What widely accepted fact do you know is wrong?

Question

aneta · Accepted Answer

"Computer viruses are entirely preventable phenomenon. If it is "too good to be true", it usually f*kin is. This is a bit of a rant from someone in the industry. Does anyone truly comprehend the Arms race that is virus production versus virus prevention? We have gotten to the point where all you have to do is click a VERIFIED TRUSTED AD from your favorite "secure website" and the tiniest little packet of data happens to be a keylogger just waiting for you to start typing passwords and social security numbers (although these lightweight programs usually get erased once you close the browser). I cannot count the amount of people I've had to tell that, while I can uninstall a Virus, I cannot undo the damage it may have done to their personal data. This stuff happens to people using these "secure" websites which SUPPOSEDLY vet their advertisers (Just to name a few): YouTube (2nd worst offender), Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, FUCKING GOOGLE (worst offender of all). "

Gabriella · Answer

That two blue eye people can't have a brown eyed kid.  They can. But it comes down to recessive blue Gene. Too complicated to go into it. But seeing the charts that are like  1+1 brown will make a 50/50 chance of blue or brown eye baby.  2 blues will only make a blue or a green etc.  it ain't true

Mareah · Answer

Credit scores accurately depict credit worthiness  In reality they are so highly flawed that when approving auto loans we are taught to mostly ignore them, and focus on the specific accounts driving them.

Luana · Answer

""LSD burns holes in your brain like Swiss cheese." "LSD stays in your spinal cord once taken, and can be activated unexpectedly by cracking your back several years later." "

Bird · Answer

For r/relationships, someone isn't a narcissist just because you disagree with them or they're a bad partner

Bintu · Answer

Red bull has bull sperm in

Kerstin Jager · Answer

Martha Washington named a feral tomcat after Alexander Hamilton.

Celinda · Answer

Cutting your hair makes it grow faster or thicker.  Hair is dead. It can't communicate to your body you need more hair, because a loss was suffered. Your body naturally changes with time.

Jessica Daecher · Answer

"that WW1 wasn't called WW1 before WW2 there are many "what is wrong with this sentence?" riddles about a sentence before WW2 calling WW1 WW1, which is supposed to be wrong since at that time it was widely called "the great war" and not WW1. however THERE WERE a few articles from that time that called the war WW1, as a prediction that this is just the start and other wars like this are on their way. it wasn't very common but there are evidences for it. "

Heloise · Answer

That you should let small wounds air in order to heal faster. Keep the bandaid on there and save yourself the bacterial infection

Mujgan · Answer

Most people think Einstein failed school. Not true at all, people made it up to make the slackers feel better about themselves.

yeter · Answer

Fish don't feel pain, but plants do.

KAYLENE · Answer

"That all black guys are hung (BBC). That shit Kills me self esteem being a black guy with a 5" Johnson "

Jennifer Muench · Answer

That you have to buy new razor blades every week or 2. Razors dont dull because use, they dull because they rust, if you thoroughly dry them or oil them they can last for almost a year and still work just fine. This is coming from a bald guy who shaves his head every other day.

Barth · Answer

You do not consume spiders while you sleep, it was one of the first misinformation memes.

Ceres · Answer

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Oh my God aarrgghhhhhhh!

Ihrene · Answer

If you swallow gum it stays in your stomach 7 years. Not true. Your body processes it and you poop it out just like anything else.

Halil Geçgel · Answer

When you have a nose bleed you should put your head forward, not backwards, otherwise the blood runs down your throat and can choke you Edit: spelling

Dari · Answer

That Hitler was vegetarian. He wasn't, it was propaganda spread to make him seem a more compassionate person.

Helky · Answer

Frankenstein isn't the name of the monster. It's the name of the Doctor who created the monster. But I saw this great comment on a Youtube video - 'knowledge is knowing Frankenstein isn't the monster. wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein is the monster.' Edit: for those of you who didn't understand that comment - it's saying that Dr Frankenstein is the actual monster of the story.

