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40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Sharks can get cancer. The myth that they cannot is perpetuated partly by people trying to sell shark cartilage as a cancer treatment, even though it's been proven to be ineffective. As one shark researcher put it, "Sharks get cancer. Even if they didn't get cancer, eating shark products won't cure cancer any more than me eating Michael Jordan would make me better at basketball." The marketing of shark cartilage as a cancer treatment both misleads patients and results in more sharks being killed by humans.

livescience Report

Final score:

307points

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NsG 3 years ago

A myth perpetuated by someone trying to make more money of desperate people. There's a surprise. (/S)

72points

Charles Darwin said that humans come from monkeys. In reality, Darwin never stated the fact that humans come from monkeys directly. In his work On the Origin of Species, Darwin only said that monkeys, apes, and humans must have a common ancestor because of our great similarities compared to other species.

theguardian Report

Final score:

295points

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Iggy 3 years ago (edited)

He also did not come up with the term 'survival of the fittest'. That was coined by a contemporary of his, Herbert Spencer.

104points

"Repetition is important in making us believe things, whether they are true or not. There is a cognitive bias called the 'illusory truth effect' which is when we are repeatedly exposed to false information over and over and, over time, it begins to seem more plausible," Lee from Boston University told Bored Panda. He noted that scientists have known about this for decades, but the idea goes back to antiquity.

"Social psychologists have known since the 1960s that repetition works, for truth or falsity. In fact, this idea goes back to Plato who said that it didn't hurt to repeat a true thing. And of course, for falsehood, this was one of the main propaganda tactics in Nazi Germany, where Hitler's propaganda minister understood the 'repetition effect.'"

At the core of the illusory truth effect lies the idea that if you repeat a falsehood over and over and over again, people will eventually begin to believe it. Lee noted that researchers like Lisa Fazio continue to work on this.

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In The fact that bees can fly doesn't violate the laws of aviation, and it isn't a scientific mystery. If bees flew like airplanes, then yeah, their flight would be impossible. But they don't fly like airplanes. They fly like bees. The opening narration of Bee Movie informs us that a bee shouldn't be able to fly, because "its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground." But like so much of Bee Movie, this is complete nonsense. The myth may have originated with entomologist August Magnan, who in the 1930s noted that "a bee's flight should be impossible." But Magnan didn't know that bees flap their wings back and forth instead of up and down, a motion that creates "mini-hurricanes" that help lift the bee upward.

insider Report

Final score:

254points

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Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago

The fact that they CAN fly should be enough to tell us that . . . . . they can fly. Our greatest scientists have shown us that observational science is key.

176points

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In NASA didn't spend millions developing a pen that could be used in space while the Soviets simply told their cosmonauts to use pencils. NASA's mechanical pencils of choice cost $128.89 each, and the public wasn't pleased when they found out where their tax dollars were going. In addition, the flammability of pencils and the tendency of their tips to break off and float away made the switch to pens imperative. The Fisher Pen Company invested $1 million to design the "AG-7 'Anti-Gravity' Space Pen," but "none of this investment came from NASA's coffers."

The agency was hesitant to purchase the product, but after extensive testing, they decided to buy 400 of them. A year later, the Soviets placed an order for 100 space pens. The two dueling agencies "received the same 40 percent discount for buying their pens in bulk. They both paid $2.39 per pen instead of $3.98." So while NASA was looking for an alternative writing utensil when the space pen came along, they neither overlooked the possibility of using pencils nor invested an absurd amount in the invention of the product.

scientificamerican , wikipedia Report

Final score:

236points

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My O My 3 years ago

I didn't know this. I firmly believed in this myth!

33points

Neil Bidle 3 years ago

It was never really meant to be believed, it was a dig at Americans who always seem to want to throw money at problems, whereas the Russians tend to find a low-tech solution that works. Russian tanks were the first to use angled armour to make then stronger and faster, while America tried to make stronger, thicker steel and put in huge engines to compensate...for example

10points

Xylle Flora 3 years ago

The graphite in pencils is electrically conductive, and could've messed with the systems in space.

13points

Vero 3 years ago

Chris Hadfield say they use pencils in the ISS

1point

Stephen Lyford 3 years ago

Not to mention that using a pencil means that graphite powder would be floating around in the air inside a small, closed space that is your ONLY chance of survival, with finite filtration capabilities.

7points

Max 3 years ago

Pencils give off tiny fragments when used or sharpened. Do you really want those going into the sensitive instruments of a spacecraft?

5points

Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago

They should have just used crayons.

4points

May 3 years ago

We all know this one by now, surely? It's been all over the internet for like a decade

4points

Logic and Reason 3 years ago

Uh, graphite pencils send conductive shavings all over the spacecraft. This could potentially cause a fatal and explosive error that would kill everyone aboard. The Apollo 1 fire made NASA extremely conscious of this risk.

2points

Theoretical Empiricist 3 years ago

Never mind the aspiration risk.

0points

Neil Bidle 3 years ago

They're a lot more than $4 when I've seen them for sale!

2points

Wouldiwas Shookspeared 3 years ago

Why are you being downvoted? You’re right. All the space museums in America sell them for like ten bucks

4points

F. H. 3 years ago

Before the space pen, the US as well as the Soviets used something similar to crayons.

