39 Myths and Counterintuitive Facts That Would Have Gotten Away With It If It Wasn’t for Us Meddling Kids

These sneaky little half-truths couldn’t get by us!
39 Myths and Counterintuitive Facts That Would Have Gotten Away With It If It Wasn’t for Us Meddling Kids

It’s no surprise that we were never that sporty growing up. This list is the first time we ever felt like a goalie though. And it was exhilarating! Myths and half-truths were being hurled at us left and right, but we stopped them like a strainer with no holes. Or a brick wall, as the real goalies like to call themselves. 

The best part was that they didn’t hurt at all. Look, ma! No bruises!

Pleading Insanity

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.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/faqs.html

Cooking

MYTH: ACCIDENTALLY useD TOO MUCH SALT? ADD A POTATO! FACT: POTATOES ARen'T MAGICAL SALT-SUCKERS. Potatoes added to overly salted soup will taste salty, but that's because they absorb the water. And if it's salty water, they'll absorb salt too. But potatoes don't specifically leach the salt out of your dish and make it less salty. The only way to decrease saltiness is to dilute your dish. CRACKED.COM https://saramoulton.com/201 2/07/saras-kitchen-revelations-oversalted-it-there-is-one-solution/

Medieval Lifespans

Medieval Lifespan i'm fine CRACKED.COM No, medieval people didn't all die before the age of 40. The average lifespan from that time is just that: an average. One that's heavily skewed by high child mortality rates. Plenty of people lived well past 30, allowing them to fully appreciate Steely Dan.

Elevators

There's a 123456789 misconception that stairs are safe and elevators are death traps. Yes, taking the stairs is healthier, but it's not safer. Number of deaths per year in U.S. elevator accidents: 27 Number of deaths per year, for stairs: 1600 CRACKED.COM

Swedish Meatballs

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.

300

CRACKED SPARTANS AS ANCIENT SUPER-SOLDIERS. It's a common misconception that Spartans were the best warriors in ancient Greece. In fact, there's no proof that they were particularly good at fighting in the Archaic period. Their fame mainly comes from their victory at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Spartan Soldiers

CRACKED SPARTANS AS ANCIENT SUPER-SOLDIERS. It's a common misconception that Spartans were the best warriors in ancient Greece. In fact, there's no proof that they were particularly good at fighting in the Archaic period. Their fame mainly comes from their victory at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Palm Trees

CRACKED PALM TREES ARE NATIVE TO L.A. It's a common misconception that palm trees are from Los Angeles. In reality, most of the palm trees in L.A. were brought in from other places and planted to make the city more beautiful and attract more people. OPEN L L CAS SP CE TV HOLTYWC adidas VEN MYUVILU Sterlias 2 -

The Polish Cavalry

CRACKED POLISH CAVALRY CHARGING NAZI TANKS A common misconception is that Polish lancers regularly charged at German tanks during WWII. This was actually just propaganda from Nazi and Soviet sources, and probably comes from a battle on the first day of the German invasion.

Kidnapping

Parents are statistically the most common kidnappers. Parental abductions are the most common form of kidnapping, but stranger abductions are what Americans fear most and are far less common, with only 100-150 successful cases reported annually. CRACKED.COM

Palm Trees

CRACKED PALM TREES ARE NATIVE TO L.A. It's a common misconception that palm trees are from Los Angeles. In reality, most of the palm trees in L.A. were brought in from other places and planted to make the city more beautiful and attract more people. с DESER SP KEE adidas HOLTYWO VEN Sterlins 2

Roman Orgies

CRACKED ROMAN ORGIES It's a common misconception that the Ancient Romans were into orgies, but there's no proof of any kind of organized group sex in Roman literature.

Einstein

BELIEF: Albert Einstein failed math classes. TRUTH: Einstein confirmed he never failed math and was at the top of his class. CRACKED.COM

GMO Foods

BELIEF: GMO foods are dangerous, and will give humans all kinds of diseases. TRUTH: The National Academies of Science found no link between increased

White Statues

BELIEF: Classical statues were white. TRUTH: Ancient Roman and Greek statues used to painted bright colors but have faded over time. CRACKED.COM

Knuckles

CRACKED MYTH: CRACKING YOUR KNUCKLES WILL CAUSE ARTHRITIS. FACT: Studies have shown no evidence to support this common belief. The cracking sound that you hear when you crack your knuckles is caused by the release of gas bubbles in the synovial fluid that lubricates the joints. Arthritis is caused by inflammation of the joints- and the release of gas bubbles is not thought to cause it.

