Another 10 Common Misconceptions
Published on February 23, 2008 - 69 Comments
Lists about misconceptions and common errors are always popular. This is our second list of common misconceptions covering a variety of topics. Some misconceptions have come about through mistranslations, and others through Chinese-whispers like scenarios. This is another list of 10 common misconceptions.
10. Taste Buds
Different tastes can be detected on all parts of the tongue, contrary to the popular belief that specific tastes correspond to specific sites on the tongue. The original “tongue map” was based on a mistranslation by a Harvard psychologist of a German paper that was written in 1901. Sensitivity to all tastes occurs across the whole tongue and indeed in other regions of the mouth where there are taste buds (epiglottis, soft palate).
9. Black Hole Hokum
The gravity of a black hole is slightly less than the gravity of the star that caused it. Black holes are not “cosmic vacuum cleaners”; objects can settle into stable orbits around them just as they would around any other mass in space, including stars.
8. Paul Revere’s Ride
Paul Revere was not the only American colonist who rode to warn the Minute Men of the British before the battle of Lexington and Concord of the American Revolutionary War. The story of Paul Revere is largely based on the poem “Paul Revere’s Ride”, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1860.
7. CCTV Cameras Deter Crime
There is actually little evidence that CCTV security cameras deter crime; the most measurable effect of CCTV is not on crime prevention, but on detection and prosecution.
6. 72 Black Eyed Virgins
Muslim martyrs will not go to heaven and marry 72 black eyed virgins. This idea stems from a mistranslation: the Quran says martyrs going to heaven will get “hur,” and the word was taken by early commentators to mean “virgins.” But in Aramaic, hur meant “white” and was commonly used to mean “white grapes,” which the Quran compares to crystal and pearls, and contemporary accounts have paradise abounding with fruit, especially white grapes.
5. Mary Magdalen was a Prostitute
The Bible makes no mention at all of Mary Magdalene being a prostitute. Before her seeing the risen Jesus, the only other mention besides the listing of her name is the mentioning in Luke 8:2 that she had been possessed by seven demons.
4. Worm Clones
Many people believe that if you cut a worm in two, it will continue to live as two worms. In fact, a worm can survive being cut in half, but only one half can survive the operation; the other half dies.
3. Lemming Suicide
There is a widespread myth that lemmings throw themselves off cliffs in order to commit suicide in a bizarre natural method of keeping the populace under control. This is entirely untrue. The myth came about because of the Disney film White Wilderness, in which lemmings were filmed throwing themselves off cliffs. What really happened is the film crew used brooms to push the lemmings off the cliff.
2. Memory of a Goldfish
Goldfish are often thought of as having very short memories - usually up to a few seconds at the most. In fact, goldfish have been trained to navigate mazes, and after a few months it can recognize its owner.
1. Hair and Fingernails
Contrary to popular belief, hair and fingernails do not continue to grow after a person dies. The most likely cause of this myth is shrinkage in the skin after death which gives the false appearance of growth of the nails.
Related ListsTop 10 Common MisconceptionsTop 10 Most Commented On Lists Top 10 Misconceptions About The Bible Top 15 Misconceptions about Evolution |
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1. romerozombie - February 23rd, 2008 at 5:34 am
No way, I actually knew a few of these!
2. Fidsy - February 23rd, 2008 at 5:36 am
2nd, but boring list
3. GingerLee - February 23rd, 2008 at 5:48 am
Another Biblical one- Salome didn’t ask for John the Baptist’s head on a *silver* platter. She said big plate.
Another one is most people say that Henry VIII’s wives were all beheaded. One dead, two beheaded, two annulled, one survived.
4. GingerLee - February 23rd, 2008 at 5:52 am
It was also jfrater’s most favorite book in the world that talks about number five as being untrue.
(This is sarcasm by the way.)
[The previous statement is also laden with a sarcastic tone]
5. Bananas - February 23rd, 2008 at 5:55 am
kind of a boring list….. i knew half of these.
6. Jen - February 23rd, 2008 at 6:20 am
I had read that one of the Disney crew tempted a group of lemmings with some sandwich, then tossed the sandwich off the cliff, causing all the lemmings to go chasing after it.
7. Mikerodz - February 23rd, 2008 at 6:35 am
I can’t say a thing about this list.
8. Amanda - February 23rd, 2008 at 7:10 am
Fidsy: you were third
Also, I’ve actually never even heard that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. I think I need to get out more.
