I hate it when people claim something completely ridiculous as fact. I’m not talking about simple mistakes or misconceptions, I mean things that they have no knowledge of but claim to know the answers. I used to just let it slide, but recently I’ve been compelled to call them on it. Heres what I mean:
I was an Army recruiter until about a year ago. A 19 year old kid wanted to join up so he could go to Germany because “there are no speed limits there”. Having been stationed in Germany for more than half of my 15 years in the military I told him that there actually are speed limits on the autobahn. I told him I’d heard that there are autobahns without limits, but I’d never seen one like that and I’ve driven across Germany several times. Nope, this kid was having none of it. He insisted that every autobahn in Germany was a “bat out of hell” zone and you could drive as fast as you like at any time. When I asked him if he’d ever been to Europe he told me he’d never been there he just heard about it. Aaargh.
Before I left recruiting (thank God) I went on leave and travelled to my home town. I was at a bar with my cousin and an old friend of ours that has literally never done anything resembling useful in his 40 or so years of life. (not to be too judgmental, but really he hasn’t even had a steady job for more than a few months at a time) He told us that the officials in the Pentagon have a secret policy to “kill all the brothers in the military”. I worked at the Pentagon for 4 years before recruiting. I’ve been in the military for 15 years. I asked him how he could make a claim like that without ever having served or even been within a mile of the Pentagon, let alone inside of it. Also, I’m a “brother” and no one has tried to kill me and I’ve been in Combat zones. Nope, he kept saying things like “watch the news!” and “Its a documented fact!”. The guy was an old friend but I couldn’t take it anymore. I just called him an imbecile and left. Maybe I should have been more civil, but things like that make me crazy mad.
Not to put a damper on your justified rant here, but I’ve also driven across Germany several times and it mystifies me how you’ve managed to avoid the roads without speed limits. They’re all over the country.
Well, as I said, I’d heard of them, but I’ve never driven on one. I concede that point, as I told the kid. But he was firmly convinced that you could say, hit Autobahn 7 and drive from Munich (or Munchen) to Stuttgart at warp factor 7. He just really believed that there were absolutely no speed limits on any highway in Germany.
I drove from Wuerzberg to Oberammergau yesterday and the limit topped at 120 KPH, but still people were going over that…but there is a posted limit. The police don’t seem to mind though. Still it was only mildly frustrating 'cuz myself and a few other soldiers were trying to explain that to him and he was adamant that he was right even though we’d all been there and he hadn’t.
If I didn’t log onto the SDMB, no telling how much misinformation I’d myself be retailing.
As for fighting it, however, “I read Cecil Adams” isn’t credentials enough to override counter-arguments such as “Oh yes it IS true that more women get beat up on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day in the year.”
No, instead I’ll add “I’ve heard that! And you know what else? More gay guys beat eachother up on Oscar night than any other night.”
And I invite all the rest of you to invent ridiculous tidbits like this, to hasten the day when the whole house of cards comes down.
shizaru Welcome!
I think you will fit in here.
Pentagon and killing all the brothers? Silly. Everybody knows the Army keeps all the brother killing remote control robots at area 51.
Go ahead prove me wrong.
Didn’t you see this sign anywhere? That indicates the end of all speed limits (recommendation: 130.) “Unlimited” is also the default unless a different limit is indicated and repeated after every slip road. It’s true that speed limits are frequent but there are always unlimited parts in between.
The following overviews are a bit cryptic but they list all the limits on a perticular autobahn. The speed limits are the black numbers, those in angle brackets are defaults for flexible signs. The A8 between Munich and Stuttgart is an ugly one but even that has some unlimited parts. The A7 that you mentioned has many limits but also longer unlimited parts.
SNOPES is my friend.
You don’t know how many times I’ve had the final word on arguments using that sight. Especially after enduring hours of “No, no, it’s true! It happened to a friend of a friend. It’s real!” Only to make them eat their words directing them to the appropriate snopes article.
You’d think they’d thank me for fighting their ignorance but instead they view me as a party-pooper.
Unfortunately, no. It gets very hot in Mexico, so if cars drive excessively fast, the tar melts and the cars get stuck. This is because the roads are paved with the remains of dead animals, baked at high heat, with a smattering of deceased indigent Mexicans thrown in where local laws allow.
I know this for a fact, as I heard it from Rush Limbaugh.
