What survival myth is complete baloney and could get you killed?

If you ever fall off a ship or ferry at sea and are lucky enough to be spotted,

don't try to swim your way to safety.

The more you swim, the less your chances of survival.

Just try to keep afloat and conserve energy and body heat,

while the rescue teams do what they're supposed to do.

Unless you're in hypothermic

waters, the best bet is always to just stay afloat without trying to swim somewhere else.

This information about falling overboard, hypothermia and conditions, survival at sea, etc.,

is based on my own experience of 12 years sailing on a merchant ship.

Okay, this isn't the most exotic and interesting of these, but if you're walking alone at night,

putting a key between each finger with the thought of punching someone and impaling them on three keys is useless.

You're much more likely to hurt the webbing on your fingers since the grip you have on each key will be very weak.

Instead, put a single

key between your thumb and forefinger, parallel to your thumb, and make a fist. This still isn't

a great defense, but it's an improvement over simply a fist. Also, don't try to kick a man in

the crotch unless you have an amazing shot, in which case you're probably better off running

away. If you miss or don't kick hard enough, both of which are more likely in the case that you're

panicking, you're just going to cause mild discomfort and make them more angry.

There was a girl I knew in college who got attacked.

She took the whole handful of keys with the keys coming out the bottom of her fist and

just went to town on the guy's face.

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