Stupid myths people believe.

[scythe]

Myth: Fluoride in drinking water causes cancer / brain damage or is a government conspiracy

Reality: Fluoride is present at 1 ppm in fluoridated water. It is also present at 1 ppm in the fucking ocean. It is present at levels well over 1 ppm in Arizona groundwater, and the million or so residents of Phoenix suffer no ill effects. No significant health risk has ever been causally associated with normal levels of water fluoridation.

Myth: the assassination of JFK was a conspiracy / aliens / Russians.

Reality: John F Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, a highly proficient trained sniper.

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=41465
See also Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi.

Myth: the people of the third world suffer from a deficiency of rice and corn in their diet. We could cure malnutrition by not feeding corn to cows and sending it all to Africa.

Reality: Most of the corn we feed to cows is completely unfit as a major constituent of anyone's diet. The beef produced therefrom is itself completely unfit as a major constituent of anyone's diet. The most common form of malnutrition is iodine deficiency, along with several other vitamins. If you look at the map on the right here, you'll notice that most of Africa and almost all of the rest of the world receives ~1800 kcal/day: not great, but not caloric starvation. Even more fun:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malnutriti ... oductivity

Food shortages are caused by the lack of technology and resources needed for the higher yields found in modern agriculture, such as nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation. Reasons for the unavailability include moves to stop supplying fertilizer on environmental grounds, cited as the obstacle to feeding Africa by the Green revolution pioneer Norman Borlaug.[11] As a result of widespread poverty, farmers cannot afford or governments cannot provide the technology. The World Bank and some wealthy donor countries also press nations that depend on aid to cut or eliminate subsidized agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, in the name of free market policies even as the United States and Europe extensively subsidized their own farmers.[10][12] Many, if not most, farmers cannot afford fertilizer at market prices, leading to low agricultural production and wages and high, unaffordable food prices.[10]

There are a large number of obvious downsides to excess fertilizer use, but "starving people" luckily isn't one of them.

Myth: Chlamydia, gonnorrhea, leprosy, and syphilis...

Reality: ...are curable. Some people still view these as lifetime diseases, apparently. If you have any of these, please see a doctor and get treated immediately.

Myth: DDT is banned from usage for malaria prevention

Reality: DDT is still used for malaria prevention, both in swarm control and in indoor residual spraying. The reintroduction of DDT to many countries where it was abandoned is credited with saving millions of lives. On the other hand, the agricultural use of DDT is very harmful because it easily leads to resistance and ineffectiveness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#DDT_us ... st_malaria

According to one study that attempted to quantify the lives saved by banning agricultural uses of DDT and thereby slowing the spread of resistance, "it can be estimated that at current rates each kilo of insecticide added to the environment will generate 105 new cases of malaria."

And a damn good thing it can be, too: "In a research from 1993 to 1995, Ecuador increased its use of DDT and resulted in a 61% reduction in malaria rates..."

Myth: Absinthe is illegal

Reality: Absinthe is legal in the United States. Alcoholic beverages with >10 ppm thujone are considered unfit for consumption by the FDA, but can be prepared easily at home by anyone who has access to common sage (read: everyone. period.). Enjoy your nausea and seizures: thujone is a GABA-A antagonist.

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't dealt with all of these at least five times. Goddamn.

[otters~1]

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't dealt with all of these at least five times. Goddamn.

I'm going to misconstrue your post and assume you've had chlamydia a lot.

[smartalco]

The beef produced therefrom is itself completely unfit as a major constituent of anyone's diet.

Either this is a typo, or I am a living counter to science.

More on topic though, yes, people are dumb.

[Destiny]

Apart from the ones about STIs, I'd never heard any of those myths. And I was actually told that those STIs were uncurable by a sex ed group that came to my highschool. But I already figured out they were curable once the 'It's better to know.' group started coming to my college to gather urine samples for chlamydia tests.

[SlappyMcGee]

My girlfriend is full of these.

Sabrina believes that Cheetos are the leading cause of Cancer.

Sabrina believes that nipple pinching gives you Cancer.

Sabrina believes that if you do not kill a spider in it's youth, it will track you down until your death.

Sabrina believes that there is one stalker in North America for every two people.

Sabrina believes that most homeless people are employed but choose to live on the streets.

There are more.

[otters~1]

My favorite is the people who argue that cell phones cause testicular cancer. Whether this is true or not, there's no way the long-term studies they point to have yielded anything yet.

[Tanner]

Sabrina believes that nipple pinching gives you Cancer.

I mean, really, that's sort of true. You pinch hard enough and you're going to kill or damage cells that will need to be replaced thereby increasing your chances of getting cancer very minimally.

Sort of puts a damper on your sex life, though.

[SlappyMcGee]

Sabrina believes that nipple pinching gives you Cancer.

