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31 Common Misconceptions We Have About the World

Time to correct some misconceptions about the world

31 Common Misconceptions We Have About the World

November 13, 2023

You’d assume that in the age of technology, where we have access to more knowledge than we could absorb in a lifetime, old misconceptions would fade away. Yet which one of us still believes that the Great Wall of China can be seen from space and also that picking up a lost baby bird is a terrible idea because their parent would refuse it? And we hate to break it to you, but Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner aren’t representative of reality — a coyote is far faster than a roadrunner in real life. Meep, meep is right!

More on that, as well as 30 other frequent misunderstandings about the world below…

31

CRACKED.COM MYTH: Bonnie and Clyde: The Legendary Bank Robbers. REALITY: They mostly robbed small grocery stores and gas stations. In the four years the Barrow gang targeted banks, they hit less than 15, didn't get away with much money, and a lot of times Bonnie stayed home and wasn't even involved. It was also easier to rob places with lower risk and quicker getaways. — 14 Myths About Crime We Believe (Thanks To Pop Culture)

30

Myth: Sex before the game will affect your performance. Some take this very seriously. During the 2014 World Cup, five teams implemented pre-game sex bans. One session of sex Sh If it detracts from sleep, doesn't burn enough it could affect calories to physically concentration, but you impair an athlete and could replace that with sex could even relieve anything like partying anxiety. or watching cat videos. Either way, your team is not doomed because someone had a roll in the hay. GRACKED.COM — 27 Sex Myths Too Many People Still Believe

29

WHEN YOU TRAVEL TO LONDON, DON'T EVER CALL THIS TOWER BIG BEN.THE TOWER ITSELF IS CALLED ELIZABETH TOWER. NOW THIS IS BIG BEN. BIG BEN IS THE NAME GIVEN TO THE BELL INSIDE THE ELIZABETH TOWER. CRACKED.COM — 15 Countries We Picture Wrong Side By Side With Reality

28

MYTH: Remember the woman who frivolously sued when her coffee was too hot? FACT: She was actually cripplingly burned. Stella Liebeck, 79, was sitting in the passenger seat of her grandson's car when she took the lid off her drive-through coffee to add cream and sugar. It spilled in her lap and gave her third-degree burns over six percent of her body, necessitating skin grafts and an eight-day hospital stay. She offered to settle for $20,000 but McDonald's refused to pay. CRACKED.COM http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm — 23 Widely-Circulated 'Facts' About The Law That Are Myths

27

MYTH: CHAMELEONS CHANGE COLOR TO BE CAMOUFLAGE. CRACKED.COM Unlike an octopus or cuttlefish that will use the ability to change color to hide from predators or sneak up on prey, the chameleon does not use this ability to blend into the environment. Chameleons instead use color changing to regulate their heat or to communicate to other chameleons. — Wired

26

How you Good, how doing? you doing? Good. Movies lead you to believe that skydiving sounds like When in reality, it sounds more like CRACKED GOM — 15 Science Myths Out There (Thanks To Pop Culture)

25

MYTH: COLLEGE IS WHeRe women experiment. FACT: NON-COLLEGE women experiment moRe. The CDC did a study on 10,000 women. They found that those with bachelor's degrees were actually less likely to have had casual lesbian experiences than those who never graduated from high school. CRACKED.COM — Sex Myths You've Probably Believed Your Entire Life

24

MYTH: HEARD THAT DRINKING Ice WATER AFTeR A meAL IS DANGEROUS? FACT: IT ABSOLUTELY ISN'T. The story goes like this: If you drink cold water after a meal, it will cause the fats and oils from the food you eat to solidify in your intestines and clog them like a bathroom sink. But that's not how your digestive system works. When you eat or drink anything cold, your stomach will warm it to body temperature before it goes anywhere near your intestines. CRACKED.COM http://www.hoax-slayer.com/cold-water-cancer.html — 24 Food And Cooking Myths

23

Ancient Flat Earth Beliefs CRACKED.COM We like to think that people have only known the earth was round since Columbus didn't fall off. But the Greeks not only knew it, they even calculated its circumference. Which means flat-earthers could travel to 500 BC and still be considered dumb. — Reader's Digest

