C.G.P. Grey busts some myths you may have heard about animals. He goes pretty fast, so in case you want to check the facts more slowly, the script is available at his site. Link -via The Daily What

C.G.P. Grey gives us ten more reasons we take anything we see on the internet with a grain of salt. You can always look for more information.  -via reddit

Columbus Discovered The World Was Round

We’ve all heard the story about how Christopher Columbus was the first person to realize the Earth was round. But despite the fact that many of us were told this story in elementary school, this is about as far from historical truth as you can get.

The Columbus story was actually started by Washington Irving, who, despite calling himself a historian, was much more of a historical fiction writer. As a matter of fact, you may recall his name from his most famous work, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

While Irving’s Columbus novel did feature a lot of historical fact and the author spent hours researching the navigator’s life, he also added a lot of his own fictional plot twists to make the story more interesting. Even so, certain fictional aspects from his story did work their way into the public consciousness and eventually, into the history books.

In actuality, the idea of a round Earth dates all the way back to Grecian times in 600 B.C. By the time Columbus was born, it had been proven mathematically and someone who argued the world was flat would be considered just as crazy then as someone who believed the same thing today.

As a matter of fact, Columbus was the one who was completely wrong in his calculations, not the general public. That’s because navigators of the time completely (and correctly) disagreed with how big Columbus thought the world was and thus, how long it would take to get to India.

Columbus was so stubborn that even after he located a new continent, he refused to admit that his calculations were wrong and that he was anywhere except India -hence his insistence on calling the natives “Indios,” Spanish for “Indians.” In fact, because Columbus refused to admit he didn’t sail to the Indies, it wasn’t until a year after he died that America was identified as a new continent by Amerigo Vespucci (the continent was eventually named in his honor).

Washington Could Not Tell A Lie

This is the old story that says that even as a youngster, George Washington was so honest that he could not tell a lie to his father no matter how angry good ol’ dad was that someone would cut down his favorite cherry tree.

For some reason, this seems to be a story that teachers like to tell young children as though it was fact, only to tell children that it isn’t true once they grow older. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like teaching kids history might be a little easier if we don’t treat the first president of the USA like Santa Claus.

Part of the reason for the many myths surrounding Mr. Washington was a “biography” by Mason Locke Weems titled The Life of George Washington, with Curious Anecdotes Laudable to Himself and Exemplary to his Countrymen.  Aside from a ridiculously long title, the book featured a number of tales about Washington’s bravery and honesty –most of which, like the cherry tree story, are completely fabricated.

While we’re on the subject, Washington also did not have wooden teeth. While the president did wear dentures, they actually featured teeth made of a variety of substances, including gold, ivory, lead, human teeth and animal teeth, but no wood.

Sir Walter Raleigh Introduced Europe to New World Treats

Most of the stories told about this famed explorer are exaggerations, if not outright lies. He was hardly handsome and although he was a charming gentleman, he certainly never laid his cloak over a puddle so Queen Elizabeth could walk by without dirtying her shoes.

Similarly, while he helped popularize tobacco in England, even encouraging the queen to light up, he was not the first person to bring the plant into the county. And he was far from the first person to light up a pipe in Europe. In fact, tobacco was first brought to Spain in 1518 and it had certainly spread north to London by 1578, when Raleigh first brought it back to England.

Same story with the potato, which was first brought to Spain in 1570 and quickly spread throughout Europe. As for who first brought them from America to England, it may have been Raleigh, but it just as likely could have been Sir Francis Drake.

So why is Raleigh credited with being so chivalrous to the queen and for bringing these New World specialties back to England? Largely thanks to American school teacher and writer James Baldwin who, like the other “historians” listed here, felt justified in making up falsehoods if they helped emphasize the importance of a historical figure. Baldwin completely made up the story about the Queen and Sir Raleigh and claimed that he was the first man to bring potatoes and tobacco not only to England, but to all of Europe.

Of course, if you’ve ever wanted a scapegoat for all the misinformation still being printed in school books, Baldwin might just be your favorite lying historian. While none of his books are still in print, the author wrote so many successful text books that it was estimated that around the early twentieth century, half of all American school books were written by the liberty-taking historian.

