska, and my extiement over finding one so fantastically large made me overlook that fact. Nonetheless, Juneau is still more than three times as large as Jacksonville at ~2,800 square miles.
Better. 
The City and the Borough of Juneau were made co-terminous in 1970, just as the city of Jacksonville had been made (almost) co-terminous with the boundaries of Duval County in Florida two years earlier.
All this means is that the traditional meaning of “city” is rapidly disappearing. See also Indianapolis, made co-terminous with Marion County, also in 1970.
They’d probably try to weasel on taxonomy (e.g., “…but the Chinese don’t call it a tarantula …”). However, this species (the Chinese earth tiger, Selenocosmia huwena) might have caused at least one human fatality.
Relevant snippet from the linked site:
As usual, I’m blown away by the collective intelligence and knowledge of the Dopers.
One thing - I didn’t realize there are pages and pages of these “facts” - I only saw the first page! Sorry…but plenty of good fighting against ignorance going on here.
Just from what I can call off the top of my head:
“Oxtail soup isn’t made from ox. It’s made from beef tails.”
–Cattle are oxen.
“Cleopatra was not an Egyptian queen. Actually, there were seven women who reigned under that name—the seventh is the one we are most familiar with. None of the women were Egyptians, they were Macedonians.”
–Even granting for the sake of argument that she wasn’t Egyptian, she was Queen of Egypt, which sounds close enough to “Egyptian Queen” for me.
“Yams and sweet potatoes are actually unrelated vegetables.”
–This one is true.
“George Washington didn’t have a middle name.”
–Later they say this about Abe Lincoln, too. Probably true, but completely unremarkable.
“Cucumbers aren’t vegetables—they’re fruits.”
–Later they say the same thing about eggplants. Lots of vegetables are fruits, but that doesn’t mean they’re not vegetables as well.
“Ladybirds aren’t birds—they’re beetles.”
–Duh.
“Compasses do not point to the North Pole. They point to magnetic north, far from the North Pole.”
–True, but they missed the chance to point out that the magnetic pole up in Canada is the Earth’s south magnetic pole.
“A “light year” is a measurement of distance, not time.”
–True, but I’ve never heard anyone who thought otherwise. And to nitpick, distance and time units can be used interchangeably, in which case a lightyear is just a year.
“It’s a myth that lightning won’t strike twice in the same place. In fact, it is more likely than not to do so.”
–True.
“The classic children’s tale Little Black Sambo takes place in India. Sambo is Hindu.”
–I don’t know about his religion, but he was, in fact, Indian. Not too many tigers in Africa.
“Despite what you might suspect, the U.S. has more bagpipe bands than Scotland.”
–Hardly surprising, considering the relative populations. But most of the bagpipe bands in the U. S. are probably Irish.
“Not all snakes lay eggs. Garter snakes and rattlesnakes have live birth (they’re ovoviviparous). The fertile eggs develop within the maternal body.”
–I know that some snakes do so, but I don’t know whether rattlers and garters are amongst them.
“You might be surprised to learn that a Catholic priest can be married—as long as the marriage takes place before ordination.”
–True, but very rare, and only in special circumstances. At least, if they mean Roman Catholic.
“Harpo Marx was fully capable of speaking.”
–Duh.
“Brides do not walk down the aisle of a church during a wedding. The center section, or passage, of a church is correctly called a “nave.””
–Huh?
“No sailor would use the term “knots per hour.” Knots are a measurement of speed—one nautical mile per hour.”
–True.
“Saturn isn’t the only planet in our solar system with a ring. In fact, the only planet without a ring is Earth.”
–Not only do Mercury, Venus, Mars, and probably Pluto not have rings, but Earth does. The geosynchronous satellites make a perfectly cromulent (although artificial) ring around the planet.
“You might not think so, but lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.”
–Per fruit, or per pound? Lemons are a lot bigger than strawberries.
“While it goes against intuition, there’s no sand in sandpaper.”