9. rifat - February 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 am
nice
10. Fuzzy Dunlop - February 23rd, 2008 at 7:33 am
I am not sure abou six.
wiki:
“Translation of the Qur’ān has always been a problematic and difficult issue. Since Muslims revere the Qur’ān as miraculous and inimitable (i’jaz al-Qur’ān),[citation needed] they argue that the Qur’ānic text can not be reproduced in another language or form. Furthermore, an Arabic word may have a range of meanings depending on the context, making an accurate translation even more difficult”
Dont see what “Aramaic” has to the with it btw
11. Hillary - February 23rd, 2008 at 8:03 am
I like the misconceptions lists. Always interesting (and sometimes painful) to give up long-held beliefs. Kind of like perusing snopes.
Some of these I knew; some were news to me. Great list!
12. Miss Destiny - February 23rd, 2008 at 8:21 am
I knew the goldfish one because of Mythbusters.
But the black hole one, I had seen on a History Channel special that if a black hole were to appear in our galaxy (chances are slim, I figure, but they were doing a special about ways the world could end) it would slowly suck us (the entire planet) in to it and everything would pretty much be crushed to smithereens (whatever those are) by the all the pressure and the gravity. I guess that really couldn’t happen? Weird how they had a whole ten-twenty minute segment about that then.
13. Miss Destiny - February 23rd, 2008 at 8:21 am
Great list, by the way! I like these ones full of random facts and what not, makes for great conversation pieces with friends and coworkers.
14. BadassBookworm - February 23rd, 2008 at 8:51 am
#6. Yikes! I know of a lot of people are were REALLY dissapointed.
15. BadassBookworm - February 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 am
are/were*. My comments have been grammatically awful lately.
16. Miss Destiny - February 23rd, 2008 at 9:12 am
BadassBookworm: Re:#6 I thought that meant they’d get to Heaven and find a bunch of nerdy guys with glasses and pocket protectors, clicking away on calculators.
17. dangorironhide - February 23rd, 2008 at 9:19 am
Interesting list, though I already knew most of them.
You missed an ‘o’ in ‘object’ in #9.
18. stevenh - February 23rd, 2008 at 9:27 am
Re Number 9:
It is not only the ‘total gravity’ that is the point of a black hole. The distance from the surface of the gravitational force, and the curve of that surface, to any particle passing by is what will make the ‘hole effect’.
The ~150 million KM (Earth To Sun surface) produces less of a curve than if the Sun were the size of a pea.
Given same mass, a smaller object is more efficient at being ‘cosmic vacuum cleaner’.
Oh, and there is a small typo, as well.
19. jfrater - February 23rd, 2008 at 9:36 am
Oops - thanks for the corrections guys.
On a side note - do you like the new larger font?
20. downhighway61 - February 23rd, 2008 at 9:39 am
i like these kinds of lists a lot. and yes, i like the larger font also.
21. Shadow - February 23rd, 2008 at 9:50 am
The pic for number four (The Worms), looks more like some kind of snake… creepy, man.
22. Mom424 - February 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 am
Good List!
re; #4 this is a popular misconception about tube or round worms. It probably arose because certain flatworms not only can be cut in half and both halves will form a new creature, they actually use this method as a form of asexual reproduction; they will hold on real tight with one end and tug, tug, tug, ’till they tear in half…..
23. NestorV - February 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 am
I remember seeing the one about Paul Revere’s ride in the show “Assume the Position” with Robert Wuhl. That show is intersting.
24. Jackie - February 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 am
Great list! I knew a couple of them…
I like the larger font as well.
25. Ravyn - February 23rd, 2008 at 10:01 am
Jamie: You made the font bigger? I thought my fiance screwed with the computerand made the text bigger on me… Then I got to the comments and they were all shrunken (after I made the huge text be normal size) Man that threw me off so bad.
26. Mom424 - February 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 am
jfrater; I like the new font, as long as it doesn’t mean you are going to shorten the generally well thought-out and informative paragraph for each point…I would rather squint than have you dummy it up with short little sound-bites (for lack of a better description), I can get that elsewhere….
27. esa - February 23rd, 2008 at 10:23 am
Regarding #6: When the page loaded was a Muslim singles ad at the top. =]
Kind of ironic.
28. Ryan - February 23rd, 2008 at 10:32 am
The black hole one seems a bit outlandish. Got a source?
