# 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:** 16
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/301 "2006-01-10T21:35:01Z")
I’ve got no bad science stories. I’m just here to say as an avid paintball player, the idea of doing it on horseback kicks ass. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/302 "2006-01-10T21:55:56Z")
So will the horse, the first time it gets hit with a paintball. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/303 "2006-01-10T22:11:38Z")
> [@Peak Banana](#): > > Just before new years eve, the blonde airhead weatherperson on TV (in the tiny northern European country where I live) let us know that a leap second was to be added onto the end of the year, and that the reason for this is that the earth’s rotation slows by one second every year\*. That one really made me want to go down to her office and slap her around. > > \*yes, folks, the earth’s rotation does slow down due to tidal effects, but the rate is about 2.3 milliseconds per century, and has bloody well nothing to do with the leap second. We are in big trouble 86,400 years from now. I just hope my ancestors are on the sunny side. ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/304 "2006-01-10T22:14:42Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > …ancestors… Depends where they bury the survivors. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/305 "2006-01-10T22:41:12Z")
> [@Random](#): > > Depends where they bury the survivors. They drowned digging the hole when they buried them at sea. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![baileygrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@baileygrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/baileygrrrl)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/306 "2006-01-10T22:47:17Z")
Months ago, my husband argued with me that aurora borealis were cause by the sun reflecting on polar ice caps. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/307 "2006-01-10T22:58:22Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > OK, you got me. Why do we have the leap second? OK, it turns out that I spoke a bit too harshly :smack: _kicks self in the wazoo_, because the leap second is indeed connected with the earth’s rotation slowing down. However, as I stated, the slowing down is nowhere near a second per year, it is indeed, as I said, about 2.3 milliseconds per century, or thereabouts. If it was a second per year, we’d all be utterly screwed very soon indeed. Leap seconds keep the number of standard seconds in a year close to mean solar time. Seconds are counted these days using accurate atomic clocks. It turns out that the second that is counted by atomic time standards has been defined in such a way that its length matches the nominal second of 1/86400 of a mean solar day between 1750 and 1892. Since then, the lenght of the day has been increasing. The reason for leap seconds is the \*sum \* of the difference between the length of the SI (standard system of units) day and the mean solar day over a period of time. To make up for this, we currently tack on about 0.7 seconds to each year - this is done by adding a leap second most years. Blast. This stuff is more complicated than I thought. I’ll get back to you on this, and I’ll probably bring pie. ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/308 "2006-01-10T23:42:08Z")
> [@zenith](#): > > _All of the vitamins in potatoes, fruits with an edible peel, etc are in the skin._ . Why eat the rest ,then? I always suspected that my Dad, who was overwhelmed by all the work involved in raising 5 small kids, didn’t really believe that but used it as a “scientific” proof that he didn’t have to peel things for us. We never heard that one when Mom was alive and stopped hearing it after he remarried. I heard someone else mention this upthread too. Really, potatoes with the skin do have more vitamins and nutrients located in the skin, and just under the skin. Why eat the rest? Because vitamins and nutrients alone won’t keep you alive - no calories. Vitamins and minerals are micronutrients that are necessary for health, but don’t provide any energy themselves. That said, potatoes without the skin have less micronutrients, but they’re not completely devoid of them either. It’s not such a huge difference that you’ll suffer vitamin deficiency if you peel your potatoes, especially if you eat healthy in general and/or use a multivitamin. The biggest differences I can see from the chart below are that the levels of calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, folate, vitamin A and vitamin k are all noticable lower in baked potatoes without the skin. The levels of Vitamin C and copper actually increases! From the [USDA nutrient database](http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/) for 100g quantitiy of “Potatoes, baked, _flesh_, without salt” versus “Potato, baked, _flesh and skin_, without salt” **Nutrient / With skin / Without skin** (all quantities in mg unless otherwise noted) \*Minerals \* Calcium / 15 / 5 Iron / 1.08 / 0.35 Magnesium / 28 / 25 Phosphorus / 70 / 50 Potassium / 535 / 391 Sodium / 10 / 5 Zinc / 0.36 / 0.29 Copper / 0.118 / 0.215 Manganese / 0.219 / 0.161 Selenium (mcg) / 0.4 / 0.3 _Vitamins_ Vitamin C / 9.6 / 12.8 Thiamin / 0.064 / 0.105 Riboflavin / 0.048 / 0.021 Niacin / 1.410 / 1.395 Pantothenic acid / 0.376 / 0.555 Vitamin B-6 / 0.311 / 0.301 Folate (total) (mcg) / 28 / 9 Vitamin A (IU) / 10 / 0 Vitamin E / 0.04 / 0.04 Vitamin K (mcg) / 2 / 0.3 ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/309 "2006-01-11T00:37:55Z")
[Cecil on potato skins.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_057.html) In short, he says that the skins protect the rest of the potato, both in the ground and during cooking if left intact, but don’t have much nutritional value in themselves. On the other hand they contain a mild poison which may be dangerous in large quantities. ---