–There is in all of the sandpaper I’ve ever seen. Granted, there are also things like emory paper and carbide paper, which serve the same purpose and don’t contain sand.
“Quaaludes weren’t originally always used as a mood leveler. They were originally developed to fight malaria.”
–I’d never heard of them being used for anything but malaria. Comes from reading too many old novels, I suppose.
“Eggplant is a fruit, not a vegetable.”
–See cucumbers
“Nero didn’t fiddle while Rome burned. The fiddle hadn’t been invented yet.”
–True, but he may have played a lyre.
“Despite what many wrongly believe, the Statue of Liberty isn’t on Ellis Island. It’s on Liberty Island.”
–True.
“The idea that archaeologists dig up dinosaurs is a misconception. Archaeology only deals with Man and covers the last 3-4 million years. Paleontology deals with all fossils and covers the last 3.5 billion years.”
–I’m not sure I’d call this a misconception, since I’ve never seen any confusion on this count.
“You may be surprised to learn that college football outdraws pro football by more than 2-to-1.”
–Then again, I might not be surprised at all. There are an awful lot of colleges.
“Abraham Lincoln didn’t have a middle name.”
–See George Washington, above.
“Despite its hump, a camel has a straight spine.”
–Anyone ever think otherwise?
“Socrates never wrote down a single word of his teachings.”
–He probably did; it’s just that none of it has survived to modern times.
“Despite what many people think, not all Swiss cheese has holes in it.”
–Those “many people” have apparently never been inside a supermarket.
“Lions are not the king of the jungle. They don’t inhabit jungles. They dwell in the plains.”
–True.
“Not everyone in Rome wore togas. Only freeborn men were entitled to wear them.”
–Everyone was entitled to, but many folks didn’t. A woman wearing a toga was probably a prostitute.
“It is a fallacy that diamonds are indestructible. They crush easily and also burn.”
–They crush, sure, but I’d doubt “easily”. Likewise burning.
“Many people think the great lakes are in the United States. However, Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes that’s entirely in the U.S.”
–And all of them are at least partly in the U. S.
“Despite what most people think, hornets and wasps don’t die after they sting. (Honeybees do, but hornets and wasps can sting numerous times without dying.)”
–I don’t think that “most people” think that.
“Horseshoe crabs aren’t crabs. Their closest existing relatives are the scorpion and spider.”
–True.
“Head cheese isn’t cheese. It’s chopped and boiled meat–portions of the head and feet and other parts of a pig-- mixed with gelatin and pressed into the shape of a cheese.”
–True.
“Koala bears aren’t bears. They’re marsupials.”
–True but duh.
“The prairie dog isn’t a dog. It’s a rodent.”
–Duh.
““Lead” pencils have no lead in them—only graphite.”
–True.
“Dry cleaning is not dry cleaning. A liquid is used, it just isn’t water.”
–True.
“Despite what most assume, a perfectly clean fire produces almost no smoke. Smoke means that a fire is not burning properly and that bits of unburned material are escaping.”
–True, but again with the “what most people assume”. Who assumes that?
“Urine doesn’t smell—at least not when it leaves the body. The bad smell comes from bacteria that grows when urine sits stagnant.”
–I’ve smelled it.
“Contrary to intuition, statistics prove conclusively that the poor are burglarized far more often than the rich.”
–Someone’s got damn lousy intuition.
“Electric eels aren’t eels—they’re a fish.”
–Eels are fish.
“The word “Sunday” doesn’t appear in the Bible.”
–Not surprising, since it’s not written in English.
“The Capitol building of the U.S. wasn’t designed by an architect. Congress established a contest for someone to design the Capitol in 1793. The winner was Dr. William Thornton, who had no training as an architect.”
–An architect is a guy who designs buildings. This guy designed a building. How is he not an architect?
“Kleenex tissues weren’t always called that. When they were first marketed in 1924, they were called “Celluwipes.””
