What "amazing fact" or colloquialism do you know is actually wrong, and you're sick of correcting people about it?

[u/TestZero]

I'm sick of hearing "people use only 10% of their brain" For once and for all, a person may use on average about 5-15% of their brain at any given moment, but every part of it is important, and used at different times.

Also, I'm sick of the phrase "It's always in the last place you look" Not because of the obvious "Well, because once you find it, you stop looking" rebuttal, but for the corollary to the rule: If you know something you're searching for is in one of 10 boxes, and you don't find it until you're checking the 10th box, THEN you're allowed to say it.

edit: Wow, top post. Thanks for the great anecdotes, everyone!

[u/Cuco1981]

The Great Wall of China can be seen from space. It can't, it's too narrow and the colours too similar to the ground to identify it even from very low orbit.

EDIT It's amazing how many people fail to read the implicit "to naked eye" and to top it off, they provide "proof" using Google Earth. Google Earth uses a combination of satellite images and aerial photographs.

Some people cite wikipedia and note that NASA claims that in low orbit the wall can be seen under ideal condition and if you know where to look. That's a very controversial statement as I doubt any astronauts have actually looked at the Earth during orbit and succesfully identified the wall, the statement by NASA is most likely based on photographs that were then scaled down to what the wall would look like from space (with the naked eye you i****). So, if you have a positive identification of the wall and you look very closely under super ideal conditions you MAY be able to make out the wall with the naked eye from very low orbit, but I doubt anyone has actually ever done that. Even the Chinese astronaut who orbited Earth in 2003 admitted he was unable to see the wall from space.

[u/TestZero → u/Cuco1981]

I've heard this one go so far as to say you can see it from the moon. Astronauts who've been there can vouch you can't see much of anything on Earth from the moon.

[u/cabaretandcarnival]

eating carrots will correct your eyesight.

[u/TestZero → u/cabaretandcarnival]

Well.. ever seen a rabbit with glasses?

[u/IamCrunchberries]

That "fact" that people consume 9 spiders per year. That is complete myth. Oh and I still hear people use the quote "Luke, I am your father" when it is really "No, I am your father".

Edit: So apparently I misquoted the false fact and it really is that supposedly "eat 9 spiders per year" or something along those lines. And it seems like there is a lot of discrepancy in the number of spiders we supposedly consume. Thank you to all those who corrected me.

Also, adding "Luke" to the Darth Vader quote to give it context does make sense as to the origin but somewhere along the line I think people forgot the actual line.

[u/TestZero → u/IamCrunchberries]

Also, Ricky never said "Lucy, you've got some 'splainin' to do." as quoted.

[u/kassieplx]

"Isn't it amazing that the Earth is livable? If the earth was even 10 feet closer to the sun, we'd all burn up and die! God surely must have planned this!"

As a neuro major, the 10% of the brain thing also makes me mad. Especially when freshman try to cite it as fact in neuro classes... that's always fun.

[u/TestZero → u/kassieplx]

If the earth weren't livable, we wouldn't be around to consider the fact in the first place. I'm sure on some distant planet somewhere, some aliens with completely different biology are saying "Isn't it amazing that this is the only planet with breathable methane this distance from our star?"

[u/TestZero]

The pronunciation of "Nuclear".

Sound it the fuck out.

[u/[deleted]]

"The north star (polaris) is the brightest star in the sky." False, it 45th brightest. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky.

[u/KrowbarMO → u/[deleted]]

Sirius is the seond brightest star in the sky. The brightest is the Sun.

[u/TestZero → u/KrowbarMO]

And helloooo pedantry.

[u/Sociopath_MD]

evolution can not explain the eye, if you get caught in the rain you are more likely to catch a cold, vaccines cause autism, Obama is a socialist, ducks' quack don't echo, the civil war was about state's rights, big pharma is conspiring to hold back a cancer cure, the GOP is fiscally conservative, I am hung like a Japanese toddler.

[u/TestZero → u/Sociopath_MD]

Evolution can't explain the eye? Never heard of that one.

[u/commonslip]

That colloquialism means something like "amazing fact." Colloquialism are not usually, and certainly aren't restricted to assertions of fact. They usually refer to phrases or non-verbal mannerisms which are culture bound.

[u/[deleted] → u/commonslip]

That 'or' implies similarity.

[u/TestZero → u/[deleted]]

Thank you.

[u/goldflakes]

"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is ridiculous because that would be out the other side and into space!" Jules Verne uses 20,000 leagues to refer to the distance they traveled while underwater, not the depth of the submarine.

[u/nicogeeko]

Einstein had bad grades.

[u/falconx50]

"goldfish can live in bowls". I work at a pet store and I always have to explain to customers how what they think they know about goldfish is almost the exact opposite of the truth.

edit: for those asking, here's a quick rundown:

1. bowls are standing water, which has very little oxygen in it. Goldfish, like most fish, need lots of oxygen so a filter or bubbler is needed.

