“Popeye, Spinach, Iron”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — The cartoon character, and first American superhero, Popeye ate spinach for its strength providing iron content because his creator was misled by the publication of a widely believed 19th century decimal point error that exaggerated the iron content of…

“Zombie Cop”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — The widely held criminological ‘knowledge’ that foot patrol beat policing is ineffective at either arresting offenders or reducing crime is substantially supported by research conducted by Clarke and Hough (1984), which makes the claim that:‘…a patrolling policeman in London…

“Semmelweis”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — In the 19th Century Ignác Semmelweis solely implemented hand washing practices in hospitals, significantly cutting the death rate from childbed fever among mothers there to give birth. His failure to influence the medical community to take up this hygienic…

“Humpty Dumpty”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM The Humpty Dumpty Myth. dysology.blogspot.com Nov. 29, 2013 TEST Humpty Dumpty and Punchinello have documented histories that do not coincide. There is an allusion only (“like”), to a similar body type, in Suton's offered poem, “Beau Humpty-dumpty next appears / A…

“You Are What You Eat”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — According to Cryer, M.(2010) ‘Who Said that First?’ Chichester. Summerdale page 419: The entry into the English language of the phrase ‘you are what you eat’ originated in the Bridgeport Telegraph 1923 by way of an advertisement that informed…

“X Marks the Spot”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — According to Rees, N. (1996) Cassell’s Dictionary of word and phrase origins, at page 271: ‘The actual phrase ‘x marks the spot’ appears to have originated from Chicago newspapers in the early days of gangsterism.’ Fact — The phrase…

“What Works”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — Disseminated by a UK Government Briefing paper on the topic: ‘The term “what works” was first coined in 1974, when Robert Martinson argued that “education at its best, or … psychotherapy at its best, cannot overcome, or even appreciably…

“Virtual / Artificial Reality”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — “The term "artificial reality", coined by Myron Krueger, has been in use since the 1970s; however, the origin of the term "virtual reality" can be traced back to the French playwright, poet, actor, and director Antonin Artaud. In his…

“Underdog”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — Story to date: David Barker, a famous freemason, allegedly invented the metaphorical concept of humans as underling dogs in a popular poem which, according to legend, he wrote in 1859 and had published in various newspapers. To date, no…

“Thick As Thieves”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — The phrase ‘thick as thieves’ was coined by Theodore Hook (1833) in his book ‘The Parson's Daughter’ where he famously wrote: "She and my wife are thick as thieves.’’ Fact — Hook never coined the phrase. Because it can…

“Rocket Science”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — The phrase ‘rocket science’ was coined by Alfres[sic] Zaehringer in 1947. Fact — The exact phrase and contemporary meaning of ‘rocket science’ was anonymously published 15 years earlier in Popular Mechanics (1932) March. Page 464. TEST Sutton offers a…

“Quiz”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — Several weird myths exist about this word, but the closest to reality is that ‘quiz’ entered the English language literature in 1781. Fact — The word quiz appeared two years earlier in Kelham, R. (1779) A dictionary of the…

“One Medicine”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — Veterinary epidemiologist and parasitologist, Dr. Calvin W. Schwabe, of the University of California, coined the phrase ‘One Medicine’ in the 1960s, to promote the idea of unifying medical and veterinary medical approaches to tackle zoonotic diseases. Fact — The…

“Not Rocket Science”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — The Phrase ‘not rocket science’ was coined in the Pennsylvania newspaper The Daily Intelligencer in December 1985. Fact — The phrase ‘not rocket science’ can be found in the literature at least eight years earlier. See: Fain, T. G;…

“Let Sleeping Dogs Lie”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — Sir Water Scott in (1824), was the first to convert Chaucer’s 1374 advice that “It is nought good a slepyng hound to wake" to the modern phrase ’let sleeping dogs lie’ Fact — The Phrase was published six years…

“Know Your Onions”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — There are two myths associated with the phrase to ‘know your onions’: (1) that it stems from the reputation of Oxford Dictionary expert C. T. Onions, and was coined in the 1930s (2) that it stems from an American…