–Rather at odds with the claim that they date to WWI.
“Lenin wasn’t Lenin’s real name. It was one of 151 pseudonyms Vladimir Illych Ulyanov used during his lifetime.”
–I don’t know how many pseudonyms he had, but Lenin was one.
“It might surprise you to find out men are far more likely to be moved to tears by music than women.”
–Cite, please?
“Most precious gems are actually colorless. Their color comes from impurities in the stone that act as pigmenting agents.”
–Which means that they’re not colorless.
“Those who do public speaking don’t stand behind a podium. They stand behind a lectern. A podium is the platform or stage on which a speaker stands.”
–True.
“Buttermilk doesn’t contain butter.”
–Of course not! It’s what’s left over after you make butter from the rest of it!
“It’s widely believed that Orville Wright became the first person to be killed in a plane crash. Actually, on September 17, 1908, U.S. Army Signal Corps lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge became the first when he and Orville fell from the sky in Wright’s airplane at Fort Meyer, Virginia.”
–Widely believed by whom?
“Shooting stars aren’t stars, of course. They’re meteors.”
–Duh.
“Kilts aren’t a Scottish invention, no matter what you might think. They originally came from France.”
–Haven’t they been around since approximately the dawn of humanity?
“The Pennsylvania Dutch aren’t Dutch—they’re German.”
–True.
“The silkworm isn’t a worm—it’s a caterpillar.”
–True.
“Noon isn’t supposed to be 12 o’clock. Noon comes from the Latin word nona, which means the ninth hour after sunrise (about 3 p.m.).”
–Etymolygy versus meaning. Nonae used to be about 3 PM, but noon now means 12:00.
“Most people incorrectly believe bees are solely responsible for fertilizing flowers, but actually flies (60,000 species of them) fertilize 80% of all flowers.”
–Most people are also aware of butterflies and hummingbirds, at least.
“The sound you hear when you hold a seashell to your ear isn’t coming from the shell. The sound is that of the blood coursing through your ear.”
–True.
“A horned toad isn’t a toad. It’s a lizard.”
–True.
“Two-by-fours don’t measure two inches by four inches. Rather, they’re 1 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches.”
–True.
“Though people think otherwise, there is no law requiring that a justice on the Supreme Court be a lawyer.”
–Huh? Who thinks that?
“Mules (the result of breeding a male donkey with a female horse) can’t reproduce. Male mules are born sterile, as are female mules (except in rare cases).”
–Raise your hand if you didn’t know that one.
“The evening star isn’t a star. That “star” that appears over the western horizon shortly after sunset is actually either Venus or Mercury reflecting the sun’s light.”
–True.
“The United States was not founded as a democracy, but rather, as a republic.”
–A republic is a democracy.
“It’s not illegal to remove the tag from a mattress. The tag, “Remove under penalty of law,” only applies to retailers, not consumers.”
–True.
“The action in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, takes place not in midsummer, but in the spring.”
–Both. “Midsummer” generally means summer solstice, and the day and night before midsumer would therefore be generally reckoned to be spring.
“When in England, you’re likely to see establishments with names like “Ye Olde Tea Shoppe.” Most folks pronounce “ye” as “yee,” however, it should actually be pronounced like “the.” The first letter is not a “y” but a loose rendition of the Old English character “thorn.” The thorn is no longer in use, but was represented by a character similar to “y.””
–Didn’t we already see this back on page 2 or so?
“Francis Scott Key, the man who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner,” wasn’t a songwriter—he was a lawyer. (And he didn’t write the music, just the lyrics—the music was actually an old drinking song.)”
–He wrote a song, didn’t he?
“Guerilla warfare has nothing to do with the animals—gorillas. “Guerilla” comes from the Spanish, and means “little war.””
–Duh.
“Neither Florida nor Texas is the most southern state in the U.S. Hawaii is the southernmost U.S. state.”
–This one, at least, is unambiguous.
