Contrary to Popular Belief

[prophecy2514]

Grand-daddy longlegs aren't venomous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones

Vikings didn't wear horned helmets. (At least in battle.)
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2189/did-vikings-really-wear-horns-on-their-helmets

You mean daddy longlegs, and they are venomous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellar_spider

As an extension to this, they are indeed venomous, but their fangs are not strong enough to pierce human skin.

Well, if you'd actually clicked that link you would have found out that they CAN pierce the skin, but the venom is really weak and just causes a mild burning.

Also, usually this myth is told in relation to crane flies, which aren't even spiders, as far as I'm aware.

Didn't read the wiki page, was honestly just quoting the previous poster to continue on the topic - spiders fascinate me. that being said, I was going on old information, and have been found out, i will hang my head in shame. gonna go look up the mythbuster episode now!

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

I don't think that is true. Any one other than a highly skilled person who is able to actually shoot another human being would have done more harm than good. Research has shown that just because you are good at the range, you would be good in a real life situation. The guy in the theatre was a straight up psychopath, and the lack of empathy and emotion he would have had would have made him a much better shot than like 99.9% of the population.

For the average human being there would be two major problems when trying to shoot back at the killer: Firstly, shooting another human being is hard. Even if your life depends on it, for the average man taking a human life is difficult. Secondly, the theatre was dark and the loud screams and gunshots would have been disorientating. Add to that the extreme emotional stress, people running around, not to mention tear gas, it would have been less than optimal. On top of that the killer was wearing a bulletproof vest and a helmet, so a concealed 9mm might not have done much anyway, even if he did hit.

On top of all that, even if there was someone who could ignore the stress, the gas, the darkness, was quick thinking enough to pull out a gun and return fire, managed not to hit any fleeing civilians and then take the killer out of action, the killer would have still had enough time to kill and injure several people.

In reality what would have happened if someone returned fire is more likely that he would have drawn the attention of James, and if he fired possibly hit a couple more innocents, and then been killed.

I covered the reduction in accuracy due to stressful conditions in another post. Also, why would you be carrying a 9? Everyone I know carries a .40, .357, .38, or .45. All of which have more kinetic energy. Those same people also make sure that the ammunition they carry is replaced often and is good quality ammo. If you can get close enough the vest won't be that hard to handle. Frankly, I would have had no problem shooting him and neither would a large group of people I know. This is mostly due to the fact that he isn't human anymore. The second he decided to go to a theater and shoot up a bunch of people because he thought he was a fictional character is the same second he lost his humanity.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

Dragon Age 2 is a flawed and ungraceful sequel to an otherwise better game. It is not complete and utter shit worthy only of scorn and hatred, however.

that boys and girls is what we call an opinion

You took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

This is so very wrong. Hopefully I'll be able to break it down later, but I'll start with this.

Who is the protagonist in the Phantom Menace?

exactly

The boy who would eventually become Darth Vader. You know, the villain from the original trilogy who lacked any sort of properly explained backstory, but that we were supposed to draw emotional depth from the revelation that he was Luke's father, when said father was only ever previously mentioned once, in passing, and that Luke had never been shown to give much thought towards?

Why does the main protagonist of a movie only appear until half way in and has no bearing or personal stakes on the main conflict other than the fact that he's tagging along with Liam Neeson and must be involved somehow?

That's like saying the dog from Independence Day was the real protagonist.

The original trilogy was flawed, because it relied on there being three previous Chapters in the story in order to avoid delivering backstory, and just ask the audience to blindly accept that there are valid reasons for things like why Luke's father is magically evil.

Oh I see, so you never actually saw the original trilogy.

Either that or you have a terrible memory.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

List some common misconceptions here. I would also appreciate it if you sourced your statements.

Sugar does not make children hyperactive.

http://www.uamshealth.com/?id=877&sid=1

http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a2769

Yes it does. Those studies all specify that high sugar diets don't induce an increase in overall hyperactive behavior, which makes sense when you consider that over the short run, sugar causes peaks and troughs, which could easily balance out to an overall lack of change. However, I guarentee that sugar causes a temporary spike in hyperactivity, I actually remember being a kid.

