Have You Been Fooled? Answers
- What animal sticks its head in the sand when frightened? No animal does this, including ostriches. Ostriches are not intelligent animals, but when frightened they will either fight with their powerful legs and claws (known even to kill lions) or run away (they can run over 40 miles per hour).
References: The San Diego Zoo's webpage on ostriches states, "Ostriches can sprint in short bursts up to 43 miles per hour (70 kilometers per hour), and they can maintain a steady speed of 31 miles per hour (50 kilometers per hour)." See www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-ostrich.html.
- What animal throws its quills when angered or attacked? No, it's not a porcupine--or any other animal. However a porcupine can use its quill-covered tail to hit a predator. When attacked, a porcupine will move towards an intruder and hit it with its tail, embedding quills in its victim. The quills have a barb on the ends, so removing them is difficult. So how did the "throwing their quills" idea become so widely believed? Saturday morning cartoons!
References: Costello, D.F. (1966). The World of the Porcupine. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company; Wilson, D.E. & Ruff, S., eds. (1999). The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals. Singapore: Smithsonian Institution, pp. 671-672.
- What type of soil is quite dangerous, sometimes swallowing people who accidentally get caught in it? No soil type is capable of swallowing up humans despite what you may have seen in numerous Hollywood television shows and movies. No, quicksand is not the answer since it has a density that is greater then water, meaning that since we humans are made mostly of water, we can sink down to our waist or chest, but then we will "float" at that level. (How deep a human will sink is dependent on the density of the quicksand, some locations having more water in the mix than others.) Those who would want to end their lives in quicksand will become very frustrated. The deeper they force themselves down, the greater the upward pressure on their bodies. If they go deep enough, the quicksand will push them up like a cork released under water. For those of you who want more technical information, here it is. The human body has a density that is close to the density of water. Water at maximum density (39.2 degrees F/4 degrees C) weighs 62.4 pounds per cubic foot. Quicksand typically has a density of approximately 125 pounds per cubic foot. Thus, a human can easily float on quicksand.
References: McCarthy, D.F. (1982). Essentials of Soil Mechanics and Foundations (2nd ed.). Reston, VA: Reston Co., Publishing, Inc., pp. 127-128; Halliday, D., Resnick, R. & Walker, J. (2005). Fundamentals of Physics (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. 384-385.
- Who rode from Boston to Concord in 1775 to warn the Minutemen that the British were coming? Sorry, but it wasn't Paul Revere. Revere started out from Boston along with Samuel Prescott and William Dawes and got to Lexington where Samuel Adams and John Hancock were located. Yes, there were three riders that night, and their local colonial commander, Joseph Warren, had already sent one rider ahead earlier in the day to warn the people west of Boston that the British were going to attack the colony's store of gunpowder and arms. After midnight the three men headed west from Lexington (5 miles from Concord), but they were surprised by a British patrol. Of the three, only Prescott actually made it to Concord. In fact, Paul Revere was forced to walk back to Lexington before attempting to reach Concord again. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem did indeed make Paul Revere famous (see which of these men has the longest article in encyclopedias), but it has also greatly distorted what actually occurred on that night. Even some encyclopedia articles have the facts wrong to this day.
References: Morris, R.B. & Morris, J.B., eds. (1996). Encyclopedia of American History (7th ed.), ed. by New York: HarperCollins Publishers, pp. 95-96; Shenkman, R. (1994). Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of American History. New York: Wm. Morrow & Company, Inc., p. 34.
The point is that it is easy to be fooled even when being fooled does not make anyone much money. When millions of dollars per week can be made by fooling the populace (by convincing everyone a chemical imbalance in the brain causes depression and can be corrected with drugs), great efforts will be made to influence our beliefs. Most Americans are now thoroughly fooled about mind drugs. Isn't it time you learned the truth?