I’ve been hard at work here at work, so my water cooler station lurking has been at a bare minimum for the last few weeks. Whereas I doubt that my absence has had a detrimental effect on any of my colleagues (I had visions of said colleagues’ grey matter rapidly dwindling without my pearls of wisdom to sustain them), I felt it was high time to get back into ‘cruise the cooler’ mode so as to help them hydrate their brains.
To ensure that I had plenty of brain fodder on hand, I tripped the length and breadth of the Woah Woah (my pet name for the World Wide Web) and read up about debunking various myths. I wouldn’t call these Urban Legends, as Napoleon’s height certainly was most definitely pre the Urban Legend catch phrase – you’ll see what I’m on about further down:
Great Wall of China visible from space
It’s not. Stop saying it is.
Bananas grow on trees
They actually grow on massive herbs that resemble trees. Ja-ha!
Vikings Horned Helms
The horned helm was actually created for a 19th century Wagner opera. (Less of the sniggering about the title, you!)
Different Taste Sections on the Tongue
There are no different sections on the tongue for tasting sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (savoury/meaty).
Black Holes
Black holes aren’t really holes but hugely dense objects with massive gravitational pull.
Three second Goldfish Memory
Apparently not true. While goldfish aren’t the smartest, they boast a memory span of 3 months.
and finally;
Napoleon was short
A tall tale. At 5.7 (1.7 metres) he was actually above average height for a Frenchman of the time.
Now you know. Can you feel your brain plumping up already – full of fascinating facts? Oh, good!