On Topic:
Guns are evil and cause crime. that's a common misconception.
Since you asked for sources, I'll provide one.
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf

Then can you cite a scientific paper on the sugar thing? As far as I know, it's all in your head. I'm in my 3rd year Biomedical Sciences and I've never heard of it :\

Another misconception: The muscle cramp you get after a sudden intense exercise is due to the buildup of lactic acid. That's wrong - it's due to the hydrolyse of ATP :

ATP + H2O -> ADP + HPO4 + H + energy

Lactate (C3H6O3) has nothing to do with it

 

[Spectral Dragon]

Another misconception: The muscle cramp you get after a sudden intense exercise is due to the buildup of lactic acid. That's wrong - it's due to the hydrolyse of ATP :

ATP + H2O -> ADP + HPO4 + H + energy

Lactate (C3H6O3) has nothing to do with it

Source? As far as I'm aware, both my old chemistry teacher and biology teacher claimed this - conversion to lactic acid to provide some extra energy in an anaerobic environment. Which, for some reason, the body reacted negatively to. It was a while ago, so could you maybe dumb it down a bit, and explain? PM if necessary, I just want to know.

OT: Regular glass IS liquid in room temperature due to a non-critical freezing point. It'd take several times the age of the universe to see enough to measure its flow, though, NOT just a few decades.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

Another misconception: The muscle cramp you get after a sudden intense exercise is due to the buildup of lactic acid. That's wrong - it's due to the hydrolyse of ATP :

ATP + H2O -> ADP + HPO4 + H + energy

Lactate (C3H6O3) has nothing to do with it

Source? As far as I'm aware, both my old chemistry teacher and biology teacher claimed this - conversion to lactic acid to provide some extra energy in an anaerobic environment. Which, for some reason, the body reacted negatively to. It was a while ago, so could you maybe dumb it down a bit, and explain? PM if necessary, I just want to know.

OT: Regular glass IS liquid in room temperature due to a non-critical freezing point. It'd take several times the age of the universe to see enough to measure its flow, though, NOT just a few decades.

Initially I thought the same thing, but my professor amazed the whole class with this.
During a sprint you'll burn ATP. But you cannot regenerate ATP through aerobic glucose breakdown, you'll have to resort to anaerobic as aerobic takes time to kick in. So:

Burning of ATP for energy: ATP + H2O - > ADP + HPO4 + H
Regenerating ATP anaerobically : Glucose + 2 HPO4 + 2 ADP -> 2 lactate + 2 ATP + 2 H2O

Lactate is formed through the breakdown of glucose, but the acidic proton is not- that comes from the breakdown of ATP.

Our professor mentioned that even the experts are still debating if they should use this or if the lactic acid one is correct. You can see some of this on the wikipedia about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid#Exercise_and_lactate
I must admit I just heard it today so I don't have any scientific articles ready to quote.

-
I hope I didn't derail it to much with this post.

 

[Mr.Philip]

Grand-daddy longlegs aren't venomous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones

Vikings didn't wear horned helmets. (At least in battle.)
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2189/did-vikings-really-wear-horns-on-their-helmets

You mean daddy longlegs, and they are venomous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellar_spider

Oh, sorry. I forgot about those, it's just that I grew up with harvestmen being called Grand-daddy longlegs/Daddy-longlegs.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

If you are shot and it isn't in a major organ, chances are you'll be just fine.

...what? I'll even allow ignoring hydrostatic shock (since it hasn't been fully proven to my knowledge), but a bullet can very easily tear major arteries in the arms or legs (which is why there's no "safe" place to shoot someone, whatever some people may say) and cause someone to bleed to death within minutes. Not to mention that even surviving a gunshot may leave the victim a long distance from "just fine", what with possible permanent injuries and disabilities due to damage to the musclulatory or circulatory system in the area hit.

 

[Supertegwyn]

Grand-daddy longlegs aren't venomous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones

Vikings didn't wear horned helmets. (At least in battle.)
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2189/did-vikings-really-wear-horns-on-their-helmets

You mean daddy longlegs, and they are venomous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellar_spider

Oh, sorry. I forgot about those, it's just that I grew up with harvestmen being called Grand-daddy longlegs/Daddy-longlegs.

That's ok, there are like three different types of spiders called daddy/granddaddy long legs.

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

If you are shot and it isn't in a major organ, chances are you'll be just fine.

...what? I'll even allow ignoring hydrostatic shock (since it hasn't been fully proven to my knowledge), but a bullet can very easily tear major arteries in the arms or legs (which is why there's no "safe" place to shoot someone, whatever some people may say) and cause someone to bleed to death within minutes. Not to mention that even surviving a gunshot may leave the victim a long distance from "just fine", what with possible permanent injuries and disabilities due to damage to the musclulatory or circulatory system in the area hit.

Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration. If it's a low-cal bullet, "You probably won't die." The odds of some random criminal mofo shooting someone in the femoral artery or something is actually pretty low, what with the accuracy of handguns unless you're seriously trained. You'll probably be fine *in the end," so long as you cover up the wound with pressure and get to medical help to stitch up things.

