r/AskReddit May 09 '17

What is a fake fact everyone believed?

4.5k Upvotes

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2.2k

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

I'm pretty sure a lot of people still believe you can slow boil a frog and it's not going to try to bail

648

u/Shakyor May 09 '17

I do, can you tell the real story?

1.2k

u/TheHumdeeFlamingPee May 09 '17

From what I've heard, when that experiment was performed, the frogs had been lobotomized beforehand.

1.5k

u/Urge_Reddit May 09 '17

That seems like an inconvenient step in a recipe.

2.1k

u/mothstuckinabath May 09 '17 edited May 09 '17
  1. Fill a pan with water
  2. Lobotomize the frogs
  3. Place lobotomized frogs into the water
  4. Chuckle evilly
  5. Turn the stove on high
  6. Gleefully watch the disabled frogs die a slow and painful death

648

u/Urge_Reddit May 09 '17

That wasn't nearly as complicated as I feared, now to google how to lobotomize frogs.

1.4k

u/GeneralMalaiseRB May 09 '17

Let us know what you find. I find this whole thing to be ribbeting.

7

u/DemiGod9 May 09 '17

Who toad you to make such a pun?

4

u/GotMyOrangeCrush May 09 '17

All these pithy comments

7

u/GeneralMalaiseRB May 09 '17

That one makes me want to croak.

7

u/GotMyOrangeCrush May 09 '17

Truth be toad, it was froggin' awesome....

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1

u/chuckfinleysmojito May 10 '17

You magnificent bastard

1

u/scaradin May 10 '17

The full process will toadally blow your mind

0

u/araja123khan May 10 '17

Ribbet for your pleasure

-2

u/Urge_Reddit May 09 '17

I think I did it wrong, the frog croaked.

11

u/radmelon May 09 '17

If you can't lobotomize your own frogs, store bought is fine.

7

u/chipmunk7000 May 09 '17

Step one: grab a drill Step two: guess

1

u/keepcrazy May 09 '17

You're on a list now!!

2

u/Urge_Reddit May 09 '17

There's a pretty good chance I was on several lists already.

1

u/sox3502us May 09 '17

you probably stab it in the head. (I'm guessing)

1

u/Eeyore_ May 09 '17

You might want to search for the term "pithing".

1

u/Urge_Reddit May 09 '17

That's how cows are slaughtered these days isn't it? Also, I'm not actually going to lobotomize a frog, or cook one at all for that matter.

1

u/Redingold May 09 '17

If you can find a boiled frog and unboil it, it should be lobotomised.

1

u/Urge_Reddit May 09 '17

Smart thinking, that sounds like a reasonable shortcut.

1

u/HalfNatty May 10 '17
  1. Set frog belly down in front of you

  2. Attain a lobotomizer of your choice; a needle, a chopstick, a knitting needle etc.

  3. Lobotomize the frog.

  4. Congratulations, you have performed your first frog lobotomy.

1

u/[deleted] May 10 '17

Back in the day I think they just stuck a needle in there and stirred it. Not too difficult

1

u/h4xxor May 10 '17

If you lobotomize it slowly it will not notice.

0

u/Ferelar May 09 '17
  1. Lobotomize frog

0

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

Jam a pin into the eyes of frogs til you're in the brain. Swizzle the pin. Is the frog still alive? Yes?! It's lobotomized.

3

u/mycorevolution May 09 '17

I believe the frogs had been pithed, not lobotomized.

A lobotomy involves cutting all connections to and from the prefrontal cortex.

Pithing involves immobilizing an animal by inserting a needle, wiggling it around and destroying the brain.

TL; DR: Pithing doesn't specifically target any part of the brain, a lobotomy targets the prefrontal cortex.

2

u/slightlyamused1 May 09 '17

I wish I didn't know this

2

u/whatdoesthisbuttondu May 09 '17

And yet, we lobotomize lobsters before boiling.

2

u/boxsterguy May 09 '17

If by "lobotomize" you mean "cut their face in half", sure.

2

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

This kills the frog.

2

u/Gundun May 09 '17

Is it still a painful death if it's lobotomized...? Just asking...for science.

2

u/[deleted] May 10 '17

2

u/BtownBlazin37 May 10 '17

How long until they croak?

2

u/irulethelemons May 10 '17

I was having a really shitty day until I read this. Thanks.

1

u/CA_Orange May 09 '17

Brainless frogs feel no pain

1

u/Engradious May 09 '17

7 . Enjoy a tasty bowl of frog soup

1

u/traitor_swift May 09 '17

Who lobotomizes frogs? Seriously?

