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30 Common Myths About the World That Have Been Totally Debunked

No, shaving does not make hair grow back thicker

30 Common Myths About the World That Have Been Totally Debunked

August 24, 2023

One of the main jobs of education is to debunk myths and misinformation. This involves identifying and refuting the numerous myths propagated by the media, conventional wisdom and especially word of mouth. After all, at some point in our lives, we’ve all been duped by someone. That’s why we collected this series that exposes most of these contemporary illusions.

30

GRAGKED.COM 300 Spartans (perhaps somewhat more covered than this) defended the pass of the Thermopylae against the advancing Persian army, There were 300 Spartans. That's true. Plus 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans, 80 Mycenacans... About 7,000 Greek soldiers defended the pass of the Thermopylae against the advancing Persian army. — 26 Side By Side Comparisons That Fix Your Image Of History

29

STOP LOOKING FOR THE G-SPOT! A review of 60 years of research has led a group of scientists to conclude that there's no magic button that will give a woman the climax of her life. GRACKED.COM — 27 Sex Myths Too Many People Still Believe

28

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. — 15 Countries We Picture Wrong Side By Side With Reality

27

60 Minutes

MYTH: 60 Minutes ran a story about a man who sued because his ladder slipped in manure. FACT: Не actually sued because the ladder broke. The story that still circulates on the internet is that he set up his ladder in frozen manure, and when it thawed, the ladder slipped. But the ladder didn't slip, it broke. It broke with less than 450 pounds of weight on it, when it was supposedly rated safe up to 1000 pounds. CRACKED.COM Stephen Daniels, Joanne Martin, 1995 Civil Juries and the Politics of Reform. — 23 Widely-Circulated 'Facts' About The Law That Are Myths

26

Shaving

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. — Business Insider

25

Conception

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 — Sex Myths You've Probably Believed Your Entire Life

24

Fresh Produce Myth

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 — 24 Food And Cooking Myths

23

Earth's Effect on Toilets myth... busted GRACKED.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. — HowStuffWorks

22

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 — 21 Debunked Food Myths

21

Truth Serums

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 — CIA

20

Adding milk to your scrambled egg doesn't actually improve it in any way. In fact, you'll dilute its taste and give it a rubbery texture. CRACKED COM — 26 Food And Cooking Common Misconceptions

19

Owls

MYTH Owls can spin their heads around completely. TRUTH Owls can turn their heads 270 degrees in both directions. CRACKED.COM — Mental Floss

18

Hydrogen Peroxide, magic remedy that cleans your wounds and helps the healing process, right? O B of ID DE OPENCE NO | - NEW I - I . E - I - - - - - 1 - - - - 16FL OZ (1 PINT) 473 ML Actually, that bubbling is Hydrogen Peroxide attacking you, causing cellular damage and extending the healing process! What a dick! GRACKED.COM — 40 Myths (That've Been Around Forever) We All Believe

17

John Lennon was a gentle, peace-loving hippie. But he was also abusive to women and his kid. John admitted in a Playboy interview that when he was younger, he basically went around punching women. And he wasn't much better with Yoko. According to one biographer, he insisted Yoko accompany him into the bathroom with him, because he was worried she'd cheat on him if she were left alone. Even though John openly cheated on Yoko. His relationship with his son Julian was just plain sad. Their time together ran the gamut from awkward to abusive. CRACKED.COM http://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/65862/Author-details-Lennan-s-obsession-with-Ono — 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

16

GRACKED.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 Prolemy Keraunos=Arsinoe II = Prolemy II Philadelphos s Arsinoe [12 Berenike 110 Ptolemy III Euergetes 1 Arsinoe III = Ptolemy IV Philopator Ptolemy V Epiphanes = Cleoparra 1°** Prolemy VI Philometor Cleopatrall Prolemy VIII Euergetes II Prolemy VII Neos Philopator Cleopatraill = ? = Prolemy IX — 26 Side By Side Comparisons That Fix Your Image Of History

15

The Manson Family

CRACKED.COM MYTH: Manson and his posse were serial killers. REALITY: None of them were. Serial murder is defined as the killing of three or more people by the same person, with a cooling-off period between the murders. Manson was the mastermind and didn't kill anyone himself, which means he's a murderer by proxy. Manson's followers went on a killing spree (with no cooling-off period) and are defined as mission killers. — 14 Myths About Crime We Believe (Thanks To Pop Culture)

14

Erectile Dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction is just a problem for older men. Well, not actually. A study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine reported that 26% of men being newly treated for ED are under the age of 40. GRACKED.COM — 27 Sex Myths Too Many People Still Believe

