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Don’t worry. We won’t tell anyone that you still believe these

32 Trivia Tidbits That Bust Common Myths

July 29, 2024

Look, nobody’s perfect. We all have something we’re a little self-conscious about. Well, we didn’t before this list. Before this list, our egos were riding high. Then we found out that a whole bunch of things we were touting as facts were actually myths. It brought us right back down to Earth.

We’re not ashamed to admit it, though, and we hope you aren’t as well. It’s humbling, but you’ll be better off for it. Trust us.

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32

MYTH: When you're arrested, you get one free phone call. FACT: Nope, that's absolutely not the law. The one phone call rule is purely a Hollywood invention. Now that goes both ways; some jails have pay phones and you can call whomever you want as long as the person on the other end is willing to pay for it, but they don't have to let you use the phone at all. If you're being refused the right to make a call, an attorney can argue on your behalf. But they need to demonstrate that it's an important call. CRACKED.COM http://jriaw.com/arrested/ — Source

31

Never store tomatoes in the fridge. They lose their flavor when their temperature drops below 50°F. GRAGKED.COM — Source

30

MYTH: CSI teams sweep through the scene of a crime and solve it, fast. FACT: That's only on TV. Crime scene investigators don't solve cases. Their role is to collect enough evidence to support a case against the suspect who has been identified by old-fashioned police work. And the process isn't quick. Some laboratory tests, such as DNA samples, toxicology, and blood reports, can take weeks or even months to process. Also, while DNA criminal databases do exist, less than 1/10th of all criminals are a part of it. CRACKED.COM http://news bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4284335.stm — Source

29

Drinking milk during a cold won't increase your mucus. There is no evidence whatsoever that consuming milk during a cold will increase mucus production. In the study done in 2005, only people who believe that milk increases mucus production reported respiratory problems after drinking milk. GRACKED.COM — Source

28

Pressure cooking does not destroy vitamins. In fact, out of all major cooking methods, pressure cooking retains vitamins the most. Boiling destroys up to a third of the vitamins, while pressure cooking cuts the losses at 10%. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

MYTH: TWINKIES WILL LAST FOREVER, GUYS! EXPIRATION DATE: NEVER FACT: THEY ACTUALLY LAST ABOUT the A monTH. The urban legend goes that Twinkies aren't made of real ingredients, and because of that they will last for over 20 years. The truth is that they contain flour, sugar, corn syrup, water, shortening, and eggs. Just like a regular cake. On top of that, they contain additives to make them moister and extend their shelf life-to about 25 days. CRACKED.COM http://www.snopes. com/food/ingredient/twinkies.asp — Source

26

Undercover Cops

MYTH: Undercover officers have to tell the truth when asked if they're cops. FACT: That'd be incredibly unsafe if it were true. This is one of those tension-building devices in undercover cop movies (like in Deep Cover, where the hero is forced to answer yes when asked the are you a cop question, then plays it off as sarcasm). But even if asked directly, police officers have no obligation to blow their cover. Otherwise sting operations couldn't exist, because even the dumbest criminal could blow it with one question. CRACKED.COM http://www.snopes. com/risque/hookers/cop.asp — Source

25

MYTH Lemmings commit mass suicide. TRUTH Disney faked a scene in their documentary White Wilderness, where the myth derives from. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

CHINESE FOOD IS FILLED WITH DANGEROUS MSG, RIGHT? ACTUALLY, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (MSG) IS PERFECTLY SAFE IN NORMAL AMOUNTS, AND IS A NATURALLY-OCURRING COMPOUND FOUND IN MANY FOODS! ITONLY GOTA BAD RAP BECAUSE ONE SCIENTIST ONCE ATE A TON OF CHINESE FOOD, GOT SICK, AND BLAMED THE MSG IN THE FOOD INSTEAD OF HIS UNHEALTHY EATING HABITS! CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Eggs

MYTH: EGGS ARE BAD FOR YOUR HEART. FACT: EAT YOUR eGGS. YOU'LL ве FIne. B Studies show that most people can eat an egg a day without it affecting their blood cholesterol in the least. The main culprits in heart disease are saturated and trans fats, and eggs are light in saturated fat and contain no trans fat. Further, studies show that when you eat high-cholesterol foods, your body compensates by making less cholesterol. CRACKED.COM http://www.dallasnews.com/life/healthy-living/2015/03/09/the-sunny-side-of-cholesterol — Source

22

MYTH: Want to get away with murder? Plead insanity. FACT: That's not a Get Out of Jail Free card. The Insanity Defense is attempted in less than one percent of all legal cases, and the defense is successful less than 25 percent of the time. Three states in the US don't even allow insanity as a defense. If the plea succeeds, you don't get to just go home. You get sent to a mental institution where you don't have a set sentence at all. They keep you as long as they see fit, which may be forever. CRACKED.COM http://www.pbs.arg/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/faqs.html — Source

21

Your wedding day will culminate in EARTH MOVING SEX. Not always. Not even often. Recent surveys have suggested that as many as 67% of newlyweds skip wedding night nookie because they are simply not up to it after such an eventful day. GRAGKED.COM — Source

