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False Facts Everyone Still Believes
Would it surprise you to learn that people tend to believe a lot of stuff that isn’t true? No? Well, it makes sense. The modern world is complicated and fast-moving.
Everyone has places to be, work to do, and bills to pay- most folks just don’t have the time to google random facts and double-check their accuracy. Luckily for you, I have nothing but free time! So, get ready to have your world rocked, because here come some false facts that you just might believe!
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: Ninja Nonsense Everyone loves ninjas
Ninja Nonsense Everyone loves ninjas! Throughout medieval Japan these elite warriors would stalk their prey, clad entirely in black, before striking at the perfect moment and vanishing into the night. Of course, this image falls apart the instant you think about it.
It’s pretty hard to be a sneaky, covert assassin if you’re wearing an obvious uniform. “Hey Mike, what do you think of the new guy?” “I don’t know, for some reason I don’t really trust the” See what I mean? In reality, ninjas would typically wear the least conspicuous clothing they could find. This meant they were much more likely to be dressed like a farmer or peasant than cloaked in a cool veil.
Disguises that concealed their faces were obviously useful though. Therefore, ninjas might’ve disguised themselves as rice paddy farmers that wore big hats, or komusou monks who wore large straw helmets called tengai as a sign of modesty.
Don’t think it would be easy to scale a wall in that, though. So, where did the stereotypically slick ninja garb come from? Well, it’s an interesting story. In traditional Japanese kabuki theater, it was the job of prop handlers to assemble and remove different props and background elements mid-performance. These prop handlers needed to work quickly and didn’t want to distract people from the play, so what did they wear?
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: That’s right- black pajamas, head-to-toe
That’s right- black pajamas, head-to-toe! Audiences suspended their disbelief and trained themselves to simply ignore anyone dressed this way. Legend has it one director in the 1600s had a brilliantly meta idea; to have one of these prop-handlers reveal a knife mid-prop change and assassinate an important character.
If this is true, it would have been a mind-blowing piece of fourth-wall breaking theater, especially for the era. Whether this specific story is true or not, audiences still associated the uniform with deftness and sneakiness due to the nature of the job- so you can see where the ninja association comes from.
Maybe if I suddenly assassinated one of my viewers, ninjas would dress like me in the future. Hey, what’s that behind you? Pigeon Puffs Picture this: you’ve just gotten married. Happiest day of your life- until, in the middle of cutting the cake a pigeon explodes, all over your pristine tux or dress or bathrobe.
Look, it’s your wedding, wear whatever you want. The point is, a pigeon explodes and ruins the whole thing. The myth is that hungry pigeons chow down on dry rice, which is traditionally thrown at weddings. After the bird drinks some water, the rice begins to expand in its stomach, until boom, the poor pigeon bursts- right in the middle of the best man’s speech.
Unsurprisingly, this urban legend is completely untrue. Birds don’t explode if they eat rice- in fact, they don’t even get sick. The digestive acids inside a creature’s stomach- even a pigeon’s- break down rice far too quickly for them to absorb any other liquids.
Plus, even if it could stick around in the stomach long enough to significantly absorb liquid, rice actually expands in size less than bird seed does- and we don’t see many birds exploding after eating from bird feeders, now do we? Some believe this myth was started by grumpy church practitioners after one too many people slipped on rice at weddings.
However, this reasonable sounding explanation is also a myth. In reality we can thank one person for its spread; former Connecticut State Representative Mae S Schmidle. In 1985 she introduced a bill that would fine citizens $50 for throwing rice at weddings. People told her it was bunk at the time; however, the publicity was enough to give the rumor feet- or should I say, wings.
So next time you’re at a wedding, feel free to fling that rice right into the bride’s eyes! Explosive Issues Explosions are some of the coolest things in the world, so it stands to reason that walking away from them without looking makes someone super cool.