22

CHUN KING CHUN Originally started in China KING CRACKED.COM Chow Mein DH HOTHER Serve Six not for less than $100 CHUN KING Shrimp Egg Rolls Donate - CHUN KING SHOW MEIN ... CHOP .... - - --- USA - - - Or somewhere in Asia - - community COOKING POLICIE SEALED FLAVOR CHUN KING LUAU Corry CHUN KING - - CMER - Chicken Chow Mein NET WT DE NOODOS FREITA DE GAME 2725 At the very least, it was started by an Asian-American, right? wrong Luigino Jeno Paulucci, an Italian-American, started CHUN KING in the 1940s — 21 Debunked Food Myths

21

NEANDERTHALS WERE NOT DIM-WITTED. They were capable of complex thought, communication, and sophisticated technology. And they bred with modern humans. CRACKED.COM — Surprising Ways Neanderthals Were Just Like Us

20

Stop using room temperature butter when you're making a pie crust! Handling room temperature butter could start warming the dough, which results in the creation of gluten. Excess gluten can make your crust tough instead of buttery and flaky. Instead, use cold butter for the perfect pie crust. CRACKED.COM — 26 Food And Cooking Common Misconceptions

19

Roadrunners

MYTH Roadrunners can outrun those pesky coyotes. TRUTH Roadrunners can run up to 20 mph, but coyotes can run twice as fast. CRACKED.COM — Mental Floss

18

CRACKED COM You don't have to take flak every time you refer to Frankenstein's creation as simply FRANKENSTEIN. In the Novel the creature has not been given a name BUT FRANKENSTEIN In his own existential musings in Chapter16, he realizes that from your papers that you(Dr.Frankenstein) were my father, my creator; and to whom could I apply with more fitness than to him who had given me life? Do we not all take the names of our fathers as our own? Bonus: Not a lumbering idiot as mistakenly depicted by Boris Karloff in the Universal Studio Monsters Movies but is — 40 Myths (That've Been Around Forever) We All Believe

17

Picture Isaac Newton, and you see a guy with an apple falling on his head. That never happened. Newton never mentioned anything about an apple, and in fact it was another guy named John Conduitt who first told the story some 60 years after it supposedly happened. Even then, there's no mention of it hitting Newton on the head. The story is even vague about whether Newton actually saw an apple fall, or whether he-or Conduitt, for that matter - used the metaphor of an apple falling from a tree as a way to explain his epiphany about gravity. CRACKED.COM http://www.phy6.org/stargaze/Sgravity.htm — 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

16

In 1517, Martin Luther defiantly nailed his 95 Theses to a church's door in Wittenberg. Except that he didn't. That particular story didn't start rolling until after Luther's death, and it came from someone who wasn't even in Wittenberg at the time. Yes, Luther did write the 95 Theses, and he did protest the sale of indulgences. But he initially managed the whole business through private letters to his superiors. GRACKED COM — 26 Side By Side Comparisons That Fix Your Image Of History

15

CRACKED.COM MYTH: Chloroform can knock you out in seconds. REALITY: Nope, try five minutes. While chloroform has been used in murder cases, it doesn't have an immediate effect on a damp cloth over one's face. It will take around five minutes to kick in, and there will be a lot of kicking from the victim. In real murder cases, victims were usually tricked into taking the anaesthetic, or giving drugs prior to getting chloroformed. — 14 Myths About Crime We Believe (Thanks To Pop Culture)

14

CRACKED.COM Truth: Having an orgasm and Myth: When a ejaculating are two man has an separate processes. A man can ejaculate orgasm, and not feel an he always orgasm or have a dry ejaculates. orgasm where it has all the magic but none of the fluid. — 27 Sex Myths Too Many People Still Believe

13

Oh, Canada, where medical treatment is provided by public hospitals and paid for by the government. EMERGE not anada Unless that treatment RU involves medication. You're to pay and for expected medication. CRACKED.COM — 15 Countries We Picture Wrong Side By Side With Reality

12

MYTH: Are you fed up with the Electoral College deciding elections? - by state - NH ME VT 3 4 4 WA ND 11 MT 3 MN 3 NY 10 OR 31 ID 7 SD WI MI 4 3 10 PA WY 17 21 3 IA OH NE IN 7 IL NV 20 5 WV VA 11 5 21 UT 5 CO 13 KY KS CA 5 MO 9 8 NC 6 55 11 15 TN 11 SC OK AZ ..O AR 8 NM 7 GA 10 6 AL 5 15 MS Ak 9 LA 6 3 TX 9 34 FL FACT: — 23 Widely-Circulated 'Facts' About The Law That Are Myths

