Clearing up some common misconceptions.

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Erm...the official reason for the invasion of Iraq changed. It started off as them harbouring Al-Qaeda, and moves towards war began immediately after 9/11. Then it went to the WMDs in 45 minutes, then regime change.

If it wasn't for 9/11 the US in general and the Bush administration in particular wouldn't have gotten the support they did for the war, you can say it was because of 9/11 in that way.

Afghanistan started in 2001, immediatly after 9/11. Iraq happened in 2003...a direct continuation from the war in 1991! It was always regime change... seriously... it was people understanding that changed... and the events that led up... but the principle stayed the same, remove Saddam!

Trust me, I have been to these places... this is my life!

 

[Dtox333]

for me, it's pretty much just how people tend to generalize fandoms/groups of people who associate with each other through a hobby.

this includes sports fans, furries, sonic fans, and, for me personally, bronies, just basically ANY fandom.

people seem to have a knack for seeing a handful of crazy fans, and then thinking "oh they ALL must be like that," and then judge the rest to be the same way.

no, not all sports fans want to go rioting when their favorite team loses, no, not all furries are so obscenely perverted or want to be annoying, no, not all sonic fans are immature little crazy fantards, and no, not all bronies are defensive, opinionated asshats.

this goes for ALL fandoms, even justin bieber/twilight fans. people tend to forget that the irrational part of any group/population is always a minority, and it irks me to see so much judgment/generalizing being thrown about.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Afghanistan started in 2001, immediatly after 9/11. Iraq happened in 2003...a direct continuation from the war in 1991! It was always regime change... seriously... it was people understanding that changed... and the events that led up... but the principle stayed the same, remove Saddam!

Trust me, I have been to these places... this is my life!

Well, yeah, that's why I said "official reason". Can't be too surprised if some people believed what the politicians told them.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

My personal favourite:

The difference between Acronyms and Initialisms

An initialism is a series of letters used together to refer to a longer string of words. For example:

CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)
SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle)
MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)

An acronym is essentially an initialism BUT the difference is that you can pronounce the letters as a word. For example:

SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Aparatus)
LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation)

Enjoy your dose of useless knowledge!

MMORPG is an acronym! How many of us, honestly, now say Mumorpaga when we see MMORPG?

I was waiting for someone to point this out! I actually said Mumorpuger out loud as I wrote this so I guess that makes me a huge hypocrite! It's just easier and more fun to say than the actual letters. Props to Zahtzee for systematically defying the laws of the English language.

 

[idodo35]

israel is a modern country we dont use cammels also we are not all crazy anti palestinian nationalists... (thats just our govermant)
also what the heck is with the captchas today?! mine said "sick puppy"

 

[Nouw]

MMORPG is an acronym! How many of us, honestly, now say Mumorpaga when we see MMORPG?

That was fucking hilarious thank you xD.

 

[tjarne]

There are none, and has never been any communist state.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

I find that a little offensive. I eat a whole damn cow because I can and not gain a pound. Its my right as one of those skinny a-holes to fill myself with 1,000s of calories a day because I can.

 

[Ledan]

I am neither Sheldon Cooper nor a robot. While this mostly applies to people who know me IRL, it gets annoying after the fiftieth time someone says "You know who he reminds me of... Sheldon!"

Also, gravity is F'ing weak (compared to the other forces at least). Not sure I have actually see that as something misconstrued, but it seems like it might be just because it is one of those things.

The Big Bang =/= Evolution =/= Abiogenesis. To anyone who starts a debate in one and turns it into another thinking they are the same: Do your M****r-f*****g homework before you start the debate. Please.

Thank-you very much, I will be here all night[footnote]I will not, I am going to bed now, so don't expect to find me tonight. Unless you have the dream-riding unicorn. Goodnight[/footnote].

Well, now hold on there a second. Sure, compared to the PER UNIT strong and weak nuclear forces, gravity is weak. But gravity has a strength you're wholly ignoring. Gravity is long distance and cumulative. Sure, gravity on Earth isn't anything to compare to the nuclear forces, but what about black holes? Nuclear forces are only effective at the subatomic level, while gravity can effectively stop light in its tracks.

A black hole is supercondensed matter. Like a sun or two compressed into a tiny size, Take the same amount of matter and use it for nuclear fusion..... thats enough energy to..... idk a gtood comparison -.-, but it would be a greater force. Gravity is weak because it requires soooo much mass to be powerful.

 

[Ledan]

Drink 8 cups of water a day isn't a literal statement. That figure is accurate, but neglects to mention that the 8 cups can be from ANY source, even the water in food. And often there is quite a bit of water in your food. The figure also varies based on activity and environment.

Your ears are mostly self-cleaning. Plunging a q-tip inside your ear canal is actually bad for your ears natural cleaning cycle (it just jams the grime deeper in). Movements of the jaw slowly push dirt and waste from the inside to the outside of your ear. At most, you only need to swab the outside area of your ear, and even that's not terribly necessary.

Space is not cold.