This is a classic, cheesy way for a movie to let the audience know that a character is so badass, they aren’t even interested in the erupting ball of flames behind them. Unfortunately, for Wolverine though, in real life this slow walk away from danger would likely be the last time he got to use his legs.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: shockwave
This is because explosions aren’t just fiery, they also produce what’s called blast pressure. This is the shockwave that occurs after a loud bang, and it’s the force that throws objects around and shatters windows within the blast radius. This means that even if you aren’t burnt by the flames, an explosion can still kill you through internal damage. You see, a blast can be strong enough to shake and smoosh together your internal organs, and trust me: your organs aren’t up for that kind of exercise.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: overpressure
An explosion causes overpressure- that’s the pressure caused by a shockwave above normal atmospheric pressure. If this reaches just 3 pounds of pressure per square inch, it’s enough to demolish a residential building and produce winds of over 100 miles per hour. If you’re too close, this can cause internal hemorrhaging, bone fractures, and the awful sounding blast lung.
This is why doctors recommend you seek immediate medical attention if you’re near an explosion, regardless of whether you’re burnt or feel hurt right away. Oh, and if you’re close enough to an explosion to be flung back like this well, your insides probably look like Nickelodeon slime. Bafflin’ Buddha’s, Batman!
If you’re a westerner, odds are when you think of Buddha you imagine a jolly, laughing man made from solid gold. And while being a jolly, laughing man made from solid gold is by no means a bad thing- it also isn’t what Buddha looks like.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: google gets this wrong if
Seriously, this isn’t Buddha! Don’t feel bad for not knowing that, though- even google gets this wrong if you search for any variant of smiling Buddha or laughing Buddha. So, who is this guy? Well, Buddhism is an old and complex religion, so to briefly summarize; his name is Budai, and he’s from the future.
Kind of! Budai was a 10th Century Chinese monk who was known for traveling from town to town and giving out supplies and presents to children and the needy- a bit like Santa Claus, except he beat Santa to the punch by a thousand years.
On Budai’s deathbed, he revealed he was actually an incarnation of Maitreya. Maitreya isn’t our world’s Buddha, but the next world’s Buddha. Buddhists believe that when what we understand to be this world ends, a new one will begin.
In this new world, Maitreya will emerge to enlighten its denizens as their Buddha. So, you can think of Budai as an enlightened one from the next world who briefly stopped by this one, to see what the fuss was all about. Remember that the Buddha of Buddhism is not actually a God, in the traditional sense.
He was just a guy named Siddartha Gautama who achieved enlightenment and decided to teach his learnings to the world. Similar to how Christ isn’t the God of Christianity, Buddha isn’t the God of Buddhism. Man, I haven’t felt this enlightened since I learned Robin isn’t the son of Batman! Chameleo-mythos If I asked you to name one thing you know about chameleons, you’d probably say that they change color to match their surroundings.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes
Shortly after you would embarrassedly slink away as I laughed and pointed, proclaiming you had walked right into my trap- anime style. This is because, while chameleons can indeed change color, it’s not to blend into their environment.
In reality, chameleons change color in order to regulate their body temperature. You see, like most lizards, chameleons are cold-blooded- this means that their blood isn’t naturally warmed up inside their bodies like ours is. Instead, they rely on outside heat to keep their blood warm.
Chameleons evolved the ability to alter the pigmentation of their skin so they can better control the amount of heat absorbed by their bodies. This is because darker colors absorb more warmth while lighter colors reflect it- imagine putting your hand on a pitch-black car versus a white one on a warm, sunny day and you get the idea.
Additionally, some studies suggest that chameleons change color in order to communicate with one another and even depending on their mood- but never to match their environment. Well, temperature is still a part of their environment- but they’re not trying to blend in! That’s right, I get to feel smug due to a technicality which is the smuggest way to feel smug.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: Frankenstein’s Chad Did you know that Frankenstein refers not to the Monster
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: Frankenstein’s Chad Did you know that Frankenstein refers not to the Monster- but the name of the Monster’s creator? You did? Well la-di-da! Check out the big brain on this nerd. Since Mary Shelly’s seminal work of early science fiction was released in 1818, the novel has been adapted and re-interpreted in dozens of different mediums, including movies, stage plays, and even videogames.