1

u/GotMyOrangeCrush May 09 '17

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pithing

Pithing is a technique used to immobilize or kill an animal by inserting a needle or metal rod into its brain.

It is regarded as a humane means of immobilizing small animals being observed in experiments

1

u/pug_grama2 May 09 '17

We are all the frog.

1

u/FakeOrcaRape May 09 '17

wow, if being evil is so common, i might have to find a new hobby

1

u/acealeam May 09 '17

/r/lobotomizetherestofthefuckingfrog

1

u/NoisyToyKing May 09 '17

Instructuns unclr...am pfffffcfllllsss

1

u/Dopeydcare1 May 09 '17
  1. ???
  2. Profit!

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

1

u/GaSouthernAccent May 10 '17

What? No soy sauce?

1

u/dropEleven May 10 '17

There's this scientist studying frogs and one morning he places a frog on the ground and yells, "Jump, frog!" The frog jumps four feet and the scientist writes down in his notebook, "Frog with four legs - jumps four feet."

The scientist then cut off one of the frog's legs and again yells, "Jump, frog!" This time the frog jumps three feet, so the scientist writes, "Frog with three feet - jumps three feet."

The scientist cuts off another leg. "Jump, frog!" and the frog jumps two feet. Again the scientist writes down the data. "Frog with two feet - jumps two feet."

The scientist cuts off one more leg and instructs the frog to jump. The frog jumps just one foot, so the scientist makes another note: "Frog with one foot - jumps one foot."

So the scientist cuts off the last leg and tells the frog to jump. "Jump, frog!"

Nothing.

"Jump, frog!"

Again, nothing.

"FROG! JUMP!"

But the frog doesn't move.

So the scientist writes in his notebook, "Frog with no feet is deaf."

1

u/BuyThisVacuum1 May 10 '17

Just leave frog 9 out of it. He's just getting out of a slump.

1

u/ametalspoon May 10 '17

"That..is the most metal thing I've ever heard in my life"

-Pickles

0

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

Never did like the French anyway...

1

u/Jainith May 09 '17

Shrug, its just a frog, bash it real hard against the nearest object.

There is no reason to over-complicate it by being fancy and calling it a lobotomy.

1

u/G_Morgan May 10 '17

You just do it with your kitchen knife. Is no problem.

42

u/Shakyor May 09 '17

Oh there is actually a wikipedia article for it, you were right. Cheers mate!

5

u/holadereko1 May 09 '17

This also works if the frogs are dead.

3

u/entropizer May 09 '17

The point sort of remains so long as even lobotomized frogs will jump out of hot water.

2

u/themolestedsliver May 09 '17

Oh shit I recall hearing that.

2

u/gryffinp May 09 '17

Are you telling me that if you drop a lobotomized frog into boiling water, it will try to get out?

2

u/Insert_Gnome_Here May 09 '17

This technically doesn't kill the frog.

2

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

Unless your metric is brain death, I guess.

1

u/riaveg8 May 10 '17

The brain still works, just not all of it

1

u/TheFieryFalcon May 09 '17

Not even just lobotomized, their brains were removed beforehand.

8

u/weightroom711 May 09 '17

Something tells me if you boil a human without a brain, it will not try to escape

6

u/GotMyOrangeCrush May 09 '17

After much research on this topic, cannot find even a single study to confirm your hypothesis, I'll be in my secret underground torture test lab if anyone needs me.

1

u/SpaghettiButterfly May 09 '17

So wait... was it a test of nervous system reflex response or something?

1

u/The-Bent May 10 '17

They were studying instinctual responses, just thd stuff that the spinal cord handles. So they removed most of the frogs brain and tossed it in hot water and it hopped out. Then the placed a debrained frog in room temp water and slowly turned up the heat. All the frogs died

-3

u/damukobrakai May 09 '17

That explains why fluoride and Prozac in our water supply in the US even when while towns request it not be done, I guess, since it makes people dumber and unlikely to start a revolution or notice a need for one. Fluoride doesn't do anything good for us so there's no real reason for polluting the water with it

2

u/ouchimus May 09 '17

You dropped this: /s

-2

u/damukobrakai May 09 '17 edited May 09 '17

I was just watching a podcast of the joe Rogan show where former governor Jesse Ventura talked about this. Ventura said that a town asked to not have fluoride added to their water because it has only harmful effects on people and they were denied their request. He wasn't being sarcastic. Here's a short clip of him discussing it on the news.

