Annoying Myths

[AzurePhoenix]

Daddy Long Legs is the most poisonous spider in the world (but has fangs so small it can't bite you!). Sorry, I believe that distinction goes to the funnel web spider or the brown recluse

The brazillian wandering spider is often said to have the most potent venom, but comparisons of such things can be pretty hard to pin down. Anyway, most varieties of daddy long legs aren't even actual spiders, just close relatives.

[Connor]

- Daddy Long Legs is the most poisonous spider in the world (but has fangs so small it can't bite you!). Sorry, I believe that distinction goes to the funnel web spider or the brown recluse.

 

daddy long legs aren't even spiders really.

 

Here's a good source for that info...

 

http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html

[ydoaPs]

anybody see the mythbusters with the daddylongleggs? nothing happened. not all that poisonous.

[AzurePhoenix]

The actual Daddy Long Legs Spider does have a very mild venom, sufficient to kill their prey. Just doesn't harm larger organisms. The more common harvestmen aren't poisonous, just have silk glands.

[herpguy]

Blood is blue...

[ydoaPs]

Actually they do have a very mild venom, sufficient to kill their prey. Just doesn't harm larger organisms. The actual Daddy Long Legs Spider is slightly more venomous if I recall, and more easily able to pierce skin.

i didn't say they weren't; i just said they weren't very venomous.

[AzurePhoenix]

sorry, misread it as "not at all poisonous" rather than "not all that poisonous"

 

let's drop the spider thing, thread's WAY off track

[Nevermore]

Blood is blue...

While in the body, veinous blood is purpleish blue. However, when exposed to the air, (e.g. Hey Billy-Bob! Let's git us a look at that there blue blood!) it turns purpleish red.

Edit: I like your new avatar AP, resolution stinks though.

[bascule]

i think they mean the only use 10% of the potential of their brain. that may be debatable, but i don't know a whole lot about neurobiology.

 

As soon as you shoot down one interpretation they keep coming up with others. That myth is just plain wrong and should be treated as such.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

While in the body' date=' veinous blood is purpleish blue. However, when exposed to the air, (e.g. Hey Billy-Bob! Let's git us a look at that there blue blood!) it turns purpleish red.

Edit: I like your new avatar AP, resolution stinks though.[/quote']

Arterial blood would be red even inside the body, I assume?

[herpguy]

While in the body, veinous blood is purpleish blue. However, when exposed to the air, (e.g. Hey Billy-Bob! Let's git us a look at that there blue blood!) it turns purpleish red.

I'm confused now.

[Klaynos]

Changing the state of an entangled particle changes the state of the particle it was originally entangled with.

 

E=mc² is always true.

 

ID has some bassis in science.

[ecoli]

i think they mean the only use 10% of the potential of their brain. that may be debatable, but i don't know a whole lot about neurobiology.

 

nobody knows enough about neruobiology... at least not enough to give us a real number that dispels this myth.

[Phi for All]

Arterial blood would be red even inside the body, I assume?

Blood gets its color from red blood cells and is always red. It appears blue in the veins because you're seeing it through veins and skin tissue which diffuse the light.

 

Blood in the veins is a bit darker red than arterial blood which is brighter due to more oxygen. Most cuts drip darker venous blood. If you nick an artery it will spurt bright red in time with your heartbeat. Get help quick.

[Daecon]

Carrying the foot of a rabbit/a horseshoe/a four-leaf clover can influence the laws of probability when they apply to you.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Carrying the foot of a rabbit/a horseshoe/a four-leaf clover can influence the laws of probability when they apply to you.

I don't think that's quite how they explain it.

[Nevermore]

I'm confused now.

Arterial Blood O2 saturation > veinous blood O2 saturation

more O2 = redder color

However, according to Phi, this has more to do with blood vessle color than O2 saturation.

[JohnB]

- "lightning never strikes the same place twice" I wonder how many meteorologists they went through to figure that one out

Technically true. No place is ever the same after lightning hits it.

 

I've always thought the 4 leaf clover was considered lucky simply because they are so rare that you must already be lucky simply to find one.

[bascule]

Some more:

 

- The average person swallows eight spiders a year... wtf?

 

- You can derail a train with a penny, or kill someone by throwing one off of a skyscraper

 

- Swimming less than an hour after you eat will cause stomach cramps

 

- Ring around the Rosie is about the black plague

[bascule]

Here's some more really annoying ones, all rooted in a stupid conspiracy theory:

 

- A Mannlicher Carcano rifle cannot be aimed and fired three times in 8.5 seconds

 

- The "magic bullet" could not have broken Kennedy's rib, Conolly's wrist and exited with enough force to penetrate his thigh without becoming deformed

 

- Lee Harvey Oswald could not descend 6 flights of stairs in the Texas Schoolbook Depository in 45 seconds and not appear winded when confronted with a cop very soon afterward (in reality land, it only takes 30 seconds to walk down the six flights of stairs)

[Glider]

Arterial Blood O2 saturation > veinous blood O2 saturation

more O2 = redder color

With the exception of the pulmonary vein which carries the most highly oxygentated blood. The rule that 'arteries carry oxygenated blood blood and veins don't' is not true. To say that arteries carry blood away from the heart and veins carry blood towards the heart is more accurate. From the right ventricle blood is pumped to the lungs through the pulmonary artery and oxygentated blood is carried back through the pulmonary vein to the left atrium, then to the left ventricle then to the aorta.

 

If you see venous blood taken (e.g. for testing), it is a very dark purple/blue colour. If you squirt some on to a swab open to the air, it will quickly turn cherry red.

[insane_alien]

- Swimming less than an hour after you eat will cause stomach cramps

 

It won't cause stomach cramps but does have the potential to cause muscle cramps if your doing some proper swimming and not just mucking about with friends. this happens because blood is diverted to your stomach to aid in digestion. it only really applys to meals and a small snack won't do any harm. i've seen this happen a few times when i've been watching over a pool.

Us life guards don't like tha fatties that are constantly eating. i had to send some guy away cause he was eating a family bucket of KFC as he was coming onto the poolside. there was no way in hell i would have been able to get him out the pool if it was necessary.

[aj47]

Chewing gum stays in you stomach for more than 10 years.

[insane_alien]

2012 theories

 

moon landing hoaxes

 

11/9 conspiracies (i refuse to do it the american way)

[Royston]

 

- Ring around the Rosie is about the black plague

 

Really ? What's it about then, it's just we we're taught at school it was. It's called the 'black death' just so you know...or 'the plague.'

 

I'd be really interested to know what the rhyme is actually about.