1point

Lily Mae Kitty 3 years ago

Fischer also lied about the story he used for marketing; that an astronaut used a pen of his to fix a broken ignition switch. NASA never said otherwise but Buzz Aldrin mentions he used a regular pen for that in his book.

1point

Ellie Rosser 3 years ago

Also, they're damned useful on planet Earth too.

1point

howdylee 3 years ago (edited)

the first thing i ever won was a space pen from the Cincinnati Union Station children's museum (early 90's)... still have the pen although it ran out of ink a long time ago. it was an awesome pen!

1point

Douglas Turner 3 years ago

The refills are still available, in case you have a trip planned and want to write a (very) quick note about your near-miss with space!

0points

Anup Poojary 3 years ago

Pencil leads breaking in space will be like a bullet shot. Dangerous for Astronauts safety and equipment safety.

1point

Eglė Bukauskaitė 3 years ago

In current space development - They WILL use pencils. Capitalism prevailed again!

0points

Spinaap 3 years ago

don't forget this 1 million dollars compares to about 8 to 9 million dollars now ... so Fisher did invest a load of money ...

0points

Sparky 3 years ago

But why not use nonmechanical pencils?

0points

Vero 3 years ago

The other day I was watching a video of Chris Hadfield, about the life in the space station, and he say that they use pencils

0points

Blakkur Sverrir 3 years ago

Pencils=graphite=short circuits=sparks (in a high oxygen enviroment)=fire= bad

0points

Randolph Croft 3 years ago

Graphite (pencil clay etc) and sparks are quite spectacular.

0points

Leo Domitrix 3 years ago

I will note that without the Cold War "Space Race", the marketing on the Space Pen itself probably accounted for its success more than anything else.

0points

Telmo Belo 3 years ago

Even at $4 each, seems cheap...

0points

Iggy 3 years ago

Ordinary pens work. Depends on the gravity but they work.

0points

Night Owl 3 years ago

I heard about the myth but never took it seriously. This piece of historical information is really interesting

0points

JustAPanda 3 years ago

Just for writing

0points

Grady'sRaider 3 years ago

If y'all think graphite can be a problem in space, take a peek into the subject of operating an electric motor in a vacuum.

-1point

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In The 25th frame affects human subconsciousness. In 1957, James Vicary did an experiment; he secretly flashed, at a third of a millisecond, the words stimulating people to eat popcorn and drink a certain beverage onto a movie screen. According to his words, right after the end of the movie, the sales of both drastically increased. But the American Association of Psychology disproved the effect of the 25th frame. In 1962, Vicary himself admitted the falsification of experimental results.

csicop , Corina Rainer Report

Final score:

183points

POST

Mark Johansen 3 years ago

A very similar one: Almost every textbook on evolution talks about "peppered moths". Some pepppered moths have white wings and some have black wings. Supposedly before the industrial revolution, most had white wings, because they perched on birch trees and their white wings blended in with the white bark of the trees, giving them good camouflage from predators. But with the industrial revolution London factories started pouring out soot, covering the trees with black gunk, so now the black moths had better camouflage. Thus the ratio of black to white changed, an example of evolution. Except ... (a) That isn't evolution, that's just natural selection. No one is even claiming that new genetic material was created. There were always white moths and black moths, all that was claimed to change was the ratio. But even more amusing, (b) The experiment was a fake. The experimenter admitted many years later that he had glued death moths to tree trunks in the desired ratios and then taken pics.

42points

The fact remains that the illusory truth effect works in real life, even if we're aware of it. It's a very humbling experience for everyone. "I understand cognitive bias, yet last election season I kept seeing signs for the same candidate running for local office around my town. I thought, 'Wow, I guess everyone is voting for her.' It turns out I was just walking my dog in the neighborhood where she lived, and her friends and neighbors had up lots of signs! So I fooled myself."

I wanted to get Lee's take on how best to approach news stories and facts. On the one hand, we need to have open yet scientific minds. On the other hand, we simply don't have enough time to be skeptical about each and every tidbit of info. So we have to balance between the two extremes and focus on finding accurate sources of information.

"It would be exhausting to fact check every single news item we hear. In fact, insisting on this degree of skepticism is something that demagogues use to get us to be cynical, because when we doubt that it is possible to know the truth—even when it is staring us in the face—we are riper to their manipulation. So I'd say the best thing with news is to do a little investigation into finding a reliable source," Lee explained to me.

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Humans don't swallow eight spiders a year on average while they sleep. Arachnid experts speaking to Scientific American said that such a claim "flies in the face of both spider and human biology." Spiders "regard us much like they’d regard a big rock," since we're so comparatively huge that we're "really just part of the landscape" to them. Additionally, the vibrations of a sleeping human (snoring, breathing, and the beating of a heart) are terrifying to spiders. As far as humans go, even if the rare brave spider does wander across your face whilst you snore, you'd most likely feel it there and wake up before it crawled inside your mouth.

readersdigest , Andy Holmes Report

Final score:

182points

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Rus Kus 3 years ago

Why this "fact" emerged in the first place? Such a horrid idea to spread around

67points

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Orson Welles' 1938 radio play War of the Worlds didn't cause mass hysteria in the United States. You may have heard that millions of Americans were tricked into thinking that aliens had invaded Earth, but in reality, "the supposed panic was so tiny as to be practically immeasurable on the night of the broadcast." Newspapers covered the story gratuitously, hoping to strike a blow against radio, the popularity of which had carved into their profits. But very few people actually tuned into the broadcast, and even fewer earnestly believed what they were hearing. Multiple anecdotes about the panicked reactions of the public (including suicide attempts and hospitals treating multiple listeners for shock) were later disproven.

slate Report

Final score:

181points

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May 3 years ago

This one, I didn't know. The futility of old technology fighting new technology is ever ongoing.