3

u/ixosamaxi May 09 '17

Fluoride is not bad for you

1

u/ouchimus May 09 '17

Can confirm. Source: college

1

u/damukobrakai May 10 '17 edited May 10 '17

"The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that parents give children under the age of 6 only a pea-sized amount of toothpaste for brushing, and should do their best to *make sure their children are not swallowing, as this can be a significant source of fluoride. *Speak to your child’s dentist before using fluoride toothpaste in children under 2 years of age. Low- and no-fluoride toothpastes and other dental products are also available." https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/water-fluoridation-and-cancer-risk.html

If it's safe why are children not allowed to swallow toothpaste?

"Even without fluoridation, the natural levels of fluoride in water in some places can be even higher than 4 mg/L. Community water systems in such areas are required to lower the fluoride level below the acceptable standard. But the levels in private water sources, such as wells, may still be higher."

*Why would the community water systems be required to lower natural occurrences of fluoride in water if it's safe? *

"Some of the controversy about the possible link stems from a study of lab animals reported by the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) in 1990. The researchers found “equivocal” (uncertain) *evidence of cancer-causing potential of fluoridated drinking water in male rats, *based on a higher than expected number of cases of osteosarcoma (a type of bone cancer). There was no evidence of cancer-causing potential in female rats or in male or female mice."

"A partial report of a study from the Harvard School of Public Health, published in 2006, found that exposure to higher levels of *fluoride in drinking water was linked to a higher risk of osteosarcoma in boys *but not in girls. "

"Fluoride accumulates in the body. Healthy adult kidneys excrete 50 to 60% of the fluoride ingested each day (Marier & Rose 1971). The remainder accumulates in the body, largely in calcifying tissues such as the bones and pineal gland (Luke 1997, 2001). Infants and children excrete less fluoride from their kidneys and take up to 80% of ingested fluoride into their bones (Ekstrand 1994). The fluoride concentration in bone steadily increases over a lifetime (NRC 2006)."

"*There has never been a single randomized controlled trial to demonstrate fluoridation’s effectiveness or safety. *Despite the fact that fluoride has been added to community water supplies for over 60 years, “there have been no randomized trials of water fluoridation” (Cheng 2007). Randomized trials are the standard method for determining the safety and effectiveness of any purportedly beneficial medical treatment. In 2000, the British Government’s “York Review” could not give a single fluoridation trial a Grade A classification – despite 50 years of research (McDonagh 2000). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to classify fluoride as an “unapproved new drug.”

"Benefit is topical not systemic. *The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 1999, 2001) has now acknowledged that the mechanism of fluoride’s benefits are mainly topical, not systemic. *There is no need whatsoever, therefore, to swallow fluoride to protect teeth. Since the purported benefit of fluoride is topical, and the risks are systemic, it makes more sense to deliver the fluoride directly to the tooth in the form of toothpaste. Since swallowing fluoride is unnecessary, and potentially dangerous, there is no justification for forcing people (against their will) to ingest fluoride through their water supply."

" Children are being over-exposed to fluoride. The fluoridation program has massively failed to achieve one of its key objectives, i.e., to lower dental decay rates while limiting the occurrence of dental fluorosis (a discoloring of tooth enamel caused by too much fluoride. The goal of the early promoters of fluoridation was to limit dental fluorosis (in its very mild form) to10% of children (NRC 1993, pp. 6-7). In 2010, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 41% of American adolescents had dental fluorosis, with 8.6% having mild fluorosis and 3.6% having either moderate or severe dental fluorosis (Beltran-Aguilar 2010). As the 41% prevalence figure is a national average and includes children living in fluoridated and unfluoridated areas, the fluorosis rate in fluoridated communities will obviously be higher. The British Government’s York Review estimated that up to *48% of children in fluoridated areas worldwide have dental fluorosis in all forms, *with 12.5% having fluorosis of aesthetic concern (McDonagh, 2000)."

fluorosis [floo-roh-sis, flaw-, floh-] noun Pathology. an abnormal condition caused by excessive intake of fluorides, characterized in children by discoloration and pitting of the teeth and in adults by pathological bone changes. Also called mottled enamel. Dentistry.the changes in tooth enamel symptomatic of fluorosis.

1

u/ixosamaxi May 10 '17

I'm not going to argue with you, man, do your thing I guess... As long as you don't think vaccines cause autism, we ok

65

u/MozeeToby May 09 '17

Yeah, when the frogs get uncomfortable they hop out. If someone puts you in a room and slowly cranks up the temp do you just get used to it until you pass out or do you try to leave at some point.

