This statement is far too strong to be true, given the wide possible interpretations of the word “food”.
They must mean SENSE of smell.
Out of all of the fantastic diversity of species in the animal kingdom, there is one and only one that doesn’t sleep? I call hooey.
Out of all the fantastic diversity of species of mammals, there is one and only one that can’t jump? I call hooey. I also point out that one rareley sees a blue whale jumping.
Actually, I believe is is the somewhat obsolete “broughammed”, pronounced “broomed”.
And the word “spoil”. Butter doesn’t usually host bacteria, therefore will not “spoil”. It will turn rancid, which can be construed as “spoiling”. But then, honey will crystallize, which, to some people, will mean it has “spoiled”.
I also call bullshit on #41. Maybe some species of shrimp can only swim backwards, but my red cherries zip around their tank head first.
I know what it means; it’s still patently stupid (not to mention misspelled). The statement “it’s extremely difficult to fold a standard 8 1/2” x 11" sheet of typing paper in half more than seven times" makes more sense.
Yep, really. Each borough of New York City is its own county. Manhattan is New York County.
I take issue with many of your other quibbles as well. IIRC, Texas passed a specific law for voting from space, making it unique. Eating insects as food is not the same thing as insects creating food that people can eat. So what is a jiffy means other things as long as it means a unit of time? “Real table tennis” has nothing to do with ordinary “ping-pong.”
“Straights” is another one-syllable word of the same length. #72 The average person uses 150 gallons of water per day for personal use
This site says it’s 168 liters per day in the US. To reach 150gals/day you have to throw in some non-personal uses (industrial, agricultural, etc.) #89 The average American walks 18,000 steps a day
At a modest 2’/step, that’s 6.8 miles/day, which would require something like 2 hours - rather high for an average. #145 Lake Superior is the world’s largest lake
It’s the freshwater lake with the largest surface area. In terms of volume, Lake Baikal completely croaks it (contains 20% of the world’s fresh water). #182 A rainbow can only be seen in the morning or late afternoon
Well, you need to be looking at water droplets with the sun behind you. A waterfall at noon will often serve (not to mention high latitudes).
Most of the animal ones seem either quite wrong, or quite “duh, plenty of animals do that” or they generify the animal into a ‘kind’ like ‘frogs’ to the point where it’s no longer interesting.
As another poster said, yes, it does sound like a bunch of facts culled from a couple-decade-old factbook.
Particularly #89- The average American walks 18,000 steps a day. As someone who wears a pedometer daily, I can tell you that 18,000 steps would require conscious effort. Articles on weight loss suggest aiming for 10,000 steps daily, which is roughly equivalent to a 30 minute walk. I’ve gotten to 12,000 before, on days when I was constantly running back and forth at work. That said, on weekend days it’s not unusual for me to only walk 2,000 steps a day if all I’m doing is watching movies and napping on the couch. Considering the average American drives or rides everywhere, doesn’t excercise, and watches hours of TV a day, I’m betting the current average is probably 5,000 steps a day.
I would think that the “average” would also be dropped down if you include every American. Those pre-bipedal one year olds would lower the number, right?
Doesn’t Morgan Spurlock claim in Supersize Me that the average American only walks about half a mile a day? I can’t recall the exact figure he gives, though, nor do I know what his source is.
Well, slap me silly and call me Susan. Although for that one, I was just asking for confirmation, not claiming I knew it was untrue. (Although I’m not sure if that came across in my tone).
Fine. Then the fun fact should have been phrased “Texas is the only state which SPECIFICALLY allows…” or something like that. If California passes a law saying it is legal for pregnant women to vote, that doesn’t mean that California is the only state that allows pregnant women to vote.
What about insect eggs?
Because the way they phrased their “fun fact” was deceptive and misleading.
It does if they’re going to perpetuate misinformation and inaccurate stereotypes. Granted, we’re judging them here by the standards of the SDMB, but, hey, if they’re going to take it upon themselves to spread “fun facts”, someone ought to care whether they are actually facts.
There is a “manna” produced by insects, but it’s not the type of manna that humans eat, which is a plant product. Even saying that humans “eat” this manna is a stretch.
While this is sort of true in principle, in my personal experience it is not true in actual fact for any single locality in Panama. Where I am (Panama City), the Pacific is to my east and the Atlantic to the west. I can see the sun rise out of the Pacific, and I have been places where the sun sets over the Atlantic. However, I while there are places on the cordillera where you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic at the same time, in these places either the part of the Pacific that the sun rises in, or the part of the Atlantic that the sun sets in, would be beyond the horizon. You would see the sun rise or set over land in one direction or the other, not over the ocean.
It specifically lists Lerp insects as making “manna-like substance”, which the Australian aborigines use directly as a sugary food, and put into drinks as well. So er…I was close and forgot the “-like”?