44points

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Albert Einstein never flunked a math class as a child. When the adult Einstein was shown a newspaper article claiming he had, he replied, "Before I was 15, I had mastered differential and integral calculus." While Einstein achieved high grades throughout his childhood education, he "hated the strict protocols followed by teachers and rote learning demanded of students" at the schools he attended. The math class myth may have originated with the fact that Einstein did fail the entrance exam to Zurich Polytechnic the first time he took it, when he was still a year and a half from graduating high school and hadn't learned much French (the language in which the exam was administered). And, for the record, he did well on the math section, but struggled in language, botany, and zoology. He later graduated from high school and gained admittance to Zurich Polytechnic in 1896.

Final score:

171points

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JustAPanda 3 years ago

If it is true, he is a genius from birth

23points

"Look for an organization that does investigative journalism (and doesn't just repeat information from other sources), double sources its quotations, discloses conflicts of interest, etc. Once we've found that we can relax a bit and trust the reporting behind the stories. Do we still need to be on guard? Yes. Even The New York Times can make mistakes. Or individual reporters can have biases. But that doesn't mean 'all sources are equal.'"

Media literacy, according to Lee, is essential moving forward. "There are various sources for media literacy that can help. They teach this to KIDS in Finland! It's easy to learn. Is the story copyrighted? Is it dated? Is there a byline? Are other stories by the author solid? Is it published in a source that has been reliable in the past? Does it seem plausible— if not then you can do some research," he listed the questions we should be asking ourselves as we evaluate an article, the news source, and the journalist.

"Will we get fooled sometimes in doing this? Yes. But we're going to get fooled sometimes anyway. It's analogous to how scientists form their beliefs. They are skeptics, but they also—at some point when the evidence is sufficient—give their assent. Scientists deal with warrant, not 'proof.' They are what philosophers call 'fallibilists.' You give your belief to things that are well-sourced with evidence, while always holding out the possibility that if further evidence comes to light that contradicts your belief, you should give it up because you might be wrong."

#10

Ninjas never wore black. The darkest color they ever wore was blue (during nighttime). Mostly they wore the inconspicuous clothing of peasants, merchants, traveling priests, etc.

tannya7903 Report

Final score:

167points

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NsG 3 years ago

I heard a version that said it came from the theatre. The crew responsible for moving sets between scenes were all in black so the audience wouldn't pay attention to them. And then during one performance one of the "crew" acted out assassinating a principle actor and the myth was born. How true this version is I don't know either, but it is narratively satisfying

61points

#11

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Walt Disney did not create Mickey Mouse. His close friend and collaborator Ub Iwerks did, though he was "denied credit" for creating this major piece of pop culture history. Iwerks came up with the character in 1928, after Disney lost the rights to his "first hit character," Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. When Disney "kept on making up bigger and bigger whoppers to stretch the Mickey Mouse creation story," up to and including claiming he was the one who came up with him, Iwerks quit Walt Disney Studios, embittered by his friend's behavior. In 1940, a decade after he left, Iwerks returned. He and Disney rekindled their friendship and worked together until Disney's death in 1966.

KCUR Report

Final score:

158points

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Amina Hays 3 years ago

If my "friend" was telling all and sundry that they created such an iconic character and was reaping all the financial benefits from it, there's no way I'd reconcile. Proper friends don't do such shady disrespectful things.

86points

#12

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Yellowstone isn't overdue for an eruption. It's had three major explosions in its existence (2.08, 1.3, and 0.631 million years ago), and if you average out those numbers, that means an eruption every 725,000 years, meaning we'd still have a good 100,000 to go. But that number is based on such little data that it's "basically meaningless." A volcano doesn't operate like a fault line, and the accumulation of liquid magma and pressure necessary for an eruption "does not generally happen on a schedule." Because of that, it can't be overdue.

USGS Report

Final score:

148points

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Neil Bidle 3 years ago

The eruption dates are also estimates, everything is, but there are other signs that Yellowstone will erupt soon. The thing is though, that in geological terms, 100,000 years is as "soon" as next week on the human scale if time. Same with astronomical "near misses" of "only" a few million miles.

47points

Earlier, I had a chat with Lee about why so many people fall for conspiracy theories. We spoke specifically about Flat-earthers—people who believe that Earth is flat and that the idea of it being a planet is a hoax perpetrated at the highest possible institutional levels. Though some Flat-Earthers try to ‘prove’ their ideas to the general public, they don’t stand up to rigorous scientific analysis.

“They are to be commended for actually trying to test their hypothesis, but of course they don’t understand at all how science actually works. Specifically, they are ignorant of gravitational pull. One of their main arguments was that if the Earth was spinning the water would fall off. Do they not understand that gravitational pull comes from the center, is based on mass, and works on water too?” Lee told Bored Panda earlier.

