Fact or Fiction?

I have gotten this email several times, and out of curiousity, I looked up some of this stuff, just to see if any were true or not. Surprisingly, some were!


Rumor: The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.
Fact: Amazingly true. According to multiple sites, including what appears to be the official web site on coconuts, in an emergency, the liquid inside a young coconut can be used as a substitute for blood plasma. It was done during World War II when blood supplies were low.

Rumor: No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
Fact: In January 2002, it's claimed that a high school junior, Britney Gallivan, folded paper in half 12 times. The problem and solution are discussed in detail at The Historical Society of Pomona Valley and Math World.

Rumor: Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.
Fact: There is no evidence of this anywhere. They really don't keep statistics on donkey deaths - lol.

Rumor: You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
Fact: According to the AHA, a 150-pound person burns 71 calories watching tv for an hour, and 64 calories sleeping for an hour. Even at eight hours, sleeping burns fewer calories.

Rumor: Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty (50) years of age or older.
Fact: (Acorn Production -- Oak trees can start producing acorns when they are 20 years old, but sometimes can go all the way to 50 years for the first production. By the time the tree is 70 to 80 years old it will produce thousands of acorns. http://www.arcytech.org/java/population/facts_oaks.html)

Rumor: The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
Fact: It was the first product to be SCANNED, but wasn't the first to have a bar code.

Rumor: The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
Fact: This is kind of true. He originally had a mustache, but nowadays he doesn't.

Rumor: American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
Fact: Amazingly enough, this one is true. Reached by telephone, American Airlines spokesperson Al Becker confirms this claim.

Rumor: Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. (Since Venus is normally associated with women what does this tell you!)
Fact: (actually, both Uranus and Pluto also rotate clockwise...also known as retrograde rotation... see http://www.mira.org/fts0/planets/101/text/txt201x.htm)

Rumor: Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
Fact: The Michigan Department of Agriculture says, “Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the morning. The sugar in apples, and the act of chewing, works better than a cup of coffee for keeping people alert.”

Rumor: Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
Fact: An article on airborne allergens by The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, quoted by WebMD, itemizes the contents of house dust as: fibers from different types of fabrics, cotton lint, feathers, other stuffing materials, animal dander, bacteria, mold and fungus spores, food particles, bits of plants and insects, and microscopic mites. (yuck - just the kind of thing you would want to know)

Rumor: Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
Fact: This is true. In his book The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, Steven Watts says Disney was afraid of mice but found them “sympathetic.”



Rumor: Pearls melt in vinegar.
Fact: This one is close enough to being true. Technically, they dissolve. Numerous web sites of pearl resellers, include J.C. Penney, warn not expose pearls to vinegar. An abstract published on the web site of the American Philological Association says “the observable disintegration... occurs when calcium carbonate, which is the primary component of pearls, neutralizes the acetic acid in vinegar.”
“Melt” suggests a physical process in which a solid becomes a liquid, rather than a chemical process.

Rumor: The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
Fact: The information is outdated. As of July 17, 2000, Interbrand/Citibank — as reported in the Financial Times — declared these the most valuable brand names:
#1 Coca-Cola ($72.5 billion)#2 Microsoft ($70.2 billion)#3 IBM ($53.2 billion)
Marlboro had wafted down to #11. Budweiser's ranking had gone flat at #26.

Rumor: It is possible to lead a cow upstairs... but not downstairs.
Fact: This one is probably true. The National Agricultural Library (and numerous other web sites) may be quoting from a 1998 book, The Complete Cow. Although the exact text cannot be found online, a web page by a law firm in Nebraska that specializes in the dairy industry quotes the book's author, Sara Rath, as saying, “It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because a cow’s knees cannot bend properly to walk back down.”

Rumor: A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
Fact: A duck's quack most certainly DOES echo, although sometimes the duck will quack quietly and the echo may be too quiet to hear... see www.snopes.com/critters/wild/duckecho.htm)



Rumor: Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least six (6) feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. (I keep my toothbrush in the living room now! )
Fact:On the Discovery show, Mythbusters, they did an extensive test of this and found that no matter where in the house you put your toothbrush, airborn fecal coliform particles from the toilet will get on it.

Rumor: Turtles can breathe through their butts.
Fact: Turtles CAN breathe through their butts. They can suck water into their cloaca, the single hole through which they pass feces, urine and sexual fluids, and into two pockets that come off the chamber. These pockets are lined with veins, and the turtles can absorb oxygen from the water into their blood. The Fitzroy River turtle from Australia seems to be the champion of butt breathing. It can pump water in and out of its butt up to 60 times a minute, and gets almost 70 per cent of its oxygen in this way.

more of these fun "facts and fictions" can be seen at
http://www.dcmsoft.com/rumor/story/stuff1.htm