# When good adults believe bad science (share your stories) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2005, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738 "2005-12-30T16:52:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/181 "2006-01-04T01:47:48Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Heh, so I assume your teacher had never heard of the St. Lawrence Seaway? šŸ˜‰ Or the Willamette River in Oregon. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/182 "2006-01-04T01:53:19Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > Or the Willamette River in Oregon. Or the St. Johns River, on which Jacksonville, FL is situated. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/183 "2006-01-04T04:17:56Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > In all fairness, the actual amount of applied statistics training that one has to obtain in order to get a degree in physical sciences or engineering is astonishingly minimal. > > Stranger I know. I had none as an undergraduate (1946-50) and had to be bludgeoned into taking some at UCLA when I got a yearā€™s free graduate work from the Navy. Those who are lucky enough to get into something that requires statistics have to learn it on the job. And the first thing you learn is to consult a statistician in designing your experiments. On one project there was a squib igniter that set off a propellant grain to run a turbine connected to an electric generator. The squibs were brand new experimental gadgets and since their performance was crucial to the success of the project it was desirable to test them for reliability. However, they only had 5 of them on hand and needed two for tests that were coming up. So I overheard the project manager, who was a PhD Physicist and former UC Berkeley professor and one of the best teachers and smartest guys I ever knew (name and credentials available on request by email), say to his compatriot that if the three spares were tested and all worked they out to be pretty confident of the other two. I immediately spoke up and said that such a test wouldnā€™t give all that much confidence. Of course I was just a peon with a BS in EE and was totally ignored. However I was right and it illustrates your point exactly. In fact, at a confidence level of 80% a test of three units without failure means that the failure rate for the population will be no more than 37%. And you will be wrong 2 times in 10 in claiming that failure rate because the failure rate of the population will be greater than that. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/184 "2006-01-04T04:30:06Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > The dark part of the moon (which isnā€™t very hard to see at least a little, even with common binoculars) is just the side thatā€™s facing away from the sun. Itā€™s in its own shadow, like your back when you face the sun. Okay, thatā€™s what I thought, but when you said the science folks had all gotten it wrong, I got worried :). **Siege** , I bet youā€™re right. I saw posters for that movie when it came to town, and shuddered: it looked as though Iā€™d **really** not like it. My not having seen it hasnā€™t kept me from coming up with a theory that thereā€™s no overlap between people who like that movie and who liked I Heart Huckabees. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/185 "2006-01-04T07:23:38Z")
Rivers all flow south? How about that little creek called the Rhine? Come to think of it, I assume all rivers in northern Poland, Germany and France flow into the Baltic or the North Sea. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/186 "2006-01-04T07:32:35Z")
Hate to admit it, but I have a friend who warned me not to let my female cats out at night because 'the 'possumsā€™ll fuck 'em!" :sigh:: ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/187 "2006-01-04T08:19:40Z")
> [@Maureen](#): > > When I first started working in an emergency room, I was highly skeptical of claims that the ER would fill up with weirdos on a full moon. After two years, I was a believer. For some reason we always had a full house and the cases were veryā€¦ interesting, to say the least. One guy was brought in for both a psych consult and a broken arm. He thought he was Batman and fell off the building he was scaling. All the fun stuff happened when the moon was full. No idea why. > [@Knorf](#): > > [The master has spoken](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_337.html). > [@Cec/Ed](#): > > Thatā€™s pretty much been the story with all lunar-effect claimsā€“when you look at them closely, they fall apartā€¦So how do we explain all those cops and emergency room nurses who believe in the lunar effect? Easy. Nobody notices when thereā€™s a full moon and nothing happensā€“you only notice when something does happen. In other words, heads I win, tails donā€™t count. Case closed. I call it Pub Quiz Syndrome. The wankers who come up to you after a pub quiz and say ā€œI coulda done a (hic!) better job than you - canā€™t (hic!) believe you didnā€™t know the answers to those questionsā€, when what they really mean is ā€œThere were two questions there which you didnā€™t know the answer to, and I did; there were also approximately 20 about which I had no fuckinā€™ clue and you got ā€˜em right. Stick it there if it weighs a ton, mate. Youā€™re a fuckinā€™ geniusā€¦By the way, what are you having? My shout.ā€ ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/188 "2006-01-04T09:04:08Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > Rivers all flow south? How about that little creek called the Rhine? Come to think of it, I assume all rivers in northern Poland, Germany and France flow into the Baltic or the North Sea. Not to forget such great rivers as the [Lena](http://www.yakutiatravel.com/eng/travdir/lena.htm) in Russia and the [McKenzie](http://greatcanadianrivers.com/rivers/mack/mack-home.html) in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/189 "2006-01-04T10:49:49Z")