Paul Revere’s Ride to Concord

“Listen my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.” There’s a reason this story always starts off so poetically –this line comes from a poem. The poem in question is “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and while it may be a great poem, it’s hardly a historical retelling of that fateful night. Longfellow’s story was only created to help stir up some much needed patriotism shortly before the Civil War started.

Paul Revere was only one of about forty men that were involved with the incident. Longfellow only chose to focus the story on Revere because his name made a perfect match in the first line of the poem. To be fair though, only a few of the men have ever been identified and Revere did play a big role in planning and executing the plan, but he never actually finished his ride, since he was caught in a roadblock on the way to Concord.

Humorously, the poem itself never mentions Revere screaming “the British are coming,” but that has since become one of the biggest parts of the story of his ride. This newer addition is unsurprisingly totally untrue. There’s a good reason the riders didn’t go around screaming at the top of their lungs –over 20% of the population was still loyal to the crown and would have happily reported this sort of information to the British if given a chance. Instead of screaming down the streets, the riders instead went directly to the homes and meeting halls of the patriots they knew.

Not all of Longfellow’s poem is completely bunk though. Revere really did suggest the “one if by land, two if by sea” lantern system and he really did stealthy row his ship across the Charles River sneaking next to the British warship HMS Somerset. Those details have to count for something, right?

Marco Polo Brought Pasta to Europe

Surely at some point you’ve heard someone claim that Asians were the first people to make pasta and that Marco Polo brought the creation back to Europe where it flourished, particularly in Italy. Like many of the other stories listed here, this one is completely fabricated. But while the rest of these fictionalized stories were at least created by well-meaning writers who were just trying to make history a little more interesting, this one was made by a marketing team in order to make their product seem more exciting and exotic.

Pasta as we know it has nothing to do with Marco Polo. In fact, the pasta that he describes in his Travels are actually what we call “dumpling skins” not “pasta.” While historians debate the official definition of pasta and then the official date that it was invented, they agree that at the latest, durum wheat pasta was brought to Sicily by the Libyans in the late 7^th century–about six centuries before Polo visited China.

So where did the Marco Polo pasta story come from? Actually, that “fact” was first printed in the Macaroni Journal, a 1920’s trade industry publication created by an association of food industry conglomerates who were trying to increase pasta consumption in the United States.

There are still plenty more historical untruths being taught to kids around the country, many of which came from the same imaginative writers that invented the myths in this article. Do you happen to know any other historical fictions that are still being taught to school children?

Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, Read Book Online, National Center, Write Spirit, Cracked #1, #2

The daddy long-legs does not “have the most potent venom to humans, but its mouth is too small to bite humans.” They’re not venomous. Still, how would we test this, exactly? Extract the venom and kill a bunch of people on purpose?

No spider ever laid eggs in someone’s skin, mouth, or beehive hairdo. Spiders are not waiting in airplane toilet seats to bite your butt.

Millipedes do not have a thousand legs. If it’s roundish and has two pairs of legs per segment, it’s a millipede.

For the love of god, it’s venomous. Poisonous is when it’s ingested or inhaled. Venom is injected into your bloodstream or deeper tissues. Most venom isn’t even poisonous. And I am picturing you eating spiders when you say they’re poisonous.

Read more at Arizona Writer. Link -via Not Exactly Rocket Science

Have you ever been told that you need to let your anger out or it will explode? As it turns out, that’s completely wrong. Cracked has a great list of psychology myths everyone believes that are utterly and completely wrong. Be warned, some of the language is NSFW.

Link

Independence Day is celebrated two days too late. The Second Continental Congress voted for a Declaration of Independence on July 2, prompting John Adams to write his wife, “I am apt to believe that [July 2, 1776], will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”

Adams correctly foresaw shows, games, sports, buns, bells, and bonfires—but he got the date wrong. The written document wasn’t edited and approved until the Fourth of July, and that was the date printers affixed to “broadside” announcements sent out across the land. July 2 was soon forgotten.