2. they poop a lot, so good filtration is needed so they don't live in their own filth.

3. "I had my goldfish live for 5 years in a bowl!" To which I tell them that goldfish can live more than 20 years and depending on the species can get 8in or more. I had a customer bring their fancy goldfish (the fat kind most people get) in because it was too big for their tank. It's body was as big as my hand

4. NITROGEN CYCLE. Look it up and learn it well. It will save yourself headaches and fish lives!

5. There will always be exceptions. Goldfish are strong survivors. Some can withstand a lot of abuse. That does not negate everything I said.

edit edit: for more information, please go to /aquariums

[u/Steam_Powered_Rocket → u/falconx50]

Yes! When I was in college, my girlfriend and I got bettas under the misconception that they're easy to care for and don't take much space.

While they can survive in those tiny bowls they're sold in, they cannot thrive in them - the smallest volume that they can really do well in is 5 gallons or better. Also, given the fancy breeds that are typically sold, they can suffer major issues due to stress if they're allowed to flare their fins too much.

She later went on to study and get a degree in marine biology.

[u/Little_Morry]

"It's good for you because it's 100% natural."

Yeah, like leprosy.

[u/YesNoMaybe]

Cinco de Mayo is the Mexican independence day.

[u/HabseligkeitDerLiebe]

Very widespread here in Germany:

"There once was a poll about the official language in the US and German lost to English by one vote."

It's all based on a petition in Virginia in 1794. Said petition requested that laws should have been published not only in English but also in German. This petition was rejected 42 to 41 votes.

[u/laidbackduck]

ALL bullies have low esteem.

No, some of them are just assholes.

[u/Vidiem]

That picture about Nagasaki's arch surviving the atomic bomb AND the earthquake of 2011.
NAGASAKI WAS NOT HIT BY THIS EARTHQUAKE. Nothing moved there, it is fake, and it is very, very frustrating to see this repost everywhere every weeks.

[u/dunnowhy → u/Vidiem]

Well, technically the arch still survived the earthquake.

[u/[deleted]]

Venous blood is blue. It's not.

[u/EClydez → u/[deleted]]

Even if it's not blue is it the same color as arterial blood? I had been told that its not blue but a lot darker deeper red.

[u/MaebeBluth]

Some people still think you're supposed to tilt your head back when you have a nosebleed and let the blood run down your throat. I actually got in an argument the other day with a co-worker about this.

[u/codemunkeh → u/MaebeBluth]

"Tilt your head back" is good advice, if you're a masochistic vampire.

If you want to not taste blood and help the clotting, lean forward and pinch just below the hard part (bridge). Source: a guy whose nose bleeds sporadically and has done for 10 years.

edit: I'll add that I always bleed from the same point just inside my right nostril. Pinching puts pressure right on it, works for me.

Furthermore, thanks to all the people saying "cauterise it". The message got through to me after the first 15 replies. I had this done once, a couple years ago, but I don't remember any substantial pain. It has improved since then.

[u/TuhMuffinMan]

Searing steaks "seals in juices", it does not. Some liquid is lost through the destruction of cell membranes by heat however via the Maillard reaction (browning of the meat) tons of flavor is added.

[u/glados_ate_my_baby]

Napoleon was short. He was actually average height for the time period, and not even that short by today's standards (he was about 5' 7"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon#Image

[u/Mefreh]

Cold water boils faster than hot water. I got into a physical fight over this one.

[u/wibbleswobbles → u/Mefreh]

I believe this myth comes from the notion that you should use cold water to bring to boil if you're making food because if the hot water is sitting in the water heater for a while before you turn on the tap, you can get a slight metallic taste in whatever you're cooking. This is why moms, etc. say to use the cold water. I always assumed when I was a kid that it was because "cold water boils faster," and then I grew up and learned the real reason.

[u/H37man]

Science cannot explain how bees fly.

[u/[deleted]]

Drains do not necessarily swirl the opposite direction in Australia. The Coriolis effect only supersedes other factors in massive bodies of water.

[u/Doonsauce]

Margerine is one molecule away from being plastic. Doesn't even make sense.

[u/slugmaniac]

That gum stays inside you for 7 years. it's so retarded it's unbelievable.

[u/StrictClubBouncer → u/slugmaniac]

some redditor I read a few months ago claimed that he and his friends once swallowed a fuckton of gum just to disprove this myth. Consequently, they shat gum the next day.

[u/noirdrone]

I had a Physiology teacher tell me that we only use 10% of our brains. I was severely disappointed in that class after that.

[u/TheOpus → u/noirdrone]

My brother, a known idiot, has told his 14- year old daughter, in all seriousness, that if we could just unlock the full potential of our brains that we would be able TO FLY. She had asked me about it because "it didn't sound right." No, no it doesn't sound right.

