Popular Myths/urban legends

[ChrisLove]

Following the earlier thread re Cow Tipping – give some examples of events or pheneomem that everyone seems to believe is true but is actually balls…. Or just stuff you hear stated as fact all the time but are obviously not true.

Here are some to start you off…..

- (from earlier) Cow Tipping – doesn’t happen, you can't tip a cow.
- The cartoon series Capitan Pugwash had characters called things like Seaman Staines and Roger the Cabin Boy (I think it was Jim the Cabin Boy)
- There is more evidence that Jesus was a real person (roman records etc) than Julius Caesar/Alexander the Great/ Napoleon/ insert famous historical figure…
- Water goes down the plughole/sink/toilet in a different direction in the northern hemisphere compared to the southern.

Any others?

[jabumbo]

the water vortex thing isnt a myth, its true

[TAL]

I know one.

TAL is a robot and/or jabumbo's brother.

[ms.peachy]

the water vortex thing isnt a myth, its true
Not entirely it isn't. It's true on a large scale, but not on a small one. Water doesn't necessarily act uniformly within either hemisphere in a sinks, toilets or tubs. It does, however, hold true for weather systems, tidal flow, etc.

[B4BY 4NN]

I told some girl in HS that if she ate too much bread she'd get a yeast infection.

[ChrisLove]

the water vortex thing isnt a myth, its true

Water vortex thing is definately a myth (a quick google search will show you that) - the Coriolis effect is too small to impact the flow of water in domestic appliances/plumbing. Hurricanes do turn in different direction in different hemispheres tho - although Im not sure it is technicly a hurricane in the southern hemisphere - its a typhoon or a cyclone or something

[ms.peachy]

Ok this isn't really an urban legend or anything, but it is a story some of you may find amusing anyway, because it's something I believed to be true for a long time.

When I was a little kid (like 4 or 5), for a while, my mom and dad had a table at the Chester Flea Market in Chester, NJ. The drive there would take us past Bell Labs just outside of town, where they had this big field of telephone poles. Now I know that the reason they were there was to test the effect of weathering etc on the different types of wood and wood treatments and such, but at the time, whenever we drove past it, my mom and dad would say "Look, it's the telephone farm where they grow the telphone poles!"

And, being that I was a little kid and because I knew the poles were wood and wood grows out of the ground, and I didn't, you know, assume that my parents who supposedly LOVED me would blatantly LIE to me, I believed them and never questioned it. And so years later when I was about 15 or 16 for some reason it came up in conversation that I mentioned something about the telephone pole farm and my parents were like "Oh my god, you are so gullible" and started LAUGHING AT ME, because in the intervening years it hadn't occurred to me that THEY WERE A COUPLE OF BIG STINKING LIARFACES, at least not on this issue.

Not that I have any issues or lingering resentment about this, or anything.

[Parkey]

Water vortex thing is definately a myth (a quick google search will show you that) - the Coriolis effect is too small to impact the flow of water in domestic appliances/plumbing. Hurricanes do turn in different direction in different hemispheres tho - although Im not sure it is technicly a hurricane in the southern hemisphere - its a typhoon or a cyclone or something
Bang on. It's really easy to fake this (with water down the plug-hole), which is exactly what people at the equator do for tourists.

[Parkey]

Ok this isn't really an urban legend or anything, but it is a story some of you may find amusing anyway, because it's something I believed to be true for a long time.

When I was a little kid (like 4 or 5), for a while, my mom and dad had a table at the Chester Flea Market in Chester, NJ. The drive there would take us past Bell Labs just outside of town, where they had this big field of telephone poles. Now I know that the reason they were there was to test the effect of weathering etc on the different types of wood and wood treatments and such, but at the time, whenever we drove past it, my mom and dad would say "Look, it's the telephone farm where they grow the telphone poles!"

And, being that I was a little kid and because I knew the poles were wood and wood grows out of the ground, and I didn't, you know, assume that my parents who supposedly LOVED me would blatantly LIE to me, I believed them and never questioned it. And so years later when I was about 15 or 16 for some reason it came up in conversation that I mentioned something about the telephone pole farm and my parents were like "Oh my god, you are so gullible" and started LAUGHING AT ME, because in the intervening years it hadn't occurred to me that THEY WERE A COUPLE OF BIG STINKING LIARFACES, at least not on this issue.

Not that I have any issues or lingering resentment about this, or anything.
Ha! I love stuff like that. In a similar vein, when i was a kid I believed for years that if you saw someone with a mental disability yawning and then yawned yourself, you'd become affected by whatever disability they had... I hasten to add that my parents didn't tell me this!

[Qdrop]

more Urban Myths:

Vitiman C kills a cold and directly boosts immune systems.

shaving makes your hair grow in thicker.

herbal remedies have unbiased, independant clinical studies backing up thier claims.

[Bionic]

oh god here we go...

[fucktopgirl]

And so years later when I was about 15 or 16 for some reason it came up in conversation that I mentioned something about the telephone pole farm and my parents were like "Oh my god, you are so gullible" and started LAUGHING AT ME, because in the intervening years it hadn't occurred to me that THEY WERE A COUPLE OF BIG STINKING LIARFACES, at least not on this issue.

Not that I have any issues or lingering resentment about this, or anything.


so at 15 you still think though that telephone pole grow in the ground?! :p
You where naive!

[ms.peachy]

so at 15 you still think though that telephone pole grow in the ground?! :p
You where naive!
The point is, I didn't think about it at all, because I presumed my parents had told me the truth to begin with. I had no occasion to think about it until it came up years later, when my mom or dad said something like "You remember we had that stall at the flea market back then" and I blurted out something like "Oh yeah, and we used to drive by the telephone farm to get there," because that was the automatic memory I had associated with it as a result of repeated reinforcement BY THEM. yes of course I was naive - I was a child who trusted her parents. How would I have known any different?

[Extra Cheese]

myth: jesus was born on christmas

[Qdrop]

myth: jesus was born

[fucktopgirl]

myth:too much masturbation kill brain cells!

[Parkey]

The point is, I didn't think about it at all, because I presumed my parents had told me the truth to begin with. I had no occasion to think about it until it came up years later, when my mom or dad said something like "You remember we had that stall at the flea market back then" and I blurted out something like "Oh yeah, and we used to drive by the telephone farm to get there," because that was the automatic memory I had associated with it as a result of repeated reinforcement BY THEM. yes of course I was naive - I was a child who trusted her parents. How would I have known any different?
You should invest in this book ready for your own little ones; Great Lies to Tell To Small Kids (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0340834056/qid=1136822446/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/026-8981666-1570823) (y)

[marsdaddy]

The stolen toothbrush-camera story doesn't work with digitial pictures.

[Qdrop]

myth: marsdaddy is intelligent and witty.

[marsdaddy]

myth: marsdaddy is intelligent and witty.Actually, if you google marsdaddy, intelligent, and witty, you'll see it's no myth.

[Qdrop]

Actually, if you google marsdaddy, intelligent, and witty, you'll see it's no myth.

damn that google.

[instigator7022]

Did a snake ever eat a person whole? :confused: I'm still very confused about this one.