Oh, it is a weird thing for an adult to believe. But, if kids believe it, it should be less shocking. There’s a reason why we don’t let minors make a lot of life decisions for themselves. Sixth graders are kids. We shouldn’t be too surprised when they show evidence of less-than-adult judgment.
Mr. bot believes in Valentimes day. And he uses Neosporum as well. Gah…
In college, I learned that my then-boyfriend’s twin thought that bell peppers grew underground, like potatoes. Not the most shocking misconception in the world, except that *he was working in the garden section *of a big-box store at the time.
It’s interesting I should read this now; just earlier today I was reading a book that commented on cuisine in England in the days of Elizabeth I, which commented that the cuisine of the day was amazingly, sickeningly sweet by modern standards; “Everything was glazed” pretty much sums it up. Meat, vegetables, bread, whatever, covered in sugar, as much sugar as you could afford.
I’ve commented on this here before, but I gave a cat to my brother and his family. He returned the cat because my SIL said the cat was going to steal her baby’s breath and kill him.
This was in 2011.
I have no words.
To be fair, “what, in general, are the characteristics of a plausible etymology” is something that you either get, or you don’t get.
For whatever reason, this is just one of those things that humans are really bad at unless and until they’ve had a little training (can be self-taught, that’s fine) in real etymological processes.
Aha - Colophon’s Third Typographic Theorem in action. (This states that, for any given web page, the intellectual content is inversely proportional to the sum of different type faces, styles, colours and point sizes displayed.)
I = 1 / (f + s + c + p)
Exactly. As a Type 1 diabetic I get slightly offended when someone implies that it was my fault due to what my diet was twenty years ago.
And believe me it has happened several times.
Someone always beats me.
I came here to say that I’m shocked that people who should know better (ie those who work there) really seem to believe that there are more presentations to the Emergency Department when the moon is full.
Math? We don’t need no stinkin’ math! My rule is that if the web page makes my eyes hurt, there be crazy.
I have a friend who won’t have a computer in the house because “the government has a camera in there and watches you through it.” Her husband goes to his father’s house to go online. I almost asked her about the TV but decided it was probably best just to let the subject die.
I understand that nothing is so crazy that somebody won’t believe it. What astounds me is how many people will believe things even after they are thoroughly and completely debunked. Astrology is a perfect example. When I bought a local newspaper some time ago, I discontinued the horoscopes. I got a regular stream of suggestions from people about good horoscope services I could sign up for. I told most of them that I was perfectly capable of making up my own loony generalities and didn’t need to pay someone else to do it for me.
I love it! Now I must know your first and second typographic theorems.
I had a co-worker that once talked about how girls nowadays are growing bigger breasts because of the chicken they eat. The reason being that chickens are now being given more hormones to produce larger chicken breasts. I didn’t bother explaining that chicken breast is not quite homologous to human breasts…
Again, this might be a story skirting the religious exception made in the OP, but it was so…odd.
I was discussing the “goose problem” with a cow-orker. Local authorities have begun “painting” goose eggs in such a way that the embryo is killed and never develops, to control the goose population.
This horrified her. She was completely aghast, and could hardly articulate her reasoning. I thought she was going to cry. At first I thought she might be an animal lover like myself. I’m not particularly happy about egg-painting, but population control in that way involves less suffering than, say, machine-gunning the geese on golf courses.
But I was wrong in my assumption about her reasoning. She pleaded, “Why can’t we just kill adult geese? And then maybe use the meat for the homeless?” (I realize that’s a popular approach even though I personally don’t advocate slaughter. I point it out here because her suggestion disabused me of the thought that her horror originated from protective feelings about the geese themselves.)
It was only later, in other conversations, that I discovered her strong anti-abortion position, and realized that what had viscerally horrified her about egg-painting was the idea that a fetus was being killed by the government. She didn’t care about the welfare geese; she didn’t care about golf course management or wildlife issues. But the idea of egg-painting was close enough to the horror of abortion that she became dramatically emotional.
Knowing that she drew that parallel, I find her suggestion to kill adults instead of eggs takes on a somewhat sinister cast.
The most recent shock for me was meeting someone, a person of the Bible thumping fundamentalist ilk, who was convinced that Pres. Obama was born in Saudi Arabia. No, she was not kidding. She also believe him to be a muslim, of course. The Kenya theory birthers are crazy enough, but at least they can cite some far right websites and radio personalities and the home of Obama’s father for their beliefs. I have never encountered anyone else allege that the POTUS was born in Saudi Arabia though.
I’ve met some people with strange conspiracy theories beyond the run of the mill Moon hoax, Bilderberg, Illuminati, crop circles, UFOs, chem trails, Area 51, Bohemian Grove, 9/11, etc. They were into that stuff too, but some of the wilder CTs I heard included Hitler sent flying saucers into space, JFK was assassinated…by the limo driver, various world leaders are extra terrestrial aliens, and all humans born since 1983 have microchips installed in them for mind control or something like that. Uh, okay if you say so… :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Yeah, probably best not to mention the TV. 
Also see: The Twonky.
Yep! I’ve heard it, just like you have, from actual emergency room staff.
I was going to cite the case of the boys in the Dominican Republic who grew breasts, (WARNING: pictures may be a bit too explicit for some readers) but got smart and checked it out first, and it seems to be an internal hormonal disorder, not an issue of hormones from the food or environment.
The myth is a strong one; I often hear people say that the trend toward larger breasts among Japanese women in the post-war era is due, not merely to better nutrition, but specifically to growth hormones injected into food livestock.
Death qualified?
Wellllll…there is a discussion that earlier onset of puberty in girls is due to hormones in food, exposure to chemicals, etc. Wikip-
Not that they were ever marketed, but it seems like it would actually be possible to create such:
At one time I had the phone number that was formerly used by The Albuquerque Metaphysical Institute. I got a lot of calls from women asking for “readings”. No men.