# Plot holes in reality **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 17, 2014, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533 "2014-02-17T08:22:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/181 "2014-11-24T06:02:58Z")
That two men who were instrumental in the American colonies declaring their independence from Great Britain, and who later became the leaders of the new nation that sprang from the revolution, would both die on the same day, the day that is observed as the birth of the United States of America. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826, 50 years to the day that the Declaration of Independence was ratified on July 4, 1776. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/182 "2014-11-24T07:21:54Z")
> [@EPoch](#): > > That one of the most bloodthirsty and violent commanders in Africa is nicknamed [General Butt Naked](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Butt_Naked) and commands the Butt Naked Brigade, that went to battles naked except guns and shoes. With command of his army came horrible atrocities and 20,000 war crimes. > > As if someone with those tactics and that name would commit that _many_ crimes, is this some kind of horrible comedy were you finish but still waiting for punchline? Here’s the punchline: _Hello! My name is Elder Butt-Fucking Naked. And did you know that the clitoris is a holy sacred thing?_ ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/183 "2014-11-24T18:14:31Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > That two men who were instrumental in the American colonies declaring their independence from Great Britain, and who later became the leaders of the new nation that sprang from the revolution, would both die on the same day, the day that is observed as the birth of the United States of America. > > John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826, 50 years to the day that the Declaration of Independence was ratified on July 4, 1776. That’s what I came in to post. I mean, really, having two of your main characters - both former presidents - die _on the same Fourth of July_? And giving Adams the last words “Jefferson still survives”? Lazy writing and cheap sentimental glurge. No thinking reader would accept that. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/184 "2014-11-24T19:42:46Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > That’s what I came in to post. I mean, really, having two of your main characters - both former presidents - die _on the same Fourth of July_? And giving Adams the last words “Jefferson still survives”? Lazy writing and cheap sentimental glurge. No thinking reader would accept that. Yeah, just like Alexander Kerensky and Lenin being born in the same small provincial town and attending the same school. I mean its pretty obvious the writer just couldn’t be bothered researching two different backgrounds for the main characters. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/185 "2014-11-24T22:09:09Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > Yeah, just like Alexander Kerensky and Lenin being born in the same small provincial town and attending the same school. I mean its pretty obvious the writer just couldn’t be bothered researching two different backgrounds for the main characters. That’s what I’m talking about: lazy writing. At least make an effort! ---
**Author:** ![BaldDudePeekskill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@BaldDudePeekskill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaldDudePeekskill)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/186 "2014-11-24T23:09:22Z")
That we have not been able to derive anything more than an infinitesimal amount of energy from the Sun is really mind blowing and almost reeks of conspiracy theory to me…it’s just happy coincidence that oil (which has made some people very very rich) has not been replaced on a large scale by a cleaner, safer form of energy ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/187 "2014-11-25T02:00:28Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > That’s what I’m talking about: lazy writing. At least make an effort! Along the same lines: You’ve got the bloodiest war in American history, a civil war that lasted over four years, on battlefields that stretched from Virginia to New Mexico (not to mention [Vermont](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Albans_Raid)), and resulted in hundreds of thousands of dead: Let’s have the first major battle of the war be fought in [some random guy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmer_McLean)’s front yard, then let’s have this same guy move over a hundred miles down the road to some nothing little hamlet…where at the end of the war the two opposing generals meet in this same guy’s front parlor to sign the surrender that effectively ends the war. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/188 "2014-11-25T09:26:22Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > That’s what I came in to post. I mean, really, having two of your main characters - both former presidents - die _on the same Fourth of July_? And giving Adams the last words “Jefferson still survives”? Lazy writing and cheap sentimental glurge. No thinking reader would accept that. Real lazy writing. Jefferson was already dead for over five hours when Adams uttered his last words. Word of Jefferson’s death didn’t reach Massachusetts until after Adams had also died. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/189 "2014-11-25T11:35:11Z")
The richest writer in the world, and one of the richest people in the UK, is a woman who started out as a single Mum on benefits, and all she wrote is a few kids’ books? Yeah, right. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/190 "2014-11-25T13:55:59Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Historical polymaths wouldn’t make very good fictional characters because they seem too unbelievable. Leonardo Da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin are some obvious examples. I actually find Leonardo Da Vinci a little bit more believable than Ben Franklin for some reason. Leonardo did lots of incredible things but he was an artistic and creative genius and most of his work had some common threads. > > Ben Franklin was all over the place in ways that just aren’t natural. He did everything from serving as a key figure in the founding of the U.S. while taking on like little sidelines in electrical science and inventions (bifocals, the public library, a new type of stove, an odometer for carriages among many other things). He still found the time for other little diversions like publishing Poor Richard’s Almanac, serving as ambassador to France and being an all-around ladies man. That is just a sample of everything he did. We had a thread here once that asked if there is any good evidence for time travelers. Ben Franklin was a top choice and I admit that the preponderance of evidence does make it look very suspicious. He isn’t a realistic sounding character at all. Huh. I assumed he was a fraud. Hedy Lamarr was real, though. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/191 "2014-11-26T03:55:10Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Huh. I assumed he was a fraud. > > Hedy Lamarr was real, though. That’s _Hedley_! ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/192 "2014-11-26T09:58:57Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > \<…\> Oh and Chernobyl meaning Wormwood. > > I don’t really think there’s anything to any of the above but its certainly odd. Actually, it doesn’t really mean that. In Ukrainian, wormwood is called “полин” (“polyn”), “Нехворощ” (“nekhvoroshch”) or “тархун” (“tarkhun”) – the latter for a particular variety of wormwood. In Russian, wormwood is called “Полынь” ("polyn’ "), with the name “тархун” also used in Russian for the same variety of wormwood that is called like that in Ukrainian. Now, “Chernobyl” (or, rather, “Chornobyl”) is a _local_ name for mugwort, which is _Artemisia Vulgaris_, and belongs to the same family as wormwood – but what is usually understood as wormwood is _Artemisia Absinthium_, and it is a _different plant_. And if we go for the plant that is referenced in the Book of Apocalypse, that would be _Artemisia Herba-Alba_, which does not even grow in Ukraine. (Copy-paste from the relevant Wikipedia article: _\<\\> ) (The etymology of “Chornobyl”, btw, could be traced to “black blades [of grass]”) So – There is one plant called “chornobyl” in a small geographical area that, indeed, belongs to the family of plants to which wormwood belongs, but it is not the same plant referenced to in the Bible, at all. Sorry for the nitpicky hijack, back to your regularly scheduled thread! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/193 "2014-11-26T16:25:12Z")
> [@JoseB](#): > > In Ukrainian, wormwood is called “полин” (“polyn”), “Нехворощ” (“nekhvoroshch”) or “тархун” (“tarkhun”) – the latter for a particular variety of wormwood. “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven,\<\>And the name of the star is called Tarkin” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/194 "2014-11-26T16:32:02Z")
My wife, a native Ukrainian speaker, says that “Chornobyl” translates roughly into English as “dark forest.” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/195 "2014-11-29T01:22:03Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/196 "2014-11-29T01:25:21Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > No we didn’t. He means Nixon, obviously. Technically he was never impeached, but resigning office to avoid impeachment is arguably almost the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/197 "2014-11-29T02:29:01Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Similarly, we impeached a president for spying on a handful of people. 40 years later and the president spies on literally every last person on Earth – Americans could care less. What happened in the meantime? Plot hole. Like most reality plot holes, most if not all of the mystery here vanishes on further consideration. Well before the advent of the Internet, we had begun the shift from paying cash to using credit/debit cards. Instead of paying cash for the bus or train, we started using monthly passes. The time and place of every one of these transactions is recorded in a way that you, or whoever used the card, can be identified, but we’ve come to accept this for at least a generation if not two. Meanwhile, most of us started watching pay TV, whose service providers track your every click of the remote, or if not quite that, then any channel that you keep watching for more than a few minutes. They have to do that, in fact, because the payments to content providers are calculated in part by how many subscribers watch a particular channel. Every time you watch FX, for instance, your carrier might have to pay them .001 or .00005. And the terrestrial telcoms have recorded the meta-data of our calls for more than 100 years. The list goes on and on. We all give away a great deal of our personal metadata just by joining social web services like Facebook, but that’s arguably why many of us do so and willing share just about every minute detail of our lives that we can think of. There seems to be this human character trait that makes us want to cry, “Look at ME!”, though obviously not to the same extent in everyone. Yet this characteristic has had a major influence on how the Internet works. Not just the government, but also just anyone with a FB account can often learn a lot about you just by looking at your FB connections, at least if you’re careless. But it’s not like our communications and many of our other activities were tracked long before there was an Internet. And then a lot of people simply aren’t bothered by the fact that the records exist somewhere, and that their personal metadata is easily accessible. There are 300 million of us, and nobody’s got time to watch all of us, all the time. For that to happen, we’d all have to be watching each other. From this perspective, it’s like the transit example. I really don’t think anyone truly believes their local transit operator is spying on them, just because a record is generated every time you use your TAP card (which you discover, incidentally, when you look up your account on the Internet). And this situation simply scales up. Is it a perfect world? By no means. But from the earliest disclosures of Julian Assange, I’ve remained convinced that the far larger personal threat for most of us is what non-governmental entities like potential employers will do, based on pictures or stories we posted at earlier phases of our lives. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/198 "2014-11-29T02:38:41Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > The first African-American President . . . and he’s not assassinated by some crazed white supremacist. A two-term President who, by January 20 2017, will have had virtually no chance to meaningfully alter the composition of the Supreme Court. So far he has replaced two Clinton-era appointees, but never a conservative Justice appointed by the Bushes or Reagan. Recent Republican presidents have shown a knack for picking Supreme Court Justices while their young. Ruth Bader Ginsberg said a day or two ago that she will not retire because the Senate won’t be approving any likely appointees for the next couple of years. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/199 "2014-11-29T02:46:50Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > I mean, honestly, that isn’t any better than everyone in Avatar fighting over Unobtanium. It stumps me that, while shooting and producing this mega blockbuster boffo box-office smash, nobody ever bothered to come up with a “real” fictional metal name, instead of a placeholder name like Unobtanium. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533/200 "2014-11-29T03:04:05Z")
The design or lack thereof in many everyday objects seems to be a plot hole, until you consider how mass production works. Plastic spatulas always have that stupid trapezoidal shape, when a rectangular one would work so much better for preparing scrambled eggs, among other dishes. But I’m sure it’s safe to surmise that the trapezoidal shape works better if you want to create 100 spatulas at once from a sheet of black plastic. The sections of plastic that will become individual spatulas must be oriented in opposite directions, like an Escher print. If the business end were rectangular, there wouldn’t be enough plastic for the handle in the adjacent rows. Why don’t small houses have beautiful touches like slate roofs, leaded windows, and stonework? Because stucco, lath, and plaster is obviously far cheaper when you’re building a tract. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533.md?page=11)