Random one this, but I’m wondering what conventionally accepted wisdom you know to be bollocks or that you actively go out of your way to avoid acting on?

For example, for years the conventional wisdom was that fat was bad for you and caused heart attacks – and, with caveats, we now know that to be complete nonsense.

I’ve just been reading Rich Roll’s Finding Ultra and he does an interesting line on why conventional wisdom about vegans (I’m not one, not likely to become one) being protein starved, weak etc is bollocks.

So, what areas of life do you go against the crowd? I feel a rebellion coming on!

“I once read about five monkeys that were placed in a room with a banana at the top of a set of stairs. As one monkey attempted to climb the stairs, all of the monkeys were sprayed with jets of cold water. A second monkey made an attempt and again the monkeys were sprayed.

No more monkeys attempted to climb the stairs. One of the monkeys was then removed from the room and replaced with a new monkey. New monkey saw the banana and started to climb the stairs but to its surprise, it was attacked by the other monkeys. Another of the original monkeys was replaced and the newcomer was also attacked when he attempted to climb the stairs. The previous newcomer took part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Replacing a third original monkey with a new one, it headed for the stairs and was attacked as well. Half of the monkeys that attacked him had no idea why. After replacing the fourth and fifth original monkeys, none had ever been sprayed with cold water but all stayed the **** away from the stairs”

from here, but saved me typing it out.

http://www.27bslash6.com/timesheets.html

I pay no attention to sell/use by dates. If it smells OK it will be fine. I’m a maverick. 8)

Wittgenstein once asked a friend “Why did people used to think that the Sun went round the Earth?”

His friend replied “Well it’s obvious, it just looks like that.”

To which the Great Man replied: “Well, how else would it look, then?”

I wouldn’t consider the supposition that vegans are protein starved to be any kind of wisdom at all. Do people actually believe that?

I reject the conventional wisdom that conventional wisdom isn’t an oxymoron. As ably demonstrated if you spend half an hour on Facebook.

“Don’t use warm water to clear you windscreen because you’ll crack the windscreen”

Utter nonsense!

how hot’s OK?

well don’t boil the kettle, but water out of the warm tap is never going to do your windscreen any harm

A house-mate cracked his windscreen doing just that. We watched him do it through the kitchen window. I think I won’t reject that particular hypothesis.

the fat burning zone.

Listened for 5 minutes the other day to someones amazing knowledge on this subject! Had to hold my tongue otherwise it would have been a 20 minute conversation – which i had no interest in!

sealing meat.

My granny would never put bottles of fizzy drinks in the fridge as she said it was common knowledge that if you did they would explode. I spent years trying to persuade her otherwise but she was a stubborn old boot.

One of the most common I think is the myth of television detector vans. They didn’t even exist let alone have equipment in them that could tell if you had a telly or not.

We watched him do it through the kitchen window.

most people go and stand beside the car 😉

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Utter rubbish which so many people believe in.

I assume all emails warning about scams and asking to be forwarded are spam and ask the person who sent them to stop wasting my time.

I also ask for evidence when people make claims which seem a little dubious, usually of the ‘bloke in pub said’ type – happens too much on here.

Both of my mountain bike have 26″ wheels & triple chainsets.

Screw you, fashion convential wisdom.

I forgo the convention of gravity….
Makes the commute to work so much more fun..

DrP

Women are not from Venus and they don’t dig scars .

dazh – Member
They didn’t even exist let alone have equipment in them that could tell if you had a telly or not.

Yes, they did exist.
🙂

I assume they were empty though.
😀

They used to park up on main roads near Post Offices.

They should have been replaced by armed response units.
I’d happily see persistent TV licence evaders shot on street corners.
Pour encourage les autres.

traditional/ conventional wisdom is rife in my wife’s family – some parts often contradict others but that doesn’t stop them being trotted out..
if I do something that contravenes this wisdom I am questioned like some kind of circus-show freak.

TV detector vans do exist, in very small numbers, but the height of their technological capability is to transport a little man to peep through your window.

My OH flicks the side of a can before opening it, to stop it exploding. I grind my teeth every time she does it.

“long distance cardio is healthy / best for weight control”

I don’t believe that lots of cardio work for either of those things.

The only reason I do long bike rides is because I like riding bikes.