#13

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Despite the fact that his name has become synonymous with "angry short man," Napoleon Bonaparte was actually of average height for the time period in which he lived.
His contemporaries described him as being 5'2", but the French measured height differently back in the day, so he was actually around 5'5". That made him just "an inch or so below the period’s average adult male height." The popular perception of the diminutive general probably came in part from the successful work of the British cartoonist James Gillray, whose mocking caricatures of a "tiny Napoleon" were so popular that Napoleon himself said that Gillray "did more than all the armies of Europe to bring me down.”

Final score:

147points

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Thorfin Wolfsbane 3 years ago

Also, who cares if he was short? He steamrolled over Europe.

31points

#14

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In NASA confirms that The Great Wall of China "frequently billed as the only man-made object visible from space" can't actually be seen from the final frontier. Although the fact was debunked by Chinese astronaut, Yang Liwei, the textbooks were never changed, and will often still claim this as true.

NASA , wikipedia Report

Final score:

142points

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Troux 3 years ago

I always thought this "fact" was insane. It's long, but only about 5-6 meters wide. If this was visible from space then every highway would be as well.

120points

#15

There is no record of Queen Marie Antoinette of France ever having said the words "Let them eat cake." The myth goes that when told French peasants did not have enough bread to feed themselves, she replied callously, "Let them eat cake." History.com claimed that Lady Antonia Fraser, author of a bestselling biography of the French queen, believed that "the quote would have been highly uncharacteristic of Marie-Antoinette, an intelligent woman who donated generously to charitable causes and, despite her own undeniably lavish lifestyle, displayed sensitivity towards the poor population of France."

Final score:

140points

POST

Kari Panda 3 years ago

I read recently that this quote was frequently pinned on people in order to disgrace someone back then. Not just her, so that makes it very unlikely that she ever said this.

44points

He pointed out that after visiting the Flat Earth International Conference in 2018, he debated some conspiracy theorists and they kept asking for unspecific proof that they’re wrong. “Most of them just said ‘proof’ and I said ‘proof of what?’ They couldn’t be specific. This shows that their beliefs weren’t really based on evidence in the first place,” he said.

Lee explained to Bored Panda that after spending an hour face-to-face with Flat-Earthers, he came to the conclusion that the vast majority of them truly believe that the Earth is flat in their heart of hearts.

“Some are stronger in that belief than others, but I didn’t catch one person who seemed like they were just trolling. At one session I heard many Flat Earthers talk about losing family members, getting kicked out of their churches, losing jobs… who would do that for fun? These are hardcore science deniers,” Lee said.

#16

Don’t touch baby birds. If there's one thing everyone knows about baby birds, it's that you're not supposed to pick them up. If you do, the mother bird will smell the residue of your stinky human hands on her baby, and leave the piteously crying chick there to die, right?

Wrong, says Miyoko Chu, a biologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "Birds don't have a very strong sense of smell," she said, "so you won't leave a scent that will alarm the parent."

In fact, contrary to what our parents may have told us, most bird parents are unlikely to abandon their chicks over a little human fiddling. "Usually, birds are quite devoted to their young and not easily deterred from taking care of them," Chu said.

livescience Report

Final score:

134points

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Tristan J 3 years ago

It's still good advice not to pick up baby birds unless you know how to handle them safely. Perhaps the myth was created to help parents deter children from handling chicks and potentially causing harm.

71points

#17

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In According to a survey from 2013, around 65 percent of Americans believe that we only use 10 percent of our brain. But this is just a myth, according to an interview with neurologist Barry Gordon in Scientific American. He explained that the majority of the brain is almost always active.

medicalnewstoday Report

Final score:

133points

POST

Antony Aston 3 years ago

I use the other 90% to store random lyrics to 80s pop songs...

10points

#18

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Different tongue parts. There are not different sections of the tongue for each taste: bitter, sour, salt, sweet and umami (savoury/meaty).

cst.ufl , Hayes Potter Report

Final score:

131points

POST

Seonag Udell 3 years ago

OMG I can remember being told this in year 9 science.

70points

“As hard as it might be to accept, there are people who believe this stuff and are willing even to put their lives on the line for it! One rocket guy crashed trying to prove Flat Earth. They aren’t pretending.”

Conspiracy theories are nothing new. They’ve been around far longer than most of us realize and they’re an indication that there’s chaos. “Conspiracy theories have been around since Nero in the Roman Empire. They pop up in times of turmoil or mass unrest when people try to make sense of the world, but can’t,” Lee said.

#19

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In The right side of the brain is responsible for creative skills. People think that personalities whose right side of the brain is more developed tend to have good creative skills. And those who have their left side of the brain dominating tend to have better analytical and logical skills. However, recent research has completely destroyed this myth. Scientists analyzed the work of 1,011 brains. The participants were between 7 and 29 years old. They didn't find any signs of left or right hemisphere domination.

journals.plos Report

Final score:

125points

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Leo Domitrix 3 years ago

Just don't interrupt the data flow between the two hemispheres.

