Idiotic urban myths
- Thread starter Mary Ann
- Start date
Oh, automotive urban myths:
1) Slow down over railroad crossings. The bumping will wear out the front suspension.
2) If you slam on your brakes hard enough, the air bags will deploy.
1) Slow down over railroad crossings. The bumping will wear out the front suspension.
2) If you slam on your brakes hard enough, the air bags will deploy.
Not quite an "urban myth" but i am hoping this one is a myth:
If you pull a gray (grey?) hair out of your head two will grow back. I would have bet my life that this was bullshit, but in the last couple of months i've been sprouting greys when i never had grey before. And ...heh, i've been pulling them out (ok, so i won't have plastic surgery but i will pluck those grays).....and i'd swear, they are coming in faster than you can blink an eye! Of course, it could just be my time to turn grey....but damn! And, you should know, they arent just growing out grey, hair that wasn't grey now is!
WTF????
If you pull a gray (grey?) hair out of your head two will grow back. I would have bet my life that this was bullshit, but in the last couple of months i've been sprouting greys when i never had grey before. And ...heh, i've been pulling them out (ok, so i won't have plastic surgery but i will pluck those grays).....and i'd swear, they are coming in faster than you can blink an eye! Of course, it could just be my time to turn grey....but damn! And, you should know, they arent just growing out grey, hair that wasn't grey now is!
WTF????
That's probably how the myth started.
*faints*
Another:
Sitting too close to the TV damages your vision/causes you to go blind.
Sitting too close to the TV damages your vision/causes you to go blind.
Actually, I believe that's been proven true, at least for the old tube style televisions. Prolonged viewing causes eyestrain which can affect vision over the long run. A lot of us who've worked in I/T long enough started with perfect vision and due to long hours in front of a monitor have come to need glasses.
http://www.health24.com/medical/Condition_centres/777-792-810-1692,13184.asp
http://www.straightdope.com/columns...-tv-reading-with-bad-light-etc-ruin-your-eyes
http://www.agingeye.net/visionbasics/visionmyths.php
In essence, there is some truth to that myth.
Older CRTs put out some hard EM radiation, enough to be an eye concern. Even the high voltage circuits of some old televisions (where tubes were used in the circuits rather than solid-state devices) were guilty of this.
The old "pleasuring yourself" will make you go blund.
That one's a reasonable precaution though. Taking a moment to make sure there isn't actually a train coming just makes sense. Not to mention the smoother ride.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
I used to read the restaurant inspections in the local paper. Some places had not-so great reports, including a few chinese restaurants.
Also, worked near one, and coworkers say they actually saw the restaurant owners picking up discarded vegetables from a nearby grocery store's dumpster.
I stopped going there before that, when I found a metal shaving in my food. Hey, if you are gonna try to kill me, take a number and get in line!
Ah, that depends. Unless the rails and surrounding area are out of kilter, the ride is actually very smooth when hit at the speed limit. My dad (an automotive engineer) taught me that back in high school. One day, a classmate and I went to lunch, and she freaked when I didn't slow down for the crossing. To her surprise, the car didn't get jounced all over, and the crossing was very smooth.
On a side note, unless it's marked as a double track , there's no real reason to look, unless you're so blind as to not be able to see a train or feel the rumble of a single locomotive.
Some crossings have the rails set into the road. Others do not. Those latter are the ones that get bumpy----they work pretty much like speed bumps.
And necessary or no, taking a look each way is minimal extra effort for greatly reduced risk. There's no logical reason to argue against doing it.
And necessary or no, taking a look each way is minimal extra effort for greatly reduced risk. There's no logical reason to argue against doing it.
The old "pleasuring yourself" will make you go blund.
It may not make you go blind, but I hear it might make you make spelling mistakes.
I'll have to do research on this but I still doubt the whole "sitting too close to the TV damages your eyes" thing. How many countless people have sat infront of computer monitors for 8 hours a day, five days a week, and suffered no significant vision loss? If sitting too close to a TV or computer monitor damaged your vision or made you blind both would be an epidemic in developed nations.
A computer monitor is not a TV. By the time computer monitors came along, a lot of the problems of earlier CRTs (60s - early 70s and before) had been addressed to a degree. Even so, sitting that close to a CRT is not going to do your eyes any good and the research is there to show it.
As far as I know, there are no similar problems with LCD monitors. I can definitely say subjectively that I experienced some discomfort staring at a CRT monitor for many hours but experience no discomfort at all with LCDs.
You know, I could live with being gray if it meant I could get a full head of hair again!
You guys better watch out. It is my understanding MLB is becoming quite proficient with those explosive devices.
Same here I'd like to see him try. He's got his eyes on the wrong kind of explosions.
You know, I could live with being gray if it meant I could get a full head of hair again!
Funny! I bet who ever started that UL didn't think of the implications.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the experimental carburetor that will allow a 5000 pound car to achieve 40 miles per gallon of gasoline. It seems like everyone has a friend of a friend of a friend's uncle who bought a new car and was mistakenly given the secret experimental model with the magic carburetor!
