Weird And Funny True Facts
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W
fact: some of the facts in this thread are not facts but myths
Claim: The average person swallows eight spiders per year.
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[TD]FALSE
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Origins: It's hard enough to avoid those horrible wriggly things while we're awake, and now we have to worry that they're crawling into our mouths while we sleep? Little Miss Muffett was a piker.
Fear not. This "statistic" average the average person swallowing eight spiders per year was not only made up out of whole cloth, it was invented as an example of the absurd things people will believe simply because they come across them on the Internet.
As noted in Scientific American, this claim is highly implausible from a biological standpoint:
The myth flies in the face of both spider and human biology, which makes it highly unlikely that a spider would ever end up in your mouth.
Three or four spider species live in most North American homes, and they all tend to be found either tending their webs or hunting in nonhuman-infested areas. During their forays, they usually don’t intentionally crawl into a bed because it offers no prey (unless it has bed bugs, in which case that person has bigger problems). Spiders also have
no interest in humans. "Spiders regard us much like they'd regard a big rock," says Bill Shear, a biology professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and former president of the American Arachnological Society. "We're so large that we're really just part of the landscape."
More than anything, spiders probably find sleeping humans terrifying. A slumbering person breathes, has a beating heart and perhaps snores — all of which create vibrations that warn spiders of danger. "Vibrations are a big slice of spiders' sensory universe," Crawford explains, "A sleeping person is not something a spider would willingly approach."
From the standpoint of human biology, the oral spider myth also seems ridiculous. If someone is sleeping with her mouth open, she's probably snoring — and thus scaring off any eight-legged transgressors. Plus, many people would likely be awakened by the sensation of a spider crawling over their faces and into their mouths. Shear can attest: once, while camping, he awoke to find a daddy longlegs crawling on his face.
So how did this claim arise? In a 1993 PC Professional article, columnist Lisa Holst wrote about the ubiquitous lists of "facts" that were circulating via e-mail and how readily they were accepted as truthful by gullible recipients. To demonstrate her point, Holst offered her own made-up list of equally ridiculous "facts," among which was the statistic cited above about the average person's swallowing eight spiders per year, which she took from a collection of common misbeliefs printed in a 1954 book on insect folklore. In a delicious irony, Holst's propagation of this false "fact" has spurred it into becoming one of the most widely-circulated bits of misinformation to be found on the Internet.
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Snopes
Claim: The average person swallows eight spiders per year.
[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD]FALSE
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Origins: It's hard enough to avoid those horrible wriggly things while we're awake, and now we have to worry that they're crawling into our mouths while we sleep? Little Miss Muffett was a piker.
Fear not. This "statistic" average the average person swallowing eight spiders per year was not only made up out of whole cloth, it was invented as an example of the absurd things people will believe simply because they come across them on the Internet.
As noted in Scientific American, this claim is highly implausible from a biological standpoint:
The myth flies in the face of both spider and human biology, which makes it highly unlikely that a spider would ever end up in your mouth.
Three or four spider species live in most North American homes, and they all tend to be found either tending their webs or hunting in nonhuman-infested areas. During their forays, they usually don’t intentionally crawl into a bed because it offers no prey (unless it has bed bugs, in which case that person has bigger problems). Spiders also have
no interest in humans. "Spiders regard us much like they'd regard a big rock," says Bill Shear, a biology professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and former president of the American Arachnological Society. "We're so large that we're really just part of the landscape."
More than anything, spiders probably find sleeping humans terrifying. A slumbering person breathes, has a beating heart and perhaps snores — all of which create vibrations that warn spiders of danger. "Vibrations are a big slice of spiders' sensory universe," Crawford explains, "A sleeping person is not something a spider would willingly approach."
From the standpoint of human biology, the oral spider myth also seems ridiculous. If someone is sleeping with her mouth open, she's probably snoring — and thus scaring off any eight-legged transgressors. Plus, many people would likely be awakened by the sensation of a spider crawling over their faces and into their mouths. Shear can attest: once, while camping, he awoke to find a daddy longlegs crawling on his face.
So how did this claim arise? In a 1993 PC Professional article, columnist Lisa Holst wrote about the ubiquitous lists of "facts" that were circulating via e-mail and how readily they were accepted as truthful by gullible recipients. To demonstrate her point, Holst offered her own made-up list of equally ridiculous "facts," among which was the statistic cited above about the average person's swallowing eight spiders per year, which she took from a collection of common misbeliefs printed in a 1954 book on insect folklore. In a delicious irony, Holst's propagation of this false "fact" has spurred it into becoming one of the most widely-circulated bits of misinformation to be found on the Internet.
