This work-in-late-progress punctures 130 false beliefs like:
George Washington had wooden teeth: Not true: his choppers were made of human teeth and seahorse teeth;
The atomic bomb was a big secret: The Manhattan Project was a secret, but the atom (or atomic) bomb was old news, from 1913! SF people were questioned by agents
circa 1943.
Dorothea Mackellar’s poem begins “I love a sunburnt country”: No, that's the second verse;
Noah’s flood really happened: Thomas Jefferson proved otherwise;
There are lies, damned lies and statistics: Did you know my
Master's was in Bayesian statistics, but as a bureaucrat, I refused to
wear the Statistician label? How stats are abused, and I prove that New
South Wales podiatrists are moving to South
Australia and turning into public phone boxes. Or maybe they are going
to Tasmania to have their babies, or maybe Tasmanians can only fall
pregnant in South Australian public phone booths, or maybe codswallop
grows in computers which are treated unkindly...
Carrots give you better night vision: this dates from World War II, and was intended to trick the Germans about radar;
You can kill somebody by pouring molten gold down their throat: You
might, but there are some serious challenges in the way;
Thomas Edison invented the light bulb: [n July 1859, Professor
Moses Farmer lit one room of his Salem Massachusetts house with lamps
using small pieces of platinum-iridium wire which glowed dimly as the
current from primary batteries passed through
them;
Bumble bees can’t fly: But they can fly, so a rethink is needed;
Guns were better than bows and arrows. Nope!
All germs are bad: here are some that cure diseases;
No animal has ever shot a human: the true story of Harry the Camel;
Crude oil comes from oil wells: early 'crude oil' was distilled from coal.
These samples are available:
Dorothea Mackellar’s poem begins “I love a sunburnt country”,
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