Brigitte Mueller · Answer

tilt your head back when you have a nose bleed seriously dont unless you like drinking the blood coming from your nose

Rafel · Answer

That you should rinse with water as soon as you finish brushing your teeth ! My dentist told me that you actually should only spit out the raw excess once you are done brushing, but keep the rest inside to let time for the toothpaste to have its effect. Also, don't drink nor eat anything for 30 mins after you are done brushing   Also, flossing should be done BEFORE brushing Have doubts ? Aks your dentist these questions and see for yourself :)

Stephanie Kluge · Answer

Blunderbusses have a flared muzzle to spread the shot. The truth is that it only acts as a funnel to make loading easier.

Dottie · Answer

""I can't believe a lady sued McDonalds because they didn't tell her that her coffee was hot, of course it's hot it's coffee! She was driving her care and spilled it, she was being careless! This is just proof we live in a sue-happy society where people are just looking to make a quick buck." She was the passenger in a stationary car. The coffee was some absolutely absurd temperature (180 -190 F, which was company policy), when it spilled it gave her third degree burns on her legs and she had to get skin grafts. The woman agreed to settle for $20,00. McDonalds said we'll give you $800. So they went to court. She was awarded the profits from 2 days of coffee sales (later reduced, I believed). "

Millamari · Answer

Transatlantic Slavery did NOT start in 1619!!! It started at LEAST as early as 1527. In 1527 the Narvaez expedition from Spain left for the Gulf of Mexico. A hurricane (or bad storm) later all but 3 sailors and a slave were either killed or separated. One of the sailors survived, made it back to Spanish settlements, and wrote a letter to the King detailing this (including the adventures of the enslaved man Esteban).  There's also speculation that Columbus had African slaves with him in 1492 but placing it in the 1600s misses a LOT of important historical events that impacted the trajectory of the world. Source: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

Gerrilee · Answer

The blue part of the eraser can erase pen ink.

SHAYNA · Answer

Legality is synonymous with morality

Karolin Traugott · Answer

"That red, yellow and blue are so called "primary colors" and that all other colors can be made from them. It just isn't true but we teach it to school children every day. You can't make magenta, for instance, from a combination of those pigments. That's why printers use cyan, yellow, magenta and black (the actual primary colors) for modern printing. "

Vanessa Lehrer · Answer

I don't know if it's widely accepted but the Wikipedia page for a company I founded is all revisionist history. We founded the company and later sold it. The guy we sold it to has been lying since that it was always his idea. Doesn't help that a few players have died. Of course all the major employee will happily correct the record if asked but nobody cares enough to correct the Wikipedia page.  As much as I value Wikipedia, I'm sure there are hundreds of similar stories like this, so I take everything I read there with a grain of salt. More, if there is money on the line.

Ines Gersten · Answer

Passing a law doesn't just make things so

Dorine · Answer

"That a woman who has a lot of sex will have a "loose" vagina, and her labia will look like "roast beef."  A penis, no matter the size, does not have any permanent effect on a vagina. A woman becomes more open during arousal, a process known as vaginal tenting. So if you don't have a hard time getting your p in her v, that's a good thing. Also, labia look the way they do because of genetics and nothing else. The labia changes during puberty and is a sign of sexual maturity. There's really no way to tell if a woman has had a lot of sex or not. It doesn't matter anyway. "

Lixia · Answer

The pilgrims came to America IN ORDER to religiously persecute, not to escape from it The UK wouldn't let them persecute so they left

Marie Brauer · Answer

"Lots of people are overweight because of their "slow metabolism." The truth is the heavier you are the higher your basal metabolic rate is in order to maintain that weight. "

Irkka · Answer

"when people don't like hanging out with other people, they refer to themselves as "antisocial." the correct term that they should use is "asocial." asocial means you don't want to go to the party. antisocial means you do want to go to the party, but you'll bring a gun. "

MADALENE · Answer

That humans are the only animals that have self-awareness.

Brigitte Kruger · Answer

That my political party is full of only the good people trying to do the good things for the people... and your political party is full of only the bad people trying to do the bad things to take advantage of the people.

Rafika · Answer

That girls actually give back hoodies after they borrow them.

Sylvester · Answer

That Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are somehow bad or dangerous

Ulrike Kohl · Answer

The customer is always right

JOSETTE · Answer

Defribs re-start a stopped heart. They do not, they shock an irregular heart rhythm back into a normal rhythm. Welp, its seems I am wrong (oh the irony) and that defribs can in certain situations restart a stopped heart, thanks to various people below for correcting me!