30points

#20

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In The lines on a red Solo cup aren't there to measure the correct servings of liquor, wine, and beer. A representative from the manufacturers, the Dart Container Corporation, told that, "The lines on our Party Cups are designed for functional performance and are not measurement lines. If the lines do coincide with certain measurements, it is purely coincidental.”

snopes , wikipedia Report

Final score:

122points

POST

Q B F T 3 years ago

As a European, I have never used one of these cups and only ever seen them in movies/TV. I've heard they're sold in some places in Europe for American-theme parties. But funny how something so ubiquitous for one place is completely absent in another despite our increasingly globalised world.

66points

#21

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Isaac Newton didn't discover gravity because an apple bonked him on the head. Rather, he witnessed an apple falling and wondered why objects always fall down instead of up or sideways, a thought that inspired his Law of Universal Gravitation. When he saw the apple drop, Newton was in the orchard of his childhood home, Woolsthorpe Manor. He had been studying at Cambridge University, but the school was temporarily closed due to an outbreak of the bubonic plague.

Final score:

120points

POST

Mazer 3 years ago

Good thing he didn’t live in Kansas in the middle of a tornado season or things would’ve been flying sideways including cows

104points

“Flat Earth is in some ways just a run-of-the-mill conspiracy theory. They’ve all grown in popularity because beliefs (even fringe beliefs) are reinforced by peer approval, and that is now readily available on the internet. Virtually all of the Flat Earthers I met were converted based on YouTube videos. Some then went to the conferences. After that, they were ‘down the rabbit hole.'”

So if such ludicrous conspiracy theories can worm their way into people’s minds, it’s no wonder that seemingly innocent ‘facts’ about science, history, and the natural world also find a spot in our hearts. No matter how ‘fun’ they might be, it’s still our duty to separate the wheat from the chaff, even if we still want to stay kids at heart.

#22

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Lightning can and does strike the same place twice. The Empire State Building gets struck 25 times a year on average. And speaking of lightning striking once and coming back for more, one unlucky fellow by the name of Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times. That's the most lightning strikes any one person's ever survived.

noaa , wikipedia Report

Final score:

114points

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TmKhr 3 years ago

I bet Roy was *puts on sunglasses* shocked.

96points

winchesterhospital Report

#23

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In The myth that a sleepwalker should be left alone stems from an ancient belief that the soul leaves the body during sleep, and if a sleepwalker is woken up they will be a body without a soul. Metaphysical reasoning aside, the presumption that sleepwalkers will exhibit wildly disturbing behavior when awakened is largely unfounded. Although some people may become aggressive, researchers have found that most of the time sleepwalkers are simply confused, disoriented, scared, or embarrassed. Waking a sleepwalker should be done as gently as possible to avoid such responses.

Final score:

110points

POST

Anonymousplease 3 years ago

I used to have night terrors (completely different from nightmares). I would start crying or making noises in the night. My parents would have me go to the bathroom and get a drink and go back to bed. I am told that once I even had a full conversation.The thing is, I was asleep the whole time, so I never remembered. Once, I apparently was yelling at my brother a ton. When I came to breakfast in the morning, my family was looking at me weird and I had no idea why.

31points

Dutch Swimmer Goes Viral For Super Revealing Trunks During 2024 Olympics: “Is This Legal?”

See Also on Bored Panda

Thrill-Seeking Diver Jumps Down Extreme Waterslide, Ignoring The Strict Ban For Women

#24

The Mexica people (known as "Aztecs" post-conquest) didn't believe that Hernando Cortés and the other conquistadors were gods. Francisco López de Gómara, Cortés's secretary and a man who had never been to Mexico, came up with that story in 1552. In de Gómara's version of history, Cortés was seen as "a god named Quetzalcoatl, who long ago had disappeared in the east." But there is no evidence that the myth of Quetzalcoatl existed before the Europeans' arrival, and the Mexica responded to the "technology gap" between them and Cortés's forces with "intelligence and savvy rather than wide-eyed talk of gods." The story both glorified the Europeans and alleviated their guilt by recasting them as returning gods rather than invading conquerors.

daily Report

Final score:

101points

POST

May 3 years ago

The part I didn't know is that Aztecs weren't called Aztecs, but Mexica. Never heard that before.

60points

#25

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Benjamin Franklin didn't publicly or seriously advocate for the turkey to be the national bird of the United States. According to the Franklin Institute, Franklin "defended the honor of the turkey against the bald eagle" in a private letter to his daughter, but his pro-turkey leanings didn't go any further than that. In the letter, Franklin criticized the design of the bald eagle on the Great Seal of the United States, pointing out that it resembled a turkey. He then went straight for the bald eagle's jugular, writing that it is, "a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly…[he] is too lazy to fish for himself.” The noble turkey, in comparison, is "a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America. ... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage." Ultimately, Franklin kept his reservations about the honor of the eagle out of the public sphere.

fi.edu , wikipedia Report

Final score:

95points

POST

Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago

Benjamin may have had his faults . . . . . but he was certainly no turkey!

20points

Woman Put A Water Fountain With A Camera In Her Yard, Here Are 24 Photos Of Regular Visitors (New Pics)

See Also on Bored Panda

“Ma’am I Live Here”: Woman Refuses To Back Out Of Driveway, Learns A Lesson The Hard Way

#26

It takes seven years for your body to digest a piece of gum. Actually, gum will pass right through you and leave your body within a matter of hours or days. According to Healthline, the ingredients in gum can't be digested at all, so your body will move it along and pass it as a bowel movement.

healthline Report

Final score:

94points

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Brendan 3 years ago

When she was young, my friend was told that, if you swallow gum, it will wrap around your heart and kill you. As you can imagine, she avoided gum at all costs.