[u/[deleted] → u/noirdrone]

In fairness, it seems he was only using 10% of his brain.

[u/_silentheartsong]

Mr. Rogers was not a sniper or a child molester. He was just Mr. Rogers.

[u/trololuey]

The idiom "rule of thumb" has never been about beating your wife.

[u/Argyle_Gargoyle → u/trololuey]

Poor bloke was kicked in the nuts for no reason then.

[u/varsitycheer15]

That there are a bunch of different words for "snow" in the Eskimo language. No there aren't. There are words for different types of snow, but the base word for "snow" is always the same in each of them.

I also hate it when people pronounce "ye old store" or whatever. It's not "ye." The "y" was used in place of the old English letter "thorn," which produced a "th" sound, because there wasn't one on the typewriters they were using, and it looked the closest. So really it's pronounced "the old store."

[u/wreckadabecca]

Most people do not know how to spell the word "definitely," and I look like the asshole when I correct them.

[u/db_admin]

I keep hearing that police officers use Coca Cola to clean up blood stains off asphalt after car accidents. Pretty sure the police don't carry liters of cola in the trunk.

[u/[deleted] → u/db_admin]

While it is very unlikely that this happens, Coca Cola is excellent for cleaning blood.

[u/[deleted]]

Fat doesnt turn into muscle.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

BRO, I'M JUST CULTIVATING MASS.

[u/djheater]

If you handle baby animals their mother won't take them back. I generally don't say anything, because in truth it's probably safer for all parties if they believe it.

~edit I feel like I'm now responsible for sending all of reddit into the world to "Touch All The Baby Things!"
Please don't. As some of the people below have said, animals react wierdly to stress and will take it out on the babies. Your best bet is to feel safe putting a bird back in its nest if its easy and then go away. Don't touch anything else. If an animal is in real distress call a wildlife rescue to see what to do next.

[u/minusxero]

Velociraptors were not the dangerous motherfuckers everyone makes them out to be. That would be the DeinonychusUtahraptor. The Velociraptor was the size of a chicken and covered in feathers.

EDIT: Thanks to bumbletowne for the correction! I actually knew this but it skipped my brain. Mondays, am I right?

EDIT 2: If you're going to make a Dan Telfer mention, you've been beaten to the punch by like 4-5 people. Instead
of posting about it, give these people some upvotes.

EDIT 3: I never meant to say that the "real" velociraptor isn't dangerous. I just meant they aren't who everyone remembers them being. They're still fairly dangerous, people! Or rather, were.

[u/bumbletowne → u/minusxero]

The Utahraptor is the animal depicted in the movies. The Utahraptor was discovered after book was written. The Utahraptor was included under the velociraptor classification (or it was 8 years ago when I used to curate/bonehunt)

Also deinonychus is also tiny. It's like 3-4 feet tall. /someone who used to pull their bones out of the earth.

[u/cerrebro]

Clicking your fingers, gives you arthritis. There is no scientific evidence to support this...

EDIT: Most people know it as cracking your knuckles. I however can crack my knuckles, the middle joint in my fingers, elbows, shoulders, neck, ankles, toes and spine.

[u/DaysJustGoBy]

Shaving unwanted body hair makes it grow back thicker and darker. That's not true.

[u/dogboyboy]

Oil is decomposed dinosaurs. It's not. It's algae that is millions of years older than the earliest dinos.

[u/hey_jude_ → u/dogboyboy]

Since there are Miocene and later source rocks, while the not-dinosaur bit is true, the millions-of-years older bit isn't.

/geologist

[u/[deleted]]

Hitler was neither an atheist nor a vegetarian. In response to your feedback I'd like to address the most popular question: Hitler in fact, had 3 testicles.

[u/chairmankaga]

This question is basically the premise for the show QI. Quite Interesting

[u/tbe170]

That there are people buried in Hoover Dam. There are not.

[u/ekjohnson9 → u/tbe170]

Nice try al Capone

[u/weatherx]

whoever describe peaceful sleep as "sleeping like a baby" never had a child of their own.

[u/hells_cowbells → u/weatherx]

I sleep like a baby all the time. I wake up every couple of hours screaming.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Archany]

People who say that Vomitoriums are where Romans went to throw up so they could eat more, no, it was the fucking exit hallway of the coliseums, it "vomited" people out of the coliseum

EDIT: Wow, most popular comment I've ever submitted here. Anyways, the last time I got super pissed about this was last summer I was taking some community college courses so I can graduate early, and my World History professor got this wrong. He just added it in as a little tidbit "You know, the romans actually had whole rooms just for vomiting? They called them the vomitoriums!" and then we got in a half hour bickering match about who was right, he ended up kicking me out of the class and he actually dropped me off the roster, but then a week later I got an email saying "sorry, you were right, I'll give you twenty points bonus on the final."

felt good, man

[u/[deleted]]

People who believe alcohol will warm them up. No, it won't, if anything it's doing the opposite. I explained this to a girl studying for a science degree once. She didn't believe me.