Words, I can use them properly. ><

 

[thelonewolf266]

The Aurora theater was in Colorado. Do you really think no one had a gun in there?

This theater banned all carrying including concealed carry. So, yes. I'm pretty positive no one had a gun in there.

Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't you the one that just said that people will get their hands on anything no matter how illegal it is yet you are suggesting they would never dare disobey the rules of a cinema? Yeah that makes sense.

Also I apologise for arguing about gun control its a trap I can't help myself from falling in to.

 

[Altorin]

Power Rangers was not an original American show. It was, in fact, Japanese before America make a few surface changes and marketed it as Power Rangers.

"a few surface changes"?

really?

Power Rangers was basically a completely different show then the super sentai shows its fighting footage came from. The characters were different, their powers were different, the motivations of the villains were different, the source of their powers were different. Everything was different.

The makers of the show basically got raw super sentai footage, wrote their own narrative, cast their own rangers, and just filmed footage of the kids out of their ranger costumes, and then edited often completely unrelated fight footage together.

Along the same vein, Samurai Pizza Cats was also completely different in america. the team that localized it didn't get any audio track, so they just sort of wrote a brand new narrative based on the animation they had, and it was a completely different (and actually better) show.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

The Aurora theater was in Colorado. Do you really think no one had a gun in there?

This theater banned all carrying including concealed carry. So, yes. I'm pretty positive no one had a gun in there.

Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't you the one that just said that people will get their hands on anything no matter how illegal it is yet you are suggesting they would never dare disobey the rules of a cinema? Yeah that makes sense.

Also I apologise for arguing about gun control its a trap I can't help myself from falling in to.

I was saying that the responsible person who actually had a permit to carry would not do so in the theater, not that the criminal wouldn't bring a gun. The theater handicapped the fiction person who would be able to stop the massacre because of their rules, it did not stop the original offender however. You're lumping together people who own guns to commit criminal acts and people who own guns for self-defense.

 

[Altorin]

...

Grand-daddy longlegs aren't venomous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones

Vikings didn't wear horned helmets. (At least in battle.)
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2189/did-vikings-really-wear-horns-on-their-helmets

You mean daddy longlegs, and they are venomous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellar_spider

As an extension to this, they are indeed venomous, but their fangs are not strong enough to pierce human skin.

does that mean if i eat one i would die?

venomous doesn't mean deadly. And if you even clicked the link and looked at "venom" you'd see that cellar spiders are not deadly. their venom is barely toxic to humans.

And venom needs to be injected into the blood stream for it to function. You could drink rattlesnake venom as long as you didn't have any sort of ulcer in your digestive tract and be just fine.

 

[Lord Garnaat]

The reason that the Catholic Church rejected Galileo's theory of the Earth orbiting the Sun wasn't "hurr durr religion hates science". The Church had heard theories of a heliocentric system before, like from Copernicus, and actually were very interested in the findings and encouraged him to continue studying it. Galileo had several friends within the Church, many of whom supported his views. Hell, one of the first people to suggest a Sun-centered model (well over a century before Copernicus did) was Nicolas of Cusa, a Roman Catholic priest.

The reason he was put on trial for his findings wasn't the nature of his discovery, but the fact that Galileo acted like a bit of an asshole. In his book about the heliocentric model he presented his idea by making up a character who was supposed to be a blithering idiot and fool who supported the geocentric model, and said that anyone who disagreed with him was just as stupid. The Pope ended up taking this as a personal insult, so the reason Galileo was persecuted was because he pretty much called his boss a shithead.

 

[Matt King]

Now I need to get to work so I can get that cheddar, cause THAT'S what the women really want...

but I need to address this right quick.

The original Star Wars trilogy wasn't really all that great, and people who complain about the prequels are just looking at the originals through Nostalgia Goggles.

This is so very wrong. Hopefully I'll be able to break it down later, but I'll start with this.

Who is the protagonist in the Phantom Menace?

exactly

what do you mean exactly? you don't need one central protagonist for a piece of media to work

 

[Matt King]

...

Grand-daddy longlegs aren't venomous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones

Vikings didn't wear horned helmets. (At least in battle.)
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2189/did-vikings-really-wear-horns-on-their-helmets

You mean daddy longlegs, and they are venomous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellar_spider

As an extension to this, they are indeed venomous, but their fangs are not strong enough to pierce human skin.

does that mean if i eat one i would die?

venomous doesn't mean deadly. And if you even clicked the link and looked at "venom" you'd see that cellar spiders are not deadly. their venom is barely toxic to humans.

And venom needs to be injected into the blood stream for it to function. You could drink rattlesnake venom as long as you didn't have any sort of ulcer in your digestive tract and be just fine.