“Jerry Built”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — The phrases: ‘jerry houses,’ ‘jerry-builder’, ‘jerry built’, first emerged in 1869, but their etymological root remains unknown. Discussion — I conducted some extensive ID research on the etymological roots of this idiom, which produced some quite fascinating findings that…

“Ivory Tower”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — Ivory Tower was first used as a phrase in the 1837 work of the French poet Charles Augustin Saint-Beuve in his poem “Thoughts of August”, making its first appearance in the English language in 1911. Fact — The phrase…

“Global Village”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — American media and communications expert, Marshall McLuhan, coined the phrase ‘global village’ in 1962. Fact — The phrase was used at least 16 years earlier to describe the exact same concept. See: Stuart, F. S. and Biard, H. C.…

“Founding Fathers”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — U.S.A. Republican Senator Warren G. Harding, coined the phrase ‘Founding Fathers’ in his keynote address to the 1916 Republican National Convention. Fact — Harding never coined it. The phrase, albeit with a different meaning, dates back to at least…

“Etymology”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — Weirdly, no dictionary of etymology appears to have examined the first use of the word etymology. Fact — The word etymology can be found as least as far back as 1607: Cowell, J, (1607) The Interpreter, Or, Booke Containing…

“Natural Selection”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — Charles Darwin coined the term ‘natural selection’ Fact — Darwin never coined it. The term ‘natural selection’ was used at least three years before Darwin was born. See: Preston, W. (1803) The Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, Translated into English…

“Cyberspace”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — It is universally accepted that the science fiction writer William Gibson invented the word cyberspace in a story called Burning Chrome – its use was expanded in Neuromancer in 1984. This is indeed correct. Fact — The little known…

“Automobile”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — The word automobile entered the English language in the New York Times on January 3rd 1899. Fact — The word automobile entered the English language at least six years earlier than currently believed. In 1893 the word was used…

“Hello”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myths – There are currently three myths associated with the word ‘hello’. Namely (1) Edison coined the word in 1878; (2) that it first occurred in print in 1833; (3) that ‘hello’ was not used as a greeting until after Edison…

“Bermuda Triangle”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM src: https://dysology.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-bermuda-triangle.html TEST This is another example of Sutton's inability to interpret in context. This is the paragraph from the book by Harrison, within a section on the Bermuda Triangle (p.195), Sutton is uninformed about the history of the Bermuda Triangle…

“Moral Panic”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth: The phrase and sociological concept of moral panic, as used first by Jock Young and then Stan Cohen, emerged from the British National Deviancy Conference of 1968. Fact: Neither Young nor Cohen (not even Marshall McLuhan, as some slightly more…

“Supermyth”

Sutton makes many claims about other people have stolen "prior published" phrases and concepts: for example, "moral panic", "natural Selection", "self fulfilling prophecy", etc, etc, etc. He is mistaken, because he doesn't know the meaning of "to coin". Not only is he wrong in his accusations, he is also a hypocrite, because, by the same…

“A-Z of Big Data Myths”

"As someone who seems to be embarking on busting myth busters I’d better do my best not to hoist myself by my own petard. And if I do, I hope I can be as forthright and generous as you in thanking the critic." (Sutton 2010) This is an overview of findings made whilst checking Sutton's…

Natural Selection Concepts

Following on from a previous post on natural selection, where syntactical reasons were given for why Sutton is wrong about Darwin stealing from Matthew, here are some relevancies on semantics, to explain the historical and biological context and see how wrong Sutton is in his claims of plagiarism. In his A-Z of Mythbusting, Sutton writes,…

“Living Fossil”

Claim: Darwin did not coin the term "living fossil" Finding: the reference is to living mussels found in Wales Conclusion: Sutton & Griffiths (2018) is wrong. SUTTON SAYS: Living Fossil Myth: Darwin Cult Anti-Welsh Wikipedia? According to anybody's concept of a living fossil, the idea is that an ancient (genetic) lineage is captured / encapsulated…

“Four-Word-Shuffle”

Sutton makes a big deal over the similarity between Matthew's naming of the "natural process of selection" and Darwin's "natural selection", but there are no grounds to his claims of plagiarism. Why? Read on. Sutton makes a big deal over the similarity between Matthew's naming of the "natural process of selection" and Darwin's "natural selection",…

