27 Trivia Tidbits That Bust Common Myths
A software update for your naivety
![27 Trivia Tidbits That Bust Common Myths](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/5/6/1104956_320x180.jpg)
If you still believe these, it’s okay. It’s not your fault. You’re just on a slightly outdated operating system. It’s a really good one, but we found a list of bugs that need some updating. Don’t worry, it’s not an invasive procedure. It can be as easy as reading this list and replacing some would-be truths with fresh, new bona-fide truths.
Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.
![MYTH: THIN people HAVE A QUICK METABOLISM. FACT: THEY ACTUALLY HAVE A SLOWER one. The folks at the Mayo Clinic found out that, when you take weight into consideration, the metabolisms of over- and underweight people are the exact opposite of what we always heard: Thin people actually tend to have slower metabolisms than their heavier counterparts. It's because a heavier body actually needs a faster metabolism to get around. CRACKED.COM http://www.mayoclinic. org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/metabolism/art-20046508](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/0/1101870.jpg)
![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](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/8/1101868.jpg)
![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](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/9/1101869.jpg)
![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](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/7/1101867.jpg)
![MYTH: EMOTIONS BLOCK YOU FROM BEING LOGICAL. NO YES FACT: WITHOUT FeeLInGS, YOU CAN'T mAKe Decisions. The brain uses emotions to remind us about the consequences of our choices. Patients who suffer damage to the orbitofrontal cortex, the bridge linking our emotional amygdala and the rest of our brain, often become totally rational but can't make decisions - precisely because they don't have emotions to guide them in the right direction. CRACKED.COM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wup_K2WNO](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/6/1101866.jpg)
![Myth: Madagascar is all jungle and primitive tribes. Reality: It has a thriving economy with its own airlines, 5 star hotels, - MAGAGASCAR and shopping malls. The capital city of Antananarivo has a population of 1.4 million. FIC GRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/5/1101865.jpg)
![CRACKED.COM MYTH: Found fingerprints at the crime scene? Bingo! REALITY: There are no true consensus as to how and if fingerprint forensics really work. The precision and methodologies of fingerprint forensics have been questioned and opposed by a lot of experts (even entire countries). The claim that no two fingerprints are identical has still not been proven, but the error rate has. Point is that it's not an exact science, and shouldn't be believed to be.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/4/1101864.jpg)
![MYTH Monkeys eat bananas, obviously. TRUTH Monkeys don't eat bananas like the ones in the grocery in the wild. If you feed a monkey a banana, it's nutritionally like giving them chocolate cake. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/3/1101863.jpg)
![A SILENCER DOESN'T WORK LIKE IN THE MOVIES A silencer muffles the sound of gunshot, only comparitively. It's much louder than the noise that is used for movies. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/2/1101862.jpg)
![Ice cream doesn't cool you down, it warms you up! That's because the body heats up while it digests the ingredients in ice cream. GRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/1/1101861.jpg)
![You Use 10% Of Your Brain CRACKED.COM This fact, a favorite of blacklight poster owners everywhere, isn't true. Though the neurons that actually do the thinking make up only 10% of your brain, the other 90% of white matter is very much active... and required. If you don't believe us, try removing it!* *please don't.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/0/1101860.jpg)
![MYTH: DIETING? YOU SHOULD eAT CALORIE- BURNING FOODS. 80 PO 100 FACT: THERE'S no SUCH THING. So-called negative calorie foods tend to be some sort of fruit or vegetable that supposedly contains fewer calories than it takes to digest it. But the calories your body burns in fueling the digestive cycle are minuscule compared with the calories in the food itself. Even chewing, and even celery. CRACKED.COM content time.com/tie/specials/packages/article/0,28804 1896439_1896359_1896346,00.html](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/9/1101859.jpg)
![MYTH: INCEST LEADS TO messeD-UP BABIES. FACT: IT BAReLY Does. Having a cousin as your sexual partner does increase the risk of birth defects by 2 to 3 percent, but that's it. In fact, one Rutgers professor estimates 80 percent of every single married couple in human history were second cousins or more closely related. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/8/1101858.jpg)