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Snopes
A
Ten Fun Facts:
1. I have just skipped several numbers on multiple fact lists and went back to check each time the list told me I missed a number.
2. I do not look like a dog checking if I can breathe through my nose with my tongue out. I look like a barracuda with a swollen tongue.
3. Octopuses change colors to attract other octopuses.
4. It is Octopuses, not octopi. I ought to be octopi.
5. Previous female students of colleges are alumnae, not alumni. Previous male students are alumni. Previous students as a whole are alumni. Previous students are happy enough to get out, that they don't care if they are called alumnae, not alumni.
6. It is still a common misconception that Christians have a thing against Harry Potter because it promotes witchcraft in children. This was started by an article in The Onion -- Harvard's Lampoon. Harry Potter Books Spark Rise In Satanism Among Children | The Onion - America's Finest News Source Odd thing is some truly believed it.
7. Cob webs are not formed by cobs.
8. Colorado is the 48th State.
9. Delaware is the first state, because it was the first state to ratify the Constitution.
10. New Jersey is better.
11. Philadelphia is the best.
12. Philadelphia is not a state, but ought to be.
13. Philadelphia does not have enough common sense to become its own state.
14. The last mayor in Philadelphia used up our surplus to remove abandon cars. He paid tow trucks $75 each to remove the abandon cars, so they could get twice that from dump yards. Two years later, we couldn't tell any abandon cars were removed. Four years later, this city's bonds were called "junk bonds." He was reelected.
15. Philadelphia is the city that almost won the Super Bowl twice, almost got to the World Series every year (if you consider a .500 season "almost"), almost won the Stanley Cup (if you consider "almost getting into the playoffs" as almost), almost held the record for record of losses by our basketball team, and will almost something again at any moment.
16. Philadelphia still has sweethearts like me, so it's not as bad as it seems.
17. Jefferson has a huge clock in his foyer at Monticello. It is wound up every 8 days. Because of that, the slaves had to go down to the basement to wind the clock.
18. Jefferson really meant "all men are created equal." Some men became less equal ten years later when he figured out that the only way Monticello made a profit was by having boy slaves make penny nails. Jefferson died broke.
19. John Adams did not ask if Jefferson was dead right before he died. They did die on the same day -- July 4th.
20. God is good even when he doesn't do what we demand him to do.
21. I just finished my list of ten fun facts without missing a number.
1. I have just skipped several numbers on multiple fact lists and went back to check each time the list told me I missed a number.
2. I do not look like a dog checking if I can breathe through my nose with my tongue out. I look like a barracuda with a swollen tongue.
3. Octopuses change colors to attract other octopuses.
4. It is Octopuses, not octopi. I ought to be octopi.
5. Previous female students of colleges are alumnae, not alumni. Previous male students are alumni. Previous students as a whole are alumni. Previous students are happy enough to get out, that they don't care if they are called alumnae, not alumni.
6. It is still a common misconception that Christians have a thing against Harry Potter because it promotes witchcraft in children. This was started by an article in The Onion -- Harvard's Lampoon. Harry Potter Books Spark Rise In Satanism Among Children | The Onion - America's Finest News Source Odd thing is some truly believed it.
7. Cob webs are not formed by cobs.
8. Colorado is the 48th State.
9. Delaware is the first state, because it was the first state to ratify the Constitution.
10. New Jersey is better.
11. Philadelphia is the best.
12. Philadelphia is not a state, but ought to be.
13. Philadelphia does not have enough common sense to become its own state.
14. The last mayor in Philadelphia used up our surplus to remove abandon cars. He paid tow trucks $75 each to remove the abandon cars, so they could get twice that from dump yards. Two years later, we couldn't tell any abandon cars were removed. Four years later, this city's bonds were called "junk bonds." He was reelected.
15. Philadelphia is the city that almost won the Super Bowl twice, almost got to the World Series every year (if you consider a .500 season "almost"), almost won the Stanley Cup (if you consider "almost getting into the playoffs" as almost), almost held the record for record of losses by our basketball team, and will almost something again at any moment.
16. Philadelphia still has sweethearts like me, so it's not as bad as it seems.
17. Jefferson has a huge clock in his foyer at Monticello. It is wound up every 8 days. Because of that, the slaves had to go down to the basement to wind the clock.
18. Jefferson really meant "all men are created equal." Some men became less equal ten years later when he figured out that the only way Monticello made a profit was by having boy slaves make penny nails. Jefferson died broke.
19. John Adams did not ask if Jefferson was dead right before he died. They did die on the same day -- July 4th.
20. God is good even when he doesn't do what we demand him to do.
21. I just finished my list of ten fun facts without missing a number.