29. Amoondoo - February 23rd, 2008 at 10:50 am
“What really happened is the film crew used brooms to push the lemmings off the cliff.”
thats not nice!
great list! ^.^
30. stevenh - February 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 am
Ryan (28):
A simple view is:
Gravity is a function of the mass of an object.
1) A star has x mass
2) The star (a) tends to collapse from the mass and (b) tends to expand from the internal heat and atomic reactions
3) it is stable for a long long time… until
4) no more fuel for the atomic reactions
5) it tends to collapse BUT the heat of the collapse can cause a nova explosion EXCEPT if the mass if too much then…
6) the collapse just keeps going.
7) Mass may be lost from step 4 to step 6, therefore the black hole may have less mass then the star that birthed it.
hope this helps
)
(simple, not to dumb it down, but because I don’t like typing
31. Monkey - February 23rd, 2008 at 11:07 am
The thing about the Disney people pushing the lemmings off a cliff is sick. I knew Disney was evil…
32. Mom424 - February 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 am
Monkey et al: Did you guys know how evil Marlin Perkins from Mutual of Omaha’s wild Kingdom was? OOO, Disney was saint-like in his treatment of wildlife compared to good ol’ Marl…and we now know how great disney was….scary
33. Adia - February 23rd, 2008 at 11:28 am
Disney has always been kind of macabre. Think about it. A lady who was going to kill a bunch of puppies to make a coat! And that one wasn’t even a traditional fairy tale!
34. Monkey - February 23rd, 2008 at 11:29 am
No, I didn’t… Do tell
35. goof_ball - February 23rd, 2008 at 11:40 am
eh ok list
36. jfrater - February 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Mom424: I am definitely not planning to do that - this list just happens to be smaller paragraphs
37. jen - February 23rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Adia: If you think Disney is dark, you should read some of the fairy tales in their original form, as told by the Grimm brothers. This website has many original translations: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/
38. Mom424 - February 23rd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Monkey; read this article first and then progress from there…lord liftin, he dropped the damn bear into the swamp so he could rescue it,,,lucky it didn’t die from fright either time…
39. Mom424 - February 23rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
damn forgot the link
http://findarticles.com/p/arti.....i_19998020
40. SlickWilly - February 23rd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Miss destiny: There is actually a black hole in our galaxy right now. It’s a supermassive black hole that exists at the center of our galaxy, and the galaxy revolves around it on an axis, just as #9 on the list predicts. It’s speculated that most galaxies revolve around these supermassive black holes.
41. heavybison - February 23rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
JF: Nothing like the classic old font thought…(i’m a sucker for sentiments!!). I rememmber the disney stuff caused a lot of controversy…i would really kill the makers for doin’ it. For some silly reason, the last one(Hair and Fingernails) reminds me of that animation sequence edited from the original clerks(the church sequence where Randall overturns the casket!!)
Great list, btw…
42. nelia - February 23rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I remember learning the taste bud map in 4th grade. Then in 5th grade we were informed that the taste bud map was a mistake. Sort of funny that they discovered the mistake right after we learned it. We were pretty young, so it was also an interesting lesson in the fallibility of science. I remember it being the first time it really occurred to me that what we were learning in school was fluid, and that science changes all the time. I guess the fact that it took the flux of taste bud knowledge at the age of 11 for me to figure this out is why I’m an English Lit person now
I was also one of those kids who pretty much though adults were always right. Haha, how insufferable of me.
I’ve read about the lemmings thing as well, it makes me furious every time I think of it. Poor things.
43. Csimmons - February 23rd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Cool list. I knew most of these though.
44. Paul - February 23rd, 2008 at 7:40 pm
#4 is a picture of a snake
45. chershey - February 23rd, 2008 at 9:21 pm
There’s a great Mythbusters in which Adam Jamie compete against each other on who can better train some goldfish. I won’t say who won, but both guy’s fishes do far better than three seconds.
46. chershey - February 23rd, 2008 at 9:22 pm
*Adam and Jamie
47. ChrisG - February 23rd, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Poor lemmings. How much more evidence do we need that Disney are evil? Let’s all rise up and destroy Disney. Now! Attack!
