[TheHansa]

(Original post by Ursin)
That one infuriates me. 'Wrap up warm or you'll catch cold' No I won't, or rather the chance of me catching a cold is no further increased than the chance of me picking up any other form of pathogenic illness. Thank goodness for TSR, a opportunity for me to vent my nerdy anger.

Actually the pathogens which cause the common cold which are most likely already in your nostrils multiply faster below body temperature, so granny as right all along.




as always

[sammy-lou]

(Original post by mevidek)
I'm not sure, though it might have been sarcasm.

Maybe. If only she'd known the confusion those few words would be causing people hundreds of years later!

[SleepySheep]

(Original post by whyumadtho)
Race.

People refuse to accept their delusions are fantasies:

Spoiler:

Show

"The myth of major genetic differences across “races” is nonetheless worth dismissing with genetic evidence." (Owens & King, 1999).

"Although conventional ‘racial’ categories as typically understood may not be defined by particular genetic markers, ‘pockets of populations’ living in particular geographical locales could be so defined." (McCann-Mortimer et al., 2004).

"We discourage the use of race as a proxy for biological similarity and support efforts to minimize the use of the categories of race and ethnicity in clinical medicine, maintaining focus on the individual rather than the group." (Lee et al., 2008).

"Because of a history of extensive migration and gene flow, however, human genetic variation tends to be distributed in a continuous fashion and seldom has marked geographic discontinuities. Thus, populations are never “pure” in a genetic sense, and definite boundaries between individuals or populations (e.g. “races”) will be necessarily somewhat inaccurate and arbitrary." (Jorde & Wooding, 2004).

"In short, while human biological variation certainly seems to be real, the ways that we cut it up, name and describe it are the product of our scientific imagination." (Morning, 2005).

"[...] The number of races observed expanded to the 30s and 50s, and eventually anthropologists concluded that there were no discrete races (Marks, 2002). 20th and 21st Century biomedical researchers have discovered this same feature when evaluating human variation at the level of alleles and allele frequencies. Nature has not created four or five distinct, nonoverlapping genetic groups of people." (Ossorio & Duster, 2006).

"Our results show that when individuals are sampled homogeneously from around the globe, the pattern seen is one of gradients of allele frequencies that extend over the entire world, rather than discrete clusters. Therefore, there is no reason to assume that major genetic discontinuities exist between different continents or “races.”" (Serre & Pääbo, 2004).

"To avoid making "race" the equivalent of a local population, minimal thresholds of differentiation are imposed. Human "races" are below the thresholds used in other species, so valid traditional subspecies do not exist in humans. A "subspecies" can also be defined as a distinct evolutionary lineage within a species. Genetic surveys and the analyses of DNA haplotype trees show that human "races" are not distinct lineages, and that this is not due to recent admixture; human "races" are not and never were "pure." Instead, human evolution has been and is characterized by many locally differentiated populations coexisting at any given time, but with sufficient genetic contact to make all of humanity a single lineage sharing a common evolutionary fate." (Templeton, 1998).

"Race is an accepted socio-cultural concept that lacks supportive genetic evidence." (Kittles et al., 2007).

"Biologists also disagree about the meaning of ‘race’, and whether it is applicable to human infraspecific (within-species) variation." (Keita et al., 2004).

"It has not been demonstrated that any human breeding population is sufficiently divergent to be taxonomically recognized by the standards of modern molecular systematics." (Keita et al., 2004).

"Studies of human population genetics and evolution have generated the strongest proof that there is no scientific basis for racism, with the demonstration that human genetic diversity between populations is small, and perhaps entirely the result of climatic adaptation and random drift." (Cavalli-Sforza, 2005).

"The points of agreement in the following articles reflect a shared evolutionary perspective that focuses on describing and interpreting the apportionment of biological variation between individuals both within and among groups (see also Lee et al., 2008). We agreed that:

• There is substantial variation among individuals within populations.
• Some biological variation is apportioned between individuals in different populations and among larger population groupings.
• Patterns of within- and among-group variation have been substantially shaped by culture, language, ecology, and geography.
• Race is not an accurate or productive way to describe human biological variation.
• Human variation research has important social, biomedical, and forensic implications."

"There was really only one fundamental difference of opinion among the symposium participants, which was about the precise nature of the geographic patterning of human biological variation" (Edgar and Hunley, 2009; Caspari, 2009; Edgar, 2009; Gravlee, 2009; Hunley et al., 2009; Konigsberg et al., 2009; Long et al., 2009; Ousley et al., 2009; Relethford, 2009; Wolpoff, 2009).

