With summer approaching (at least in the Northern hemisphere), many will attempt to beat the heat by taking a dip. But what about the rule that states one should wait half an hour after eating? Is that true, or is it just an old wives’ tale meant to keep kids from eating too many FlufferNutter sandwiches by the pool?

According to numerous online sources, there is no indication that eating before swimming increases the risk of drowning. A 2005 piece from the New York Times explained that “while swimming strenuously on a full stomach could conceivably lead to cramps, for most recreational swimmers the chances are small.”

A blog from DukeHealth.org echoes the sentiment: “The common belief that the blood going to your digestive tract after eating steals the blood needed to keep your arms and legs pumping during swimming is unfounded.”

True, the body does supply extra blood to help with digestion, but “not enough blood to keep your arm and leg muscles from properly functioning,” DukeHealth.org explains.

How did this fearmongering begin? Nobody knows for sure, but the urban legend experts at Snopes.com write that it may have begun with a 1908 book, “Scouting for Boys.”

According to Snopes, the book warned: “First, there is the danger of cramp. If you bathe within an hour and a half of taking a meal, that is, before your food is digested, you are very likely to get a cramp. Cramp doubles you up in extreme pain so that you cannot move your arms or legs — and down you go. You may drown — and it will be your own fault.”

In other words, the book seems to be saying, not only will you drown if you eat before swimming, nobody will come to your funeral because you’ll be seen as an irresponsible twit.

Nowadays, experts agree that swimming-plus-food fears are unwarranted. However, alcohol is a different story. Booze and swimming don’t mix; the combination is dangerous and should always be avoided.

Thanks for reading,

Keep checking back on Answers for your chance to ask the performers of Yahoo! On the Road a question! Click below now to listen to the interview!

Winning Questions:

Part 1:

Asked by Stef: How did you guys come up with the unique name: Imagine Dragons?

Asked by Chris: What are your favorite sports teams?

Asked by Hipster Spongebob: How did you guys meet each other?

Asked by Skater: Who or what did ya’ll want to be in middle school?

Part 2:

Asked by Amber: First think of the pet you have/had. Then answer this question. If you were stuck on an island and there was no food and the only think u could is eat is your pet, so you could survive would you do it?

About Yahoo! On the Road

Entertainment + Innovation on Wheels

Yahoo! is going on tour to make every day less everyday — from New York City to San Francisco, from Berlin to London. Yahoo! On the Road is the world’s first mobile entertainment and innovation festival, featuring the hottest bands, comedians, and technology, as well as some great surprises.

Check Yahoo! On the Road here: http://music.yahoo.com/on-the-road/

Thanks for reading,

Keep checking back on Answers for your chance to ask the performers of Yahoo! On the Road a question! Click below now to listen to the interview!

Winning Questions:

Part 1:

1. Asked by G: If you could choose the most important way in which you push yourself to grow as a musician, what would it be?

2. Asked by Zee Mania: What’s the meaning behind your arm tattoo?

3. Asked by Nafee: If you were forced to live alone on an island and could only bring 3 things with you, what would they be?

4. Asked by Evan: Do you have any plans of contributing back to your hometown Compton, and in what ways would you do it?

5. Asked by Kiara Way: Is there a specific artist that inspired you to want to become a rapper? If so who?

Part 2:

6. Asked by Grayson B: Did music in your school background or in a choir/ensemble as a youth help you to gain necessary confidence to attain your musical career?

7. Asked by Amber: If you weren’t making music, what would you want your career to be?

8. Asked by WhonForever: What inspired you to write Swimming Pools? Is this song your favorite? What’s one of your favorite songs?

9. Asked by Edward K: How do you keep staying humble even though you’re one of the most popular rappers of today?

10. Asked by ShaToya: What was your favorite subject in school history? Listening and reading your lyrics I see a lot of history.