Eedla · Answer

Everyone on Reddit but me is correct in every topic.

Haney · Answer

That I'd grow up to be happy

jeannet · Answer

Slaves built the pyramids.

Maj-Lisa · Answer

You shouldn't piss yourself when a stingray stings you, that only makes the pain worse.

Melisse · Answer

You don't really have an allergy to monosodium glutamate.

Niina-Maria · Answer

Marilyn Manson did not have his lower ribs removed so he could blow himself.

Umaima · Answer

we use only 10% of the brain. At this point I'm somewhat convinced that those who utter this nonsense were actually using only 10% of their brain.  edit: thanks to everyone, it has become one of my most upvoted comments.

Edward · Answer

Napoleon wasn't small. He was just the victim of good propaganda by the eventual winners.

Zalman · Answer

Goldfishes really do not have a memory span of 5 seconds. They actually remember things for months, recognise their owners, and are able to distinguish them from other people.

Mandy Decker · Answer

That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing in the USA. There is no law about waiting, you don't have to. Push to make the police cooperate and list the person missing immediately when you suspect something isn't right. Don't lose precious time  it's extremely important if the person truly is missing.

Clementia · Answer

If you tell the truth, I wont get mad.

asmaa · Answer

That medieval/ancient people only lived to be ~32 years old, and at that age, they were considered ancient. That estimate is an average, which means it accounts for high infant/child mortality. Lots of ancient people lived to their 80s and older. If you made it to 30, chances are good you're making it another 30+ years.

Aazam · Answer

That cracking your knuckles too often will cause arthritis

Angkana · Answer

That you swallow eight spiders a year in your sleep.

sita · Answer

'NASA spent $$$$ inventing a pen that worked in space and the Russians used pencils.' Total bollocks. The Fisher Pen Company was independent and developed its 'space pen' with zero investment from NASA. American astronauts began using mechanical pencils in space. Tiny fragments of graphite, and graphite dust floating around the spacecraft was not ideal because graphite is conductive. It's also combustible, so everyone was keen to find an alternative. Fisher patented its first 'zero gravity' pen in 1965, and in 1967 NASA began using it. By 1969 Russia were also buying them for their space missions. Reportedly both NASA and The Soviet Space Company received the same discount for their bulk purchases.

Lovise · Answer

""Left and right brained" people who are either more artistic or more numbers base. Just as inaccurate as the "parts of your tongue that taste different things" yet people still say it. "

Ute Naumann · Answer

"Its not "Luke, I am your father" but "No, I am your father" "

Ines Walter · Answer

""If you touch a baby bird the parents will abondon/kill it" Most birds dont do that. If you help a baby bird back into its nest as long as you try not to touch the nest a lot then everything should be fine. If its an adult bird you rescued then not touching it for a day does help with it getting your scent off but not 100% needed. I know this because my mom and I rescue wild animals when they are hurt or still babies and release them when we are able to "

Dannye · Answer

That Einstein failed math/was otherwise a poor student.

Gabriella · Answer

I always see those LPTs that say you should know your blood type in case of an emergency so the hospital can get you the right type. This is 100% incorrect, we NEVER take the blood type a person says they are. Patient remembers incorrectly=dead patient and hospital gets sued. We ALWAYS perform a blood type and screen before giving a patient a blood product. The only exception is in a true emergency, and then we only give O negative blood.

linna · Answer

Your head does not lose proportionately more heat than the rest of your body. It's about the same.

Koralle · Answer

Astronomer here! People always say Jupiter protects us from getting hit by asteroids because its larger gravitational pull attracts them (I believe it was on a certain popular astronomy show). In fact, this does not appear to be the case. See, while Jupiter does indeed interact with more things, it is both good and bad- some things hit Jupiter or get flung away, some things get flung directly at Earth that otherwise wouldn't. Most famously, in 1770 Lexell's comet passed closer to Earth than any other comet ever observed, missing us by just 6 Earth-moon widths. Turns out Jupiter flung it straight at us right before that. So yeah we almost died thanks to Jupiter, and good and bad comes from having it as a neighbor.