38points

#27

Shaving thickens hair. No - shaving hair doesn't change its thickness, color, or rate of growth. Shaving facial or body hair gives the hair a blunt tip. The tip might feel coarse or "stubbly" for a time as it grows out. During this phase, the hair might be more noticeable and perhaps appear darker or thicker - but it's not.

mayoclinic Report

Final score:

87points

POST

Amy Dodds 3 years ago (edited)

I learned the hard way. Ladies, never use your dad's/ granddad's rotating shaver on your face 'to see what happens'.

26points

#28

Cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis. This was probably told to you by people who can't stand the sound of bones popping, cracking your knuckles or other body parts will not give your arthritis. Dr. Robert Klapper, an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and co-director of their Joint Replacement Program, explained on the hospital's site that there is no harm to cracking your knuckles. "The noise of cracking or popping in our joints is actually nitrogen bubbles bursting in our synovial fluid," he wrote. "It does not lead to arthritis."

cedars-sinai Report

Final score:

86points

POST

tomandjerry56 3 years ago

Okay wow this is life changing. I have been cracking my knuckles since i was ten and ever since i heard it could cause arthritis i have tried to quit because i don’t want arthritis at such an early age

32points

50 Of The Most Incredible Shots That Were Submitted To The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

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#29

The biblical forbidden fruit is an apple. In the Old Testament, it is said that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was an apple. It is likely that the theory about Adam and Eve eating an apple appeared because of the translation of the Bible into Latin, which was done in the 4th century. The Latin word "malum" can be translated as "apple" or "evil." So the forbidden fruit could be anything from pomegranates to figs to something abstract.

npr Report

Final score:

81points

POST

Xottel 3 years ago

"Something abstract"... They tasted the "forbidden fruit" when Eve got seduced by the "snake". Afterwards they were ashamed (of their nudity?). I get a rough idea what happened.

40points

#30

Bats are blind. No, bats are not blind. Bats have small eyes with very sensitive vision, which helps them see in conditions we might consider pitch black. They don't have the sharp and colorful vision humans have, but they don't need that

usgs Report

Final score:

77points

POST

Vanta Black 3 years ago

Wait... people still believe this one? Is it because Bruce Wayne didn't see his parents' murders coming?

23points

#31

"Irregardless" is a real word. The fine folks at Merriam-Webster wrote a whole article defending its existence. They point out that other major dictionaries include it as well, and that the word meets its criteria for inclusion because lots of people use it, it's been around for a long time, and it has a "specific and identifiable meaning ('regardless')." The fact that it's considered awkward or unnecessary doesn't matter, since it is "not a dictionary's job to assess whether a word is necessary before defining it."

merriam-webster Report

Final score:

76points

POST

NsG 3 years ago

That is how most words are made up. If I were to invent a word: "praplecakes" and it enters collective use and earns a place in the dictionary, it is a real word. So, it's a real word, defined as "a nonsense word illustrating the ineffectiveness of dictionaries to establish the necessariness of a word before defining it". You're welcome.

58points

Woman Moves Out Of Parents' Home After They Asked Her To Give Her Space To Brother, They Freak Out

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#32

Eating rice doesn't make birds explode. Birdseed expands more than uncooked rice when soaked (40% versus 33%), so if bursting birds were a problem, we'd already know about it. Besides, lots of birds eat uncooked rice "all the time with no ill effects," because their stomachs aren't hot enough for the grains to absorb much liquid. So don't worry about our avian friends too much the next time you find yourself at a wedding with a handful of grain.

mentalfloss Report

Final score:

76points

POST

sofacushionfort 3 years ago

Modern wedding etiquette prefers that the guests throw money, anyway.

33points

#33

40 Annoying 'Facts' People Have To Finally Stop Believing In Walt Disney's body is cryogenically frozen. His biography states that after he died from lung cancer complications in 1966, his body was cremated in Glendale, California. Mental Floss reported that the rumor likely got started because the president of the Cryonics Society of California told the Los Angeles Times that Walt Disney Studios had inquired about the process.

Although Walt was not cryogenically frozen, people remembered the association of Walt Disney with cryonics, and the rumor persisted.

biography , wikipedia Report

Final score:

72points

POST

grey galah 3 years ago

That's true, but apparently some of Disney's ideas are cryogenically frozen, which you can see in the movies

50points

Woman Refuses To Chip In For Babysitting Because She Doesn’t Even Have Kids, Asks If She’s A Jerk

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#34

Caffeine dehydrates you. Not really. The diuretic effect of caffeine is offset by the amount of water in a caffeinated drink. Drinking caffeine-containing beverages as part of a normal lifestyle doesn't cause fluid loss in excess of the volume ingested. While caffeinated drinks may have a mild diuretic effect — meaning that they may cause the need to urinate — they don't appear to increase the risk of dehydration.

mayoclinic Report

Final score:

71points

POST

Mazer 3 years ago

Diuretics are substances that cause your body to make more urine than usual. Caffeine may do so by increasing blood flow to your kidneys, which spurs them to release more water through urine (4Trusted Source). By encouraging urination, compounds with diuretic properties like caffeine may affect your hydration status. I had a friend who is riding a motorcycle through the desert southwest in the summertime and she drank tea all day. At one point in time mid afternoon after drinking copious amounts of tea, She found herself getting super hot she pulled over to the side of the road underneath an overpass and proceeded to pass out from heat exhaustion and the impacts of dehydration. She was revived, taken to the hospital and put on an IV drip to help rebalance her system. Moral of the story for every caffeinated drink you in just in a hot arid environment add two drinks or more of water.