I mean, really, that's sort of true. You pinch hard enough and you're going to kill or damage cells that will need to be replaced thereby increasing your chances of getting cancer very minimally.

Sort of puts a damper on your sex life, though.

That reminds me. She's also terrified of lasers. Like, store bought four dollar lasers. If they are pointed at her skin, she will run away with her hands in the air.

Also, is there any science to that, Tanner? or just logic?

[Mute Monk]

My favorite is the people who argue that cell phones cause testicular cancer. Whether this is true or not, there's no way the long-term studies they point to have yielded anything yet.

I've never heard anything about links to testicular cancer specifically, but this study posits that there could be a link with cancer in the head, particularly with heavy users. Recently though, most communication amongst young people via cell phones is by texting, not talking...so the study may be less relevant now.

Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis: This is one I hear alot (being a regular knuckle-cracker myself), and I'm becoming increasingly annoyed. There is no such connection; see here. There is an possible increased risk of injury to the joints as well as reduced grip strength over time, but I've experienced neither, nor am I involved in many activities with high stress on the joints. So I'm gonna keep cracking.

[Tanner]

That reminds me. She's also terrified of lasers. Like, store bought four dollar lasers. If they are pointed at her skin, she will run away with her hands in the air.

Amazing.

Also, is there any science to that, Tanner? or just logic?

I just used logic. I'm not some kind of science... man... dude.

[Vyacheslav]

My mother always tells my sister to stop blowdrying her hair daily. She thinks hair dryers cause brain tumors.

[otters~1]

My mother always tells my sister to stop blowdrying her hair daily. She thinks hair dryers cause brain tumors.

What it will cause is frizzy fucking hair. She'll see.

/dire warning

[Destiny]

Do apples and onions taste the same if you hold your nose? Because taste is like, 70% smell or something. My friend told me apples = onions if you don't smell them. Apart from the texture differences, obviously. But is that true?

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

How about, "shaving a patch of hair with a razor blade will make it come back faster and increasingly thicker?"

[smartalco]

My girlfriend is full of these.
...

I don't mean to insult your selection of women, and she may have many redeeming qualities, but based entirely on this, why are you dating this girl o_O?

[SlappyMcGee]

My girlfriend is full of these.
...

I don't mean to insult your selection of women, and she may have many redeeming qualities, but based entirely on this, why are you dating this girl o_O?

She's quirky. I thought that was obvious from my post. :/

[Vyacheslav]

How about, "shaving a patch of hair with a razor blade will make it come back faster and increasingly thicker?"

Hahahaha. People tell me this all the time. Not true at all.

[Tunco]

I bet Sabrina the girlfriend believes people get cancer when they realize their hand is bigger than their head.

[Nexx]

How about, "shaving a patch of hair with a razor blade will make it come back faster and increasingly thicker?"

Hahahaha. People tell me this all the time. Not true at all.

My girlfriend and I repeatedly clash on this one. As I recall, the hair doesn't actually grow back thicker (or faster), but it may look thicker (or otherwise more noticeable) due to *insert forgotten reason here*, and that's really the point. Or, worse, even if all the relevant experts in the world say that it shouldn't (actually or apparently) look thicker, she would still swear that it does for her, at which point I roll my eyes and give up.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

As I recall, the hair doesn't actually grow back thicker (or faster), but it may look thicker (or otherwise more noticeable) due to *insert forgotten reason here*.

The reason is that the people who verify thicker, faster-growing hair are adolescent men. Facial hair -- surprise, surprise -- grows in thicker and faster with age.
Maybe it's partially psychosomatic, too. The human brain is all kinds of weird.

[Neil_Bryan]

Do apples and onions taste the same if you hold your nose? Because taste is like, 70% smell or something. My friend told me apples = onions if you don't smell them. Apart from the texture differences, obviously. But is that true?

Unsure. But maybe they will still taste different even if you can't smell them. (although smell can influence the taste, apples and onions are, I think, different in each other, not only in smell but in taste too)

[Nexx]

The reason is that the people who verify thicker, faster-growing hair are adolescent men.

Really? All I've ever heard are young women confirming it to one another. Young men don't really give a crap in my experience. And, social norms being what they are, why should they?

[Tunco]

Do apples and onions taste the same if you hold your nose? Because taste is like, 70% smell or something. My friend told me apples = onions if you don't smell them. Apart from the texture differences, obviously. But is that true?

Unsure. But maybe they will still taste different even if you can't smell them. (although smell can influence the taste, apples and onions are, I think, different in each other, not only in smell but in taste too)

http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexpe ... esmll.html

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

The reason is that the people who verify thicker, faster-growing hair are adolescent men.

Really? All I've ever heard are young women confirming it to one another.

Or maybe men and facial hair <=> women and leg hair.

[otters]

For awhile I was afraid I would get cancer from carrots/orange juice/hotdogs.