Wednesday
Mar122014
101: Um, Actually...
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 1:54AM | in episodes
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 1:54AM | in episodes DIRECT DOWNLOAD / ITUNES / RSS
Ah yes, the "Um, Actually..." - a phrase in every trivia fan's utility belt. We dedicate the whole episode to the culture of corrections, misquoted facts, and nerdery. It's time to load up your trivia ammo! Colin schools EVERYONE on a misused vocabulary quiz, and Chris shares how we've been doing things wrong in the kitchen. Dana's snoops around Snopes.com, and blows our mind about blood. Karen finds out where words like "nerd" and "dweeb" come from.
ALSO: Good Job, BRIAN! quiz, Carmin San Mateo, Lobetrotter
RUNTIME: 56 minutes 59 seconds
SPONSOR: lynda.com - Learn software, creative, & business skills from expert-taught videos at lynda.com/goodjobbrain
Featured Interlude Music:
"Do Wrong Right" by The Devil Makes Three Amazon | iTunes
Reader Comments (8)
I thought the segment about good job Brian was hilarious because my husbands name is Brian and often times we will put Brain on things to see who really is quick and will actually notice. I changed his name on facebook to Brain and very few people actually said something. Also on our wedding invitation it said Brain and the same not many noticed!
"Um, actually..." Snopes isn't always right. Refer to the item "Spiders Inside Her." It claims that the statistic "The average person swallows eight spiders per year" is false (which is correct), and then claims it originated with a 1993 PC Professional article by Lisa Holst. No one can find any evidence that the magazine, article, or author actually exists.
Your assessment of "Dinosaur Train" was spot-on! My toddler son cannot get enough of that ridiculous show. What is powering that train? Why is a T-Rex being fostered by a pteranodon family? How awkward is it going to be when he grows up and tries to eat his siblings? Who is paying for all these constant train excursions??
These are the important questions, people.
Thank you and keep up the excellent work!
In the pedantry section, you say that collisions can only happen between objects already in motion. Now, the purpose of that section was to clarify official definitions of commonly used words and phrases which is actually contrary to the purpose of language: everyone knows what you mean when you make those technical errors. So, if we REALLY want to be technically correct, we must accept that EVERYTHING in the universe is in motion. Something can only be still relative to something else, and even then it is likely that that object still has SOME relative motion, no matter how negligible. And negligible is kind of what this section is all about, right?
"Um actually..." I have never heard this "salt makes water boil faster or slower" business, but it is NOT just for taste. I believe people add it to pasta to keep the noodles from sticking together. I mean, don't get me wrong, it definitely makes the noodles taste better but the reason I use salt is to de-stick. I have tested this and it seems fairly accurate.
Guess what!
I don't have to do laundry for a week because I listen to Good Job Brain and I now know that blood is red. Not blue, and now Im using it to my advantage!
Hi All,
I come to GJB a little late in the game. Just finished listening to ep 101.
As for salt in pasta water: Um, actually the salt does help the pasta (has nothing to do with the noodles not sticking together) the high salt content helps the crenation process allowing the water to enter the much less salty pasta faster.
Salt making water boil faster (or slower)? It may appear to some that throwing salt into unsalted boiling (or almost boiling) water will make it boil faster because the salt creates cavitation points in the water (which will release the steam) looking like the water is boiling faster. Salted water has a higher boiling point than unsalted water due to the salt causing impurities in the water.
Would " I have a nauseous feeling" be incorrect?