And while each of these adaptations is unique in their own way, something they all get wrong is The Monster! Ask just about anyone to picture Frankenstein’s Monster and they’ll likely imagine a hulking, mumbling, eight-foot-tall brute with bolts in his neck.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes
| Topic | Description |
| The Monster in the Book | In the book, the Monster is very different from his modern portrayal. He is talkative, introspective, philosophical, and even narrates parts of the story. Instead of becoming angry and destructive, he feels lonely and asks his creator for a companion |
| The Monster’s Appearance in the Book | Described as tall, muscular, with lustrous flowing hair and pearly white teeth. He also has thin, dark lips and yellowish, pallid skin, giving him a “hot goth boy” look. |
| The Modern Monster | The modern image of Frankenstein’s Monster came from the 1931 film, which set the standard for his appearance. The film was not based directly on the book but on Peggy Webbing’s 1927 theater adaptation. |
| Peggy Webbing’s Play | In her play, the Monster was depicted as just that—a monster, rather than the complex, philosophical figure from the book. |
| Suggestion for the Future | Maybe it’s time for a “Twilight-style” sexy Frankenstein revival, bringing back the gothic allure of the original character. |
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: They were actually ugly as sin
- False Facts Everyone Still Believes: Just kidding! They were actually ugly as sin.
- Believe it or not, modern examinations of many classical statues have revealed faint-but-unmistakable residues of dried paint.
- This means it’s highly likely that after sculptors finished chiseling, statues were handed off to painters for decoration.
- As Sarah Bond of the University of Iowa explains: “The statue was seen as a canvas – not a finished product.”
- Residue from the statues shows that the colors were bright, garish, and gaudy, meaning these beautiful statues used to look more like clowns.
- This implies one of two things:
- Either the Greco-Romans had bad taste.
- Or the statues may have been seen more as fun decorations than high art during their time.
- One thing is certain, though: This discovery upset some very online individuals.
- Sarah Bond received death threats from internet trolls after writing an article about ancient statue painting.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes
This is because there are some- let’s say, very authoritarian-leaning people online who love to hold up ancient Greece and Rome as the pinnacles of human society. So, they tend to get really annoyed when science butts heads with the austere, dignified version of history that exists in their heads. Like, for instance- the fact the Romans loved clown statues!
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: history isn’t always pretty
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: Sorry guys, but history isn’t always pretty: sometimes, it’s tacky. The Bun Legacy Picture this; you’re a kid coming home from the pet shop. Your family has just picked up an adorable new bunny rabbit you’re certain will love you forever and ever.
You get home and eagerly hold a carrot up to its mouth, but it’s not biting. Also, it doesn’t learn tricks or express interest in you- because rabbits are boring. But what’s up with the carrot thing? Don’t rabbit’s love carrots? Well, no. They don’t hate them or anything, but they’d much rather chow down on leafy greens or soft pumpkin. This is because carrots are much tougher, crunchier vegetables that are harder for bunnies to chew.
In fact, many pet shops will warn new owners not to feed their rabbits carrots alone, as the poor thing could die from malnutrition. You can blame this misconception on Bugs Bunny. In many old cartoons, Bugs would loudly munch down on a carrot in the middle of his antics, which eventually led the popular consciousness to internalize that bunnies love carrots.
So why does bugs eat carrots? Well, the carrot-chomping was a reference to an old Clark Gable movie, “It Happened One Night”, where the actor eats a carrot whilst making a fool of himself. While the film was well-received on release, it hasn’t stood the test of time as much as old Bugs has- to the extent most people don’t realize his carrot-chomping is even a reference to begin with.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: As a bonus misconception- Nimrod isn’t slang for a stupid person
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: As a bonus misconception- Nimrod isn’t slang for a stupid person. Nimrod was actually an incredibly skilled hunter in the Bible. Bugs called Elmer Fudd Nimrod ironically, because Fudd was so inept. People who didn’t get the joke, however, simply assumed it was a funny insult. Wow, turns out Bugs Bunny has shaped more of modern society than we realize.