About Yahoo! On the Road

Entertainment + Innovation on Wheels

Yahoo! is going on tour to make every day less everyday — from New York City to San Francisco, from Berlin to London. Yahoo! On the Road is the world’s first mobile entertainment and innovation festival, featuring the hottest bands, comedians, and technology, as well as some great surprises.

Check Yahoo! On the Road here: http://music.yahoo.com/on-the-road/

Thanks for reading,

Keep checking back on Answers for your chance to ask the performers of Yahoo! On the Road a question! Click below now to listen to the interview!

Winning Questions:

1. Asked by Chris: Why do you love music so much?

2. Asked by YoungCam: Are you single?

3. Asked by D212M: What was the funniest or most unexpected thing that ever happened to you while you were performing on stage?

4. Asked by Caitlin Mengel: No question, just a really big fan!

5. Asked by Cest: How did your childhood influence the way you sing today?

6. Asked by XxOxKamiQueenxX: Was It challenging for you to become the person that you are now? Were the challenges that you faces difficult? Or was being who you are now not so hard?

7. Asked by ZeeMania: How did you get started as a musician? Was there a single moment that inspired you to follow your dream

8. Asked by Astarte: Was country music an influence on you, especially that of Willie Nelson who sang “On the Road Again.”

9. Asked by Walter: What song would you like to sing, that is most close to your heart?

10. Asked by Skater: Do you have any pets?

About Yahoo! On the Road

Entertainment + Innovation on Wheels

Yahoo! is going on tour to make every day less everyday — from New York City to San Francisco, from Berlin to London. Yahoo! On the Road is the world’s first mobile entertainment and innovation festival, featuring the hottest bands, comedians, and technology, as well as some great surprises.

Check Yahoo! On the Road here: http://music.yahoo.com/on-the-road/

Thanks for reading,

We’ve all been on dates whether blind or otherwise we couldn’t wait to end. Finding someone you like is hard, and not all dates turn out to be romantic and fun. Imagine the worst date you’ve ever had, and now imagine that date captured via social media.

That’s exactly what happened to a North Carolina couple who were dining at an Olive Garden Restaurant in Pineville. Adam Howell, was at the restaurant on Sunday evening when the bickering couple caught his attention. He tweeted a picture with the caption: “A grown ass man is mad at his girlfriend at Olive Garden & has made a menu fort.” Who hasn’t built a menu fort around themselves?

Kidding aside, we’ve all had moments when we’ve fought with our loved ones and acted in a childish or obnoxious way. The man in the picture is probably embarrassed that his behavior is now a thread on Reddit, and being discussed on the news and various internet sites. It’s a stark reminder that your private and embarrassing moments are only a smartphone snapshot away from being broadcast on the internet.

What do you think of the picture, is it ridiculous that it became a news story and just a reflection on our oversharing culture or is it just a new form of the old fashioned grapevine?

Please leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading,

As the feature is being introduced in a trial version not all of you will see the trending questions immediately.

Questions asked by the community, that match topics or events that are most asked or viewed will be eligible for the Trending Questions carousel. The Answers team will consider the following while selecting among eligible questions – the quality of questions and answers, time relevancy, questions gaining popularity on Answers, social networks and search engines. As new stories unfold, new sets of questions will show up in the carousel

So start discovering what your fellow community members have to say about the recent happenings and join the conversation. We hope you will enjoy this feature.

Thanks for reading,

When a person is naked, he or she is sometimes referred to as being “in the buff.” Interesting expression, no? Here’s how the phrase came to be.

According to the Phrase Finder, an excellent site for all sorts of questions about word origins, the expression originally didn’t mean being naked. Instead it referred to a light leather tunic.

Often, these tunics were brown-ish yellow — or “buff” — in color. Buff, by the way, is indeed a color, not just an enviable body type.

The Phrase Finder writes that the first recorded use of “in the buff” to describe nudity came about in 1602 by Thomas Dekker in “Satiromastix, or The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet“:

“No, come my little Cub, doe not scorne mee because I goe in Stag, in Buffe, heer’s veluet too.”