**Author:** ![Agnostic\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/310 "2006-01-11T01:59:53Z")
> [@deevee](#): > > I once had a girlfriend who would crank up the thermostat all the way on a cold day then move it back when the room reached the desired temp. Same with preheating an oven, crank it up to 500 to make it heat up faster. That method could work on some gas stoves/ovens/furnaces. Opening the throttle to the max allows a greater flame which would let the oven or whatnot reach the desired temp faster. On my mom’s old electric range, it did work that way. Turning it up all the way increased the current to the elements making heat up much faster - going by the time it took to turn the burner bright red. Its how I heat up my car, when I actually own one, on winter mornings. Crank up the heat to the max. ---
**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:** [January 11, 2006, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/311 "2006-01-11T02:00:06Z")
> [@Hentor the Barbarian](#): > > I’m very curious to hear which doctors, which brain tissue, and what is “massive.” Here is [what Scientific American had to say](http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=000B9C5F-23AA-13A8-9E4D83414B7F0101) about the subject. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/312 "2006-01-11T03:36:05Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > I have issues with my SIL for many things, but the corker of her telling me during a heated argument about gay people that People Chose to be Gay…just made my mouth hang there. Ummmm. Yeah. > > Oh, and she also beleives that we are descended from Adam and Eve and the earth is only 6,000. years old. …and she teaches kids. > I’ve decided to relish these moments of utter self enforced ingorance with her and view them as Pure Entertainment rather than a Plot To Cause Me A Stroke. You could be speaking of my mother-in-law, here. Lovely, intelligent woman, a maverick in her day - went to college for the MBA not the Mrs., that sort of thing… and yet, she’s a Young Earth Creationist. > [@David Simmons](#): > > 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. I’m sorry, sir, but as one who lived north of the Mighty River (and crossed it several times), I must nitpick and tell you that it’s spelled M **a** ckenzie. It’s an awesome sight (assuming that you have not seen it in your many years). > [@Lumpy](#): > > Actually, doctors are genuinely puzzled by how some people can be missing massive amounts brain tissue and still function normally by all accounts. My brother had 1/4 of his brain removed and functions normally. There is no discernable difference between him now and him before, except now he has an excuse for being an idiot. 😉 > [@Hentor the Barbarian](#): > > I’m very curious to hear which doctors, which brain tissue, and what is “massive.” Medical practise removes a hemisphere of the brain in people with severe epilepsy or other seizure-causing conditions, which then ceases seizures. Cite; [Cite](http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/2002/December/021210.htm); [Cite](http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/glossary.html). ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/313 "2006-01-11T03:51:50Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Here is [what Scientific American had to say](http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=000B9C5F-23AA-13A8-9E4D83414B7F0101) about the subject. But that article makes clear, for the corpus callousum, that functioning was not normal. > [@](#): > > The patient exhibited subtle signs of abnormal behavior, says Warren S. Brown, a neuropsychologist who studies mind-body questions at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.: “He just seemed odd–not remarkable, but he missed the point of social interaction.” > [@](#): > > “Most times you’d get the ‘Aha!’ reaction,” Sherr says. “So-and-so has had behavioral difficulties, and until then nobody had been able to put a finger on it.” But for at least one patient, he adds, the finding had come as a complete surprise. And it isn’t clear which study of hemispherectomy from Johns Hopkins they are referring to. If it is [this one](http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/100/2/163), this is the conclusion of the authors of that paper regarding hemispherectomy: > [@](#): > > If the success of hemispherectomy is defined only as the return of the child to normalcy, then none of our children are successes, but only 4 of the 54 children have a major burden. Burden of illness will vary with the underlying etiology. Young children do recover and adapt fairly well, but I still haven’t seen anything to suggest that their functioning will be normal. ---
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/314 "2006-01-11T04:23:53Z")
Whenever we walk our mustelid buddy Buster on his leash we invariably run into someone who doesn’t know that not every ferret with black feet is a Black-footed Ferret. They question how it can be legal for us to make a pet of an endangered species. Once, while looking at the new ferret babies Petco had just gotten in, a woman said to her daughter that the black-legged/black-footed ones probably weren’t legal. The little girl, around 8-10 years old, said “Moth-ther! You’re SO embarrassing! Not every ferret with black feet is a Black-footed Ferret! You’re like saying a chihuahua is the same thing as a wolf!” Not quite. It’s more like the difference between a German Shepherd and a wolf, but she was pretty close for such a young kid. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/315 "2006-01-11T05:08:25Z")
