General Discussion

... for the most part, I have never even heard claimed. I guess my worldview is based strongly on what I have seen reasonably well proven, or witnessed for myself, and not just "stuff I heard". I tend not to swallow anything that includes phrases such as "everyone knows" or "I saw a TV program that said so". Then, I'm a scientist. When I read scientific publications, I look for omissions, logical gaps, and errors, and occasionally find them. I've only once been asked to comment on a grant proposal, and found the arguments therein to contain a very deep flaw, but one that could likely be corrected with a little more work.

I was a little nonplussed by the one about GW's dentures, because I had at one point actually seen what were supposed to be his dentures on display. And yes, I (thought I) saw a lot of wood. There was clearly a lot that wasn't wood, including springs which looked to be brass, and it was quite believable that some of the metal I was seeing was gold rather than brass -- after all, gold is exceptionally free from corrosion. The display explained that hippopotamus ivory was used for the actual teeth, which seemed perfectly logical, and the white parts sure looked like they could be ivory. The articles cited suggested horse and donkey teeth were used; it's not clear to me just which parts were made of which. So, what about all that "wood" ? From the sources cited, it appears that the 'palate' part of the dentures was discolored, and that might have been what I saw (I didn't take a picture) as wood, or it might have been that it was some kind of frame for holding the dentures when not in use, kind of like a case. I certainly thought it was too large to fit in anyone's mouth. Comparing my old memory with the articles cited was confusing, but not contradictory. And years before I ever saw those dentures, I had already read that they weren't really wood, or at least not all wood. So it wasn't any belief that was central to my thinking.

I'm not sure what would really contradict my central beliefs -- maybe if the Earth really were flat, or the Moon were really green cheese, or Donald Trump turned out not to be a vile, despicable travesty of an (ostensibly) human being, that might do it.