Can You Contract Poison Ivy by Touching Someone Who Has it?

No, many people think that you can, so they avoid them (personal experience). You can only get poison ivy from touching poison ivy oil, which is on the leaves and vines. People think this, because sometimes you may still have oil on your clothes, and people who touch your clothes may get it.-John Baskin

Can Porcupines Shoot Quills From Their Back?

No, many people think that this myth is true, but it is actually false. When startled a muscle that is below each quill on the porcupine allows the spines to stand up straight. Usually a porcupine runs away from danger, but when it attacks it jumps towards the predator, then it sticks its quills into its attacker. After a fight it only looses a small percent of all of its quills. After a while its quills will re-grow, so it never runs out of quills. - John Baskin

Was The Pentagon Originally Supposed to be a Hospital?

No, this myth started, because the Pentagon has wide ramps, instead of stairs, which would be used to roll stretchers, wheel chairs, and supplies to different floors. It also has many bathrooms. It is even located near the Arlington Cemetery. The reason for all of the bathrooms, was because at the time there was racial segregation, and there had to be different bathrooms for blacks, and whites. The ramps were used to save steel that it would have taken to make all of the stairs and elevators. They couldn't use too much steel, because at the time World War II was happening, and they needed steel for the war. For the Arlington Cemetery, it is located next to the Pentagon just by chance.-John Baskin

Can a Duck's Quack Not Echo?

No, this is a fact in one of the e-mails that has many annoying facts, that aren't usually real. Well first, the male and female ducks quack sounds very different from each other. Also there are many different breeds of ducks, and each breed has a different sounding quack. Tests from the University of Salford revealed the truth of this legend. The tests show that a ducks quack does echo, but not very well. A duck quacks quietly, and the sound dies out over time, so that may be how the rumor was started.-John Baskin

Can a Cockroach Survive Without its Head?

Yes, unlike humans cockroaches have a very simple circulatory system, and the blood will just clot, and not spew all over the place like humans, and not die.  They can breathe through holes in each body segment called spiracles, also unlike humans. They wouldn't starve either, because they can survive for weeks before facing starvation. So roaches can survive up to weeks without their head.- John Baskin

If You Shoot a Car's Gas Tank Will it Explode?

Yes, but it would be very hard to do it. A spark is needed to make the tank explode. A bullet won't produce a spark unless it hits something like metal, or a rock. Also explosions, and fire need oxygen to ignite, and there is very little oxygen in a fuel tank. Fuel tanks of cars are made of plastic now, and it is hard to find a car that has a metal fuel tank. Thus it won't trigger an explosion. -John Baskin

Information from  http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090721172255AAer2Tu

Are Poinsettia Plants Are Poisonous to Humans?

No, Poinsettias are not actually poisonous. This myth was started when a soldier returned from Hawaii where he was stationed, and his child was found dead. The child was killed from being poisoned. The soldier thought that the child had eaten a poinsettia leaf, but was actually wrong. If a child that weighed around 60 pounds at a poinsettia leaf he, or she, would have to eat about 600 leaves. So if your child eats a poinsettia leaf, don't call poison control, they are not poisonous. -John Baskin


Information from http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/poinsettia.asp

Do You Only Use Ten Percent of Your Brain?

No, this myth started in a magazine ad, that showed a picture a the human brain, and under it the caption read, " You only use 11% of your brain." Also psychics have used this myth to declare that psychics use 100% of their brain, and have psychic powers. People also say that we only use 20% of our brains, but that is also false. Humans use the full 100% of their brains.-John Baskin