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30 Myths and Fibs We’re About to Bust Wide Open

Challenging your entire belief system one busted myth at a time

30 Myths and Fibs We’re About to Bust Wide Open

May 13, 2024

Have you ever seen the movie Spotlight? There’s a scene where the news team has quite the story, and they’re ready to drop that bomb on the city of Boston (the world even). Well, that’s the feeling we have in the office today. But unlike those lazy reporters with one truth bomb, we’ve got 30 ready for deployment. So many truth bombs, in fact, that we suggest reading these bad boys in a bunker.

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30

MYTH: TURKEY MAKES YOU SLEEPY. FACT: IT'S THE BIG meAL THAT Does IT. Science-y types will claim that turkey makes you sleepy because it contains tryptophan, which eventually becomes seratonin and melatonin, the sleep neurochemicals. But turkey doesn't contain enough to affect your tiredness level. The reason you're sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner is because your very full body needs to focus on digestion. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/11/ CRACKED.COM 24/no-turkey-doesnt-make-you-sleepy-the-science-of-thanksgiving-feasts/ — Source

29

Everyone pictures Kenya as a wild or impoverished land But in reality Kenya is a modern state with bustling cities and a capital home to over three million people. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

Coffee does NOT dehydrate you. The reason you might see an increase in urination is because it's mostly water. It actually helps hydrate you and you can count it toward your water intake. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Fat does not cause weight gain. Healthy fats-such as eggs, avocados, and nuts-actually help people consume fewer calories, possibly due to the satiating effects of fat. CRACKED COM — Source

26

won't ruin your cast iron pans. With repeated use and proper care, cast iron cookware will build up a non-stick finish that won't require soap to clean. But until it forms, using a CRACKED.COM little soap won't hurt it. — Source

25

MYTH Rabbits eat carrots, obviously. TRUTH Carrots should only be rare treats, as rabbits don't eat them in nature. Their main source of food should be hay, grass, greens, and pellets. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Everyone honors St. Patrick by wearing green. But St. Patrick's official color is blue. The earliest depictions of St. Patrick show him clothed entirely in blue, not green, and when George III created a new order of chivalry for the Kingdom of Ireland, the Order of St. Patrick, its official color was a sky blue, known as St. Patrick's Blue. Blue was originally the color of Ireland, and a gold harp on a blue background still appears on the Irish constitution and presidential flag. The color green represents the divide between Ireland and Great Britain. CRACKED.COM http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/should-st-patricks-day-be-blue-180954572/ — Source

23

CRACKED.COM MYTH: State with the most serial killers? Must be Florida, or California. REALITY: It's Alaska. Proportional to its population, Alaska wins this one with around 15.65 serial killings per one million inhabitants. It's followed by Nevada, then Florida. Criminologists speculate that it might be due to the cover of darkness during those long Alaskan winter nights. The isolation of the state's remote locations might also play a part. — Source

22

MOVIE SWORD FIGHTS WOULD END WITH BROKEN BLADES. Edge-on-edge parry would damage the swords, resulting in dull and damaged blades. Most sword fighting involves the swords not making contact. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

MYTH: CHOCOLATE IS An APHRODISIAC. FACT: THE FDA SAYS APHRODISIACS Don'T eXIST. We've got drugs (and possibly natural cures) that treat sexual dysfunction. But when it comes to spurring sexual desire, we have nothing. There's no bodily mechanism for that. Chocolate doesn't even work as a particularly good placebo. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

MYTH Polar bears and penguins live at the North Pole. TRUTH Polar bears and peguins don't live anywhere near other. Polar bears live in the Arctic Circle region, and penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

CRACKED.COM MYTH: Serial killers are geniuses. REALITY It's mostly just the ones they make shows about. The latest studies put the average intelligence of serial killers barely above what's considered below average. One study puts it more clearly, saying that there is almost zero correlation between intelligence and psychopathy. — Source

18

BULLETS GO STRAIGHT THROUGH CAR DOORS. AMERICA to protect and to serve POLICE 24785 You can't use a car door as a shield. They are made to be light-weight, not bulletproof. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

Goldfish Memories i i saw everything officer CRACKED.COM You'll hear that someone has the memory of a goldfish, the most common number being 3 seconds. But studies found that goldfish could learn and identify two different songs, which a 3-second memory would make impossible. Keep that in mind, crime bosses installing huge fish tanks. — Source

16

MYTH: MILK BUILDS STRONG BE BONES. CRACKED.COM This myth started when schools were provided nutritional material that boasted the importance of dairy in your diet, when studies cannot link milk consumption with healthy living and especially stronger bones. Who gave them this material? The National Dairy Council. — Source

15

MYTH Lions have kings (or at least alphas). TRUTH Lions don't have a hierarchy. They live in a egalitarian society. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

MYTH Sharks can smell blood from miles away. TRUTH Sharks can smell blood from a quarter of a mile away. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Slaves in ancient Rome weren't necessarily physical labourers or gladiators. There also were teachers, doctors and accountants. CRACKED COM — Source