> [@iamthewalrus(:3=](#): > > Iā€™m guessing that this has to do with a misunderstanding of the light and dark portions of the carbon cycle. It would have to be a multilevel misunderstanding because, at the very least > > 1. The ā€œDarkā€ reaction doesnā€™t happen only at night. It just doesnā€™t require sunlight. > 2. Plants _produce_ Oxygen. Of course thatā€™s where the problem lay, _I know_, the nurses of the time didnā€™t is what Iā€™m saying. My suggestion, in the nursesā€™ defence, was that perhaps a full understanding of the way plants use/produce oxygen wasnā€™t widespread at that time and so this wasnā€™t ā€˜bad scienceā€™ just incomplete science. (Iā€™m not familiar with your terminology, Iā€™d have put it this way Plants respire all the time, a process which requires Oxygen and produces Carbon dioxide; in light conditions plants also photosythesize, a process which produces Oxygen and requires Carbon dioxide.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/190 "2006-01-04T10:59:14Z")
On the rivers flowing south thing, thereā€™s thatā€¦ oh whatā€™s it called?.. oh yes. The Amazon. Running generally west\>east, but the mouth is still slightly further north than most of the rest of the river and its tributaries. ---
**Author:** ![Tomcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/191 "2006-01-04T13:46:34Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > On the rivers flowing south thing, thereā€™s thatā€¦ oh whatā€™s it called?.. oh yes. The Amazon. Running generally west\>east, but the mouth is still slightly further north than most of the rest of the river and its tributaries. Well, there are tons of examples. But I like to just ask people if there are any river mouths/deltaā€™s on the north of any landmassā€¦Which, by there logic, would mean that the oceans and seas drain into the land. As for the Amazon, I think it is the neatest river in the world for one main reason: look at a S.A. map with different colors for different elevations. From start to finish the river is the same colorā€¦which means from the beginning (not the tributeries) to the mouth it drops less than 500 - 600 feet in elevationā€¦for over 2000 miles! -Tcat ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/192 "2006-01-04T15:39:30Z")
I worked onsite as a corporate travel counsellor at a major hospital campus. One of the doctors called me from the airport absolutely APOPLECTIC. He claimed that he was FORCED (?) to pay for an upgrade to first class because there were no more seats in business class available. Well, I checked his reservation and verified that he had the correct airline ticket in his possession (this was before electronic ticketing). I verified his origin, destination, ticket number, confirmation number, seat assignment, etc. Everything seemed to be in order and I still had no idea why he was _forced_ to pay for the upgrade. One of my co-workers, who was familiar with this doctor whispered to me that this guy has a fear of the number 13; and, it seems, his seat assignment was in row 13 in business class. There were no other empty seats in which he could sit in business and, it seems, asking to change with another passenger was out of the question. I talked him down out of his rage and he was fine after that. This was a highly respected surgeon in his field and lectured all over the world. I thought for sure this was a ploy to get into first-class. I was wrong. He never worked on the 13th of the month. He had season tickets to The Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Browns, but refused to attend the 13th game of the season; and subsequently the 113th game for the Indians. Refused to drive on E13th street in Cleveland. He once even returned a ticket to our office because it had the digits ā€˜1ā€™ and ā€˜3ā€™ in succession in the body of the ticket number. ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/193 "2006-01-04T16:11:16Z")
> [@GrizzRich](#): > > One of my co-workers, who was familiar with this doctor whispered to me that this guy has a fear of the number 13ā€¦ Then Iā€™m sure he wouldnā€™t have touched one of the better batches of homebrew my former roommate and I made. We dubbed it ā€œTriskaidekaphiliaā€ because we made it with 13 pounds of malt, and it was quite tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/194 "2006-01-04T21:36:54Z")
> [@mojave66](#): > > My great-aunt once asked me where the AIDS virus came from. ā€œI heard it was 'cause people fucked goatsā€ she told me. So I spent the next half-hour talking to her about viruses, retroviruses, how animal viruses can mutate and infect humans, and the (then common) theory that it probably evolved from a simian virus and was probably passed to humans through consumption of simian meat. > > She listens, lets all this sink in for a few minutes, then turns to my mother and says ā€œYep. Goat fucking.ā€ Iā€™m so glad to know that mine is not the only family where the great aunts take a lively interest in goat fucking. šŸ˜› ---