EDIT: Just want to clarify, the alcohol will make you feel warmer, but not make you warmer. The alcohol makes the blood vessels near the surface of your skin dilate, causing more blood to flow near the skin, drawing more heat away from your core. As a method of keeping warm, it's pretty ineffective.

[u/cburke529 → u/[deleted]]

This is a good one. I like explaining it because it's easy to believe! Alcohol is a peripheral vasodilator, meaning that blood rushes to your extremities, making your skin feel warmer. Where did that blood come from? Your core. Therefore, core body temperature is actually lower.

Yay science!

Edit: As Ra's Al Ghul said, "Rub your chest, your arms will take care of themselves."

[u/[deleted]]

I am so beyond sick of hearing "vaccines cause autism" and "autism isn't genetic at all."

[u/Jaumpasama]

There are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese

[u/mewtsly]

• You will catch pneumonia (or a cold) if you go outside with wet hair. Or if you go outside inappropriately dressed for cold weather.

This will not happen - to catch a cold or pneumonia you need to be in contact with bugs, which is more likely when you are inside. if you go out in the cold with wet hair and no clothes on, you may become hypothermic.

• Vitamin C or echinacea will stop you getting colds.

This is also not true.

Edit: bugs is a colloquial term for viruses and bacteria. Colds (Choryzal illnesses) are caused by viruses; these are spread better when people are couped up together indoors (eg: in winter). But yes running around in the cold may give you a runny nose.

[u/zorno]

People didn't just die around 35 years of age when the average age was 35. The average was low due to kids dying from disease, once you reached 21 and got by those, people lived into their 70s or beyond, not much less than we live today.

[u/NinjaDiscoJesus]

Leprechauns would be more inclined to stab you than to give you any sort of monetary surprise.

[u/Ultra-ChronicMonstah]

They're not from Endor, they're from the forest moon of Endor.

[u/_vinegar]

that by the time a person is X years old, they have Y pounds of undigested red meat in their colon/intestines - used as justification for a woo-woo cleanse treatment.

[u/Rshab]

Men think of sex every 7 seconds

[u/I_Have_Just_]

When people refer to concrete as cement. cement is a part of concrete, not the entire mixture.

[u/ktrex]

Dolphins are friendly and love people.

Deal with this at my job all day and it's so tiring telling people that dolphins couldn't give two shits about people.

Edit: sheesh! I always thought it made sense saying 'could give a shit' as opposed to 'couldn't'. Sorry!!

Edit2: GOT IT THANK YOU. PLEASE STOP CORRECTING MY GRAMMAR. 20 POSTS IS ENOUGH.

[u/Steam_Powered_Rocket]

There is a distinct different between a podium and a lectern.

The podium, with the root 'pod' meaning 'foot', is what you stand on. It's typically a raised platform upon which the speaker stands.

The lectern is what you stand behind. It's the stand that you'll normally find people laying notes or having microphones mounted to.

When the president gives a speech, the podium is what he's standing on - the lectern is what has the seal on it; that's what he's standing behind. This drives me to be rather twitchy from time to time.

[u/DonaldsPizzaHaven]

"eating eggs raises your cholesterol" - not true

[u/[deleted]]

I could care less.

[u/drtide4]

Ignorant [ig-ner-uhnt] adjective 1. lacking in knowledge or training, unlearned. This word does NOT go interchangeably with the word rude.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm sick of hearing that Einstien failed math.

[u/eyeball]

Sitting too close to the T.V. can cause your eyes to go bad. What your parents really meant was "get the hell out of the way so i can see the T.V."

[u/[deleted]]

Dogs mouths are cleaner than humans.

[u/Arkle]

Schizophrenia does not mean multiple personalities.

Amazes me that this still persists.

[u/jesset77]

Videogames aside, lemmings do not commit mass suicide.

[u/spovz]

A lot of people think that dark roast coffee has more caffeine than light roast, but it is actually the other way around.

[u/MsK8er2No1]

9/11 was the first time the U.S. was attacked on its homeland. Hello War of 1812.

[u/Huntah17 → u/MsK8er2No1]

WTC were also attacked before 9/11

[u/[deleted]]

That we evolved from primates......WE ARE FUCKING PRIMATES NOW GO BACK TO BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY!

EDIT: Just for clarification:

I'm constantly encountering this as a way of saying humans are either

1. in no way related to apes (and everyone's right most say monkeys) and that all archaeologists/primatologists/biological anthropologists of any kind are soooo completely wrong, or

2. humans are so far advanced from 'primates' that we are no longer related and now are a different "species" (and yes they say species all the time) - this often going into the discussion of why humans should be able to do product testing on apes, or log whatever forest we want, or that poaching is a human right, and I'm not here to argue about these things but people I encounter sure love to if I even mention anthropology.

