Some common statements often accepted as facts, but are actually false.

1. The Illuminati do not use eyes or triangles as their symbol.

Spoiler

The Eye of Providence (symbol of a human eye enclosed within an equilateral triangle, seen on $1 bills) was never used by the Illuminati as an insignia. The original Bavarian Illuminati pursued enlightenment and knowledge free from the restraints of superstition and the government. The Eye of Providence symbolises God watching over all of mankind and would have been in direct conflict with the Illuminati’s philosophy against religion and mass-surveillance.

The Illuminati uses the Owl of Athena/Minerva as an icon.

2. The mitochondrion is not the powerhouse of the cell.

Spoiler

Mitochondria do not generate energy, but rather convert and store energy from the movement of electrons and protons to produce a chemical compound called ATP (adenosine triphosphate). ATP is a “universal energy unit” that is used by all cells for their metabolic reactions, it is made from an adenosine molecule bonded to three phosphate groups. Energy is released when each phosphate group is removed from the molecule by breaking their bonds. This is a reversible process, allowing ATP molecules to be reused much like rechargeable batteries.

Therefore, mitochondria are more akin to battery factories/chargers than power stations.

3. DNA is not always in a double helix shape.

Spoiler

DNA has always been depicted as a pair of helices wrapped around each other, however triple or even quadruple helices have been discovered. They are potentially used to control which genes are switched on or off.

4. The winged rod with serpents around it is not the proper symbol of medicine.

Spoiler

Often we see hospitals and healthcare-related articles carrying a sign showing a stick with wings on one end and two snakes wrapped around it in a double helix shape. This is called the Caduceus and historically represents trade, trickery, and deception. The proper symbol should be the Rod of Asclepius (Greek god of healing), which is a staff with a single serpent and no wings.

The Caduceus would be inappropriate as it has connotations to money and greed while the Hippocratic Oath that all modern doctors swear by declares that they should act with justice and not be swayed by greed or bribes.

5. The Big Bang was not an explosion.

Spoiler

The Theory of the Big Bang states that the current known universe expanded from a singularity of high density. It cannot be described as an explosion as an explosion involves objects moving away from a single point to fill nearby space while the Big Bang was in fact the expansion of space itself.

6. Use of lie detectors is not a scientifically validated technique.

Spoiler

The polygraph machine measures certain vital stats such as breathing rate and blood pressure, but there is no significant correlation with truth-telling and such stats. Rather, these are affected by emotional state and stress, therefore a person recalling a traumatic but true event may also fail a polygraph test.

7. Humans do not have just five senses.

Spoiler

We have several other senses, including one that lets the body know if everything is still attached and where our body parts are in 3D space.

8. Chinese fortune cookies are not Chinese.

Spoiler

Fortune cookies are actually an American invention. Hence you rarely find them in China.

9. Bulls are not enraged by the colour red.

Spoiler

Bulls actually have dichromatic vision, and it is not the red colour of the flag that makes them charge, but rather then motions of the matador. The same effect can be achieved by using any other coloured flags.

10. The “Forbidden Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge” is not necessarily an apple.

Spoiler

In Genesis 3:6, the identity of the fruit was never specified as an apple. It could have been an orange, pear, or even a watermelon. Maybe.

11. Isaac Newton was not inspired by an apple hitting him on the head.

Spoiler

There are no records from the man himself that describe the idea of gravitational attraction being inspired by a falling apple. The first time this story was written and published was in Isaac Newton’s biography by William Stukeley, however this may have been greatly embellished.

12. Vikings did not wear horned helmets.

Spoiler

This was a piece of artistic licensing originating from an opera by Wagner.

13. Adult sunflowers do not constantly turn themselves to face the sun.

Spoiler

Like many other plants, they do grow in the direction of sunlight in early developmental stages, however the blooming flowers themselves do not rotate to face the sun.

14. Black holes are not holes.

Spoiler

Black holes are made from extremely dense matter that attract objects close to its centre of gravity. Its gravitational strength is so great that even light cannot escape, and hence why they appear as dark spots in the sky.

15. The probability of getting tails when flipping one coin is not the same as the probability of getting three tails when flipping six coins.

Spoiler

While a single coin can only have the two outcomes of heads or tails (ignoring the edge of the coin), there are multiple ways to achieve three heads or tails when flipping six coins (or flipping any even number of coins and half of them landing on tails, for that matter).

16. Vaccines do not cause autism.

Spoiler

No. Just, no.

 

Posted by Midori

16. Vaccines do not cause autism.

Spoiler

No. Just, no.

made me audibly giggle  

Wow ._.  

Posted by Midori

Black holes are made from extremely dense matter that attract objects close to its centre of gravity. It’s gravitational strength is so great that even light cannot escape, and hence why they appear as dark spots in the sky.

Actually while black holes themselves are not visible, they tend to be accompanied by a very visible accretion disk. In fact, it's theorized that the center of most galaxies have a super-massive black hole.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/NGC_4414_%28NASA-med%29.jpg/582px-NGC_4414_%28NASA-med%29.jpg (Unsupported image host)

Also you wouldn't see "dark spots" in the sky from a black hole. Their gravity is so massive the light that passes by it is bent in an effect called gravitational lensing:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/A_Horseshoe_Einstein_Ring_from_Hubble.JPG (Unsupported image host)  

The autism vaccine thing was probably brought up due to early childhood vaccinations (MMR) being at the same time autism symptoms may have appeared in the child.

Midori has an amazing amount of rep considering her post count... :0

good thread.  

This thread was enlightening  

Ummmmm vaccines do cause autism.

I like, googled it and one result saying it does popped up.

Your argument is hereby invalidated.

5hift-1 Midori-0  

my life is a lie...  

Posted by 5hift

Ummmmm vaccines do cause autism.

I like, googled it and one result saying it does popped up.

Your argument is hereby invalidated.

5hift-1 Midori-0

Uh-oh, the truth has been leaked. I had better alert my superiors at Pfizer that Operation Protect-Our-Profits-By-Telling-People-That-Our-Vaccines-Are-Not-Creating-Problems-So-That-We-Can-Sell-Them-Back-The-Cure-At-A-High-Price has been unsuccessful!  

Get rekt deceptive big pharma.

The world can now rest easy.

*Mass Ebola Epidemic*  

There was no big bang, there was God and the rest is religion.  

I knew about 10 of these
that last one, lol though.

a few more that are personally extremely annoying to me:
-The popular paragraph that went around the internet since 2003--

Spoiler

"...aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae..."

--dead horse that has been beat to oblivion.
-Anyway, Cambridge NEVER conducted this report. In fact a real linguistic researcher at Cambridge University disproved this myth by writing a similarly scrambled sentence, but with uncommon, unrecognizable, or long words, and words that have the same letters as other words.

-"Humans only use 10% of their brain."
-No, the actual fact is "Humans only use about 10% of their brain at one time." You DO use all of your brain, but not all at the same time. Only the portions that are responsible for activities that are relevant to what youre doing are active. Yes, the movie "Lucy" is literally based on ****ing internet myth that was already disproved.  

All these are assumptions. But I like the way your going