13

Siberia

MYTH Siberia is a frozen wasteland. REALITY Parts of Siberia have beautiful summers. Novosibirsk reached 87.8°F (31°C) last June. CRACKED.COM — 15 Countries We Picture Wrong Side By Side With Reality

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12

MYTH: The First Amendment establishes separation of church and state. CHURCH ST SE 100 ST SE 500 STATE FACT: It says that Congress can't pick one religion. The full mention of religion in the First Amendment goes: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. At the time it was penned, many states had official religions. The idea behind that section of the amendment was to prevent the federal government from establishing a nationwide religion that would override the individual state religions. CRACKED.COM http://scholarship. — 23 Widely-Circulated 'Facts' About The Law That Are Myths

11

Men and Women

MYTH: men PeAK AT 20. women PeAK AT 35. FACT: MALE OR FemALe, YOU GAIN FROM experience. True, men have the most testosterone at 20, while women hit their highest estrogen levels later. But while a shortage of hormones messes with sex, that doesn't mean max hormones give you the best sex ever. You gotta learn how to do it first. CRACKED.COM — Sex Myths You've Probably Believed Your Entire Life

10

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 — 24 Food And Cooking Myths

9

Wasabi

Most wasabi on the market contains no actual wasabi. It's most likely horseradish tinted green. That's because wasabi is so difficult to produce, and thus is very expensive. US CRACKED COM — 21 Debunked Food Myths

8

Do not immediately cut cooked meat. Let it rest for a while. This gives the juices time to redistribute and make it tender and juicy. Rule of thumb: For every 100g, let it sit for one minute. GRACKED.COM — 26 Food And Cooking Common Misconceptions

7

Elephants

MYTH Elephants use their trunks to drink like straws. TRUTH Elephants suck water partly in their trunk, then use it to squirt the water into their mouth. CRACKED.COM — Disney Parks

6

Jimmy Carter is known as a president and humanitarian. But he's also laughed in the face of nuclear fallout. When President Carter was a Navy Lieutenant, he led a containment team of 24 men into the Chalk River Laboratories nuclear research facility after a reactor accident released 4,500 tons of radioactive water into the building's basement. Не and his team spent rotating 90-second shifts doing cleanup and repairs right next to the malfunctioning reactor. Carter would later write that he absorbed so much radiation that his pee was actually radioactive for six months following the incident. CRACKED.COM Jimmy Carter, 1996 — 21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong

5

The signing of the Magna Carta by King John was one of the biggest landmarks in the history of human rights, as immortalized in this 1864 painting depicting him signing his name with a quill on a parchment: Except it didn't exactly happen that way. The Magna Carta was an oral agreement between the King and a group of nobles, so King John did not actually sign anything. CRACKED.COM — 26 Side By Side Comparisons That Fix Your Image Of History

4

Missing Persons

CRACKED.COM MYTH: Wait 24 hours before reporting a missing person. 12 II I 10 2 9 3 REALITY: Don't. It might be too late. The first 48 hours are crucial. Some police departments might tell you to wait, but even they state that a report should immediately be filed if the missing person is under 18, elderly, anyone with a physical or mental illness, or in cases where foul play is suspected. Which pretty much covers most serious missing cases. — 14 Myths About Crime We Believe (Thanks To Pop Culture)

3

Is Vaseline your go-to product for sexy time? If you think preventing yeast infection is a good idea, you should stop using it, along with other oil-based lubricants. Vaseline poses risk of Vaseline yeast infection, breaks WHITE PETROLEUM JELLY down latex condoms NET 100g and causes irritation. GRACKED COM — 27 Sex Myths Too Many People Still Believe

2

CRACKED.COM Everybody knows that Jamaica is a stoner country, right? Nope! Jamaica strictly banned all forms of marijuana use until 2015. Even now, they allow only 2 ounces per person. In comparison, Colorado legalized marijuana sooner than Jamaica! — 15 Countries We Picture Wrong Side By Side With Reality

1

The Right to Remain Silent

MYTH: When the police ask you a question, you'd better answer. FACT: You always have the right not to answer. The right to remain silent doesn't just apply when you're arrested. It's always there, because of the Fifth Amendment. You can't be coerced or forced into saying something that might incriminate you. On cop shows, refusing to speak is treated as obstruction of justice. It isn't. Lying or destroying evidence is, but simply refusing to speak (aside from supplying your name, in some states) isn't. CRACKED.COM https://en. n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_and_identify_statutes — 23 Widely-Circulated 'Facts' About The Law That Are Myths

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