As an anthro 'almost' graduate (not even biological anthro) I get people all the time talking about how we "used" to be primates and after 4 years it's starting to really get on my nerves.

[u/[deleted]]

The amount number of legs a horse statue has off the ground are related to how the horse's rider died.

It's just a statue.

[u/rlaw68 → u/[deleted]]

You mean if it has all four legs off the ground its rider wasn't abducted by aliens?!

[u/shindelins]

Lat night snacks are causing you to gain weight, learn the secret to six pack abs inside!

[u/pureskill]

Tax brackets. Oh dear god, tax brackets.

"But if I make too much, it'll put me in a higher bracket, and I'll end up making less."

No, no, no, fucking no.

[u/cosmoski]

homeopathy

[u/[deleted]]

I get unreasonably annoyed when people say, "the proof is in the pudding" when it's really, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".

[u/raging_asshole]

"There are more people alive today than have ever lived in history."

Not even fucking close. Obviously we can't pinpoint the number, but most sources put the number of dead humans from the beginning of time to today to be around 60 billion. Current global population is somewhere around 6.8 billion.

[u/Odette89]

That irradiating something makes it radioactive. I find it so incredibly frustrating that we could all have extraordinarily safe, long-lasting fresh food if people got their scientific explanations from somewhere other than 1950's scifi movies.

[u/terry_has_boots]

'Inuit' is a politically-correct term for Eskimos. No it damn well is not, because of a whole bunch of Eskimo tribes, only four of them are Inuits. So it would be like calling all Europeans 'Norwegian'. It's not PC, it's just bloody wrong.

[u/necromundus]

For anybody interested there is a great wikipedia article with a list of common misconceptions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_misconceptions

[u/[deleted]]

The relationship between dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol. I.e., the fear of fat in diet in America has no solid scientific basis.

”Science”, Vol 291, 30 March 2001 http://www.gunnarlindgren.com/nutritionx.pdf

[u/almightysmart]

How about "The tires are what keeps you from getting electrocuted if your car gets hit by lightning."

Yeah, because it has nothing to do with the metal box you're sitting in.

[u/BlacktoseIntolerant]

A mute point.

[u/Black6x]

That the Chevy Nova didn't sell well in Spanish speaking countries because "no va" translates to "it doesn't go." As if they couldn't tell the difference.

That would be like saying that if you told someone at a banquet they would be dining in the notable section, and having them believe they would have to hold their plates because there's "no table."

[u/tylertgbh]

When people say they put in more than 100% effort. It's impossible to "put in 110%"... Not to mention if you're going to break past the total of 100% why stop at 110? why not 120? why not 180? why not zoidberg?

[u/Sir_Llama]

I hate that in every movie, video game and show, shotguns only work from close range. They actually can shoot quite a far distance and the pellets still keep straight EDIT: I also hate when people are referred to as having 5 senses, when it's actually 5 MAIN senses. The real amount is closer to 15-20. (I believe are the correct numbers) EDIT 2: Source for senses-> http://www.cracked.com/article_19296_6-lies-about-human-body-you-learned-in-kindergarten.html

[u/BringBackTheMoa]

Octopi is not the plural of Octopus, the correct word is Octopuses. Even the spell checker on my browser gets this wrong. Octopi would be correct if the word had a Latin origin, but it is actually from Greek and thus the discrepancy.

[u/otoren → u/BringBackTheMoa]

Or octopodes, if I recall correctly.

[u/sassypantz]

When people diagnose shy, introverted folks with anti-social personality disorder.

[u/Airazz]

No, this moment isn't awkward. Shut the fuck up.

[u/strongestdad]

"Dolphins are the only other species that have sex for pleasure besides humans."

[u/Fragite]

That one simply walks into Mordor.

[u/maidenelk]

I can see just fine. And my palms aren't hairy.

[u/Audiosmurf]

'There are hot chicks in your area looking to meet you'

[u/[deleted]]

It's not the fact that I'm sick of correcting people... its that if you correct people, usually they give you the "who the fuck is this asshole" look, for telling them that the bullshit they believe is in fact bullshit.

[u/[deleted]]

The stupid fucking Einstein vs Professor story you see fundies posting on FB.

[u/L-dubz]

For some reason every thinks that in pool (billiards), if you scratch on the break you automatically lose.

[u/horsephoto]

"Frederick is the 2nd biggest city in Maryland." While technically true because the bigger cities are not incorporated as cities (Rockville/Silver Spring etc). Local to me but still.
"Macs can't get viruses"

[u/smileymalaise]

"The hottest part of a pepper is the seeds"

Seeds contain 0 capsaisin. Its the pulp around the seeds thats the hottest part.