Joseph · Answer

Schizophrenia has nothing to do with a split personality.

nataliia · Answer

That chloroform quickly knocks you out. Edit: it takes minutes to knock you out, not the seconds you see in TV and movies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroform?wprov=sfla1

JAZMINE · Answer

We only use 10% of our brain.

MARHTA · Answer

People definitely expected the Spanish inquisition.

Bedran · Answer

We are experiencing a temporary high volume of phone calls. Your call is important to us.

Analise · Answer

That diffrent places on your tongue taste diffrent things such as sour

Madelena · Answer

The law suit over McDonald's coffee burn wasn't some ridiculous old lady looking to cheat the system and get money. She was legit severely burned and basically got very little money out of it

Dottie · Answer

The Kitty Genovese murder was a case of gross apathy. There weren't that many witnesses, people did intervene and did call the cops. Sophia Farrar, who passed away yesterday, at risk to herself, ran to Kitty Genovese's side to comfort her in her last moments. Note that this incident is what led to the formation of theory of the bystander effect.

Ikbal · Answer

"One of my favorite american college town urban legends is that "we aren't allowed to have Greek houses on campus because (insert city here) has a law on the books that say that any group of (insert number here) of women living in a house together is a brothel"  It's just literally not a thing  https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/brothel-laws-sororities/ Edit: spelling "

Kathy · Answer

""Glass is actually an extremely viscous, slow-flowing liquid. That's why old windows are thicker on the bottom." No it isn't. It's very clearly a solid. It's a disordered, non-crystalline solid, but still solid. Old windows are thicker on the bottom because they were designed that way. Edit: to everyone telling me that it is an amorphous solid, yes, that's right. That's why I said it was disordered and non-crystalline. Still a solid though. "

Henna · Answer

Gladiators did not kill each other the sport was much more civil and it even had a referee

Meya · Answer

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is not about how the road less traveled is better. It's about how you cannot know how life would have turned out if you had made different choices, so you have to convince yourself that your choice made the difference. He looks down both paths and while one looked slightly less worn, they were really equal with no tracks on either. But he knew he would never be back to make that same choice again, so he imagines that in the future he will say with a sigh that taking the one less traveled made all the difference. He's just making peace with a choice he cannot change.

Yennie · Answer

That carrots help with your eyesight. It was propaganda by the Allies in WWII to hide the fact that they had radar.

lindis · Answer

That the Human only has 5 senses

Claudia Baecker · Answer

There's only four states of matter

Ida-Maria · Answer

""We are here for you during these unprecedented times." "

Sughra · Answer

Cutting your hair makes it grow faster.

mirjam · Answer

The Great Wall of China can be seen from space

Marie Ziegler · Answer

That daddy long legs are the most venomous spider in the world they just can't bite you. And you swallow x amount I'd spiders a year in your sleep Mister Rogers was a sniper in Vietnam A duck's quack doesn't echo

Flossi · Answer

Sugarcane grows faster on sand

Lola · Answer

""If you have a cold, you should get lots of Vitamin C." This is completely down to one scientist called Linus Pauling who had a theory that massive doses of Vitamin C would cure colds, subsequent studies have shown he was wrong and any benefits are minimal at best. Yet I still get everyone telling me to drink orange juice whenever I get a sniffle. "

salima · Answer

tourette syndorme isn't always exclusively swearing uncontrollably, it represents a wide range of ticks, both verbal, nob-verbal and physical. Every case is different.

Krysta · Answer

People didn't think the Earth was flat 500 years ago. It was theorized to be round in the 5th century BC. The Americas were just not known yet (except to Indigenous Americans) and it was believed that there was a vast ocean between Europe and Asia. People believed Colombus' voyage would fail because he would exhaust his food and supplies before crossing it. Edit: Holy f*cking s%it this is the most liked comment I've ever made! Thanks for the medals kind stranger!

Xueying · Answer

Schrodinger's Cat means the exact opposite of the common knowledge / pop culture understanding.  He was not saying the was both alive and dead. He was trying to assert that superposition (in quantum theory) was absurd by creating an absurd conclusion: that because we cannot see the cat, it is therefore both alive and dead. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat

What widely accepted fact do you know is wrong?

Ruya tabircisi

HenryKing

Ariella

Birgit

Euphemia

Martynne

Meryl

Barris

Giacomo

Hector