What inaccurate historical factoid do you just go with?

SSTF@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 65 points –
77

I'm gonna be that guy... but former English teacher here - By definition, factoids are inaccurate :) inaccuracies repeated so often that people 'go with it', that's when they become factoids.

'inaccurate factoid' is an example of a tautology. Like naan bread, or armed gunman.

You are technically correct, the best kind of correct.

C'mon dude. As a history teacher, I can tell you that it is definitely possible to fire a gun without arms.

I'm not even a gun dude and I've heard of those guns that shoot if you look at em funny. Hi points? I don't remember.

If you're a former English teacher you should be aware that language changes and while "factoid" was originally coined to mean a made up fact, the term is currently mostly used to refer to small inconsequential facts.

A gunman doesn't cease to be a gunman if he's disarmed. Though he can't be a gunman if he wasn't armed in the first place.

Wouldn't it be a pleonasm? Tautology is more about the logic realm, specifically about repeating an argument or a statement as it they were different. Here "inaccurate factoid" is merely inaccurate vocabulary.

I like to believe that dinosaurs (especially stegosauruses) had lovely singing voices, because its nice and doesn't hurt anybody.

how loud could their operas get? what range of octaves are possible with the range of species? could they beat box? were there ventriloquists?

  1. three 2) yes 3) only in Portuguese 4) only in Portuguese

That Napoleon was short

He wasn't short? 😨

He was short. But so was everyone else then.

He was 5'10" which at the time was considered 'normal'.

*5’6”, which was actually a little above average.

He was average for the day. He just happened to be measured in different units than the British and had really tall bodyguards.

Spartans were a dominant military force. They were actually kind of a shitty military force who was really good at PR.

The Spartan Hegemony only lasted 30 years, and only because they kind of glory-hogged the aftermath of the Greco-Persian war after nearly losing the war due to their refusal to muster.

At Thermopylae 300 Spartans fought to the last man, along with 700 Athenians and more from other cities.

Yes that would be the PR campaign I am referencing.

George Washington had wooden dentures.

I learned it from Day of the Tentacle and even if I know now that it isn't true,it still pops into my mind everytime someone talks about him or dentures.

Also, Betsy Ross originally created a tentacle shaped flag, not a rectangular one.

Day of the Tentacle

Time for a replay. Is there an android option nowadays?

Sort of.

There's a ScummVM emulator on the playstore, so it's possible to play the original on android if you can find the "rom" files.

I haven't tried DOTT in particular, but last time I replayed a scumm game I quickly lost interest due to the outdated controls.

Thanks will try it

By the way, got the rom from https://www.romspedia.com/roms/scummvm/day-of-the-tentacle/download

Game started, not tested yet but all looks ok

(To anyone else trying to do this, get Scummvm app from playstore. Get the Rom file from web link above (mind the spammy adverts). You'll need something like Rar app to unzip the file. Make a games folder on your phone, make a DayOfTheTentacle inside it and unzip the file there. Then open scummvm and "add new folder" and navigate to the DayOfTheTentacle folder and select that. Scummvm should detect the game so then you should see a game called "tentacle* you can start)

Padeira de Aljubarrota killed 7 Castillians by cooking them in her bakery's oven in 1385.

Brites de Almeida das born in 1350 with 6 fingers in each hand, a though lady, could easily kill a man with her hands (and did it a few times), was kidnapped and enslaved in Northern Africa, managed to escape with her bare hands, helped out 2 other Portuguese guys to escape, stole a boat, sailed back with the guys, had a prob with one of them, killed him. Tried to establish herself in a honest way, but crime and murder were always coming her way somehow, ended up moving towns and disguise herself as a man. Met and older lady friend, a baker, that wanted to maker her an honest person. They lived happily as a couple. Older lady dies, she inherits the bakery. Castille tries to occupy Portugal, big battle, Portugal is outnumbered but manages to have a spectacular win. Some castillans are running around and looting. She lures 7 into her bakery, cooks them alive in her oven. Forever a national hero and legend.

Nothing of this is proven, including the Castillans she killed (which is the factoid that made her a hero) but there're even songs about her and whenever Portugal plays against Spain in football you'll see some people dressed as a baker on the stadium.

A lesbian serial-killer who escapsed enslavement to kill Castillans in one of the most important battles of our history? To me nothing can be truer than this, independently of what you can prove or not.

  • Jewish slaves build the pyramids.

They were build by Egyptians, probably out of loyalty to the pharaohs.

  • Columbus discovered America.

He never reached the mainland. He didn't go any further then the Caribbean Islands.

Man, this one is infuriating for me, and I'm Jewish.

It's like we based an entire religion out of this lie - every aspect of the old testament is riddled with exodus references.

did the Jews ever claim to have built the pyramids?

Was Egyptian slavery of Jews not a thing at ALL?

Columbus reached the mainland on his third and fourth voyages.

On his subsequent voyages he went farther south, to Central and South America. He never got close to what is now the mainland of America. Wikipedia

South America is not "mainland of America"? What do you consider "mainland of America" if south America is not part of it?

"Poor artists imitate, great ones steal"

I have no idea who actually coined this, but I heard once that it was Mark Twain. I'm pretty sure it wasn't, but it sounds like something he'd say and attaching his name to it actually helps convey the message and its tone, so fuck it, Mark Twain said that.

The thing about the Pythagorean Theorem and having to cut your tongue out to join the cult that teaches you, so that you can't just blab it all over town. I teach physics and I love to play it up!

That their was a man who got skimmed by a cannonball in the ass, got treated, and returned to the deck the same day to continue watching the battle.