Misconceptions About the Natural World

[catbirdseat]

I was reading a book about Yellowstone Park and environs called Hawks Rest. There was a part where the author shared a campfire with a backpacker who also happened to be a whitewater rafting guide. The guy, instead of telling him about what he liked about white water rafting, rather surprised him by talking about his clients. He said several times a week, clients would ask him if the river took the rafts back to the put-in point, as though the river flowed in some sort of loop. The guide had to explain to otherwise intelligent people that rivers flow in only one direction- down hill- under the force of gravity.

 

Let's assume for a minute that the guide wasn't laying a bunch of hooey on the author. Have you met other people with big huge misconceptions about how the world works?

[KaskadskyjKozak]

I was reading a book about Yellowstone Park and environs called Hawks Rest. There was a part where the author shared a campfire with a backpacker who also happened to be a whitewater rafting guide. The guy, instead of telling him about what he liked about white water rafting, rather surprised him by talking about his clients. He said several times a week, clients would ask him if the river took the rafts back to the put-in point, as though the river flowed in some sort of loop. The guide had to explain to otherwise intelligent people that rivers flow in only one direction- down hill- under the force of gravity.

 

Let's assume for a minute that the guide wasn't laying a bunch of hooey on the author. Have you met other people with big huge misconceptions about how the world works?

 

Of course the river returns the client to the put-in point - the customer demands it, what kind of business are you running?

[olyclimber]

[klenke]

Sort of related to rivers and stupid people:

My 3rd Grade teacher told our class that all rivers flow south. I knew she was full of it but she didn't want to listen to the skinny punk in the back of class who always goofed off and didn't pay attention.

[Dru]

"what time do they turn the sunset on?"

[catbirdseat]

Let me guess, were you, or was she from the Midwest or the South. Many rivers do flow south. There is a name for that, where you make a generalized rule from a specialized case. What is it?

[klenke]

induction

[catbirdseat]

A gold star to the skinny goof off kid in the back row!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Sort of related to rivers and stupid people:

My 3rd Grade teacher told our class that all rivers flow south. I knew she was full of it but she didn't want to listen to the skinny punk in the back of class who always goofed off and didn't pay attention.

 

DeNile ain't just a river in Egypt.

[ScottP]

I know of this guy who thinks women actually bleed when they menstruate.

[Dru]

it's actually fake blood,

 

a sinister conspiracy by the world's tampon makers

[Duchess]

This is too easy.

 

Years ago, working at an information desk at one of our nation's crowned jewels, I was asked at what time the glaciers go by. ???

 

"Oh, here they come!! Look out!!"

[Jim]

I was working on some fish surveys on a large reservoir and stopped to talk with some recreational fishermen, ask what they caught and chew the fat. Somehow the conversation turned to the water level rising that day because of recent storms - then one guy says that the tide is rising too and his companions nodded.

 

I snorted because I thought they were yanking my chain, but then had to explain in solemn terms about the huge dam dam within eyesight.

[Winter]

the chicago school and free market economies maximizing social good.

 

charles murray and his crew thinking poor women have babies to collect more welfare.

 

the catholic church thinking the theory of evolution is scientifically flawed.

[MisterMo]

A relative's wife, out here for the August swim 'n' visit, actually asked me how all the water got "up there". She caught on pretty quick when I told her it was piped.

[faster_than_you]

Have you met other people with big huge misconceptions about how the world works?

 

Yes, Mr. Vandeman.

 

And of course The Nodder.

[David Trippett]

Some people living in the pantanal consider the Capybara, that proud denizen of the South American waterways, fish so that they can still eat them during lent.

[ketch]

Another Misconception. Last year during the floods around skagit county I received more than one call from concerned folks that were afraid that I would be flooded as well. (after all the San Juan Islands are close to the skagit river ). I mostly just smiled and said that I think we are fine for the moment.

[sobo]

...I mostly just smiled and said that I think we are fine for the moment.

 

Oh Christ, that's rich!

 

A story from a few years back sorta along the vein of the thread...

 

Me and a buddy had been ice climbing around Moses Coulee one day, when we met up with a couple of "really rural" guys with rifles, sidearms, camo gear, and all that. We still had all our tools, screws, and shit with us. Conversation goes something like this:

 

Us: So, what are you two guys doing out here?

Them: Oh, we're hunting coyotes!

Us: Hmmm, why would you do that?

Them: There's a bounty on 'em. We gets $5 for each one we kills!

Us: Really? Wow.

Them: What are you guys doing up here?

Us: We're ice climbing.

Them: Ice climbin'? What's that?

Us: Well, we climb up these frozen waterfalls and stuff.

Them: Really? In the freezin' cold? The snow? And with them spikey thangs? Who makes you do that?

Us: (looking quizzically at each other) Uhhhhhhhh... good question.

 

I almost quit that day!

[Stemalot]

...Who makes you do that?

 

That is a good question! That's borderline philosophical! Maybe these guys are smarter then they appear.

[Fairweather]

My wife and I were hiking the olympic coast with two other couples a few years back. One night we all sat atop the grassy-topped seastack near Sand Point and watched the stars. As my wife and I attempted to identify constellations it became apparent that my friend's date/companion - holder of a B.A. in "women's studies" - had no fucking idea what stars were! In as non-condesending a manner as possible I proceeded to explain to her that most of what she was looking at on this night were distant suns, much like our own.

 

I couldn't tell if she was skeptial, bewildered, or just plain unimpressed. She must have possessed some other, non-mental "abilities" that my friend found worthwhile.

[knelson]

...Who makes you do that?

 

That is a good question! That's borderline philosophical! Maybe these guys are smarter then they appear.

 

Makes ya wonder if there isn't a thread going on at www.cascadecoyotehunters.com called "Misconceptions About The Natural World" and just has the "us" and "them" switched around in that story!

 

-kurt

[knelson]

Have you met other people with big huge misconceptions about how the world works?

 

http://www.mountainspeedclimbing.org

 

 

 

...but I haven't actually met him.

 

-kurt

[Dechristo]

Misconceptions About the Natural World

 

I heard of the inhabitants of an entire planet - and the planet was pretty big, like 25,000 miles in circumference at its equator - that thought the huge sphere they lived on was FLAT! They also thought their planet was the center of the universe!

 

I've heard MOST of those inhabitants now know their planet is round and has a slightly eliptical orbit around a central star in a solar system, BUT...

 

most of the inhabitants now think they each are the center of the universe.

[Dru]

if the universe is infinite, then its center is everywhere, so the condition is true