Myth: Bats are blind The saying “blind as a bat”, simply isn’t correct. The truth is that all 1,100 bat species can see and often their vision is pretty good, although not as excellent as many other night-hunting animals. There are two main groups of bats, which are believed to have evolved independently of each other, but both from a […]
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Myth: The Super Bowl is watched by over a billion people every year. This myth seems to get spread around by the media every year around Super Bowl time, as well as by fans themselves. For this amount of people to watch the Super Bowl, about one out of every seven people on the planet would have to tune in. […]
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Myth: Tang was invented for the NASA space program. In fact, Tang was actually invented by chemist and occasional playwright William A. Mitchell in 1957 while he was working for General Foods. General Foods introduced Tang to the public in powder form in 1959, but it wasn’t popular initially. This changed when NASA decided to use it in 1962 during […]
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Myth: Swimming within an hour (sometimes stated 30 minutes) after eating is dangerous and can cause you to cramp up and drown. It is believed by many that you should not swim for at least an hour after eating, as it could be dangerous. This old wives tale has been told to kids around the world and has become more […]
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Myth: One dog year equals about seven human years. There is a popular belief that dogs age seven years for each calendar year because the lifespan of a dog is about one seventh in duration to a human’s average lifespan. So a two year old dog corresponds to a fourteen year old human teenager in the terms of this aging […]
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Myth: Duck’s quacks and wolf’s howls don’t echo. First, it was commonly held that a duck’s quack didn’t echo. The earliest place I could find where this myth was debunked was by Cecil Adams of the Straight Dope in 1998. In his experiment, he and a few others took a duck to a place where it was easy to produce […]
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Myth: Al Gore said he invented the internet. One of the things Al Gore gets made fun of most often in popular media tends to be the misconception that he at one point supposedly said he invented the internet. Now, all politics aside, whether you hate/mildly dislike/like/love/are indifferent to Al Gore, he doesn’t really deserve to be made fun of […]
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Myth: French toast was invented in France. French toast was not invented in France. In fact, French toast was around long before France even existed as a country. The exact origins of French toast are unknown, but it isn’t surprising that humans seem to have come up with the recipe quickly, given that French toast is traditionally made out of […]
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Myth: Cockroaches would survive an extreme nuclear fallout You’ve probably heard that “the only living things that would survive a nuclear war would be cockroaches and Cher”. The latter may be true, but the former is most definitely not. It has even be suggested that cockroaches can survive the amount of radiation at ground zero of a nuclear explosion, though […]
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Myth: The Pilgrims Celebrated the First Thanksgiving in America. The Pilgrims did not celebrate the first Thanksgiving in America. In fact, the particular Pilgrim event that is often cited as the first Thanksgiving wasn’t even the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving. They had several before then at various times and none of them were an annual thing. These days were simply a […]
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Myth: Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. Black Friday is not the biggest shopping day of the year. In fact, it’s typically not even in the top five, though has cracked the ranks a few times in recent years. The real biggest shopping day of the year is nearly always the Saturday before Christmas, excepting a […]
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Myth: Phil Collins wrote “in the air tonight” after a friend of his drowned and a person on shore could have saved him, but didn’t. Phil Collins did not write the song In the Air Tonight about a guy who could have saved another guy from drowning, but chose not to do so. Twists on this urban legend include stories […]
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Myth: Chameleons change color to match their environment. Chameleons don’t change color to match their environment. Rather, they change color as a response to mood, temperature, health, communication, and light. Now, not all kinds of chameleons have the ability to change color and some only have limited ability for color changing; for instance, many types of chameleons can only turn, […]
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Myth: Violin strings were once made out of cat guts. Violin strings were not made out of actual cat guts. Catgut is (and was) made from the walls of various animal intestines though. Generally sheep or goat intestines are preferred, but occasionally other intestines are used, such as intestines from pigs and cows. This practice of making strings and cord […]
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Myth: Handling a baby bird or bird egg will cause the parent birds to reject it. You’ll often hear this myth stated that if you touch a baby bird, the parents will completely abandon it and it will die. In fact, most birds have a very poor sense of smell, so in most cases are unable to even notice human […]
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Myth: Gun silencers make guns nearly silent. “Silencers”, also known as “suppressors”, on guns don’t make them anywhere near silent. Silencers primarily only suppress the noise due to the pressure wave from the rapidly expanding propellant gases. This is only a portion of what makes a gunshot loud. The primary other source of noise in a gunshot is the sonic […]
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Myth: Pilgrims wore black and white clothing with buckled top hats. The myth that they dressed like this stems from the popular clothing style of the day in England in the late 17th century, which carried over to 18th and 19th century depictions. Artist depictions, at that time, depicted Pilgrims having worn the same style clothing that had become the […]
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It is a common belief that eating even low amounts of carbohydrates increases body weight, whether the carbs are from sugar, bread, fruits or vegetables. The reason for this misconception may be that eating carbohydrates raises insulin, which then lowers blood sugar. Low sugar increases appetite so a person ends up eating more. Considering this, some people advocate significant reduction […]
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