“Bootleg”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Without a single reference to support the claim, all of the major dictionaries and etymology textbooks assert confidently that the words bootleg, bootlegging and bootlegger all stem from the past practice of illegal alcohol peddlers concealing their product inside their boots.…

“Halloween”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — At the time of writing, Wikipedia and seemingly countless other websites vaguely have it that the earliest known usage of the word is "about 1745". The Online Etymology Dictionary makes the same conveniently vague claim, as does the mighty…

“Peace Corps”

Digging about on his blog tells us more about how Sutton got started ... as if we wanted to know. I began my research on this issue by using ID to search whether or not the term "peace corps" was coined before 1839, the date when Matthew's second book, Emigration Fields, was published. If Matthew…

“Replicator”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Sutton 2014. Richard Dawkins, Charles Darwin and Selfish Replicator DNA Exposed!, TEST Sutton claims Richard Dawkins plagiarised the term and concept, "replicator", for use in the Selfish Gene. As evidence, Sutton offers two references, Netter, F. H. (1948) The Ciba collection of medical…

“Selfish Gene”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Myth — Despite a mutual embarrassment of seemingly endless science websites, scholarly books and peer reviewed journal articles all confidently asserting that Richard Dawkins coined the phrase selfish gene and is therefore the originator of the basic concept ... my unique deployment of…

“Dreamscape”

Another example of Sutton's banality and incompetence. This one, I just don't understand how someone can reach their position, as a responsible member of teaching staff, yet be fundamentally challenged by basic and obvious language. The 'Dreamscape' Myth Debunked Wednesday, 20 December 2017 Other than the vacuous gloating in the title of "Debunking the 'Dreamscape'…

“Asteroid”

Sutton is determined not to get a single thing correct, or at least not "100% proven", shall we say? Yes, let's, because, without fail, every single check of his damnable poor & lazy research that myself, and colleagues, and ANYONE WHO CAN BE HALF BOTHERED, has revealed it as an inaccurate, spurious pile of crap. I make…

“Self-fulfilling Prophecy”

CLAIM Myth — The famous sociologist, Robert Merton, coined the phrase ‘self fulfilling prophecy’ in 1949. Fact — Merton’s own first published use of the phrase was actually 1948. But he never did coin it, because ‘self fulfilling prophecy’ can be found in the literature 107 years earlier. See: Fraser's magazine for town and country…

“Political Honeymoon”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Twitter is a wonderful tool. Over the weekend my colleague Dr Andrew Wilson used it to ask if I could help him determine the earliest discoverable to date (September 2016) published use of the phrase "political honeymoon". The Oxford English Dictionary…

“Google”

UPDATE 26-Jan 2018: Sorting out some screenshots, I stumbled across three images I had been keeping safe for this post. These additional sources are inserted towards the top of the date-ordered list that follows the short introduction below this header. They all predate Sutton's earliest claim for this "myth bust" of 1903, being, as they…

“Pale Ale”

While relatively trivial, compared to Sutton claiming 150 years of conspiracy that has silenced any challenges to Darwin's esteemed reputation, this is just another mistake in a seemingly endless list of mistakes made by Sutton on general subjects and in his defamation of Darwin and Wallace and evolutionary scientists and historians. But, it's worth taking…

“Social Housing”

This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM The OED (5th September 2016) has it: "1928 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 140 291 Outstanding social housing experiments are the Schmidlapp houses in Cincinnati, [etc.]." The ID method (see my book Nullius for an easy step by step…

“Gene Pool”

  This is part of a series checking Sutton’s claims regarding his “myth busting” CLAIM Notes, Sutton 2014 Nullius in Verba. Thinker Media Inc. TEST This is a typical error by Sutton. Because he seems to never check his work, he cites a typo, "Gene Pool", when it should actually read the boy character's name, "Gene Poole". …

“Natural Process of Selection”

Here is an extreme example of confirmation bias, by a true master practitioner of the art, Sutton. The point he wishes to make is that Darwin must have stolen Matthew's idea for natural selection because he also stole the name, by "shuffling" Matthew's term, "natural process of selection" Sutton (2014)[1] If Darwin was to have…