# Things you were stunned that people didn't know **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 29, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146 "2017-06-29T17:59:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/81 "2017-07-01T13:39:41Z")
I once had a coworker - in a laboratory filled with chemicals - who, after 9 months of employment, still did not know the phone number of the phone in the lab, the lab in which he worked every day. Never mind all of the various equipment and test procedures. Just the other day, I had a coworker ask to use the phone in the lab. He told me that it must be broken, because it had some sort of weird noise in the speaker. It was the DIAL TONE!! He’d been using cell phones his entire life and did not know that land lines have a dial tone!! ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/82 "2017-07-01T14:13:13Z")
> [@GoodOmens](#): > > I find it odd how many people have very distorted ideas about space. I’m not talking the conspiracy theory/flat Earth/moon landing deniers. I’m thinking more about people who honestly thing people live on the Moon, or Mars, or who think that we’ve sent spaceships to other stars. They don’t have any idea about the distances involved between just the planets in our Solar system, not to mention between stars. > > Like many things in this list, I don’t expect people will have details memorized. Very few people need to know that Sirius is about 8.5 light years away or whatever. But knowing that stars are really gobsmackingly far away is important. I can’t begin to tell you how many people I know who believe that the phases of the moon are due to the earth’s shadow on the moon. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/83 "2017-07-01T14:30:09Z")
My mom, who was born in 1913, was telling a much younger woman that when she was a kid there was no radio, because it hadn’t been invented yet. To which the younger woman replied, “Yeah, but you could watch TV, right?”. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/84 "2017-07-01T14:58:42Z")
On another message board I frequent, there’s currently a discussion about DNA test kits. I am stunned at the ignorance. A lot of people don’t know that human chromosomes come in pairs, one of each pair from a father and one from a mother. A lot of people think that siblings have identical DNA (and thus that there’s no need to test more than one sibling). The concept that siblings could theoretically share no parental DNA sends these people into frantic denial. The thread hurts my head so badly, I had to quit reading it. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/85 "2017-07-01T15:02:49Z")
This didn’t happen to me, and it may very well be apocryphal, but I love the story: Person A said something to Person B about the sun being the nearest star. Person B was stunned and asked, “Which star is it?” ---
**Author:** ![DeepLiquid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deepliquid/32/14893_2.png) [@DeepLiquid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepLiquid)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/86 "2017-07-01T15:20:22Z")
When someone I know from another state was fired for being lesbian, I mentioned it to a co-worker, she was appalled saying “well I hope she sues, that’s against the law”. Only to find out that her view is common, many people think being lesbian/gay is a protected class. I tell them it varies by state and sometimes by county or even city. And yes, Bob can marry Dave legally, but if his boss finds out he can be fired. This information astounds them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/87 "2017-07-01T15:33:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **emcee2k** : > > The guy who ran a bunch of parts out of tolerance because he simply didn’t understand that 0.3603 is greater than 0.360 But 0.3603 is not greater than 0.360 . 0.3603 \> 0.3600 , but 0.360 doesn’t have enough precision to be able to tell which one is larger. 0.360 might be 0.3597, or it might be 0.3604 . If the schematic calls for a measurement of 0.360 , then 0.3603 is in spec, and if the designer meant for 0.3603 to be out of spec, he should have specified that. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/88 "2017-07-01T15:47:34Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > This is something I didn’t know! There are adults walking around that have _never_ been to a dentist! > > Maybe that should be on your Adult Membership Card (AMC) punch list: > > Item #124 - Go to the dentist. At least once. My next door neighbor was a mexican lady close to 80 years old. She made her 1st trip the dentist, not one single cavity. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/89 "2017-07-01T16:30:34Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > Once I was dining in San Diego with a friend—a law school graduate—who thought we were looking out over the Gulf of Mexico. My brother and I were taking a flight one time and we had a stop in Newark. My brother decided to call his girlfriend, who lived in downstate New York, from a payphone (this was back before cell phones were common). When he got back he commented that he was surprised the phone call had been long distance. I said _“What did you expect? You were calling another state.”