11

MYTH: CARBOHYDRATES SHOULD MAKE UP THE MAJORITY OF YOUR DIET. Fats One & Sweets KEY O occuring and added USE SPARINGLY Sugers sadded - - - - adidas sugar - MIX Yogurt & Meat Pouby Fish Dy Beans Cheese Group Eggs & Nuts Group 2-3 SERVINGS 23 SERVINGS Vagatable Group Fruit Group 3-5 SERVINGS 2-4 SERVINGS Bread Cereal Rice & Pasio Group 611 SERVINGS CRACKED.COM We have lobbyists to blame for the 1992 USDA food pyramid we all remember from health class, which put carbs as the building blocks of a well balanced diet. USDA nutritionists called for 3-4 daily servings of whole-grain — Source

10

FIRE AND LAVA ONLY BURN IF THEY TOUCH YOU. NOT TRUE. THAT'S WHY VOLCANOLOGISTS AND FIREFIGHTERS WEAR SUITS LIKE THIS, EVEN WHEN THE LAVA/FIRE IS SEVERAL METERS AWAY, BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT TO GET FLASH BURNS. FORREST GUMP STAR WARS EPISODE III INDIANA JONES AND INDEPENDENCE DAY THE LAST CRUSADE THE TEMPLE OF DOOM CRACKED.COM — 15 Science Myths Out There (Thanks To Pop Culture)

9

MYTH: YOU CAN'T HAVE sex on YOUR PeRIOD. FACT: UH... SAYS WHO? Sex organs tend to be more sensitive during your period, which makes sex even better than normal. And orgasm contractions can counteract the feelings you get from cramps. Just make sure your partner knows beforehand and can prepare accordingly. CRACKED.COM — Sex Myths You've Probably Believed Your Entire Life

8

MYTH: IF YOU CRAVE A FOOD, YOUR BODY PROBABLY neeDS IT. UPER FACT: CRAVINGS HAVE moRe TO DO WITH STRESS. If you're craving a specific food, it probably has more to do with your culture and upbringing than anything else. In times of stress, you tend to crave food that you think of as a comforting treat or reward. There is no sign that hormones have a direct impact of making us crave certain foods-the cravings just get released in times of stress. CRACKED.COM http://www.wsj. sj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443995604578002253859884598 — Source

7

Diamonds From Coal CRACKED.COM If you compress coal for a very long time under high pressure, eventually, you will waste an incredible amount of time. Diamonds form from a separate process that has nothing to do with coal, much deeper below ground. — Business Insider

6

Margarine is more healthy than butter, right? Actually, neither is healthier than the other. We switched to margarine hoping to avoid heart disease, but it's been attributed to high consumption of both: butter is high in saturated fat, and while it's gotten better in recent years, margarine has a high level of trans fat. GRACKED.COM — 21 Debunked Food Myths

5

SONAR SCREENS LOOK LIKE THIS. AUT *36-73 Longs toda *02-33 4.7 are OK Status 025 day Mode ACTOVER LES chack END 22:07:07 FFF - Paper W-4-7658 Happy Survive Course - LANT C-0-9782 detecting screws Accounte Premissing - teraction - 80% People mostly use passive screens (right) that involve listening to highly sensitive microphones and complex calculations. CRACKED.COM — 5 Weapon Myths You Probably Believe (Thanks to Movies)

4

YOU DON'T NEED TO SOAK LENTILS BEFORE COOKING THEM. Cooks soak beans to eliminate gas-producing compounds that cause bloating and flatulence. But lentils don't contain sulfur, so they don't cause gas in the first place. CRACKED.COM — 26 Food And Cooking Common Misconceptions

3

MYTH Ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they're scared. TRUTH Ostriches run (at high speeds) when they're scared. They never bury their heads. CRACKED.COM — The 6 Most Frequently Quoted Bullshit Animal Facts

2

CRACKED.COM Sleeping after receiving a concussion will not necessarily result in a coma. ...It's actually recommended by doctors to heal. Slipping into a coma by sleeping only happens if you have a serious concussion that resulted in intracranial hemmorhaging (bleeding inside the skull). Which is undoubtedly why everyone is so paranoid about it. (You should still go to the doctor though.) — 40 Myths (That've Been Around Forever) We All Believe

1

Wild Bill Hickok is a legend of the American Old West. But Bill wasn't short for William. Wild Bill's legend parallels those of Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. Не fought with the North in the Civil War, and is best known as a gunfighter, a scout, a professional gambler, and a lawman. But his real name was James Butler Hickok. The nickname was actually a crack on his appearance, and specifically on his giant slope of a nose and protruding upper lip. The first incarnation of Hickok's nickname was, in fact, Duck Bill. It's probably the reason for the — 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

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