Disillusionment

There really aren't over 100 words for "snow" in the Inuit language. According to this, there's at most 24, and that's stretching the definition of 'word'.

And the Great Wall of China isn't visible from space. At least not according to NASA.


I love a good, cool bit of trivia, and I tend to hear it and assimilate it straight away, just assuming it's true, trusting liberally. I think I learned the Great Wall of China thing from the movie "The Truman Show", for example.

So yeah, it's disappointing, especially coming from NASA. The snow-word guy even kinda rubs it in our faces by finding 40 English words for different types of snow. Kinda mean.

There's another similar kind of thing that upsets me, too --
For instance, there's this funny dead bunny story I heard this popular teacher tell, claiming it happened to her.... Well, this site says it's an Urban myth, originating in 1989, retold by many since then, each presenting themselves as the dog owner. Is it a weird form of plagiarism -- co-opting someone else's story or joke, presenting it as your own even though it'd be just as funny to just tell properly credited? ?
Or maybe this bizarre sequence of events really did happen to all these people? It's a big world, after all...But then how does it only seem to happen to famous people? And one of the people that told the story after 1989 -- Michael Landon!!! He was Pa!!!! Like I said....disillusionment.