Does it exist?

Today we are looking at things and concepts thought to exist that actually don't.

Let's start off nice and easy with a woman called Lillian Virginia Mountweazel. Mountweazel was a fountain designer turned mailbox photographer, who died tragically in an explosion while doing a piece for the Combustibles magazine.

If you've never heard of Miss Mountweazel, it's because she was invented in 1975 for the New Columbia Encyclopedia, as a trap for anyone who just copies and reprints the encyclopedia with another name.

This kind of trap placing is common amongst map makers, who like to invent towns that aren't there.

Educators have argued for years how best to teach children. Some say that one way is best, others argue that it's highly individual. New research shows that while children (and adults) have a preferred way of learning, i.e. visual, spatial, verbal, a combination of several etc, no way is actually better or worse.

A study done tested a bunch of kids and no matter which way they were taught, they learned and retained the information at the same rate. So, the notion that you learn better one way may not exist.

In a similar vein as the children above, it seems that there is no such thing as true multitasking. While some people are better than others at splitting their attention between different projects at the same time, they are just giving each project less attention overall.

There is only so much brain power to go around, and the more you split it up, the worse you do.

In a fascinating twist, listening to music can help you concentrate with reading and writing as long as there are no lyrics. Pure music and language are processed in different parts of the brain, so they don't compete. But add song, and the text you're reading gets harder to process.

Speaking of the brain, photographic memory is also a myth. Some people have better memories than others, but that's it. One of the most famous tests of photographic memory was conducted by a scientist who refused to replicate the test and instead married his test subject, so make of that what you will.

Finally we get to a controversial subject. Gluten free diets.

While it is medically proven that some people have celiac disease and can't eat gluten without getting sick, tests indicate that being intolerant to gluten without having celiac disease is not possible. In-depth tests have been done with groups being fed diets containing high, medium and no amounts of gluten. The subjects did not know when they were eating which diet, and when interviewed they reported feeling ill at any stage of the test, even when eating the gluten free food.

It would seem the multibillion dollar gluten free market is more interested in keeping people buying their products than telling the truth... Go figure, right? In any case, eat what you want, it's no business of mine.

That's that. Until next time, have a great week, and keep on existing!