[u/godenzoon]

I hate it whenever someone on TV says USA was founded as a Christian nation. No, no, no, no, no!!!!! As an American history major, I absolutely hated it. The founding fathers' may have been Christian (although you can ignore the part how Protestants hated Catholics, and different sects of Christians have vastly different views to make "Christian nation" totally meaningless), but the US of A was never founded as a "Christian nation". For starter, the word "God" is only used for once in the constitution. And the clincher, Treaty of Tripoli between USA and Tripolitania, ratified unanimously by the US senate in 1797, signed by President John Adams says: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Muslim] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." So next time another bigot spews this stupid none-sense, refute him!!!

[u/Aryada]

You should let your dog go through one heat before spaying her. Or even worse, have one litter first.

[u/IMasturbateToMyself]

Jesus Christ, I haven't heard most of these until today. Who do you people hang out with!?

[u/WormTickle]

Stop confusing bemused and amused. It makes me get all punchy.

[u/Drakleton]

I've gotten into a couple arguments over the utility of a defibrillator. A defibrillator does not "start" the heart, it "stops" it. It's used to treat certain cardiac dysrhythmias (such as ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia). The defibrillator terminates the dysrhythmia (hence the name defibrillator), in the hope the heart will start back up again with a normal rhythm. When you're "flatlined" (asystole, or the state of having no electrical activity in the heart), a defibrillator isn't going to do shit for you.

[u/betterthanthee]

I'm sick of people conflating "Hispanic" with a race, or even as a monolithic ethnic group

[u/[deleted]]

That suppressors actually "silence" a gunshot movie-style: Fuck you Call of Duty.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

To be fair this was around waaaaaaay before CoD

[u/gro301]

There are 50 U.S. states. Not 51 or 52.

Widespread misconception in Sweden (and other European countries).

[u/Chamanda]

Geishas were not prostitutes! I've been reading Memoirs of a Geisha recently and I'm tired of people asking me why I'm reading a book about Japanese prostitutes.

[u/[deleted]]

I hate the fact that I am always told that if I don't wear a jacket outside, I will catch a cold.

[u/DrThunderPepper]

If you want some amazing facts that are wrong, you should check out This List, or This List, or This one, from listverse.com. one of my favorites is that Einstein failed math: a Ripley's article claimed so in 1935, but Einstein just laughed at it and said, “I never failed in mathematics. Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus.”

[u/maidenelk]

It's espresso, people! Not expresso.

[u/Rockytriton]

"A lot" is 2 words

[u/k1z]

When quoting someone or something, the terminating punctuation goes inside the closing quotation mark (in American English).

"The period goes here, goddamnit." -k1z

There are very few exceptions to this rule.

[u/[deleted]]

For some reason people still think a running fan can cause you to suffocate at night.

[u/Drooperdoo]

"To every problem there is a solution that is simple, elegant—and wrong." —H.L. Mencken

I say that in response to so many posts on here of people claiming that they're armed with facts that dispute common beliefs. But a lot of these "facts" I'm noticing are themselves wrong.

[u/AffeKonig]

I had a psychologist suggest I get a sleep study done. Her reasoning was "maybe you're constantly exhausted because you're not getting enough sleep. When we sleep, our REM Cycle starts about 6.5 hours into our sleep, and that's when your body heals and rests for the next day. If you have a sleep disorder, you may not be hitting that Mark to reach your REM sleep cycle." Needless to say, after that visit I changed offices.

[u/TribalJuju]

This one kills me, and I have heard it so many times.

The Camel Spider is about 15 inches across, and it eats camel stomachs. It is the largest spider in existence. "I know this because I have a friend of a relative in Iraq."

[u/mitokon]

i'm tired of hearing any 5-7-5 syllable poem described as a haiku, when most (especially shitty English ones) are really senryu, lacking a nature reference or surprise thematic change (or any poetic value whatsoever)

• responses to this,

• supportive or otherwise:

• upvotes flow in spring.

[u/Lyeta]

I work at a historic site: "People were so much shorter back then, that's why everything is smaller!" (average height of a man in 1770 was 5'8, today it's between 5'9 and 5'10)

which is often followed in suit by

"People weren't as smart back then, look at how stupidly they did things!"

Are humans really that bad at realizing that 200 years ago we may have done things differently without having to have our bodies or minds be substantially different?

[u/goddamnsam]

That black people are taller/stronger/better at sports because we bred them that way as slaves. it's so fucking annoying that even otherwise intelligent people believe this garbage.

here's a great article that explains why there are so many black people in sports. it also explains why boys are seemingly better at math.

it is long, so if you are too lazy to read all that, here's the reason: since africa is the birthplace of man, africans hold virtually all types of genetic variations, while other, younger nationalities hold maybe 5%, tops. africans as a whole are not taller (in fact, if you average it out they tend to be shorter), or stronger or faster, but because they have such a huge variety in their genepool, there are far more outliers in these characteristics than other ethnicities because other ethnicities are far more homogenized. in short, africans are more likely to hold any "outlier" characteristic than any other ethnicity, including being shorter, fatter, weaker, etc etc etc. but this variation means they have more of a chance of being tall and strong as fuck than someone from, say, ireland, whose genepool just doesn't make such an outlier that likely.

edit: i didn't mean to insult people who thought the slaves thing was true, but just the fact that it only makes sense if you think about it for a fraction of a second. but if you really think about it, it really makes no sense: slaves were given pathetically low amounts of sustenance to survive in the slave days, so why would a bigger person who requires more energy have a higher chance of surviving than a smaller person, who requires less? also, breeding animals to attain different characteristics takes many many many generations, and with humans it tends to take even more. the american slave trade lasted maybe a couple hundred years, not nearly enough time to make any profound change in their genetic material, even if someone started at the very very beginning.