White Lies Sorry in advance, because I’m about to say something that may break a few hearts here: mothers don’t know everything. I’m sorry, but it’s true! Carrots don’t give you night vision and, while they’re tasty, eating an apple a day won’t keep the doctor away unless you throw it at them.
Something they’re surely right about, however, is that drinking milk regularly strengthens your bones. After all, bones contain calcium, milk contains calcium- makes sense, right? Well, no, I’m sorry to blow your mind but, there is no link between bone health and milk intake!
I know! A Harvard study examining a large sample of 72,000 women over two decades found that there was no link between milk intake and bone strength. Furthermore, milk intake didn’t reduce the rate of bone fractures or bone conditions like osteoporosis in the women.
Another study published on the National Library of Medicine following 96,000 men actually found their subjects were more likely to suffer bone fractures if they drank a lot of milk during their teens. So, where did this myth originate? Well, sorry to blow your mind again but, big milk. Seriously!
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: The origins of this belief can be traced back to schools receiving nutritional materials
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: The origins of this belief can be traced back to schools receiving nutritional materials that boasted the milk-bone myth, and these materials were funded by the National Dairy Council. I can’t tolerate any more lactose lies! 100% Bunk. What would you do if you could fully harness 100% of your brain’s power? Make it big on the stock market? Find a cure for cancer?
Me- I’d go back to my childhood copy of Pokémon Silver and finally beat that sliding tile puzzle. I mean, how’s anyone meant to solve this! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s a commonly held belief that human beings only utilize 10% of their brain’s potential- or 20%, or 5%- depending on the version of the myth you’ve heard. The 2014 film “Lucy” was all about Scarlett Johansson slowly accessing 100% of her brain, which turns her into a goo computer?
Okay. Well, with such outstanding supporting evidence, it probably won’t surprise you to hear this fact is complete bunk. While it’s true that humans don’t use 100% of their brains at any given time, this is because different areas of the brain do different things.
For example, the cerebellum is in control of your balance and motor control, Broca’s area is in charge of speech, while the medulla controls your blood pressure and breathing. The brain is a highly complex piece of equipment, and because different areas do different things, not all of them are useful all of the time. Saying a human being only uses 10% of their brain at a time is like saying a traffic light only uses a third of its lights at a time.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: a traffic light
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: And much like if a traffic light were using all its lights at once, using all of your brain at once would likely mean something is very wrong. Because in reality, the closest humans come to using all of their brain at once is during a seizure, where an abnormal burst of electrical signals effectively overload the brain.
I guess if “Lucy” were accurate, the movie would have been over not long after it began. Spatial Sights. You know, if I ever have the opportunity to visit space, I think I’ll spend all my time looking down on Earth. I mean, I’d be able to see incredible things like the Great Wall of China- the only manmade object visible from space, right?
Everyone knows that! This mighty wall was built some 2600 years ago to repel a Mongolian invasion into China, and all its sections span an absolutely mind-boggling 13,170 miles. Surely, if you could see anything from space, it’d be that, right?
Well, not exactly. The first problem is where you count outer space as actually beginning. Most scientists define space as beginning at something called the Karman line- this is the point at which most satellites comfortably orbit the Earth. The Karman Line is exactly 100 kilometers- or 62 miles- above sea level.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: the International Space Station
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: And if you look at this photo taken from the International Space Station on a 180 mm lens to mimic the view from the Karman line, well, the Great Wall isn’t exactly visible! But if it makes you feel better, most space stations orbit the Earth tens of miles beyond the Karman Line anyway, meaning there’s no way an astronaut would ever look down on Earth from space and admire the Great Wall.
Swallowing Falsehoods. Whenever I see a spider in my home, I immediately drop what I’m doing, put it under a glass, and throw it safely outside… before dry heaving into a paper bag for ten minutes. Still, as horrifying as it may be to touch one- the idea of swallowing one is even worse! After all, it’s common knowledge that humans swallow between 4 and 8 spiders a year in their sleep.