Because everyone knows that -273°C is awfully warm. I just don't know what you mean by that at all. There is a complete absence of matter in space and the movement of matter creates heat.

Space is a vacuum. Some parts are warm, because they cant pass their heat on. If you were stuck in space, you wouldnt freeze to death but die of overheating since your bodyheat woud have nowhere to go.

 

[angryfish]

Because everyone knows that -273°C is awfully warm. I just don't know what you mean by that at all. There is a complete absence of matter in space and the movement of matter creates heat.

If I remember correctly, -273°C is a theorised temperature, and we do not know of anywhere in the universe where it is this cold. Close, perhaps, but not absolute zero.

Also, there is matter in space, just not very much. Like, one oxygen atom per couple of cubic meter of space. Or something - I don't know the actual elements/amounts, but the point is is that it's not *totally* empty.


On the topic of space, being in space without a space suit will not cause your whole body to blow up or anything, like that one simpsons episode. Your body is tougher than that. Although your lungs might burst if you try holding your breath...

And a non-space one: Similar to someone else at the top of the page, if i'm teasing / making sarcastic comments (outside of the anonymous internet anyway), that means that I'm comfortable with you and would probably count you a friend. Absolutely does not mean I don't like you, and teasing remarks should not be taken seriously.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Space is a vacuum. Some parts are warm, because they cant pass their heat on. If you were stuck in space, you wouldnt freeze to death but die of overheating since your bodyheat woud have nowhere to go.

Well...it is true you are in a really, really big vacuum flask, which will help you retain heat, but not forever.

As an aside, on certain planets it would "effectively" be colder in summer than winter, as in winter the atmosphere would freeze and leave you insulated by vacuum, while you'd be walking around in cooling gases in summer.

If I remember correctly, -273°C is a theorised temperature, and we do not know of anywhere in the universe where it is this cold. Close, perhaps, but not absolute zero.

Also, there is matter in space, just not very much. Like, one oxygen atom per couple of cubic meter of space. Or something - I don't know the actual elements/amounts, but the point is is that it's not *totally* empty.

On the topic of space, being in space without a space suit will not cause your whole body to blow up or anything, like that one simpsons episode. Your body is tougher than that. Although your lungs might burst if you try holding your breath...

Argh, yes, people always get those wrong. Space is supposedly generally slightly above absolute zero, and you can survive hard vacuum for a time. Not much fun if you spend more than a few seconds in it though, nasty things will happen, but not immediately fatal.

 

[FalloutJack]

Common misconception? Alright, I'll play your game...

People of the world, pay attention to me for a second! I'm standing on a little crate and I just want to say that your global mayhem is embarassing as a whole! Get over yourselves and start working for a better tomorrow! Thank you!

 

[dvd_72]

Because everyone knows that -273°C is awfully warm. I just don't know what you mean by that at all. There is a complete absence of matter in space and the movement of matter creates heat.

If I remember correctly, -273°C is a theorised temperature, and we do not know of anywhere in the universe where it is this cold. Close, perhaps, but not absolute zero.

Also, there is matter in space, just not very much. Like, one oxygen atom per couple of cubic meter of space. Or something - I don't know the actual elements/amounts, but the point is is that it's not *totally* empty.

Close. Much like the "theory of gravity", the temperature of absolute zero on our Celsius scale is widely accepted to be the correct value of absolute zero.

As for whoatemysupper, the movements of particles -is- the heat. Heat is just energy that is stored as the movement, rotation, and vibrations of individual particles.

The thing about the vacuum of space is that because of the incredibly low density of matter there will be very little loss of heat to your surroundings. In fact, a vacuum is the best insulator in existence, as the only way for a material to loose heat is by the emission of infra-red radiation. It would be more accurate to say that space has no heat or temperature at all, but that doesn't mean you will freeze without an insulating space suit. In order to loose heat at that kind of rate your body needs to be in contact with a material that is of a much lower temperature.

 

[angryfish]

Close. Much like the "theory of gravity", the temperature of absolute zero on our Celsius scale is widely accepted to be the correct value of absolute zero.

Apologies if I have misunderstood your point, but I wasn't saying that -273°C wasn't the temperature for absolute zero. What I meant was that although there may be a place in the universe where the temperature is absolute zero, we do not actually know of a specific place or thing that is that cold.


Back to different misconceptions, science generally has quite a few of these, probably due to the way it's taught (I'm not sure about in other countries, but here in England they teach you some convenient lies so that you can get your head around stuff, and then at each level higher you find out that everything that you thought you knew was wrong). So the misconceptions that I'm about to go list might be wrong when you go higher than A-level. Anyways:

Angle of incidence =/= angle of reflection - On average it does, but not always, and it's pretty much random which direction light will travel after reflection.

Electrons are not tiny little balls travelling in nice neat orbits around a nucleus. They are more like clouds of charge, and their orbits can be some really weird shapes.

Those are the only ones that spring to mind right now.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Apologies if I have misunderstood your point, but I wasn't saying that -273°C wasn't the temperature for absolute zero. What I meant was that although there may be a place in the universe where the temperature is absolute zero, we do not actually know of a specific place or thing that is that cold.