Eggs

What you eat affects your blood cholesterol. It's a common belief that eating, say, eggs will raise your cholesterol levels and put you at risk for heart and artery disease. But research has shown that the cholesterol you eat doesn't really affect the amount of cholesterol in your blood. CRACKED

Crime

CRACKED.COM MYTH: Cops manhandling a suspect in a movie or TV show? It's okay if it's the good guys doing it. REALITY: No, it really isn't. A study of 26 crime series (from How To Get Away With Murder to Mindhunter) showed that abuse of power is often portrayed as acceptable, forgivable, and even virtuous, as long as it's the heroes doing it. In reality, this type of conduct is an example of injustice itself. It's also a dangerous belief, as most people think they're the good guys.

Farming

American farmers believed that FARMING A PLOT OF LAND WOULD BRING RAIN. Rain follows the plow was a common belief among American settlers in the lat

Conception

GRACKED.COM It's a common belief that a woman can't get pregnant when she's having her period. Item Wilson However, due to unpredictable timing of ovulation, and the fact that sperm can live in the body for several days, it's entirely possible.

George Washington

BELIEF: George Washington had wooden teeth. TRUTH: Washington had bad teeth and wore dentures made of human and animal teeth and alloys. His dentures

Sugar

CRACKED Sugar makes you-hyper. It's been a long-held belief that eating too much sugar can make kids hyperactive, but science has found no clear proof of this. That said, it's possible sugar can still affect behavior in other ways, like changing how certain brain chemicals are made.

Marilyn Monroe

MYTH: Marilyn Monroe inspired Tinkerbell The popular story that Tinkerbell in Disney's Peter Pan was based on Marilyn Monroe isn't true; the character was actually inspired by actress Margaret Kerry. CRACKED

The Flat Earth

- t BELIEF: Medieval Europeans believed the Earth was flat. TRUTH: People knew the Earth was round by sixth century BC. The myth was started by people in the 1800s. CRACKED.COM

Water

Contrary to popular belief, water is not a good conductor of electricity. The basic rule of electric conductivity is that the conductor needs to carry

Herbs

MYTH: The right herbs can get you in the mood. FACT: Herbal aphrodifiacy can kill you. According to the FDA, no herbal supplement can actually boost your sex drive, and Spanish Fly has been shown to permanently damage the urinary system. Worse, in 1995, four men died from taking herbal aphrodisiacs. The myth probably arose in ancient times, when some herbs contained vitamins people were actually deficient in. CRACKED.COM features/9912150015 1 aphrodisiacs-wild-oats-herbal

Giraffes

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, GIRAFFES MOST LIKELY EVOLVED TO HAVE LONG NECKS TO BE ABLE TO FIGHT BETTER- NOT JUST TO GET MORE FOOD. CRACKED.COM Giraffes also have the same number of neck vertebrae (seven) as most other mammals, including humans.

Alcohol

MYTH: ALCOHOL WARmS yoU UP. ACHTEO IMERICAE FACT: ALCOHOL OnLY MAkes YouFeeL WARmER. Which may be all you care about, if you're just worried about getting a little chilly. But if you're really worried about freezing, feeling warmer means more blood rushing to your skin, which actually makes you

Potted Plants

39 Myths and Counterintuitive Facts That Would Have Gotten Away With It If It Wasn’t for Us Meddling Kids

Cowboys

BELIEF: Cowboy hats were worn in beginning of the Western American frontier. TRUTH: The cowboy hat didn't become popular until after the American Civi

Vitamin C

Contrary to popular belief, Vitamin С doesn't prevent you from catching a cold. But it can have some benefits for colds, like reducing their severity or duration - that's the finding of a meta-analysis of 29 scientific studies. CRACKED.COM

Lighters

Contrary to popular belief, lighters have been around longer than matchsticks. Chemist Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner invented the first lighter in 1823,

Springtime

Research on seasonal effects on suicide rates suggests that suicide attempts OCCUr more frequently in the springtime, contrary to the popular belief t

Coffee

Contrary to popular belief, lighter coffee has higher caffeine content. When coffee is roasted, it loses caffeine, meaning that a dark and robust cup of coffee has less caffeine than a lighter roast. CRACKED

Goldfish

THINK YOUR FORGETFUL PAL HAS GOLDFISH MEMORY? 5F 10 50 15 45 20 40 35 25 O0 30 THINK AGAIN. Contrary to popular belief, that goldfish have a three sec

Leopards

A leopard never changes its spots This belief is SO popular that it became an idiom, but leopards do change their spots as they reach adulthood. The

Male Emotions

CRACKED.COM CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, MEN ARE MORE EMOTIONALLY' SENSITIVE THAN WOMEN. In one experiment, when presented with blissful, funny, exciti

Bathing in Medieval Times

Everyone in HISTORY THE medieval times smelled awful. Actually, they were way into bathing. Contrary to popular belief, medieval people actually lik

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