7points

#35

Paul Revere didn't yell "The British are coming!" on his midnight ride through colonial Massachusetts. First of all, Revere's mission was a stealth operation that needed to be conducted "as discreetly as possible," and there is nothing less discrete than a man on horseback screaming about imminent doom. Then there's the fact that at the time, the American colonists still thought of themselves as British, so Revere's supposed warning would be nonsensical at best. What he may have said is that "the Regulars" (British soldiers) were en route, but either way, he didn't yell about it.

Final score:

69points

POST

TiaCalenture 3 years ago

In 1777, Sybil Ludington rode nearly 40 miles overnight at only 16 yrs old, raising 400 men and even fighting off a highwayman with her fathers musket to alert Americans that the British were coming. It was double the length of Paul Revere, and George Washington even thanked her personally for her service.

42points

"I Didn't Start The Dryer": Karen Gets Taught A Lesson After Throwing Out Neighbor's Wet Clothes

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#36

Twinkies definitely don't last forever. In fact, their shelf life used to be only 26 days, though it's currently around 45. Though the snack cakes have a reputation for being unnatural, they're made of "mostly flour and sugar" and their rate of decay "is absolutely typical of all processed foods." The NPR Science desk kept one for 18 months to observe its supposed invincibility, and they wrote of their findings, "The subject shows no signs of disintegrating — or of still being edible: It's now hard as a rock." So if you were planning on including Twinkies in the pantry of your doomsday bunker, you should probably take your business elsewhere.

npr Report

Final score:

65points

POST

Mazer 3 years ago

There’s a guy on YouTube who eats really old MREs. One of them was from World War I. I can’t believe he still alive!!!

20points

brighthubeducation Report

#37

Wolves howl at the moon. There is no direct connection between a full moon and wolves howling. Howling is a way of communication between wolves, and they lift their heads to make the sound spread better. Wolves can howl in complete darkness as well. However, due to the fact that moonlit nights are usually windless, it's simply easier to hear the howling. Moreover, it's impossible to see a howling wolf when the moonlight is not there.

Final score:

64points

POST

Marnie 3 years ago

Moonlit nights are usually windless? I had never heard of that, or observed it.

35points

College Student Does Exactly As Told After Roommates Demand They Keep Their Stuff In Their Room

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#38

Toads cause warts. No, there are no amphibians that give you warts. This myth has been around for a long time and is probably related to the fact that many frogs and toads have warty looking bumps on their skin. These are glands and do not secrete anything that can cause you to have warts!

burkemuseum Report

Final score:

64points

POST

Heather W 3 years ago

But they will pee on you. If I wanted to hold one I'd get a friend to pick it up first. After it peed on him, then I would hold it. Sadly, he picked it up every time...

25points

#39

Twenty women accused of being witches were executed during the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, but none of them were burned at the stake. That isn't to say they didn't have a rough time. Nineteen of the victims were hung on Gallows Hill, and the twentieth, an elderly man named Giles Corey, was pressed to death with stones after he refused to plead either guilty or innocent. In addition to those executed, "more accused sorcerers died in jail while awaiting trial." This misconception probably originated with the fact that burning witches at the stake was a "disturbingly common practice" during European witch trials.

Final score:

62points

POST

grigsound 3 years ago

"Twenty women"... "Nineteen of the victims were hung on Gallows Hill, and the twentieth, an elderly man named Giles Corey"... Huh!? Wait, what!?

43points

#40

Black holes. Not really “holes,” but rather hugely dense objects with massive gravitational pull.

wikipedia Report

Final score:

62points

POST

David de Fortier 3 years ago

What always confused me is they say nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, yet the gravity of black holes are so strong that not even light can escape them.. doesnt that mean black holes gravity is pulling in stuff towards itself at higher rates than the speed of light?

8points

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#41

Bagpipes are Scottish. They were prevalent in the Middle East centuries before Western Europe.

historic-uk Report

Final score:

18points

POST

Brendan 3 years ago

I wish they stayed there.

9points

#42

Alcohol warms up the body. Not only does alcohol not raise the body temperature, but it can also drastically increase the loss of body warmth. The thing is that a nip or 2 actually causes your blood vessels to dilate, moving warm blood closer to the surface of your skin, making you feel warmer temporarily.

webmd Report

Final score:

16points

POST

Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago

Indeed the notion that alcohol warms the body is a very dangerous misconception altogether.

9points

#43

This morbid fact of hair and fingernails continue to grow after death is not true, but the truth is much more horrifying. BBC reported that "nerve cells die within three to seven minutes" after death, proving that they stop growing. However, the skin around the hair and fingernails retracts after death, due to dehydration, making them appear longer. Funeral directors will apparently heavily moisturize the fingernails to prevent this sight.