_ And he said _“We’re not in New York?”_ ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/90 "2017-07-01T16:50:28Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > I may have mentioned this in an earlier thread. About ten years ago, an elderly relative of mine was surprised to learn that black women were allowed to drive cars. Not a hateful bone in her body, just ignorance. She spent her whole life in the same New Hampshire town that until recently was almost 100% white. A co-worker of mine was going to New Hampshire on vacation, and asked me for my advice, as I was raised in Boston. She called me from there and said “How come you didn’t tell me there’s no black people here.” She’s black, but the thought never occurred to me. I was raised in a mixed neighborhood, and don’t see people in terms of their color. The store I work in is owned by Hassidic Jews, and can be open on Sunday. I got questioned about this, and I’m always amazed when people don’t know that our county’s blue laws are Christian laws. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/91 "2017-07-01T17:24:24Z")
“South Africa? Is that, like, a country? I thought it meant the part of Africa south of the equator.” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/92 "2017-07-01T17:38:50Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Three years ago a co-worker of mine asked me when WWII had been. He genuinely did not know which years it covered. > > And then he asked me the dates for WWI despite the fact that, it being 2014, discussion of the centenary of WWI was pretty much constantly on British television. > > Thirty-something, intelligent, well-educated man. I dunno, some people… Sorry. Neither! ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/93 "2017-07-01T17:48:21Z")
> [@DeepLiquid](#): > > When someone I know from another state was fired for being lesbian, I mentioned it to a co-worker, she was appalled saying “well I hope she sues, that’s against the law”. Only to find out that her view is common, many people think being lesbian/gay is a protected class. I tell them it varies by state and sometimes by county or even city. And yes, Bob can marry Dave legally, but if his boss finds out he can be fired. This information astounds them. > **[Federal Court Rules Employers Can't Fire People for Being Gay](https://legacy.lambdalegal.org/blog/20170404_court-rules-employers-cant-discriminate-against-gay-employees)** > > In a groundbreaking, 8-3 decision, the full Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation violates federal civil rights law. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/94 "2017-07-01T18:15:25Z")
> [@Elemenopy](#): > > Asuka mentioned bra sizes. That’s a funny one. Around the birth of my second child, I went from something like a 38D to a 40I in a month. Hell, I didn’t even know there were I cups before that! There aren’t in many sizing schemes- it goes straight from HH to J, presumably because otherwise I, l and 1 are too easily confused. And yes, L does exist as a commercially available bra cup size. I worked with a guy, aged 17, at a coffee shop in an airport. He did not know what the Southern Hemisphere was. Or the equator. Or the poles. Several of us attempted to explain, but he just didn’t get it. He came in all excited one day because he’d learned something new in his apprentice scheme; there are two sorts of wood, hardwood and softwood, and one’s from pine trees, but he couldn’t remember which. He was over 6 months into a carpentry apprenticeship. Oh, and after a year of working in the airport, he could not name a single airline that operated from that airport. I asked him. He was genuinely dead proud because he got half the name of one. The shop was open layout, right opposite check-in desks for 4 different airlines, all covered in huge signs. Also, half the cabin crew and check-in staff used to buy drinks from us, plus there were countless announcements every day. He didn’t know what the departure boards were for either. The guy was the incarnation of oblivious. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/95 "2017-07-01T18:24:25Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Certain Christian sects are more focused on the Old Testament than others. Catholics, for instance, are much more focused on the NT. I was raised Catholic, and went to Catholic schools. We learned about the “big events” in the OT (A&E, Flood, Moses, David), but not a lot of the smaller stuff. We spent much more time on the NT. Now, some evangelical or fundamentalist Christians might be more heavily OT focused. > > There is a Bible reading at ever Mass, and AFAIR, those were always (or almost always) from the NT. Others went into the minutiae of Catholic mass readings around the calendar. One point is that Catholic view while it might fairly be called de-emphasizing the