Learn other historic tales that were different from what you recall in this article at National Geographic News. Link

You’ve heard of Bigfoot, Nessie, and the Abominable Snowman. Here are a few of their more obscure (but just as fascinating) cousins.

Monster: Sciopod
Where it lived: Ethiopia
Legend: Latin for “shade foot”, these relatively peaceful creatures were first recorded in around A.D. 77 by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder. They were said to live in the wilds of what is now Ethiopia and were described as small, pale, humanlike creatures-but with only one leg and a giant foot. They hopped around on that giant foot, but they also used it as sun shade: Sciopods supposedly spent several hours a day lying on their backs with their giant feet in the air to block the harsh North African sun. Sciopods were extremely powerful, too. They could kill a large game animal (or a human) with a single jumping kick. But never fear-the strange creatures didn’t eat meat. Or plants. Or anything. They existed solely on the aroma of living fruit, with they always carried with them. Sciopods are mentioned in numerous writings over several centuries, ending sometime in the Middle Ages.

(Image credit: Flickr user Miss Cellania)

Monster: Gowrow
Where it lived: Arkansas
Legend: This monster was first heard of in the 1880s, when Arkansas farmers reported being terrorized by a huge lizard. In 1897 Fred Allsopp, a reporter for the Arkansas Gazette, wrote about an encounter with the beast. The monster, which Allsopp named a “gowrow” after the sound it made, had been eating livestock in the Ozark Mountains in the northwest of the state. A local business man named William Miller formed a posse to hunt and kill it. They found its lair, which was littered with animal (and human) bones, and waited for it. It surprised them by emerging from a nearby lake and attacking them-but they were able to kill it with several gunshots. Miller described the gowrow as being 20 feet long, with huge tusks, webbed and clawed feet, a row of horns along its spine, and a knifelike end to a long tail. He said he sent the body to the Smithsonian Institute-but it mysteriously never made it. Allsopp finished the article by saying he believed it was a “great fake”, but sightings of a similar lizardlike creature were reported in the Ozarks for many years.

(Image credit: Flickr user Luciana Christante)

Monster: Encantado
Where it lives: The Amazon River
Legend: Encantado means “enchanted one” in Portuguese and refers to a special kind of boto, or long-beaked river dolphin native to the Amazon-that can take human form. Encantados are curious about humans and are especially attracted to big, noisy festivals, which they often attend as musicians, staying in human form for years. How can you recognize one? Look under its hat: They always have bald spots that are actually disguised blowholes. Encantados are usually friendly, but they occasionally hypnotize and kidnap young women and take them back to the Encante, their underground city. Sometimes the women escape and return…pregnant with an Encantado baby.

Monster: Kappa
Where it lives: Japan
Legend: Kappas are said to inhabit lakes and rivers throughout the Japanese islands. They look like frogs, but with tortoiselike shells on their backs. They can leave the water-carrying their shells with them-because they have shallow depressions in their heads in which they keep a bit of water that not only allows them to walk around on land but also makes them incredibly strong. If you encounter one, bow to it. They’re very polite, so they’ll have to bow back to you…and the water will spill out of their head-bowls, weakening them. Their favorite food: the blood of small children. Their second-favorite: cucumbers. That’s why you can still see people in Japan throwing fresh cucumbers into lakes and rivers-with the names of their children carved into them. This, the legend says, will protect their little ones from the kappa’s clutches.

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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

So, we all knew about Mentos and Coke (thanks, Jamie and Adam), but I didn’t know that Alka-Seltzer could, in fact, kill a bird or that apple seeds have cyanide!  See for yourself!

As we get older, it’s easier to logically dismiss some of the outlandish claims we heard as kids—never really needing to investigate if there’s any truth behind them. But some of these assertions—like whether eating too many carrots will turn you orange or if rice really does harm birds when ingested—tend to keep us guessing far into adulthood. To satisfy our curiosity (and yours) we’ve done research that debunks or confirms common food-related fables.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by ahammel.