**Author:** ![mojave66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@mojave66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mojave66)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/195 "2006-01-04T22:07:43Z")
> [@Dr. Woo](#): > > Iā€™m so glad to know that mine is not the only family where the great aunts take a lively interest in goat fucking. šŸ˜› My family is, um, colorful in the double-wide sense. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/196 "2006-01-04T23:29:21Z")
The spoiled applesauce post made me remember one. There are a lot of cooks around here who wonā€™t make crab soup if thereā€™s a thunderstorm coming or if itā€™s actually storming. They truely believe something about the stormy weather spoils the soup. Whenever my late MIL was in the hospital, sheā€™d insist that any flowers or plants that people had sent her be removed at night. Theyā€™d suck out all the oxygen, of course. When I was in the hospital when my son was born, she was appalled that the nurses didnā€™t come in and take out all the flower arrangements every night. I used to work with a woman whose husband claimed to be able to tell when a woman was having her period by the way her breath smelled. Whenever theyā€™d go out to a party, heā€™d either do that cheek-kiss thing or just try to smell every femaleā€™s breath by talking to her. Then on the way home, heā€™d tell her which women were menstruating. What this was supposed to accomplish, I donā€™t know. ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/197 "2006-01-05T00:36:47Z")
I had a little conversation with my bio-major roommate in college. We were discussing whether rabbits were rodents or not, and the following exchange took place: Me: A squirrel is a mammal. Him: Huh. I thought it was a rodent. Me: ā€¦ A rodent _is_ a mammal. Him: What? Me: Yeah. What about a giraffe? Him: No. Me: Yes. Him: I thought it was like a horse? Me: \ A horse IS a MAMMAL!!! Him: Oh shit. Me: Kangaroo? Him: Uh ā€¦ Marsupial. Me: Yeah, but mammal? Him: Well, a few minutes ago I would have said ā€œno.ā€ Nowā€¦ Me: Hang on. Name some mammals. Him: Uh. Dolphins, platypusses, people, uh ā€¦ whales? Me: \ He knew the ā€œtrickā€ mammals, but almost nothing else. I will always treasure that conversation. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/198 "2006-01-05T00:55:56Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > I used to work with a woman whose husband claimed to be able to tell when a woman was having her period by the way her breath smelled. Whenever theyā€™d go out to a party, heā€™d either do that cheek-kiss thing or just try to smell every femaleā€™s breath by talking to her. Then on the way home, heā€™d tell her which women were menstruating. What this was supposed to accomplish, I donā€™t know. I had one girlfriend who I am convinced had a particular breath when she was about to become pre-menstrual. Almost not an odour, but a slight sweet sensation. I donā€™t see why itā€™s completely implausible that a very definite hormonal change, with many physical results, cannot cause a change in breath odour. Of course, what _knowing_ this is supposed to achieve, I donā€™t know. Except when itā€™s your girlfriend, and you know to stock up on chocolate. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/199 "2006-01-05T01:04:58Z")
> [@wolfstu](#): > > Further to that, a large window on a cold night can be a major source of radiation heat loss. Itā€™s not just conducting heat from the interior air across the glass to the outside. Closing curtains or blinds greatly impedes the radiation exchange between warm objects in the room and cold ones outside. Bingo, you have it. Not only is it true ā€œon paperā€, but by experiments I have found that a room of mine with many windows and no heating vents becomes _profoundly_ colder on cold nights when the Venetian blinds are open, versus when they are shut. As in 10-15 F colder than normal, with nearly the same outside ambient temperature. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/200 "2006-01-05T01:55:45Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > Many people believe they can convert someone to a different sexuality by having sex with them. A girl I know is hopelessly in love with her gay best friend; sheā€™s a diehard Christian and all about chastity and morality etc. She lost her virginity to him, and he lost his to her (he hadnā€™t been with a guy yet, either), because she thought that if he got her rocks off in her he would magically turn straight and love her forever. If anything, it really just made him hunger for The Cock. He has sex with a man and tells her about it and she cries, lather, rinse, repeat. She still insists that he can be cured, andg that heā€™s not using her. Sheā€™s bought him an iPod and given him all-expenses-paid vacations out of her account and doesnā€™t understand why he doesnā€™t love her yet. Didnā€™t they make a movie out of that starring Mandy Moore? Wow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738.md?page=11)