12

A.D. stands for Anno Domini, not After Death, as many think. Anno Domini is part of a larger phrase in Latin that translates to In the year of the Lord, meaning the year of Jesus' birth. If A.D. did in fact mean After Death there would be a 33-year gap in the modern calendar as a result of Jesus' life. - - - - - 1 2 - в A S . 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 16 16 17 10 10 go 21 22 23 24 DE 26 27 28 29 90 31 2T 2F zu 29 — Source

11

MYTH Bulls will charge anything that's the color red. TRUTH Bulls are colorblind to the color red. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

MYTH: omeGA-3 OIL IS GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN. FACT: THERE'S no RELIABLE evidence THAT IT IS. The idea of omega-3 fatty acids being brain food comes from the fact that our brains already contain quite a lot of the stuff. However, none of the supposed brain benefits of consuming omega-3 fatty acids have been conclusively proven. In fact, studies that incorporated important stuff like peer review and double-blinds found no brain benefits. CRACKED.COM https://eric ed .gov/Pid=EJ878773 — Source

9

MYTH: ROLLING YOUR TONGUE IS A Genetic TRAIT. FACT: TONGUE ROLLING IS SOMETHING YOU LEARN. Elementary school science teachers like to use tongue rolling as an example when they're teaching about genetics. But it actually isn't an inherited trait. It's learned. It turns out that kids who can't roll their tongues aren't unable to- they just haven't figured out how, yet. And once they know about the trick, they figure it out pretty quickly. CRACKED.COM http://udel.edu/-modonald/mythtongueroll.htmi — Source

8

GENE SIMMONS does not have a grafted cow tongue CRACKED.COM The urban legend goes that the KISS rocker had a cow tongue grafted onto his own, creating a super- bovine devil appendage. Not true, says Simmons, though he admits that this is his favorite KISS rumor. — Source

7

JENNIFER LOPEZ did not insure her butt for $27 million CRACKED.COM Not true, Lopez told James Corden on an episode of Carpool Karaoke. And what would butt insurance cover exactly? Something happens to it? Lopez asked. It disappears? Somebody steals it? — Source

6

MYTH: THE BLOOD LEAVING YOUR HEART IS BLUE. FACT: IT'S ACTUALLY DARKER ReD. The myth that deoxygenated blood is blue comes from the fact that through Caucasian skin, veins often look blue. While it's true that those blue vessels you're seeing carry blood without oxygen, the blood itself is actually not blue. The veins aren't blue, either. They primarily look blue because of the way light reflects off the skin. CRACKED.COM http:/www.ehow.com/how-does_5607648_blood-look-blue-veins_html — Source

5

MYTH: YOU Lose most OF YOUR BODY HEAT THROUGH YOUR HEAD! FACT: YOU Lose HEAT THE SAme ALL oveR. Turns out covering one part of the body has as much effect as covering any other. The origin of this myth can be traced back to a 1950s U.S. Army study that put several test subjects through bitter cold conditions to measure the amount of body heat lost. But the army neglected to give their subjects hats. So naturally they lost heat through their heads. CRACKED.COM https://www. theguardian.com/science/2008/dec/17/medicalresearch-humanbehaviour — Source

4

MYTH: A PeRSOn IS eITHeR LeFT- OR RIGHT-BRAINED. FACT: YOUR BRAIN ISN'T DIVIDED UP THAT WAY. The myth that right-brained people are creative and artistic and left-brained people are logical and mathematical is so pervasive that teachers are instructed to balance the brained-ness of their teachings. The brain does indeed have some specialized structures, but the idea that they cluster on opposite sides of the brain like rival gangs is ridiculous. CRACKED.COM http://www.livescience.com/655-lefty-myths-mysteries-persist.html — Source

3

MYTH: YOUR TONGUE IS zoneD BY FLAVOR TYPE. BITTER SALTY SALTY Méxica SOUR SOUR SWEET FACT: YOUR WHOLE TONGUE TASTES THINGS. The myth about your tongue being able to taste different flavors with different areas started with a mistranslation of an old German study. Turns out all areas in the tongue are about equally good at detecting different flavors. It's not an evenly distributed democracy of taste buds, but every tongue has different patterns of strength and weakness. CRACKED.COM http://www. livescience.com/7113-tongue-map-tasteless-myth-debunked.html — Source

2

MYTH: HEART ATTACKS HURT REALLY BAD. FACT: some HEART ATTACKS GO unDeTecTeD. The Hollywood version of a heart attack, where a person clutches his chest and falls over like he's been shot, is not especially accurate. Some heart attacks feel like stomach pain and anxiety, for example. In fact, the symptoms are so frequently not-pain-in-the-chest that studies have found that 40 to 60 percent of heart attacks go unnoticed. CRACKED.COM http://www. webmd com/men/news/20060123/hollywood-heart-attack-vs-real-life#1 — Source

1

MYTH: SITTING CLOSE TO THE TV HURTS YOUR eyes! FACT: THERE'S no science TO BACK THAT UP. If there is a correlation between bad eyesight and sitting too close to the TV set, it's the other way around: People who sit close to the set do so because they already have poor vision. Staring at a screen for long periods of time can make your eyes tired and irritated, but that's because when you focus super hard, you forget to blink. CRACKED.COM https://www.aao.org/eyecare-america — Source

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