| **SPOILER ALERT** @miyomiyo1050 and others who may be interested : The explanations for these are just too long to add in a third column without completely ruining the look of the quiz, I'll give the explanations here: Antarctica is considered the largest desert, 14 million sq km to 9 million - the cheetah lacks the protective sheath so the claws are still visible when retracted, servals and flat-headed cats, Geoffrey's cat and fishing cats claws also are still visible when retracted - Washington had dentures made of gold, lead, ivory, human and animal teeth - NASA reports that the Great Wall is very difficult to spot with the unaided eye from low eart orbit and there are many man-made things much more visible - The 10% of the brain myth partially eveolved from a statement about using 10% of our potential, partially from inaccurate knowledge of how the brain worked a century ago, the full explanation is way too long to post here - shaving or cutting hair does not stimulate new growth or change the hair, probably originated from short hair seeming tougher - it is difficult to sneeze with your eyes open but not impossible (and your eyes will not pop out of your head), Mythbusters disproved this, look for the video, it's worth seeing - sugar causing hyperactivity has been studied extensively and a positive correlation is found in only a very small number of cases - lemmings follow a 3-4 year cycle of population explosion/near extinction, Disney seems to be responsible for the myth as they depicted it in the 1958 film Wild Wilderness - Edison and his team greatly improved upon the light bulb making it a commercially viable product - Mel Blanc denied being allergic to or disliking carrots, he spit them out while recording to expedite the process - 'Elementary, my Dear Watson' did however appear in the 1929 film 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes' - the origin of the duck's quack not echoing is a mystery, nut it has been disproven by many including Mythbusters - there is conclusive evidence of Viking settlements in the new world and many other claims/legends of earlier arrivals from Europe and elsewhere - flush toilets existed long before Crapper but he improved them greatly, his name definitely helped to perpetuate the myth - bats eyes are completely functional, their use os echolocation and small eyes of some species let to the incorrect assumption - chameleon colour change is thought to be primarily an expression of mood - the moon has a far side, it approximately keeps the same side facing Earth at all times, however the entire moon receives sunlight at one time or another - cockroaches are great survivors but experiments have shown that there are many other species that can survive longer and stronger exposures to radiation - there is no scientific evidence to support the knuckle-cracking causing arthritis myth, just an old wives tale - the truth of the Franklin kite experiment is controversial but in any case the principle of electricity was known much earlier - the common cold is a virus thought to be more prevalent in winter months due to the closer and more frequent contact resulting from much more time sent indoors - the Egyptian Pyramids were built by a combination of paid skilled craftsmen and what is called corvee labour: essentially a system of taxation prior to the development of currency - rule of thumb is believed to originate from the use of body parts as primitive measuring devices, no such law ever existed. Longest Sporcle post EVER. |