That's Certainly Out of Context Quiz

Answer: The owner was giving unconscious signals with his posture that told the horse when to start and stop tapping.

The horse's name was Clever Hans and he became famous in 1904 for his "ability" to do a number of complex actions, such as count, do math, read, spell, etc., by tapping his hoof in code, which owner Wilhelm von Osten would interpret. Clever Hans had many convinced that animals could think like, and communicate with humans.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until films were made showing that van Osten adopted different positions that showed Hans when to start and stop his tapping that the actual explanation for the animal's communicative abilities came to light. Scientists were convinced that von Osten was the one answering the questions, albeit innocently, to which van Osten could have exclaimed, "That's certainly out of context!"

Answer: The rocks had spelling and grammatical errors in Hebrew, proving them to be fakes.

The rocks with Hebrew inscriptions, known as the Newark Holy Stones, were "found" in 1860. Some say that an Episcopal minister from Newark planted them in hopes that they would "prove" that Adam and Eve were mother and father to all races. Interestingly enough, some years later, another prankster planted two more stones, and this time the Hebrew letters just spelled his name.

When apprehended, this joker could have easily claimed, "That's certainly out of context!"

Answer: She was not really female, and at least partly male.

Long thought to be the world's fastest female track and field athlete, Stella Walsh came to fame by winning the gold medal for Poland in the 100 meters at the 1932 Olympics. Walsh later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in the US and continued setting 20 women's world records, capped by her induction into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975.

Then Walsh died after being shot as a bystander in a robbery in Cleveland and her autopsy revealed her secret: Walsh had both female and male chromosomes and male genitalia, making her more man than woman. If her secret had been discovered during her lifetime, she might well have claimed, "That's certainly out of context!"

Answer: He managed to change the position of his ball on the green without getting caught.

During a qualifying round for the 1985 British Open, several players complained to officials about the play of David Robertson because he wasn't placing his ball in the correct position on the green. What he was doing was much worse than that. Actually, Robertson would run up to the green before the rest of his foursome and pretend to mark his ball. What he was really doing, however, was picking it up, pretending to mark it, then walking over to a more favorable position closer to the hole, where he would leave his marker. Robertson ended up being fined more than $30,000 and banned from professional golf for 30 years. Amazingly enough, less than ten years later, Robertson reapplied for and was granted amateur status. I can almost hear him protesting, "That's certainly out of context!"

Answer: The fragments had been chemically treated to appear as if they were from the same time period, but they were not.

The headline read "Darwin Theory Is Proved True," and though subsequent discoveries have confirmed Darwin's research, the fragments brought forward by amateur paleontologist Charles Dawson, consisting of a jaw and a large cranium were not from the same era.

Some scientists continued to believe in the "find," known as the Piltdown Man, until 1953, when new dating methods showed that critical fragments had been chemically altered to appear to be from the same time period. Though he was never confronted with his trickery, since it was discovered so long after the fact, no doubt Dawson would have exclaimed, "That's certainly out of context!"

Answer: A Ponzi Scheme

Madoff's pyramid operation, in which he took money from new investors to pay the older ones their "interest" and finance his own lavish lifestyle was the biggest fraud in U.S. history and the largest scale Ponzi scheme known at the time of his imprisonment in 2009, when he was sentenced to 150 years in jail. Madoff was not able to pull off the scheme by himself, and many contributed to making the paper trail that put off auditors and investigators for years. Even when his acts were uncovered, many found it impossible to believe that such a respected member of society could have been guilty, claiming "That's certainly out of context!" Unfortunately, he really did all he was accused of and much more.

Answer: Waste Management, Inc.

It is likely that the deregulation of the banking and investing led to the widespread ill-advised and illegal practices that the companies named here fell into. Tyco and Worldcom both ran afoul of the law in 2002, Enron in 2001, with practices that left their investors hanging out to dry.

The first such scheme to come to light was that of Waste Management, Inc., with the complicity of the 'Big Ten' auditing firm, Arthur Anderson, in 1998. Through "creative" accounting practices, they had exaggerated the company's earnings over a five year period by $1.7 billion. They had also grossly understated the depreciation of property and equipment over the same period to make after-tax profits seem higher to investors. This was the tip of the iceberg that would crash more resoundingly in the next decade, and at first, many were quick to claim that this was just free enterprise in operation, and that it was all "certainly out of context."

Answer: Catch Me If You Can

"Catch Me If You Can" is the movie about Abagnale, who from a very young age was able to exploit his gift of gab and his ability to lie at the drop of a hat to get out of tight scrapes. Abagnale ended up impersonating a pilot to fly free, forged checks and deposit slips to get money, forged college diplomas to work as a pediatrician and as a lawyer, and much more.

He was eventually caught and jailed in different countries, finally being extradited to the US, where he served time as well. All the while, Abagnale minimized his actions and the consequences of them, probably even believing himself that it was "certainly out of context."

Answer: Maradona put the ball in the goal with his hand instead of his head.

Argentine player Maradona did indeed use his hand for the infamous head shot. In the quarter finals match against England, the score was tied 1-1 and Argentina needed the win to continue in the tournament. Maradona and the goalkeeper for England, Peter Shilton, both attacked the ball and Maradona seemingly miraculously hit a header into the goal. On instant replays, it was obvious that he had purposely used his hand to make the shot. Amazingly enough, the goal and Argentina's victory were allowed to stand. Maradona really did protest that the nay-sayers were "certainly out of context" when he had the gall to claim that the game had been won "partly [by] the hand of God."

Answer: Anne Hathaway

Raffaello Follieri, 29, Italian entrepreneur, was convicted of numerous charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. The FBI determined that Follieri misused funds received from investors to finance his luxurious lifestyle, including meals, holidays and privately chartered flights for himself, his relatives and then-girlfriend Hathaway. One of Follieri's schemes even involved the Vatican.

Although the smooth talker tried to allege that the charges were "certainly out of context", his glibness was not enough to save him, and his four-year relationship with the American star ended as he was sentenced.