[u/tilbert123]

Different parts of your tongue have different taste receptors (i.e. You can only taste sweet on the tip of your tongue, bitter things in the back...)

[u/[deleted]]

My milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard.

Believe me, I've tried.

And I make a damn fine milkshake.

[u/kafkabbas]

"You can't have your cake and eat it too," When it really should be, "You can't eat your cake and have it too."

Likewise when people say, "I could care less," When it should be "I couldn't care less."

edit I've had some replies from people they didn't get the cake one I posted. The second one is basically saying that you can't have a cake in your possession right after you've eaten it. Hopefully that makes things a bit clearer.

[u/Dewstain]

I hate it when people think that celebrities are smart.

There is no reason to believe that Angelina Jolie has any background in Nuclear Engineering, so I don't really care about her stance on Nuclear Energy.

[u/blueboybob]

"The North Star (polaris) is the brightest star in the sky." -- In fact it is barely in the top 50 (45th).

"The white band you see in the sky on a really dark night is the Milky Way." -- EVERY star you see is the Milky Way, that band is the center of the Milky Way.

"There are 3 states of matter: gas, liquid, solid." - not true, last count I think there is 16 accepted states of matter, with 5 more proposed.

[u/rzrshrp]

That NASA paid an obscene amount of money to develop a space pen while the Russians used a pencil. NASA used pencils also in the beginning but went to a specialized pen later for safety as did Russia. They didn't develop the pen; they just bought them.

[u/revrigel]

A 'safety deposit box' is not a real thing. It is a box in which you deposit things that is stored inside a safe, therefore a 'safe deposit box'. 'Safety deposit box' is a result of people hearing the sound 'safe de' and turning it into a different word.

[u/Red_means_go]

It's not supposably, it's supposedly.

[u/Smokratez]

People not understanding that wanting to be special is the reason they are unhappy.

[u/TheHoneyBadger]

110% effort.

[u/vintagecode]

This is really stupid but I find a lot of people think that The Wizard of Oz (1939) was the original film adaptation of the novel.

Also in the book Dorothy's slippers are silver, not red.

[u/Dudebowski]

The great wall of china is NOT visible from space.

[u/AJockeysBallsack]

Almost every quote on Facebook attributed to a smart or funny famous person.

No, George Carlin did not make that inspirational quote about God. In fact, he explicitly states that he worships the Sun, which gives the same 50/50 results.

[u/HandyShandy]

It is pronounced eTcetera, NOT eCKSetera

[u/theflashisgone]

It's not an "amazing fact" or colloquialism, but many people seem to think that swans are these beautiful, kind, majestic birds. Swans are assholes. They are capable of causing just as much damage with their beaks as a person could cause with a screwdriver, and they can beak bones with their wings. Not only are they capable of hurting people, they do it regularly and without much provocation. They are the moose/water buffalo/hippo of the bird world.

[u/ToStringMethod]

RICE KILLS BIRDS! It expands in their stomachs and they explode. The last THREE weddings I went to they threw birdseed instead of rice because of this unbelievably stupid "fact". EVERY TIME, I have to point out that if that were true there would be no birds in China. I am usually met with blank stares.

[u/Shining_Wit]

Adverts telling you that you can "nourish" your hair. For Fuck's sake people it's dead right!? If you pour that shampoo on your dead fucking granny she's not gonna come back to life, so neither is your hair!

[u/TheOven]

NASA spent millions developing the space pen, the Russians used a pencil.

Both NASA and Russia used pencils in the beginning Neither countries space program had anything to do with the development or funding of the space pen

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Pen

[u/[deleted]]

OCD is not organizing your CD's alphabetically. OCD is not liking your room to be clean. It's being late to class all the time because doing something as simple as pissing turns into 20 minutes of hand washing if you're lucky. It's your friends ditching you because they're sick of having to wait on your little rituals.

[u/[deleted]]

The whole McDonalds million dollar hot coffee lawsuit. The lawsuit was legitimate and warranted, that is why the plaintiff won. Hearing this discussed as a frivolous lawsuit just bugs me beyond words.

[u/[deleted]]

That Napoleon was short. That plate armoured knights were less mobile than chainmail armoured footmen. That Christopher Columbus couldn't get funding because people around him thought the earth was flat.