But what about that other favorite bit of nudity slang, buck-naked? Nobody knows for sure, but Mavens’ Word of the Day, hazards an interesting theory. “Around the same time that buck naked was making its debut, so was another slang term, bucket, for ‘buttocks, rump.’”

Got a favorite phrase or expression that you’d like me to write about? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Before we could even go to space, the myth was the great wall is visible from the moon. Ever since we got to space, astronauts have been looking for it.

Mathematically, the wall would have to be at least 70 miles (110 km) wide to be seen from the moon with unaided eyes. Since the wall has a maximum width of 30 ft (9.1 m), this is easily dismissed as myth. The moon legend came from a 1754 letter by William Stukeley; his remarks on the massive size of the wall could have been literary hyperbole. But, some people took it literally.

In his defense, there have been a few claims that the great wall can be seen from low earth orbit — as little as 100 miles (160 km). A number of astronauts have claimed they have seen it. Even the European Space Agency claimed it was visible and published a picture. A week later they issued a press release indicating it was actually a river and not the Great Wall of China.

NASA claims it, “generally isn’t [visible], at least to the unaided eye.” Mathematically, it’s the same answer, unless you have 20/3 or better vision. But, according to the Journal of Optometry, “Not even the best of human eyes at a simple glance could see the Great Wall of China from Space.” That’s because the anatomy of the eye limits vision to an acuity no greater than 20/9. So, 20/3 is impossible.

The gaza pyramids on the other hand are about 22 times wider than the Great Wall of China; they are visible from low earth orbit.

Chad Upton is the editor-in-chief of Broken Secrets and an official Yahoo Answers contributor.

Thanks for reading,

Sources: wikipedia (Great Wall of China), Journal of Optometry, NASA

Congrats to our US Winner Michael Metzger aka M2the2ndpower

Congrats to our UK Winner Hansal Vaikkath aka Doctor Who

They are winners of the Two-toned Yahoo! Umbrella and a $25 Gift Card to Ghirardelli Chocolates.

We had a lot of community members who participated! It will definitely NOT go unnoticed. We’ll make sure to email you all back and award you an extra 200 points!

In case you couldn’t find all the letters. Here they are!

• First Letter – S – Facebook Homepage Cover Photo – ? replaced with an S

• Second Letter – P – Answers Homepage, BoA Module – NCAA Question

• Third Letter – R – Answers Profile Page – Yamster Avatar

• Fourth Letter – I –Answers Blog – Ask Mike Avatar

• Fifth Letter – N – Twitter Header – ? replaced with N

• Sixth Letter – G – Answers Blog – Pic of Girl with Bunny Ears in Easter Post

Let us know what you thought of our Letter Egg Hunt below.

Thanks for reading,

With Easter just around the corner, you may find yourself wondering how a giant candy-delivering rabbit came to be associated with a holiday that commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here’s the scoop.

I’ve covered this topic before, but since Yahoo! Answers is chock-full of “What’s the deal with the Easter Bunny?” type questions, I thought I’d give it another shot.

The Easter Bunny has its roots in pagan, or pre-Christian, culture. Mental Floss explains that “many pagan cultures held spring festivals” in which they’d honor the Eostre, the goddess of dawn.

Eostre was “linked to the hare and the egg, both symbols of fertility.” As Mental Floss puts it, “As Christianity spread, it was common for missionaries to practice some good salesmanship by placing pagan ideas and rituals within the context of the Christian faith and turning pagan festivals into Christian holidays.”

Because Eostre fell close on the calendar to the anniversary of Christ’s resurrection, “the two celebrations became one and with the kind of blending that was going on among the cultures, it would seem only natural that the pagans would bring the hare and egg images with them into their new faith.”

The Easter Bunny is, for the most part, beloved for its cute and cuddly appearance. But not by everyone. No, sir. Here’s a collection of photos of young kids freaking out in front of the bowtie wearing bunny.

Thanks for reading,

Mike