More available on request.

Rofl 'there's no such thing as race'. Hipster overload.

(Original post by sammy-lou)
Ha! Beat me to it!



Marie Antoinette never said "Let them eat cake"
Rene Descartes never said "I think therefore I am", he said "I think therefore I exist, at least as a thinking thing"

'Cogito ergo sum' isn't even in the Meditations. It's ridiculous

[Spaz Man]

I think the brilliant John Green explains 10 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM3_ltur0lo

[Mazzini]

(Original post by mevidek)
No, Marie Antoinette said "brioche" which apparently can be translated as bread or cake. That's where the misunderstanding came from allegedly.

Presumably she just meant brioche then?

[sammy-lou]

(Original post by SleepySheep)
Rofl 'there's no such thing as race'. Hipster overload.



'Cogito ergo sum' isn't even in the Meditations. It's ridiculous

This I did not know! Where did it come from then?! Another book?

[whyumadtho]

(Original post by SleepySheep)
Rofl 'there's no such thing as race'. Hipster overload.

?

That is the scientific and academic consensus.

[Ursin]

(Original post by TheHansa)
Actually the pathogens which cause the common cold which are most likely already in your nostrils multiply faster below body temperature, so granny as right all along.




as always

Ooof, you've got me, now I look like a fool. But at least I know the correct information to annoy people with in the future

[Bellissima]

(Original post by perfectsymbology)
Napolean wasn't actually short. Though his height post-mortem was recorded in French inches at 5'2" that would convert to a height of 5'7" in British units making him above average height for his day and age.

Any other widely believed myths that have endured for a long time?

i know what videos you've been watching...

[Bloodbath]

Feminists believe in equality

[TheHansa]

(Original post by Ursin)
Ooof, you've got me, now I look like a fool. But at least I know the correct information to annoy people with in the future

Use it well young turk

[Pi!]

The MMR vaccine causes autism.

[abc:)]

May have already been said, but Coca Cola didn't in fact turn Father Christmas red.

[Karisliana]

That the end of bananas, where there is a black line is where spiders lay their eggs.... believed that for a while and would only eat the middle of bananas... Then I finally understood why everyone thought it was weird

[SleepySheep]

(Original post by sammy-lou)
This I did not know! Where did it come from then?! Another book?

I have no idea where it came from But we studied The Meditations for Philosophy and my teacher specifically said it wasn't in there. Descartes wrote in French not Latin so the actual phrase he said is probably some French nonsense.

[SleepySheep]

(Original post by whyumadtho)
?

That is the scientific and academic consensus.

Kewl. Still pretty hipster though.

[sammy-lou]

(Original post by SleepySheep)
I have no idea where it came from But we studied The Meditations for Philosophy and my teacher specifically said it wasn't in there. Descartes wrote in French not Latin so the actual phrase he said is probably some French nonsense.

Haha! Behold the dangers of locking yourself in a room for days on end, children.

[pinkpenguin]

(Original post by sammy-lou)
This I did not know! Where did it come from then?! Another book?

It's more that he doesn't specifically state 'Cogito Ergo Sum' in the Meditations. Je pense donc je suis, I believe, is only explicitly uttered in the Discourses.

In the second meditation he says...

(Original post by Descartes Second Meditation)
[Having reiterated the need for doubt] Does it follow now that I don’t exist either?...No. If I persuaded myself of anything, then certainly I existed. But there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who deliberately and constantly deludes me. In that case, too, I undoubtedly exist, if he is deceiving me. And let him deceive me to his heart’s content, he will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I think that I am something. So, after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that this proposition, ‘I am, I exist’, is necessarily true whenever uttered by me or conceived by my mind.

All he's basically saying is that there is a thing to be deceived, therefore there is a thing to do the doubting, therefore he exists in some sense. The necessarily true section at the end demonstrates the need to categorise the Cogito as "I am thinking, therefore I exist" rather than "I think therefore I exist". The fact that the thinking is occurring at the moment of utterance is the sticking point. It doesn't have time-bound certainty without the proof of God.

[Ursin]

(Original post by Palatial Veranda)
Homosexuals cannot swim

What?! If it's a joke, I don't get it

[sammy-lou]

(Original post by pinkpenguin)
It's more that he doesn't specifically state 'Cogito Ergo Sum' in the Meditations. Je pense donc je suis, I believe, is only explicitly uttered in the Discourses.

In the second meditation he says...

Ah I see. I must admit I'm not a massive fan of Descartes in general, but that is a beautiful piece of philosophy.