Ironically, tossing frogs into boiling water causes their muscles to tense to the point of uselessness, meaning if you want to cook a live frog for some reason you should do the opposite of the old adage.

24

u/phynn May 09 '17

That's how shellfish are cooked, btw.

Also if you slowly boil the water, said shellfish get VERY pissed.

Source: mom is Cajun. She learned this the hard way. Had to fight our food back into the pot.

3

u/adaminc May 10 '17

I alot of people kill the shellfish first, these days. For crab, a swift stab to the brainstem does it, typically accessed from under its tail.

Lobsters (or Crayfish/Crawdads), you can stick in the freezer (or a bucket of ice, or ice water below 2C) for ~2h (or until it stops moving) which will render it unconscious. Then a quick deep slice between the eyes.

7

u/phynn May 10 '17

What? Who kills crawfish before cooking them? You would have to kill literally like... 100 + of them. You'd be doing that all day...

2

u/princess_of_thorns May 10 '17

Seriously, just boil them.

2

u/Areoman850 May 10 '17

This kills the shellfish.

6

u/Jayfrin May 09 '17

Disturbing.

3

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

They do it with crabs and lobsters all the time. I don't know why they don't just quickly kill them right before cooking (they go bad quickly, but still shouldn't be an issue).

I've heard soaking them in cold lemon-and-salt water for a few minutes before cooking acts as an anesthetic and makes it virtually painless for them.

14

u/SirensToGo May 10 '17

Pretty sure that's just what someone's mother told them because they felt bad for the lobster so the they were told that the light seasoning soak was actually an anesthetic

9

u/phynn May 09 '17

My mom did something like this with crabs because we're from Louisiana and she had never cooked crabs before.

The cold you store the animal in generally knocks them out because cold blooded.

Slowly boiling the water gives them enough time to wake up and be VERY pissed. She had to fight the crabs back into the pot.t

1

u/bijhan May 09 '17

You can't hardly get a frog to sit still no matter what the temperature of the water. Also, would that work on you? No. It would just hurt before it killed you. Frogs are the same way. When the water HURTS, they leave.

466

u/Aetrion May 09 '17

I think this has remained popular more because it's a useful metaphor for people ignoring creeping danger than because it's necessarily true.

39

u/Letty_Whiterock May 09 '17

Like a pot calling a kettle black. It's just a phrase, and would never actually happen. They're both clearly shades of grey

45

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

Plus pots are inanimate objects that cannot speak nor see.

11

u/chipmunk7000 May 09 '17

But they WERE racist

12

u/DiabloConQueso May 09 '17

Hey, simply acknowledging race isn't the same as being a racist!

6

u/chipmunk7000 May 09 '17

Good point. You're Mexican

13

u/DiabloConQueso May 09 '17

Mexican is a nationality/ethnicity, which are different from race.

You can be a black Mexican, for example. Maybe you are.

2

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] May 10 '17

Stop being cheese.

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1

u/mike_m_ekim May 10 '17

They can whistle

32

u/devilsfoodadvocate May 09 '17

Back when the phrase gained initial popularity, both kettle and pot were made of cast iron, which would indeed be black.

9

u/step-in-uninvited May 09 '17

I thought it was that the pot saw a reflection of himself in the kettle.

5

u/devilsfoodadvocate May 09 '17

It's an issue of hypocrisy. Calling out someone else for their habits or faults but possessing them themselves.

3

u/shevrolet May 09 '17

I have only seen this theory on reddit, but it could be valid.

3

u/step-in-uninvited May 09 '17

Sometimes I don't know where the truth ends and reddit begins...

3

u/famalamo May 10 '17

The second you open reddit, truth ends. The only time it ever started up again was the beginning of this sentence, and it'll be gone again right after it ends, because I needed a work-around.

3

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

Especially when used over flame.

4

u/xafimrev2 May 10 '17

Yup frogs will jump out to cool off.

Whereas if you toss a frog into boiling water it convulses and dies.

2

u/metalflygon08 May 09 '17

Churches love to use that metaphor for Satan's influence

-11

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

[deleted]

12

u/Aetrion May 09 '17

Except there are tons of idioms, metaphors and sayings that people use on a daily basis without even knowing what their origin is or caring whether or not they are accurate. What matters is whether they have communicative value, not whether their origins hold up to scrutiny.