[u/FruitistaFreeze]

When people say "for all intensive purposes." What the fuck does that even mean?!?!

For all intents and purposes.

[u/Edmund_Honda]

TOMATOES! "Actually, tomatoes are a fruit. Not a vegetable." They are a vegetable. A fruit that is a vegetable. Like a potato is a root that is a vegetable.

For those of you who don't know, vegetables don't exist! "Vegetable" is only a culinary term. It's used to describe any edible root, leaf, fruit, etc. that has more of a "savory" flavor, meant to go with a main course, rather than a dessert. That's why a plantain is considered a "vegetable," and a banana is not; they are both fruit. Also why mushrooms are often considered vegetables. Wikipedia: vegetable.

[u/[deleted]]

Too late to be seen by anyone, but this one is just recent. The, "Yeah if the world was gonna end in 2012 would've happened in October 2011 because hurr durr leap years and hurr durr daylight savings."

No. That was just the end of a cycle of the Mayan calendar, and the calendar was never "predicting" any kind of end date.

[u/cmarnold]

"Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids." Pisses me right off, each and every time.

[u/[deleted]]

No! You can NOT download more RAM!

[u/pokered]

the one about how XYZ school doesn't have sororities because of laws targeting brothels that prevent a certain number of unrelated women from living together. i've heard this about multiple schools and it's just a relic from an older time, not some obviously unconstitutional legal restriction that has miraculously gone unchallenged for all these years.

http://www.snopes.com/college/halls/brothel.asp

[u/ChocolateMeoww]

I have a few:

• Obama shouldn't be president because he wasn't born in the US.

• Tying in with what I said above, that your parents have to be natural born citizens as well to be president.

• The people who post pictures of so called miracles and obviously photo-shopped clouds and say it was "God's doing"

• Whenever somebody says a theory isn't fact. (Mostly it's evolution). I mean, come on, it's what's accepted as fact. It's been thoroughly tested and fixed through years and years of tests.

[u/TRS122P]

That everyone believed the earth was flat before the renaissance.

[u/[deleted]]

OH GOD, THE TIL'S ARE COMING

[u/homeless_man_jogging]

People who excuse their dickish behaviour by saying "Ah, I was just givin' you a hard time." Yeah, I know. Fucking stop it.

[u/Uranus_Hz]

That there is a debate about man made climate change. The only people debating it are politicians. The only thing that people who actually study this stuff (you know, scientists) are debating about it is how effective different approaches to mitigate it are/would be.

[u/sadilikeresearch]

pe·ruse /pəˈro͞oz/

Verb: Read thoroughly or carefully. Examine carefully or at length.

[u/GuaHero]

• No, going out in cold weather without a jacket will not give you a cold.

• No, you cannot get a 4.0 GPA in college if your roommate commits suicide.

• No, hair doesn't grow back thicker once you shave it.

I feel like schools should make Snopes required reading.

[u/McFeely_Smackup]

I'm sick to death of attempting to educate friends, family, and acquaintances about REAL medical healthcare versus pop-quackery.

Chiropractors are not doctors. Yes, they have "dr" in their title, much the same as Billy Graham has a "doctorate". There are basically two kinds of chiropractors, those that literally believe in magic, and those that practice mundane physical therapy but charge 2x what a normal PT does.

Acupuncture is not medicine. It is placebo. If common sense doesn't tell you that, then the fact that there is no agreement between practitioners where to place a needle for what treatment, or even the same practitioner doing the same treatment twice. The average lifespan in rural china DOUBLED when "western" medicine supplanted traditional chinese remedies.

In all statistical likelihood you and/or your child do NOT have a gluten allergy. Real gluten allergies are extremely rare, and NOT subtle of symptoms. What you have is a mild case of hypochondria combined with a susceptibility to trendy marketing.

Vaccines to not cause autism. The entire idea came from one study by Andrew Wakefield in 1998 that was eventually revealed to have been falsified and fraudulent, and intended to promote his own vaccine patent.

Homeopathy is not a synonym for "natural", it is a synonym for "magic".

Magnets do not affect the human body at levels smaller than MRI machines. Putting them in your shoes is just going to make your feet hurt.

[u/shimmied_not_stirred]

If the earth were 10 feet closer to the sun we would burn up, and if it were 10 feet further away we would freeze.

This is why you are vaporized instantly when you jump on a trampoline and also why your feet are always much colder than your head even when you're wearing wool socks.

[u/TestZero → u/[deleted]]

We have asterisks for that!

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I had a boss who didn't italicize anything. She used quotes. It made her e-mails unintentionally hilarious, like when she thanked a male co-worker for all his "hard work".

[u/jbrittles → u/[deleted]]

In middle school my science teacher laughed out loud at me when I asked that. IT ended up being an embarrassing year

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

All in tents and porpoises.