Oddities Archives

Did Saint Patrick Banish All The Snakes From Ireland?

Did Saint Patrick banish all the snakes from Ireland? It turns out the story is a bit more complicated than that. Legend tells it that St. Patrick banished all the snakes from the Emerald Isle, chasing them into the sea from atop a cliff where he had undertaken a 40-day fast. As beloved as this

Read more →

Ignorant Scientists. So Many Don’t Know What They’re Talking About

Ignorant scientists. Science has enormous cachet and authority in our culture, for very understandable reasons! And that has led scientists (and non-scientists who claim the mantle of science) to claim public authority, which is all well and good in their areas of expertise. The problem is when they claim authority in areas where they don’t

Read more →

Denmark Strait Cataract. It Isn’t What You Think

Denmark Strait Cataract. What’s the largest waterfall in the world? If you’re talking by flow rate, it’s Inga Falls. If you mean the tallest, it’s Angel Falls. The widest? Khone Falls. But if you want to know the very largest waterfall in the world, you’ll have to look beneath the ocean. That’s where you’ll find

Read more →

Nine Million Deaths In 2015 Because Of Pollution

Pollution creates a deadly aftermath. In 2015, about one in six of the deaths around the world were linked to pollution of some kind, a new report has found. “Pollution is much more than an environmental challenge. It is a profound and pervasive threat that affects many aspects of human health and wellbeing,” Philip Landrigan says

Read more →

Human Gene Editing Is Leaving Ethics Dangerously Far Behind

In a breakthrough scientists successfully did gene editing of a human embryo to eliminate a dangerous gene mutation. The birth of an actual baby with genes selected by technological means hasn’t happened yet, but that is on the way — and soon. Science and technological capacity are racing ahead of ethics, safety regulations and our understanding

Read more →

Why People Don’t Believe That The Moon Landing Happened

No conspiracy theory has captured the imagination quite like that time we faked the moon landing. That’s right, we never landed on the moon. According to a 1999 Gallup poll, 6% of Americans thought the moon landings were fake, and 5% said they weren’t sure. So what gives? Why would otherwise normal, critically thinking adults believe

Read more →

Do Words Get Removed From A Dictionary If They Are Not Used?

Do words get removed from a dictionary if they are not used? The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary [OED] is generally regarded as the single most comprehensive record of the English language to exist. Included in this work are many thousands of words considered completely “obsolete” by lexicographers. You see, in something of a Hotel California

Read more →