20

Togas

People have an image of Romans always walking around wearing togas. In reality they were cumbersome, and heavy and not very popular. The average Roman wore lightweight tunics better suited to a Mediterranean climate. Togas were reserved for special occasions, such as weddings or for the Senate, much like a suit. GRACKED.COM — Source

19

Opossums

MYTH Opossums sleep upside down and hanging by their tails. TRUTH Only baby opossums can support their weight with their tail...and only for a few seconds. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

CRACKED.COM For a more flavorful cup of coffee, don't use a coarse grind. The finer, the better. A finer grind means an overall greater surface area, which slows the water as it flows through the grounds. This gives it more time to bring out the flavor of the beans, resulting in richer tasting coffee. — Source

17

MYTH: DOGS BE DON'T SWEAT. CRACKED.COM Dogs primarily use panting to cool down, by letting water evaporate from their tongue and nasal passageways, but they do have sweat glands. Although dispersed across a dog's body, the sweat glands in their feet are the only ones that are known to actively sweat. — Source

16

SOCHI, RUSSIA, HOST OF THE 2014 WINTER OLYMPICS SOMETIMES Looks LIKE THIS BUT MOST OF THE TIME, ITLOOKS LIKE THIS: CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Iron Eyes Cody was the tortured face of Native American sadness. But he was Sicilian. Children of the '70s and '80s probably remember the series of PSAs starring Chief Iron Eyes Cody. In them, he was a sad old chief shedding a single tear over pollution in America-the very land his noble people had held stewardship over for eons. But the truth is, Iron Eyes wasn't even a little bit Native American. Не started out as Espera de Corti, the son of Sicilian immigrants. Не wound up playing the noble Indian in over 200 films. All he had to do — Source

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14

Artists who depict God as looking human are misinterpreting what in God's image (Gen. 1:27) means. Tselem demuth actually means something closer to having God-like attributes. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Lobsters

MYTH Lobsters are monogamous. TRUTH Female lobsters spend up to two weeks with a mate. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

When cooking with a nonstick pan, don't use cooking spray. 12 Whet SET Aside from oil, cooking sprays also contain lecithin, an emulsifier that could build up on your pan and makes it stickier in the long run. CRACKED COM — Source

11

CRACKED COM Swedish meatballs are actually Turkish The dish was introduced to Sweden by their monarch, King Charles XII, who had developed a taste for it while travelling throughout the Ottoman Empire. — Source

10

Death By Penny Drop agh GRACKED.COM No, dropping a penny off the Empire State Building won't kill someone, 6th grade bully on a field trip. Thanks to drag, that penny would top out at 25 miles per hour. Real New Yorkers know it's the lazily installed window A/C units you have to look out for. — Source

9

MYTH: YOUNG SINGLES ARE CONSTANTLY GETTING LAID. FACT: HALF OF YOUNG SINGLES HAD no sex in THE PAST YEAR. Meanwhile, 50 percent of young married couples report having sex two or three times per week. And over 75 percent of senior citizens report being sexually active, and a current epidemic of STDs among the elderly seems to back this up. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

MYTH: ATE SO MUCH YOU FeeL SICK? POP An ANTACID. FACT: ANTACIDS mAKe YOU FeeL even FULLER. Eating causes your stomach to produce hydrochloric acid to break down food, and the more you eat, the more your stomach produces. Antacids contain bases to neutralize all that acid, but the ensuing chemical reaction releases carbon dioxide. That carbon dioxide will make you even more bloated and gas-filled than you were before. CRACKED.COM no-turkey-doesnt-make-you-sleepy-the-science-of-thanksgiving-feasts/ — Source

7

Einstein

Albert Einstein's Failing Grades Einstein never failed math. Не did fail the Zurich Polytechnic entry exam but not the math section. And it might have been due to being rusty on French, the language the exam was in. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

The American Revolution Majority Most American colonialists didn't support the American Revolution. Loyalists outnumbered the American Revolutionaries, who never held a majority. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Human Life Span's Dramatic Increase Most of human history's average life expectancy has been dragged down by infant mortality. For example, in Ancient Greece, people born before 100 BC who lived to adulthood and didn't die of murder or war lived to a median age of 72 years old. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Chasity Belts' Historic Origins AVERLAS Chasity belts weren't ever a thing in the Middle Ages. There are occassional instances of them being depicted as a joke. The physical objects were made in 18th or 19th centuries as dupes or jokes. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Aztec Worship of Conquistadors In 1552, a former secretary to Hernando Cortés made this up (despite never being to Mexico.) Cortés' actual letters never express that the indigenous Mexica people thought he was a god. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

Rosa Parks' Front Seat Parks sat in the middle section, which was first-come, first-serve, but Black people had to give up their seat to white people. A white man came on, and the white bus driver insisted that the Black passengers move for him. Three other Black passengers moved. But the bus driver (who had previously harassed her) called the police on her for refusing to comply. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Bra-Burning Feminists

Bra-Burning Feminists A protest at a Miss America beauty pageant included women throwing away oppressive items, which included some bras but also lipstick, heels, etc. Reporters said the trashcan was lit, but many protestors dispute these accounts. CRACKED.COM — Source

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