Misconceptions about ostriches and vomitoria

xkcd: Misconceptions:


Here's the list.

I dare you NOT to learn something. My face will be red all morning over two of them.

Comments

  1. Why did you make me read that? I am keeping it from the girls so that I can still nag them to wear hats in this cold weather! Some of those debunks were really quite depressing. But then again, I have always been more romantic than pragmatic.

    Sigh

    xx

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  2. I laughed so hard when I realized "Cow-tipping" is listed under "sports."

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  3. I was put off the at first by the word 'vomitoria' given that I am eating while reading this and have lifelong, severe emetophobia...

    Interesting list; LIKE :)

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  4. Kathleen MacDonald2:03 PM, January 05, 2011

    my brain now hurts :)
    thank you for sharing!

    ps: cow-tipping as a sport was awesome

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  5. I love XKCD. Unfortunately, my son found it first (and actually understands all the jokes) and so there is no point in me hiding the list; he has already rolled his eyes too many times at my lack of knowledge of real scientific fact (but to be fair, he is studying physics at university level and I stopped at 'O' level after pushing too many trolleys on, and occasionally off, benches trailing ticker tape behind them) - cold air doesn't 'come in' when the door is left open he tells me - who knew?

    Erica (B)

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  6. Erica, now we'll need a Wiki page for Common Misunderstandings of One's English Friends: "after pushing too many trolleys on, and occasionally off, benches trailing ticker tape behind them"

    I know what O levels are, but lost on the rest!

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  7. Trolleys and ticker tape, used to demonstrate inertia and momentum, or something like that, I'm not sure I ever really understood it. We sat at long, old-fashioned, wooden benches in the physics lab and pushed wooden trolleys up and down and crashed them into each other and counted dots on the ticker tape - I know it must have had a point!

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  8. How hysterical!

    I was a Chinese language major but had to take some core courses and chose "Physics for Poets" in which the first day the prof shot a toy monkey out of a cannon over our heads from behind us... to measure trajectory. And alertness.

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  9. I don't know which is more intriguing - the Physics for Poets or the monkey. They both gave me a much needed laugh today - thank you.

    E

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