![MYTH: BREAKFAST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BE MEAL OF THE DAY. 2 PAC CRACKED COM To date, there are no conclusive studies that link morning eating with better health. Moralizing the act of consuming corn flakes in the morning is all thanks to anti-masturbation czar John Harvey Kellogg, who sold his upstanding cereal under the guise of being a more productive member of civilized society.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/7/1101857.jpg)
![Myth: Somalia has the highest rate of piracy in the world. Reality: The piracy rate in Somalia has dropped significantly since 2013. Now most pirate attacks take place near Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. CRACKED COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/6/1101856.jpg)
![CRACKED.COM MYTH: Mental illness and gun violence go hand in hand. REALITY: Incorrect. It's estimated that only 4% of all violent gun crimes involve mental illness. Yet the majority of Americans believe otherwise. Alcohol abuse and stress from getting a divorce or losing a job are way more likely to induce gun violence. Mental illness, however, is a great risk factor for gun suicides, and makes up the majority of gun-related deaths in the US.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/5/1101855.jpg)
![MYTH: BROWN EGGS ARE BeTTeR FOR YOU. FACT: ALL SHeLL COLORS ARE eQUALLY HEALTHY. There's no difference in the nutritional value of eggs based on whether their shells are white or brown. The color is based on the breed of the chicken that laid it. Not only are they equally nutritious, they taste the same. CRACKED.COM http://content. time com/time/health/article/0, 8599, 2002334, 00 html](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/4/1101854.jpg)
![MYTH Siberia is a frozen wasteland. REALITY Parts of Siberia have beautiful summers. Novosibirsk reached 87.8°F (31°C) last June. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/2/1101852.jpg)
![GRAGKED.COM Cleopatra was Queen of Egypt, but she wasn't Egyptian. She was the descendant of the Ptolemaic family, the Macedonian Greeks who ruled Egypt during the Hellenistic Age. She spoke Greek, had a Greek education and viewed herself as Greek. However, she was the first one in her family to speak Egyptian. The Ptolemies: An Abbreviated Genealogy Eurydice= Ptolemy I Soter Berenike 1°11 Prolemy Keraunos=Arsinoe ll = Prolemy II Philadelphos == Arsinoe I12 Berenike 110 Ptolemy III Euergetes 1 Arsinoe III - Pcolemy IV Philopator Prolemy V Epiphanes = Cleopatra 1°** Prolemy VI Philometor Cleopatrall Prolemy VIII Euergetes II Prolemy VII Neos Philopator Cleopatra Ill ? = Prolemy IX Soter](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/8/1101848.jpg)
![MYTH Owls can spin their heads around completely. TRUTH Owls can turn their heads 270 degrees in both directions. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/0/1101850.jpg)
![THERE'S NO TRUTH IN TRUTH SERUMS Any individual that can hold out in normal interrogation can hold out in a drugged- state, according to the CIA. If you trust them to tell us. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/3/1101853.jpg)
![МУТН: ORGANIC FOOD IS ALWAYS BETTER. Organic food has not been found to be significantly healthier than non-organic and eating the recommended servings of fruits and veggies is more important than how it is grown. GRACKED GOM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/6/1101846.jpg)
![Earth's Effect on Toilets myth... busted GRAGKED.COM No, the Coriolis Effect and the Earth's rotation doesn't make Australian toilets flush backwards. The force of a flushing toilet is far stronger than any lingering global forces. Sorry if this ruins anyone's big vacation plans.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/9/1101849.jpg)
![MYTH: FRESH PRODUCE IS HEALTHIER THAN CANNED OR FROZEN. FACT: PRESERVED FOODS HAVE moRe nuTRIenTS. Unless you're harvesting your fruit and vegetables from your own garden, that fresh produce has likely traveled over a distance before landing on your table. During that time, it has lost vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Freezing and canning stops that loss, because it locks the nutrients in. CRACKED.COM http://abcnews. go.com/Health/reasons-buy-frozen-fruits-veggies/story?id=20683879#1](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/7/1101847.jpg)
![MYTH: conception HAPPENS WHen YOU HAVE sex. FACT: IT COULD HAPPEN A week LATER. Sperm survive longer than a week in the reproductive tract. If you have sex at all in the seven days leading up to ovulation, some of that sperm could be making its way up the Fallopian tubes just in time for a new egg to pop in. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/1/1101851.jpg)
![MYTH: SHAVING MAKES HAIR GROW BE BACK THICKER. CRACKED.COM If shaving made your hair grow back faster and thicker, every teenage boy would look like Paul Bunyan. The reason this myth persists is because hair tapers as it grows, and when you cut it back you see the wider bottom portion.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/5/1101845.jpg)
![ANTARCTICA Is not completely covered with ice and snow. Pictured: Wright Valley, one of several that make up the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Also visible is Lake Vanda.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/4/1101844.jpg)