“Ocean water isn’t blue. Or green. Or any other color, for that matter. It’s clear. Oceans look blue or green because of the reflections from the sky above or the vegetation below.”
–It is, in fact, very slightly blue, due to scattering of light.
“Though beavers live near rivers and lakes, they don’t eat fish.”
–Of course not, they’re rodents.
“The widely held idea that lions and tigers live in Africa is untrue. Only lions live in Africa—tigers don’t. Their ranges do not overlap.”
–True now, but their ranges used to overlap.
“Despite what you might think, the sacrificial virgins in ancient cultures weren’t forced to kill themselves. They were volunteers. (In fact, it was considered an honor to serve in that capacity.)”
–Cite, please?
“Despite what you might see in movies and on TV, dinosaurs and humans didn’t co-exist. The death of the last dinosaur and the appearance of the first “human” (genus homo) were separated by about 62 million years.”
–Duh.
“Diamonds are not the most valuable gems. Rubies are.”
–Actually, I’m pretty sure that it’s star sapphires. But rubies are worth more than diamonds.
“Nirvana is not a place. It’s a state (of bliss).”
–Likewise for Heaven.
“Do you think coupons save money? Studies have shown that frequent coupon users have higher grocery bills than those who shop without them—as much as 84% higher. Coupon shoppers tend to overlook equally good alternative brands that cost less than the name item, with or without the discount.”
–Maybe coupon-cliipers spend more, but what’s the cause and what’s the effect?
“Turkey was not on the menu at the first Thanksgiving.”
–I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be, since they had all sorts of other wild game. Probably wasn’t the main dish, though.
“Manhattan Island was not, as is widely believed, bought for $24. Peter Minuit gave the Manhattoe tribe a package of trinkets and cloth. (The items were valued at 60 guilders, roughly equivalent to $24.)”
–In other words, it was bought for $24.
“Let’s clear this up once and for all—cold weather doesn’t cause colds. They’re caused by germs.”
–Duh.
“It is a fallacy that birds don’t eat much, even though we describe someone who is a light eater as “eating like a bird.” Because of their high metabolisms, birds eat a lot more in proportion to their body size than humans—specifically, one quarter to a half of their body weight each day.”
–True.
“The toga of ancient Rome was won only by freeborn men, not all men.”
–Already covered this one.
“Antarctica is actually a desert.”
–True. It gets very little precipitation.
“It’s widely held that insurance policies won’t pay if the cause of death is suicide. Untrue. While a common myth, perpetuated by TV murder mysteries, just about all insurance policies have a clause covering suicides—they state a policy must be held at least two years before the suicide for benefits to be paid. (Otherwise, it’s fraud.)”
–Another repeat.
“Studies show most people in America who own running shoes don’t run.”
–I’ve never heard of any person who doesn’t run, at least occasionally.
“What ethnicity do you think Aladdin was? It’s unlikely your guess is correct. The original story from Tales of 1,001 Arabian Nights begins, “Aladdin was a little Chinese boy.””
–True, except that the original story wasn’t from 1001 Arabian Nights. It was added later.
“Wet sand actually weighs less than dry sand.”
–Depends on how you wet it.
“There is no mention in the Bible’s story of the Nativity that there were three wise men. Also, the wise men—however many there may have been—mentioned in the story didn’t find Jesus in a manger. Matthew clearly states “they were come unto the house [inn].” It was the shepherds who are said to have found Jesus in a manger.”
–True.
“There’s no proof the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620 as the story goes. That story wasn’t told until 1741, told by a Pilgrim descendent born 26 years after the supposed event.”
–So much for them landing at Plymouth Rock because they ran out of beer.
“Most people think that when you snap your fingers, it’s the thumb and finger separating that makes the noise. Actually, it’s the finger hitting against the heel of the thumb.”
–True, but I thought everyone knew that.
“Four-leaf clovers may still be seen as lucky, but they are no longer considered “rare.””
–By whom? They sure seem pretty rare to me.
“There wasn’t just one television Lassie, and none of the Lassies was female. The part was played by a series of male dogs.”
–I don’t know how many there were, but they were obviously male. Female collies don’t have a mane like the males do.
(continued next post)
(continued from previous post)
“Sex, or lack thereof, has no relationship to outbreaks of acne.”
–So?
“The Model T, known as the “tin Lizzie,” wasn’t made of tin, it was made of steel.”
–Duh.
“It seems to defy logic, but plants actually get most of their nutrients from the air, not the soil.”
–True.
“It is a misconception that women change their minds more than men—research has shown that the opposite is true.”
–Cite, please?
“Killer whales are not whales. They are dolphins.”
–Dolphins are whales.
“Might be difficult to believe, but Los Angeles isn’t further west than Reno, Nevada–the opposite is true.”
–True.
“Flying fish don’t fly. They glide.”
–True.
“Elephants do not fear mice. Nor do not drink through their trunk. They use their trunk like a straw, drawing up water into it, which they can then spray into their mouths.”
–How the heck is that like a straw?
“Tomatoes aren’t vegetables. A tomato is a large berry, in other words, a fruit.”
–I don’t know about the berry thing (mentioned earlier), but see cucumbers and eggplants. Fruits can be vegetables.
“In a real jungle, you can’t swing from a vine. Vines are attached to the ground.”
–I’ve swung from vines in forests before. They may start off attached to the ground, but they can become detached.
“Crystal goblets are not crystal but glass. Ornaments were carved from crystal at one time, and making a glass that resembled crystal prompted the name to be picked up.”
–The first part is true, at least.
“It’s not the mosquito’s bite that causes you to itch, but rather the bug’s saliva, which it uses to numb the point of insertion so you don’t feel the bite.”
–You feel the bite because of something to prevent you feeling the bite? Huh? Actually, the saliva is an anticoagulant.
“St. Bernards, famous for their role as alpine rescue dogs, do not actually wear casks of brandy around their necks.”
–No reason they can’t.
“Raindrops aren’t actually teardrop shaped as is popularly believed. They are rounded at the top and flat on the bottom.”
–True.
“Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.”
–Yet another repeat.
“Turkeys didn’t originate in Turkey. They’re American. When Europeans came to America, they mistook our native bird for one known in Europe since ancient times.”
–True.
“It’s not commonly known, but it is possible to drown and not die. Technically the term “drowning” refers to the process of taking water into the lungs, not to death caused by that process.”
–True.
“Leprosy isn’t only an affliction of humans. Armadillos can get it, too.”
–True.
“It’s not true that Gilligan (of Gilligan’s Island) only had one name. His first name was Willy. Also, the Skipper’s name wasn’t Skipper, of course. The Skipper’s real name was Jonas Grumby. The Professor’s real name was Roy Hinkley. Mary Ann’s last name was Summers.”
–Gilligan’s name is disputed, but the others are accurrate, being mentioned in the first episode.
“Another misconception we get from the movies–the average meteoroid isn’t some massive object rocketing through space. Actually, the average meteoroid is no larger than a grain of sand.”
–Almost. The average meteoroid is very large, but the median is very small.
“Money isn’t made out of paper, it’s made out of cotton.”
–It’s paper made out of cotton.
“Contrary to what people think, only female mosquitoes bite.”
–What people think that?
“In truth, there’s no mention of Adam and Eve eating an apple in the Bible.”
–True, it’s just a fruit.
“Sharks have a bad reputation, but in fact, you are more likely to get attacked by a cow than a shark.”
–Well, I sure as heck haven’t seen many sharks around here.
“A pig and a hog are not the same thing–not in the U.S., anyway. In England there is no difference between a pig and a hog, but in the U.S. if a pig is over 180 pounds, it is considered a hog.”
–So a hog is a pig.
“Thanksgiving is not just an American holiday. Canada declared their Thanksgiving holiday in 1879. Now it’s observed on the second Monday in October.”
–The holiday Americans call Thanksgiving is purely American.
“Buttermilk does not contain a higher fat content than regular milk.”
–Of course not, since it’s fat-free. See above.
“Boats and ships aren’t the same things. Ships are large, navigate on oceans (they include tankers, liners and aircraft carriers). Boats are smaller, cruise rivers and lakes and, most importantly, can be carried on a ship. (Most yachts, motorboats, ferries and tugs are boats.)”
–True, but doesn’t everyone know that?
“Humphrey Bogart never said “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca.”
–True.
“The boiling point of water is not a specific, absolute temperature. Most assume water boils at 212°F, but this is only true at sea level at a mean atmospheric pressure.”
–Or any other place that you have that pressure.
““Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam,” is technically incorrect. Buffalo roam in Asia and Africa. America is the home of the bison (often mistakenly referred to as buffalo).”
–True.
““Original sin” has nothing to do with sex. It refers, rather, to disobedience (Adam and Eve’s–and the resulting expulsion from Eden).”
–True.
“You can’t see steam. Steam is invisible. Only when it cools enough so minute droplets of water condense does it become visible.”
–True.
“Stonehenge wasn’t erected by Druids. Stonehenge was a Bronze Age creation, going back to the second millenium B.C. The Druids in Britain were of the Iron Age (more than a thousand years later).”
–True.
“Bamboo is not a tree, it is a grass. Some types of bamboo can grow a foot a day, making it the fastest growing plant in the world.”
–True. Each segment is one day’s growth.
“It is a common misconception that the trademark on a wooden baseball bat should be on the opposite side of the bat from where the baseball is hit. The position of the trademark should be pointing straight up when the ball is hit (the strongest part of the bat is “against the grain”).”
–A very uncommon misconception, maybe. I’ve never heard anything but label up.
“Schoolroom chalk contains no chalk. (It’s made of a manufactured substance that contains no naturally occurring chalk.)”
–So it’s manufactured. Big deal, it’s still chalk.
“Peacocks don’t lay eggs–peahens do. Don’t you just want to kick yourself sometimes?”
–Big Deal.
“There aren’t 50 states in the U.S. There are 46 states. There are four commonwealths, if you want to be picky.”
–False.
“The Immaculate Conception doesn’t refer to Christ’s having been born of a virgin. The Immaculate Conception is the dogma that holds that Mary was free from original sin from the moment of her conception. (This dogma did not become official until 1854, under Pope Pius IX.)”
–True.
“Many believe, wrongly, that West Virginia is farther west than Virginia. Part of Virginia extends fifty miles farther west than West Virginia’s westernmost parts. Say that five times fast.”
–True.
“The famous phrase is not “Money is the root of all evil.” It’s “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” (Found in 1 Tim, 6:10.)”
–True.
“There is no such coin as a “penny” in U.S. currency. It is a “cent.””
–True. Pennies are British.
“It is untrue that different drinks, which contain identical amounts of absolute alcohol, will produce different kinds of intoxication. Thus, a martini has no special qualities of inebriation that a whiskey sour of the same potency does not have. The degree of inebriation is the result of how much absolute alcohol is taken into the blood stream and how fast.”
–True.
“Lizzie Borden was acquitted of allegedly having killed her parents.”
–True.
“Libel and slander are often confused—legally, libel is printed and slander is spoken.”
–True.
“There are no bones in an elephant’s trunk, just 40,000 muscles.”
–True, but who thought there were?
“No clergyman attended the U.S. Constitutional Convention, and the Constitution itself contains no religious references, not even a mention of God.”
–I’d call the First Ammendment a religious reference.
“Petrified wood does not turn to stone. The minerals in water that seeps into the wood, over a long period of time, replaces the wood cells—this acts as a kind of mold…but no organic material “turns to stone.””
–The organic material is replaced, with the result that the wood turns to stone. What’s so hard about that?
“There is no such place as Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. It’s Pittsburgh—the only one in the country.”
–The h has been off and on the name through it’s history.
“Porcupines cannot shoot their quills.”
–True.
“B.C. stands for “before Christ,” but A.D. doesn’t stand for “after death.” It’s an abbreviation for anno Domini, meaning “in the year of the Lord.””
–True.
““Alumni” doesn’t mean the male and female former students of a college or university. Alumnus refers to a male. Alumni is plural of alumnus, and means more than one male former student. Alumna is a former female student, and alumnae is the plural.”
–True, but you can just use “alumns” for either.
“Atlas did not hold the world on his shoulders. Atlas was condemned by Zeus to support the heavens on his shoulders.”
–True.
"“Alas! poor Yorick. I knew him well” is not to be found in “Hamlet.” The line is “Alas! poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio.”
–True.
“Bats do not navigate by radar. It’s sonar—which involves sound waves as opposed to radar which has to do with electronic waves.”
–True
“Bees don’t collect honey. They collect nectar, which is changed into honey within the bee’s body.”
–Duh.
“Britain and England do not refer to the same place. England is one of the three countries that share the island of Great Britain. Great Britain (or just Britain) is the largest of the British Isles (and includes England, Scotland and Wales). The British Isles include Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.”
–True.
“Lucifer, used as a name for the Devil, is not found in the Bible. There is only one reference to Lucifer in the Bible (Isa. 14:12), and it doesn’t refer to Satan, but to the King of Babylon.”
–True.
“Jesus Christ was not his name. “Christ” is a title, which is derived from a Hebrew word meaning “the anointed one.” To be correct, he should be referred to as “Jesus the Christ.””
–True.
““Cyclone” is not another word for hurricane (or tornado). In fact, it isn’t even a wind. It is a pattern of winds circulating around a low-pressure area, clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the northern.”
–True.
““Doomsday” doesn’t refer to the day we’re all doomed. The phrase comes from the Old English noun “dom,” which meant “judgment,” so doomsday is actually judgment day.”
–In other words, the day we’re all doomed.
“Prohibition, or the Eighteenth Amendment, doesn’t prohibited the consumption of alcohol. In fact, it outlawed its manufacture, sale or transportation…not its consumption.”
–True. You could still drink homebrew or old stocks laid up beforehand.
“Electric fans do not cool the air. That effect is created by the increased evaporation of moisture from the skin resulting from greater air circulation.”
–Duh.
“Goats don’t eat tin cans.”
–Some do.
“Canada isn’t wholly north of the United States. Actually, 27 of our states lie to some degree north of our northern neighbor’s southernmost part, Middle Island which lies west of Toledo in Lake Erie.”
–So?
“The new millennium began on January 1, 2001, not January 1, 2000.”
–True.
““Wherefore,” as in “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” means “why,” not “where.””
–True.
There are a bunch of others which have been covered by Snopes or Straight Dope articles, but I didn’t feel like looking all of them up. What strikes me is how many of these are completely inane. I know, I’ve got another one!
“Contrary to popular belief, B is not the first letter of the alphabet. A is.”
:rolleyes:
Cite for the segment being one day’s growth?
From the website of the U.S. Mint:
Same can be said of anything - if you save a life, does it make you a doctor? After all, doctors save lives.
Many important building, especially in the 17-19th century, were designed by master-builders or engineers, not architects. Petty semantics, but in this case probably true.
Queens University in Belfast was designed by Charles Lanyon, a road engineer (who also designed the Antrim Coast Road). Great building, but doesn’t mean he was an architect when he did it.
re: Columbus knew the earth is round, the Greeks thought it was flat.
Actually, the ancient Greeks realized the earth was round too, at least some of them did. Ptolemy knew the earth was round, but his calculation of size was waaaay too small. Unfortunately his miscalculation stuck for centuries. That’s part of the reason that Columbus thought the New World was Asia.