48. Amna - February 24th, 2008 at 5:53 am
Abt No.6 it is not a myth but it is partially true “Hur” does refer to beatiful “pure-eyed, virgin girls” which will be a part of the paradise rewards for muslim men.Dont know abt 72 though.there are also male counterparts of ‘hur’ for the women (described as beautifully exquiste boys). Trust me i have read abt this in all my islamyat course books
49. Wally - February 24th, 2008 at 7:03 am
To all those who “already knew” these, get a life! Nobody cares except you so shut up!
50. evilk8 - February 24th, 2008 at 11:49 am
darn - i just told Shane’s kids about taste buds sensing different tastes. bugger…
51. Juanjux - February 24th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
For the next list, a common misconception about my country that I’ve seen told by some english sites, even by supposedly experts:
“Spaniards have a lisp because some King (Charles V or Phillip II or Ferdinand of Arangon, depending on the source) had a lisp”.
It’s just not true. First, not all spaniards have a lisp - only the ones of the southern regions (Andalusia, Canary Islands mainly) and second that lisp have existed for thousands of years, it already existed on those regions during the Roman Empire when the language spoken was latin. So the lisp is even older than the spanish language. The roman-hispanic philosopher Seneca the younger [4BC-65AD] (who was from Andalusia) was very know on it’s time on Rome for his andalusian lisp.
52. JwJwBean - February 24th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I didn’t know some of these. Thanks for enlightening me.
53. AcrylicPop - February 25th, 2008 at 5:03 am
It is very rare for the head half of a worm to live. If you cut a worm in half usually both halves die a slow death. Don’t cut worms in halves…
54. SocialButterfly - February 25th, 2008 at 8:20 am
chershey: That was a really good episode too. If I remember correctly, Jamie trained his fish by putting food on the obstacle course sections so the fish knew that they had to god in that direction in order to be fed… very clever those mythbusters are.
55. dofnup - February 25th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I love these lists, it’s always nice to know that you’re not the only one who knows the truth about these things … what frustrates me is that people who believe these things are sometimes fanatical about them, and nothing one can say will change their minds >_
56. SpookyMulder - February 25th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Interesting list! Achmed the Dead Terrorist will be sad that he won’t get his 72 virgins.
57. Praenomenal - February 25th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Thank you for #8, as a descendant of William Dawes, one of the other riders it is nice to see that myth dispelled.
58. sarah at the disco - February 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Aghhhhh
This list scares me now. I have a pretty horrible fear of worms, and that picture of the worm just rewened my day. :[
Otherwise, great list :]
59. Anton - February 26th, 2008 at 8:31 am
In Cape Town South-Africa cctv cameras made a huge difference to crime, believe me without them no tourist would leave this city alive.
60. shaunism - February 26th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I remember that lemming movie - it traumatised me as a kid! Did Disney really do that?!
61. Rose - February 26th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I knew that about the Gold Fish…Mine would come up to greet me after I would get home from work each day! Not for food but to say hello! I had her for almost 8 years!
62. Sarah - February 26th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
MissDestiny:
I believe that special referred to a wandering black hole, not a stationary one.
I watched that special, too. Ruined my life….
63. Nzbyrd - February 27th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Good List
64. caiti - February 29th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
this list would be much more interesting if I hadn’t already seem all of them at Wikpedia’s list of common misconceptions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_misconceptions), along with extremely similar descriptions of why they are wrong.
65. AJ - March 3rd, 2008 at 7:55 am
zzzzzzzzz…..i knew all of them………n not all……….but yeah almost all……….plus………there are loads of fake cctv cameras put just to make people believe they are being watched……….
66. Julia - April 22nd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
thank you!
someone finally putting the whole “fingernails and hair growing after death” thing to an end.
:]
67. God - May 30th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
For number 4 the photo is not a worm its a legless lizard.
68. Hemingway - June 8th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Just to add to the black hole hokum, while it is true that a black hole’s external gravitational field is only slightly less than the initial star, the notion that black holes are cosmic vacuum cleaners refers to the fact that they have fallen beyond their event horizons, which are the certain radii of objects that when they themselves fall within can no longer escape the gravitational force. Once any matter, including light, has entered this radius, there is no known force strong enough to exceed the escape velocity, which in that case is essentially infinite. Why there is no such force is because no matter can move backwards in spacetime nor can exceed the speed of light.
Never mind me. I’m just trying to appear smarter than I actually am. Lol.
69. Braden - June 9th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Actually, the pic for #4 is of legless lizards. I want to say glass lizards, but I’m not entirely sure.