OT I’d say might be better be called viewing the OT through lens of NT. The emphasis is on readings foreshadowing the Christ and/or ones Jesus emphasized, or compared/contrasted His teachings with, etc in the Gospel. The emphasis on OT quasi-historical allegorical stories is generally quite low. The authority of OT commands which could be questioned in terms of Gospel sayings, likewise. The other point more on topic is that what a lot of people surely know, but kind of act like they don’t know sometimes, and maybe some people really don’t, is that Roman Catholicism _was_ Christianity in the West for centuries. And the Eastern churches it overshadowed (in the early days) and coexisted with (the schism with the Orthodox) tended to view that aspect, of the primary of the Gospels, pretty similarly in general. That wasn’t what they disagreed about theologically. Whereas the Protestants came along much later, and what a lot of people seem to think of as ‘Christianity’ is a relatively small (though fast growing in a lot of the world) branch of Protestantism generally from the US South. There was no assumption for eons that a typical Catholic would have the kind of knowledge of the OT which Southern US origin Protestants think is relatively important. In the big picture the modern Catholic Church recognizes the original Protestant theme of the believer knowing and interpreting the scriptures themselves as a positive reform, and has imitated it. To some degree. But the idea of knowing all kinds of verses not so much, and the implied idea the OT as a whole is as important or stands equal to Christ’s teachings (which I’m not sure even the most extreme Protestants believe) definitely not. But a lot of non-Christians seem now to have an idea how ‘Christianity’ works mainly based on their idea (though again perhaps exaggerated) of Southern type ‘born again’ Protestant sects. ---
**Author:** ![DeepLiquid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deepliquid/32/14893_2.png) [@DeepLiquid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepLiquid)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/96 "2017-07-01T18:29:53Z")
> [@x-ray\_vision](#): > > [Federal Court Rules Employers Can't Fire People for Being Gay | Lambda Legal Legacy](https://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20170404_court-rules-employers-cant-discriminate-against-gay-employees) Pretty sure they’re not paying a lot of attention to that in rural Alabama. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/97 "2017-07-01T18:40:22Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Three years ago a co-worker of mine asked me when WWII had been. He genuinely did not know which years it covered. > > And then he asked me the dates for WWI despite the fact that, it being 2014, discussion of the centenary of WWI was pretty much constantly on British television. > > Thirty-something, intelligent, well-educated man. I dunno, some people… To not know the dates of World War I is quite reasonable, as long as it’s not wildly off. 1914-1918 isn’t a particularly easy time frame to store in memory. What would be stunning would be if someone thought World War I took place after World War II, or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/98 "2017-07-01T18:48:44Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > Others went into the minutiae of Catholic mass readings around the calendar. One point is that Catholic view while it might fairly be called de-emphasizing the OT I’d say might be better be called viewing the OT through lens of NT. The emphasis is on readings foreshadowing the Christ and/or ones Jesus emphasized, or compared/contrasted His teachings with, etc in the Gospel. The emphasis on OT quasi-historical allegorical stories is generally quite low. Agreed, for Sunday Mass there is often a connection between the three readings. At daily Mass, though, there is a more steady reading through sections of the OT, connected to the Gospel for that day or not. Sometimes the one OT reading will go on for pages as a long story is told. It has a nice rhythm to it as one is waking up early in the morning and the repetition of phrases helps. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/99 "2017-07-01T19:14:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But 0.3603 is not greater than 0.360 . 0.3603 \> 0.3600 , but 0.360 doesn’t have enough precision to be able to tell which one is larger. 0.360 might be 0.3597, or it might be 0.3604 . If the schematic calls for a measurement of 0.360 , then 0.3603 is in spec, and if the designer meant for 0.3603 to be out of spec, he should have specified that. The schematic didn’t call for 0.360, 0.360 was the absolute top of tolerance. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/100 "2017-07-01T19:24:04Z")
There are people with some wired beliefs about astronomy like: That we have a yellow sun, that you can see millions of stars on a dark night, that days get longer in the summer and shorter in the winter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146.md?page=6)