My OH flicks the side of a can before opening it, to stop it exploding. I grind my teeth every time she does it.

You’ll get a slap on the wrist from your dentist.

My OH flicks the side of a can before opening it, to stop it exploding. I grind my teeth every time she does it.

I do tap the top to stop it fizzing too much – something to do with getting bubbles to the top. Is this rubbish?

Is this rubbish?

Does it continue to fizz after you flick it?

Do bears defecate in communally owned forest regions?

Etc.

Yes my OH also taps drinks cans. Utter bollocks.

“Don’t use warm water to clear you windscreen because you’ll crack the windscreen”

Utter nonsense!

well don’t boil the kettle, but water out of the warm tap is never going to do your windscreen any harm

So it’s not utter nonsense then? Result is probably fewer cracked windscreens than if it was “You can use hot water to clear your windscreen. Not too hot though or it might crack.”

My OH flicks the side of a can before opening it, to stop it exploding. I grind my teeth every time she does it.

Yes my OH also taps drinks cans. Utter bollocks.

Actually, it’s not….

Of course the can will fizz – it’s a fizzy drink.

Drinks ‘fizz over’ when the bubbles ‘below the surface’ rapidly expand through the depressurisation (opening the can) and cause the fluid to overflow.
If you flick/tap the can, it dislodges the bubbles ‘stuck’ to the side, and they float to the top (A bit like tapping a syringe, for the medics out there). These bigger bubbles then simply ‘release themselves’ into the air space above the liquid, and when you open the can the gas escapes easily,rather than expanding withing the liquid.

Science innit…

DrP

TV detector vans do exist, in very small numbers, but the height of their technological capability is to transport a little man to peep through your window.

I was reading something the other day (Guardian website maybe?) explaining how they work… Did wonder if it was just to keep people on their toes though!

I was reading something the other day (Guardian website maybe?) explaining how they work…

Unless the explanation was “by making people think they might get caught” then the explanation was probably fictitious.

dislodges the bubbles ‘stuck’ to the side, and they float to the top

that’s what I thought – allows the can to depressurize without bringing the liquid with it.

Surely there aren’t any bubbles inside the can until you open it. Flicking the can before you open it won’t dislodge any bubbles as there are..at that point..no bubbles.

OK, do this experiment.

Take a can and open it.

Take another can, shake it vigorously, and open it.

Is there a difference?

Same can, same contents..no? 😉

There’s dissolved CO2 in the fluid, plus of course slightly bigger (‘loose’) bubbles.
Shaking the can simply makes more loose bubbles within the liquid, as it mixes the fluid and air (at the top of the can) together.
Tapping the can releases the bubbles.

DrP

“Most women in a social environment would like to have casual sex with someone in the room just as much as men do”

Not in my experience. 🙁

Surely there aren’t any bubbles inside the can until you open it. Flicking the can before you open it won’t dislodge any bubbles as there are..at that point..no bubbles.

Extensive experimentation with lager would seem to suggest that this is the case.

I like tapping the top of the can, though, I like the sound it makes. And knowing it winds Cougar up I’ll do it extra, just in case.

OK, do this experiment.

Take a can and open it.

Take another can, shake it vigorously, and open it.

Is there a difference?

Same can, same contents..no?

It would be better to do this experiment

1. take a can and open it
2. take a can, flick it, then open it.

Is there any noticeable difference?

Better if you get someone else to randomly flick one of the cans and you open it without knowing which one was flicked

“long distance cardio is healthy / best for weight control”

Works for me. 25-30 pounds in two months on cycle tours.

Conventional medical wisdom held that diet, stress, and lifestyle caused stomach ulcers. Two Australian scientists proved the key factor was the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. I saw a documentary on this years ago. Much respect for one of them who infected himself with H. Pylori and developed an ulcer to prove his theory. A well deserved Nobel prize followed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4304290.stm

I don’t think there will be any bubbles inside the can. Look inside an unopened clear bottle of fizzy drink – any bubbles? No.

At the pressure within the bottle, a certain amount of gas is dissolved. If you shake it, the gas comes out of solution straight away so there are bubbles in it – these all expand straight away when you open it.

If you wait, they get re-dissolved (or float to the top and join the gap at the top). I reckon flicking it would make it slightly worse, as the shock would get gas out of solution a bit.