A quibble, but is absolute zero even theoretically possible in our universe? Everywhere in the universe is going to have some heat energy, there's no process (known) to remove all heat from somewhere.

Angle of incidence =/= angle of reflection - On average it does, but not always, and it's pretty much random which direction light will travel after reflection.

Is that a theory or practice thing? Because in practice you aren't going to get a perfectly formed surface to reflect of if it was true.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Disclaimer: US politics

I was talking to a democrat I'd known for a few years about Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan, and he was totally against it, just because the idea came from a Republican's mouth. Now, the US tax code SUUUUCKS. It punishes individuals with higher annual income: at 100,000 a year, almost 50% is taxable, compared to 10-20% for someone who makes minimum wage. It has a bunch of loopholes for people who can afford a dozen lawyers and CPAs to file a return for them. not only that, but your state refund is taxable, and there's an alternative minimum tax for those who are eligible for too many deductions. Plus, simply compiling information for and filing your mandatory, yearly tax return costs about 30 cents for every dollar of your refund (mind you, the refund is YOUR money that the government wrongly took). Finally, most Americans don't even know what they're doing when they file a return.

So tell me, how is a 9% flat tax any worse than THAT?!

PS - the tax rates that manufacturers and retailers pay on their goods are sky high, around 50%.

If you explain the situation of the new plan a bit more to me I could give you actual reason why it could be wrong or at least a poor idea according to Economics(the subject in school).

A black hole is supercondensed matter. Like a sun or two compressed into a tiny size, Take the same amount of matter and use it for nuclear fusion..... thats enough energy to..... idk a gtood comparison -.-, but it would be a greater force. Gravity is weak because it requires soooo much mass to be powerful.

Aside from the logistical nightmare or rather impossibility of mining something as dense as black hole or keeping it somewhere that is not how fission or fusion works. Gravity is weak because it is weak as to compare it to video games dual wielding Klobbs still doesn't make them a decent gun.

Fusion works when the gravity in a star compresses Hydrogen to Helium and then the heat assists in this or we heat things really hot and then they can fuse more easily. That is a simplification though. Black Holes just suck everything into its super dense self so I don't see how this would aid in fusion.

 

[ElPatron]

If there's anything people eat too much of it's carbohydrates. They're one of the worst things you can eat, it's akin to eating pure fat.

You do know that humans need carbohydrates, right?

Although not vital to ourselves, we would need to consume a lot more meat to be able to store enough protein we could use as energy.

It's not pure fat. Fat is very hard to "burn" as a source of energy. That's what carbohydrates are for, they are spent easily.

Athletes have a very high carbohydrate intake. If they were eating pure fat they would never be able to lose weight. No amount of physical exercise could balance that fat lipid intake.

Fusion works when the gravity in a star compresses Hydrogen to Helium and then the heat assists in this or we heat things really hot and then they can fuse more easily. That is a simplification though. Black Holes just suck everything into its super dense self so I don't see how this would aid in fusion.

Hint: why do we use pressure cooking?

We wouldn't have to use so much energy to ignite the fusion. So far we have only done it by starting fission first.

Space is a vacuum. Some parts are warm, because they cant pass their heat on. If you were stuck in space, you wouldnt freeze to death but die of overheating since your bodyheat woud have nowhere to go.

You do dissipate heat trough infra-red radiation. But we are definitely not the best radiation emitters so the amount of energy dissipated is very low.

 

[ShadowStar42]

Disclaimer: US politics

I was talking to a democrat I'd known for a few years about Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan, and he was totally against it, just because the idea came from a Republican's mouth. Now, the US tax code SUUUUCKS. It punishes individuals with higher annual income: at 100,000 a year, almost 50% is taxable, compared to 10-20% for someone who makes minimum wage. It has a bunch of loopholes for people who can afford a dozen lawyers and CPAs to file a return for them. not only that, but your state refund is taxable, and there's an alternative minimum tax for those who are eligible for too many deductions. Plus, simply compiling information for and filing your mandatory, yearly tax return costs about 30 cents for every dollar of your refund (mind you, the refund is YOUR money that the government wrongly took). Finally, most Americans don't even know what they're doing when they file a return.

So tell me, how is a 9% flat tax any worse than THAT?!

PS - the tax rates that manufacturers and retailers pay on their goods are sky high, around 50%.

Because even though the wealthy are taxed at a higher rate they still have substantially more after necessities to save an for luxuries.

Because the wealthy have a higher tendency to save their money rather than entering it back into the economy.

Because the 9-9-9 plan would be on top of whatever state plans that already exist giving states like Washington a nearly 20% sales tax.

Because sales taxes are regressive.

Because increasing the tax burden on those who are already scraping to get buy will run the risk of devastating out economy.

Because there is no reason to believe that the 9-9-9 plan would close those tax loopholes that are currently exploited.

And finally since I'm a Democrat, because conservative economic policy has been shown to consistently fail for the past 3 decades and there's no reason Cain's plan wouldn't continue that trend.