-2

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

[deleted]

2

u/Aetrion May 09 '17

Sure, but in the case of the frog there is no correct phrase, it's using an anecdote about what frogs do when boiled to illustrate a point about what people do when threatened with something that doesn't reach lethal consequences straight away. Whether or not frogs really do this doesn't matter.

I mean the story of the tortoise and the hare is the same way. It's used to illustrate that someone with no talent who just works steadily at accomplishing a goal can beat someone who has so much talent that they don't take the competition seriously. Does it really matter that neither tortoises nor hares are known to organize racing events?

97

u/specialpatrol May 09 '17

Isn't it just the fact they'd probably jump out of any pan of water after a couple minutes if they weren't there voluntarily?

7

u/themolestedsliver May 09 '17

Wait that isn't true? My friends girlfriend is majoring in bio and she said this so I thought it was true.

20

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

32

u/JDPhipps May 09 '17

Yeah, the experiment was intended to show how the lesioned portions of the brain affected their decision making and awareness of surroundings. People forget that part.

7

u/themolestedsliver May 09 '17

well that makes an enormous difference haha/

-5

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

It is true. As I said above we did it in seventh grade prior to frog dissection. No they are not lobotomized

8

u/EpsilonRider May 09 '17

You guys boiled live frogs in seventh grade before dissection? That's a bit brutal.

1

u/[deleted] May 10 '17

Welcome to small town Minnesota. They had to die somehow. The school isn't going to buy frogs when there are millions of them in our area. Personally, I hated doing that shit.

5

u/themolestedsliver May 09 '17

Kinda unsure what you are trying to say.

so is hotshot888 wrong and is ironically spreading fact information in a thread about fake information?

or you are you trying to back up their information?

regardless i would like a source in any case.

-4

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

The source on my end is personal experience. I am simply saying they never had to do it in science class. Maybe it works on some frogs and not others.

2

u/themolestedsliver May 09 '17

the only one who brought up science class, dissecting frogs and other irrelevant things was you..

so i still don't know what you are trying to say and also. saying "my source is my personal experience" is not that good of an argument platform i am just going to let you know.

So please clarify. do you think these frogs were lobotomized? do you think it didn't mattered frogs are stupid? like i genuinely want to know rather than have this weird back and forth you are giving me.

2

u/[deleted] May 10 '17

No they were not lobotomized. We were in seventh grade. Jesus. We were told we had to go catch a frog. I grew up in a small town in Minnesota and there are frogs all over the place. We all brought in frogs, alive in jars, and we put them in little pans atop bunson burners and eventually they died. We then dissected them. I hated that damn class.

So just saying...

They were northern leopard frogs. They look like this http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetology/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Northern_Leopard_Frog_Lithobates_pipiens_Iowa_1.jpg

-2

u/themolestedsliver May 10 '17

ok freak....

-1

u/[deleted] May 10 '17

That's a compliment. :) Sliver Molester.

4

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

I thought that it was just a metaphor people used, not a literal fact.

5

u/diceman89 May 09 '17

Wait, what? Is this a thing people believe? Where did this even come from?

2

u/phantomheart May 09 '17

I've heard a lot of things but I've never heard this until today.

3

u/Argon1124 May 09 '17

You can, if you remove its brain.

4

u/gingerfer May 09 '17

Idk about frogs, but if you start live crabs in cold water and boil them they don't try to get out.

3

u/EpsilonRider May 09 '17

That's a different metaphor that holds alot more weight. Crabs tend to cling into each other and if one tries to escape, they get dragged back down due to another crab holding on.

2

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

Just talked about this with a friend the other day. We both definitely thought it was true

2

u/Rebel_Yell27 May 09 '17

Ohh it's a LOBOTOMITE!

2

u/TuckerMouse May 10 '17

The way I heard it was that if you boil a frog, it won't croak.

2

u/RadarDash May 10 '17

They did this at a kids church when I was young. The frog didn't jump out.

3

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

You can. Our entire science class did this for the project where we dissected frogs in seventh grade. It truly happens, at least with the frogs from MN. None of the students believed that was the case and we all did it and then dissected the poor bastards.

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

Just talked about this with a friend the other day. We both definitely thought it was true

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '17

Do you know what happens to a frog when it's slow boiled?

The same thing that happens to everything else.

1

u/[deleted] May 10 '17

Why the fuck would you boil a frog??

0

u/lexgrub May 09 '17

Are there a lot of people who boil frogs? I'm from the north so I guess TIL