> [@deevee](#): > > I once had a girlfriend who would crank up the thermostat all the way on a cold day then move it back when the room reached the desired temp. Same with preheating an oven, crank it up to 500 to make it heat up faster. I can one-up you there. A bit of set up: Picture a moonshine tent set up for a semi-permanent camp, in which rye mash is fermenting in big ol’ drums. There are thermostatically-controlled DC-powered aquarium heaters to keep the mash from getting too cold during the May mountain nights. Things tick along nicely, until the summer, when the sweltering heat during the day punishes the yeast and the fermentation slows _waaaaaaaay_ down, severely affecting production. Now picture a woman who has a simple solution to the problem, (if it’s too hot, turn the thermostat down,) and can’t be made to understand why it would be ineffective, no matter how hard you tried to explain that the control is connected to a _heater_ which won’t lower the temperature below ambient, and is irritated that you won’t follow her sound advice. “Just turn it down!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/316 "2006-01-11T05:33:35Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > In a perfect world, this would be true. But in the real world, if I were a forced to bet on a coin that had turned up heads ten times in a row, I would choose heads, because there’s probably something not right about that coin. Very late, but yes I would make that bet too. However, we had agreed that the coins were perfect and unbiased. Our debate wasn’t about empirically discovering biased coins, it was firmly set in the realm of pure statistics. ---
**Author:** ![pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9e5f3/32.png) [@pretend\_my\_name\_is\_witty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pretend_my_name_is_witty)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/317 "2006-01-11T18:00:16Z")
> [@pizzabrat](#): > > > [@ryobserver](#): > > > > One awkward day in second grade, I was the only one in class, including the teacher, who knew there were no tigers in Africa. > > …nobody? > > Don’t look at me, I’m at work and it’s not so easy for me to covertly search for the link… [This what you were after?](http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya/) ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/318 "2006-01-14T18:17:08Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I can one-up you there. > > A bit of set up: > > Picture a moonshine tent set up for a semi-permanent camp, in which rye mash is fermenting in big ol’ drums. There are thermostatically-controlled DC-powered aquarium heaters to keep the mash from getting too cold during the May mountain nights. Things tick along nicely, until the summer, when the sweltering heat during the day punishes the yeast and the fermentation slows _waaaaaaaay_ down, severely affecting production. > > Now picture a woman who has a simple solution to the problem, (if it’s too hot, turn the thermostat down,) and can’t be made to understand why it would be ineffective, no matter how hard you tried to explain that the control is connected to a _heater_ which won’t lower the temperature below ambient, and is irritated that you won’t follow her sound advice. “Just turn it down!” > > 😃 I’ve known scientists who when faced with a cell culture or bacterial incubator that has accidentally been set too high (say, 45C when it is supposed to be 37C) will turn the incubator down to the correct setting, **close the door** then wonder why it is taking all day to get down to the correct temperature. Hint: try leaving the incubator door wide open, Einstein! ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/319 "2006-01-14T22:09:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by **Zsofia:** > > It doesn’t strike anybody as strange that my college educated parents both think women have one less rib?! I mean, can’t you just feel your sides? What strikes me as strange about it is that according to the Bible, **Adam** was the one who had one rib _removed_ in order to make Eve from it. Therefore, women ought to have one **more** rib than men! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738/320 "2006-01-15T18:49:58Z")
I’ve had several people insist that Mexico is in South America: “It’s south of America.” They don’t believe me when I tell them that “America” means the entire New World. I’ve known people who think that a radio signal is the same as a sound wave. One actually laughed at me when I told him that radio signals travel at the speed of light. I tried to explain that a radio station transmits an electromagnetic wave which is then converted to sound by the radio, that if it was a sound wave you wouldn’t need a radio to hear it. He kept laughing and said “Sound can’t travel at the speed of light!”. If you think it’s funny hearing people trying to use statistics to predict a coin toss, then you _must_ check out some of the jag-offs sitting around the roulette table. These people actually think the past spins affect the current spin: “oooh! 9 hasn’t come up in a long time! It’s due!”, or “26 is hot!”. The casinos have even started catering to this idiocy, with LED boards displaying the past 20 or so spins. I know, some guy broke Monte Carlo by picking up on an anomalty in one of the wheels, but that was in like 1890; I’m sure the wheels are better quality these days. And with everything being fed into computers, the house is going to spot an anomalty before any of us are. But nothing fazes the jag-offs: “If it doesn’t mean anything, then why do they bother displaying the numbers?” As if the casino is trying to _help_ them win! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-good-adults-believe-bad-science-share-your-stories/337738.md?page=17)