Or is it just 20 in their lifetime? Whatever version of this myth you’ve heard- that makes for a lot of spider-snacks. Working with 8 annually, that would mean the roughly 8 billion people on Earth swallow 64 billion spiders a year. While seeing all those creepy-crawlies in the same bedroom would be nightmarish- that yearly loss would hardly impact their numbers, as there are estimated to be quadrillions of spiders on Earth.
Never fear, though- this myth is still baloney. For starters, for it to be true, the world would need to have a fairly even distribution of spiders, which just isn’t the case. Iceland has only 91 species of spider whereas Australia has over 10,000. Secondly, spiders feed in one of two ways; by building webs to catch prey or by actively hunting. A human’s mouth is too small and difficult to build a web in, and unless there are flies in your mouth, it’s bad for hunting too.
Most spiders have tiny hairs on their legs, making them extremely sensitive to movement- which makes a breathing mouth unpleasant to them. This all combines to make a mouth a very unappealing place for a spider- despite what Billy Eilish might have you believe. This myth was first mentioned in a folklore book back in 1954, but only spread when a journalist named Lisa Holst heard about it in 1993.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: the irony
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: She used it as an example of a clearly false urban legend that could easily spread via email and- lo and behold- she was correct. Her own example of easily spreadable misinformation ended up getting easily spread around. Oh, the irony. Well, at least she proved her theory had legs. Towering Terror.
If you live in a city, you might have been told to watch out when walking at the base of a skyscraper in case someone decided to whimsically flip a penny off the top! Though small, the speed of the penny hurtling towards the ground would turn it into a torpedo, with the force of gravity making it accelerate all the way down, until it reaches speeds that could crack open your melon!
Yikes. While it certainly made me think twice about city-living, it turns out there’s no truth to this rumor whatsoever. Even if you were to drop it off the Empire State Building, a penny is too small, flat, and cushioned by air to transform into a super-aerodynamic torpedo.
Regarding the ever-accelerating force of gravity, that could theoretically happen, if all the air was sucked out of New York City, air resistance slows the penny down, so even if a penny on the heavier side were to be flipped over the edge, the air resistance and gravity would eventually match at a point known as terminal velocity. This would give the coin a rough top falling speed of 12 miles per hour.
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: Hardly enough to do any serious damage
False Facts Everyone Still Believes: Hardly enough to do any serious damage. And if it did land on you, it’d just feel like you’d been flicked in the forehead. Hard! (air whooshing) Common Sense. Taste. Touch. Sight. Smell. Sound. Name a more iconic quintet- I’ll wait. These five amigos are the senses through which we humans experience the world. As far as human senses go, they’re all we have, right?
Well, not really! These senses aren’t so much our only senses as they are our most popular ones. Think of them as the Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Spider-Man of our sense-Avengers! The full team is pretty big, but in order to figure out just how many there are, we need to define what a sense is.
Essentially, a sense is a group of cells designed to detect an external stimuli and then respond to it in an appropriate way. With this definition, you can argue equilibrium or balance is a sense. After all, your body immediately notices and responds to being on unstable terrain. Similarly, our abilities to sense temperature and pain are unique senses.
Our proprioception, which is basically our awareness of our own bodies- aka how we know where our feet, arms, and head are even if we close our eyes- is another unique sense. This brings us up to the conservative estimate of nine senses, but some neuroscientists think we could have as many as 53! Some argue that hunger, thirst, and even our ability to feel the passage of time each count as senses in their own right.
Other potential senses are much more specific; such as our ability to respond to airborne drugs or hormones, along with our ability to feel tension in our internal muscle. Of course, that last one could be lumped in with touch, as with several other potential senses, which is why counting the exact number is tricky.
Either way, if you had all of them turned off but five, you’d likely turn into a super potato, with limited ways of telling what’s going on around you. you can read more about False Facts Everyone Still Believes Here. and you can watch more about it here:
