### Author Topic: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People  (Read 325016 times)

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#### Thipu1

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #45 on: May 24, 2013, 10:45:56 PM »
I'm sorry to break your bubble, Donald but I must.  The 'X Files' aren't documentaries.

#### CuriousParty

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #46 on: May 24, 2013, 11:03:41 PM »

The full moon and the new moon have the same mass. You still have high and low tides on a new moon.

Wait, what?  They think the moon changes mass?  Where...do they think the mass goes? And ... how does it come back?  How do these people understand the moon landing?  Like, we had to schedule it when enough of the moon was there?  I.... Just typing that made my head hurt.

#### Jocelyn

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #47 on: May 24, 2013, 11:03:47 PM »
Oh, the other that bugs me.Yellow Mustard will not spoil if not refrigerated. Neither will ketchup but the color might change.
I had to throw out 2 bottles of yellow mustard that had gone to the back of the pantry and were past their expiration dates- both were spoiled. Brown, with a nasty smell.

#### Jocelyn

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #48 on: May 24, 2013, 11:05:10 PM »
I had a roommate in college who asked me what the difference between a bull and a steer was.

#### kareng57

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #49 on: May 24, 2013, 11:34:16 PM »
I had a roommate in college who asked me what the difference between a bull and a steer was.

Well, I guess I'm as clueless as your roommate.  I'd always thought that they were interchangeable names for male bovines.

#### twiggy

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #50 on: May 24, 2013, 11:37:25 PM »
I had a roommate in college who asked me what the difference between a bull and a steer was.

Well, I guess I'm as clueless as your roommate.  I'd always thought that they were interchangeable names for male bovines.

A bull is intact. A steer is not
In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children.  The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted.  The result is unruly children and childish adults.  ~Thomas Szasz

#### kareng57

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #51 on: May 24, 2013, 11:40:51 PM »
I had a roommate in college who asked me what the difference between a bull and a steer was.

Well, I guess I'm as clueless as your roommate.  I'd always thought that they were interchangeable names for male bovines.

A bull is intact. A steer is not

Thank you.  However, I stand my assertion that "any adult should know this" is not necessarily valid in this case.  Farm-people ought to realize that what is common-knowledge for rural people is not the same for more urban people.

#### Firecat

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #52 on: May 25, 2013, 12:23:57 AM »
I had a roommate in college who asked me what the difference between a bull and a steer was.

Well, I guess I'm as clueless as your roommate.  I'd always thought that they were interchangeable names for male bovines.

A bull is intact. A steer is not

Thank you.  However, I stand my assertion that "any adult should know this" is not necessarily valid in this case.  Farm-people ought to realize that what is common-knowledge for rural people is not the same for more urban people.

Does it make me a horrible person that I have occasionally had fun with this  ? I was raised on a farm. My DH was not. Hilarity sometimes ensues.

Like the time, years ago, when I was dating now-DH. We were on our way out to visit my parents (who still live on the farm). Warm day, no working air conditioning in the car, so windows down. So we're driving along, and I look over to realized that DH was pulling some truly amazing "smell BAD" faces. I took a couple of sniffs, said, "Oh, turkey barn" and kept driving.

The look DH gave me when he realized that a) I hadn't consciously noticed it until then and b) I could identify the species producing the...um...waste product...by smell...well, let's just say that expression qualifies as "priceless." But to me, it was such a normal part of the environment growing up, my brain just automatically identified the smell, categorized it as something I didn't need to worry about, and moved on without ever truly getting to the conscious level of awareness.

#### DottyG

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #53 on: May 25, 2013, 12:33:02 AM »
I had a roommate in college who asked me what the difference between a bull and a steer was.

Well, I guess I'm as clueless as your roommate.  I'd always thought that they were interchangeable names for male bovines.

A bull is intact. A steer is not

Thank you.  However, I stand my assertion that "any adult should know this" is not necessarily valid in this case.  Farm-people ought to realize that what is common-knowledge for rural people is not the same for more urban people.

I agree with Karen. Some of the things in this thread seem more like just a way to make fun of people that may not have the same background you do, so just don't know the same facts. My bet is that they know things you don't as well.

#### Minmom3

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #54 on: May 25, 2013, 01:06:15 AM »
A bull can be a daddy.

A steer can: break all the fences at the 4-H farm.  Can then rampage through the neighborhood and eat the roses and scare the dogs and their owners.  Can also jump the hood of a truck at the fair grounds, making numerous dents and kicking in the windshield on the way across.  Pull multiple people face first through the mud on show day, while wearing their last set of whites.

Be delicious when eaten over the next year!
Mother to children and fuzz butts....

#### zyrs

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #55 on: May 25, 2013, 01:17:36 AM »
A list of things I and people I know have had to tell people.

1.  that injecting yourself with Drano will not get you high, it will just injure or kill you.

2.  that 'Night of the Living Dead' is not based on a true story.

3.  that a store called 'Peoples' was not owned by the Communist Party.

4.  that 'Blair Witch Project' was just a movie and there is no reward.

5.  that Bill Gates isn't going to send you money.

6.  that your actual income tax owed is based on the total of how much money you make in a year and not on whether you get paid weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, monthly or quarterly.

#### jedikaiti

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #56 on: May 25, 2013, 01:57:17 AM »
A list of things I and people I know have had to tell people.

1.  that injecting yourself with Drano will not get you high, it will just injure or kill you.

2.  that 'Night of the Living Dead' is not based on a true story.

3.  that a store called 'Peoples' was not owned by the Communist Party.

4.  that 'Blair Witch Project' was just a movie and there is no reward.

5.  that Bill Gates isn't going to send you money.

6.  that your actual income tax owed is based on the total of how much money you make in a year and not on whether you get paid weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, monthly or quarterly.

I'm pretty sure #1 won't get you high so much as kill you.

I cannot believe the # of people who will pass on an email promising $for forwarding, or sharing pics of ill/injured kids on FB with a message that FB will donate$1 for each share, etc - or because, "It hasn't been true yet, but you never know!" Actually, yes I do know, and they're bogus and just make me think you're a flaming idiot.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2013, 02:09:58 AM by jedikaiti »
What part of v_e = \sqrt{\frac{2GM}{r}} don't you understand? It's only rocket science!

"The problem with re-examining your brilliant ideas is that more often than not, you discover they are the intellectual equivalent of saying, 'Hold my beer and watch this!'" - Cindy Couture

#### Pen^2

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #57 on: May 25, 2013, 03:31:49 AM »
What bugs me the most is when people display their ignorance on social media. I'm talking really painful posts like, "lol so is canada a country or a state coz im not sure lol". If you have time to (badly) type it into Facebook, you have time to type it into Google. It's worse when it drags out over five or ten minutes.

Away from the computer, when people don't have the internet at their fingertips, I'm more forgiving. As long as the ignorance doesn't logically interfere with daily life-type common knowledge (like thinking the moon changes mass), it's understandable. But when the information is sitting right there for you to get, and you want to get it, and all you have to do is spend three seconds twitching your fingers to get it, and you don't go for it? Arrrrgh kill me now what is wrong with you blaaarghh

Here's some I've encountered:
• I've met adults who didn't know that meat comes from animals (one guy thought buying meat from the supermarket meant that it didn't come from farm animals).
• One couple insisted that babies crying at certain ages should be ignored even if they had a raging fever because "it's just teething" (teething does not cause fever, prolonged crying, and should never be used as an excuse to withhold care from an infant).
• A huge number of people I've spoken with believe that mega doses of vitamins are not only safe ( ), but good for you. When pressed, they cite a general "science", although a few know enough to mention Pauling. Despite Pauling not basing his belief on any evidence, him not being a biologist of any description, and the whole thing being completely disproved years ago and discovered to cause health problems including cancer...
• One woman thought that, because people with bad eyesight wear glasses, then glasses must cause bad eyesight.
• A guy I once had to work with was convinced that every day the weather wasn't to his liking, it was due to global warming, despite that the vast majority of such days were perfectly average for the season when compared with weather data from a century ago. He used to write into the local paper about it, saying that the end of days was near because it rained last Saturday.

#### MariaE

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #58 on: May 25, 2013, 03:45:27 AM »
... That people in Denmark do not speak Dutch but - wait for it - Danish!

... That Denmark is a real country and not a place invented by the bakeries in the US to claim Danish pastry came from (which is nothing like Danish pastry in Denmark, which we call "Bread from Vienna"... But that's a completely different matter )

... That you don't wash a floor by pouring a bucket of water over it, scrubbing it and then leaving it to air-dry

Dane by birth, Kiwi by choice

#### RingTailedLemur

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##### Re: An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People
« Reply #59 on: May 25, 2013, 04:51:46 AM »
The moon does rotate on its axis.

The phases of the moon are not caused by the shadow of the Earth.

The Earth's distance from the Sun varies by over 3 million miles during a single orbit (many people insist a variation of a few miles would kill us all, therefore Earth is perfect etc).

Seasons are caused by the Earth's tilt on its axis, not varying distance from the Sun.
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