things the masses of people seem to believe that aren't true.

[shortroundd]

I am not talking about conspiracies here that can't be proven with a bit of digging but more false stuff that seems to stick in the minds of the general population as truths.

1. All/majority of lotto winners go broke after 5 years. I have seen this touted out a lot yet there is no known source of it as no such research exists. There is the handful of bad stories that are circulated but this is only a minority out of 1000s of big winners worldwide. Infact, I recall the tabloids doing a feature with winners to celebrate Camelot's 20th anniversary or so and many winners had said their lives were better.

1. Marriage means all assets are split 50/50. Another huge misconception.

1. Prenups will protect 1 in divorce- again I think 2 and 3 come from people watching tv shows and movies that use this as factual when it's not.

1. Elvis sings 'Lonely this Christmas.'

1. The capital of Brazil is Rio.

You can tell if an egg is off by seeing if it floats

A vegetarian diet avoids killing animals

As I understand it re post/mail it's the intention behind opening it. I've opened mail in order to obtain the return address/reference number. Sometimes simply placing it back into the post box with 'return to sender' isn't enough.

Not quite a widespread belief but my friend and work colleague was gobsmacked when I asked her how long dragon's had been extinct for...

[quote CaterpillaNavilla]@Fridafever it’s down to vanity sizing. The measurements for a size 16 in the 40’s/50’s are very different to the measurements for a size 16 today (if Marilyn was classed as a size 16).

Sewing patterns don’t subscribe to vanity sizing in the same way as clothes shops do today - I find there’s around 2-4 dress sizes’ difference for the same measurements between the two.

Hopefully this explains it better than I am…

themarilynmonroecollection.com/marilyn-monroe-true-size/[/quote]
An American size 12 is the same as UK size 16. Have a look in your clothing labels.

@zen1

That you can be ‘registered’ disabled.

thats a complicated one....there did used to be a national scheme many many years ago and yes that no longer exists...BUT some utility companies do have their own customer registers for customers who could be put at risk by loss of the utility and colloquially some companies do refer to this as being on their disabled register.

That Kansas City is in Kansas when it is actually in Missouri

Actually it’s in both as it straddles that state border. It also has an amazing art museum.

I think the 52 states comes from people adding Alaska and Hawaii to the 50 states, when they’re included, or from counting US territories like Puerto Rico and Samoa as states.

@SnackSizeRaisin

You can tell if an egg is off by seeing if it floats

is this not true?....its certainly true that the older the egg is the higher it floats in plain cold water

@HeyBlaby Of course there are people with chronic (borreliosis) lyme disease, it’s like syphilis, a spirochetal infection and can burrow in joints and if not treated early (50% don’t have the bullseye rash), it progresses and it’s no joke.

@SnackSizeRaisin I've always done that with eggs - is there a better way? Or just one which works?!

Oh, and that every school child with diagnosed SEN has an EHCP. I bloody wish!

WhoppingBigBackside that is correct. I was born in the 1950s, and when I was late teens/early twenties I had a 22 inch waist and 30 inch bust, and wore dress sizes either 8 or 10, depending on the brand.
The average person was several sizes slimmer than modern people. We had no supermarkets, very little junk food, didn’t really snack between meals, had few labour saving devices and less car ownership, so walked much more.

That being vegan is good for your body.

@stuntbubbles

That having mice means you don’t have rats. Ask me how I know it’s not true

oh I KNOW this is not true

That a woman has to change her surname to her husband's when they get married.

@WeirdlyKind you’ve fallen for the misconception. In reality almond milk uses less water than dairy! www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46654042

Re. Marilyn Monroe.... She was quite short so compared to a much taller model she would be relatively big by today's standards. But obviously pretty slim compared to a normal woman. Her waist being tiny made her look curvier than she was.

There obviously is a real Lyme disease which can affect your health for the rest of your life and should be taken seriously -
but there have been increased reports of 'Chronic Lyme disease' which have nothing to do with actual Lyme and is considered to be pseudo/fake:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_Lyme_disease

female cats/dogs need to have 1 litter
muscle weighs more than fat

Carbs do make you fat!

Of course they don't.

Eating too many calories and not expending more in activity than you consume makes you overweight

No one food group does.

Dear God

@AutomaticMoon that is very true…but once the police actually got wind of it and started looking around, they found an alarming number of body parts. Also he didn’t bother disposing of a lot of his victims’ belongings either, so luckily the police managed to identify a fair few of them based off of possessions found on the property which were matched up to missing people. Mainly “high risk” victims ie sex workers, runaways, drug addicts etc. Really sad

@PotatoGoblins

Bit of nichè one…but it’s my field of study so don’t go thinking I’m a psycho killer or anything But lots of people seem to believe that pigs are a great way to dispose of a body. They really aren’t

Bugger! That's my plans thwarted then.

@educatingrati

To be fair Brazil's capital was Rio de Janeiro until 1960.

Napoleon's family where Tuscan nobles who emigrated to Corsica, when Napoleon was born in Corsica which had been annexed by France. He was somewhere between 5'2 and 5'6 so not particularly tall, but average male height at the time if 5'6 (his elite soldiers where known for their height, so by comparison he would have seemed short!).

The average person was several sizes slimmer than modern people. We had no supermarkets, very little junk food, didn’t really snack between meals, had few labour saving devices and less car ownership, so walked much more.

Also there was much worse nutrition and much more poverty and people were much shorter. Even now working class men tend to be several inches shorter than those from better off backgrounds. In proportion those dress sizes may not be as different. A size 16 on a 5 foot 8 woman is probably comparable to a size 10 on a 5 foot 4 woman

Ghosts and Jesus.