10) The Great Wall of China is the only man-made
object visible from space. To see something on Earth from space, it would
have to be pretty big, which the great wall of China all 5,000 miles of it certainly is. But, it’s only 30 feet across at its widest. Here’s a photo taken from the International
Space station, 200 miles above Earth. Can you spot the great wall amid the mountain
tops? Here, right? No, that’s a river, the wall is actually
here. Even if you guessed the right lines buy pure
luck, this photo was taken with a zoom lens, so from the window of the space station it
looks more like this – which pretty clearly makes the Great Wall count as ‘not visible.’ As for the man-made part of this misconception
our glorious man-made cities blasting light into the void certainly are visible. 9) Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis. Socially obnoxious? Yes. Gives you arthritis later in life as karmic
punishment? No.
8) People Only Use 10% of their Brain If you haven’t seen a medical drama in the
past oh, 30 years, you might not be aware that doctors now have machines that can see
inside peoples’ brains and, contrary to popular, belief 90% of the neurons don’t
sit all day around doing nothing. While scientists don’t yet know exactly
what each part does, they do know that all the bits matter. So if you think someone could scoop out 90%
of your brain and you’d still be just fine, then perhaps you really do only use 10% of
it. 7) Eskimos have Hundreds of words for snow
This one is technically correct, but misleading. Some languages, such as German, like to make
compound words by running several smaller ones together which is why German words are
sometimes absurdly long. Inuit languages use compound words as well
so rather than say ‘yellow snow’ as you would in English an Inuit speaker combines
the two words into one, but it’s not really a new word, just a quirk of grammar. So technically Eskimos do have 100s of ways
to describe snow… but then so does every language. 6) You Need 8 Glasses of Water a Day
While doubtless some people would benefit from drinking more water and drinking less
crap there is no scientific evidence that 8 glasses of water a day is the required amount
and some evidence that it might be too much. And while we’re talking about water… 5) Tap Water is Bad but Bottled Water is Good
If you live in a paradise free from Government regulations like, say, Somalia, then you might
have good reason to prefer bottled water over tap. But modern, functioning countries have something
called health regulations which cover both kinds of water. Also, water is extremely dense making transporting
it from those pristine mountain tops and glaciers enormously expensive which is why bottled
water companies don’t bother. ‘Bottled’ water is often just local tap
water with a fancy label and an enormous markup. 4) Gum takes seven years to pass through your
digestive system. This is pretty easy to disprove yourself but
it’s understandable why most people don’t try the experiment. 3) Blood in Your Veins is Blue
The idea here is that the blood in veins is blue and it only turns red when exposed to
the oxygen in the air. Thinking this isn’t unreasonable, after
all your veins look blue and medical diagrams show arteries as red and veins as blue, but
it’s the same mistake as thinking that mountain dew is green because it’s in a green bottle. Pour it out and you discover that Mountain
Dew is really piss yellow, which is probably the reason it’s in a green bottle to begin
with. The next time you get blood withdrawn from
a veins take a look. What color it is? Red. How much oxygen is inside a good syringe? None. Unless you’re a Horseshoe crab or Plavalaguna
you’re blood isn’t blue. 2) Fan Death
This misconception is a specialty of South Korea. Here the belief is that if you spend too much
time with a rotating fan in a confined space, it will use up all your oxygen and you’ll
asphyxiate to death. Exactly how the fan made of lifeless, anaerobic
plastic, competes for your oxygen is unclear, but hilariously South Korean fan manufacturers
– who surely must know better – include timers on fans to prevent them from running
too long. 1) People Swallow 8 Spiders a Year While Sleeping
Supposedly while you’re in bed, helplessly unconscious with your gob wide open, each
year eight spiders find their way into your mouth and you reflexively swallow them. This is plainly ridiculous: spiders love warm,
moist places so eight is far too low an estimate.
OK, I'm an American living in South Korea and I can confirm that nearly all fans here have timers on them. We have two small oscillating fans that have timers going up to 180 minutes. Of course, the fans also have a setting allowing the braver South Korean user to bypass the timer and run without that important safety feature. This is not recommended, since Fan Death is also very real, which I can confirm since I once left a fan on overnight and am, in fact, commenting from the grave. (BTW, news delivery down here is pretty spotty- how are the 49ers doing?)
Wait! That spider only has seven legs! I want a refund!
Fan death... you'd think it was some sort of half-joke but they're actually really serious about it. I tried reasoning with a S. Korean exchange student about it and it was like convincing the pope that God didn't exist. He got really upset at the mere notion that fan death wasn't real.
How can a nation that is so good at starcraft be so bad at basic reasoning?
That spider bit at the end is the reason I will tape my mouth shut befor I sleep from now on. You son of a bitch, what did you do?
I love that they used the "Spider drawing used for payment" spider in the last one.
For your convenience:
"8 is far too low of an estimate" ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ
The ending killed me. Seriously. I hate spiders.
Full screen the video, pause it at 0:11 (great wall of china). Look in archway at top left!
EDIT: For those who can't be bothered:
http://i.imgur.com/gy5pY.jpg