BBC Report

Final score:

14points

POST

May 3 years ago

To become a saint you have to have performed 3 miracles. One of the 3 miracles one of our Norwegian saints performed was that his nails and hair grew after death... Oh dear..

6points

Storytelling, journalism, and art are a core part of who I am. I've been writing and drawing ever since I could walk—there is nothing else I'd rather do. My formal education, however, is focused on politics, philosophy, and economics because I've always been curious about the gap between the ideal and the real. At work, I'm a Senior Writer and I cover a broad range of topics that I'm passionate about: from psychology and changes in work culture to healthy living, relationships, and design. In my spare time, I'm an avid hiker and reader, enjoy writing short stories, and love to doodle. I thrive when I'm outdoors, going on small adventures in nature. However, you can also find me enjoying a big mug of coffee with a good book (or ten) and entertaining friends with fantasy tabletop games and sci-fi movies.

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As a Visual Editor at Bored Panda, I indulge in the joy of curating delightful content, from adorable pet photos to hilarious memes, all while nurturing my wanderlust and continuously seeking new adventures and interests—sometimes thrilling, sometimes daunting, but always exciting!

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What do you think ?

POST

AnRusz 3 years ago

On this topic I do greatly recommend to read The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. A lot of common myths debunked and disproven. And in a rather funny way. :)

10points

Iʕ •ᴥ•ʔ 3 years ago

All these are mind-blowing me and proving that I am a helpless being with now no knowledge of whatsoever .

2points

Caroline 3 years ago

Santa the jolly red old man isn't that old: traditionally, he wore green as St Nicholas and had plenty of other depictions. Coca Cola created his now famous red appearance around 1930. The marketing worked well as the Coke Santa is now the only one used.

2points

COCO puff 3 years ago

Myths busted :)))))))

2points

Daniel Atkins 3 years ago

How about farmers started daylight savings time. Ben Franklin was one of the first to advocate for dst. Farmers get up when needed doesn’t matter what the clock says. The last time they extended it the people behind it were mainly outdoor entertainment businesses. So no farmers did not do this because they think city people are lazy.

1point

Chaos&Roses 3 years ago

Queensland, Australia. Doesn't have dst because they didn't want the cows to get up that early, and Noone wanted thier curtains to fade. Really embarrassed to say I moved from New South Wales to up here with all the idiots. Us Aussies have always seen Qld as the break away state full of idiots. If this was USA, Qld would be the swamps of Florida

3points

Chaos&Roses 3 years ago

Weird how in a world of information people still believe in alot of these. Anyone with a sound education knows the bullshit in these myths. But in the last 20 years or so most people get thier education and info on clickbait or Facebook. I've seen the crap propaganda on FB to understand now why so many people are brainless parrots with no ability to sort through false and real fact, or even how to find or research anything that isn't a FB post.

1point

Q B F T 3 years ago

Learning styles, like a person being a visual learner or a kinaesthetic learner or whatever - total bs.

1point

Dodo 3 years ago

Idk, I could believe this one. I have aphantasia (lack of visual imagination) so I can recall things I've heard better than things I've seen.

5points

Eppe 3 years ago

What scientific journal will your findings be published in?

1point

Grady'sRaider 3 years ago (edited)

I instructed people in how to use software applications. Got my best results from everyone by combining a description of how it worked, then visually showing, then a hands on run through. I never found just one method alone, effective.

1point

Monday 3 years ago

Not true, some people do learn better using different styles, you're just not locked into one. In order to learn effective I need to write things down, if I can't write things down then I need to read them while moving around (like pacing). Trying to learn via just listening to something or using spider diagrams are the least effective for me. Other people learn better when something is explained to them, or when they try to explain it to someone else.

1point

littlesaresare 3 years ago (edited)

One that drives me insane, because for some reason people online get so rabid about it, is the 'correction' that a tortoise is a tortoise not a turtle. Tortoises ARE turtles. They are literally a family of turtle. You may as well scream that "It's a German shepherd not a dog!", "It's a rat not a rodent!" "It's a lion not a cat!" etc. And if you try to explain the biology or taxonomy of it, the most common 'rebuttal' is "Well it's called a tortoise not a land turtle." And? You call a lion a lion not a maned cat but it's still a f*****g cat. /end rant

0points

6two nerd 3 years ago

I love how like half of these were in Brain Games, not debunked, but taught and used

0points

Surya Amriza 3 years ago

There should be a Ministry or Department of Mythbuster in every country.

0points

Leslie Burleson 3 years ago

Forgive me if I don't take a BP article to decide what to believe

-3points

POST

AnRusz 3 years ago

On this topic I do greatly recommend to read The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. A lot of common myths debunked and disproven. And in a rather funny way. :)

10points

Iʕ •ᴥ•ʔ 3 years ago

All these are mind-blowing me and proving that I am a helpless being with now no knowledge of whatsoever .

2points

Caroline 3 years ago

2points

COCO puff 3 years ago

Myths busted :)))))))

2points

Daniel Atkins 3 years ago

1point

Chaos&Roses 3 years ago

3points

Chaos&Roses 3 years ago

1point

Q B F T 3 years ago

Learning styles, like a person being a visual learner or a kinaesthetic learner or whatever - total bs.

1point

Dodo 3 years ago

Idk, I could believe this one. I have aphantasia (lack of visual imagination) so I can recall things I've heard better than things I've seen.

5points