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.

@Pastnowfuture

That social workers can remove children from their parents.

That can but they have to go to court to get an order to allow them to do so.

@BigPantsLittlePants

Everyone is on the autism spectrum somewhere

NO. Only autistic people are on the autistic spectrum. That's why it's called the autistic spectrum 🙄 IMO this is one of the most damaging myths to the well-being of the autistic population and it needs to be debunked every time you hear it (please!).

Lots of people may have one or two autistic traits but you have to have a whole load of them to be diagnosed as autistic.

Yet I watched a documentary in which two psychiatrists said exactly that everyone is on the spectrum 🤔

What do defibrillators do?

They defibrillate.

The most common type of cardiac arrest (not a heart attack) is caused by the ventricles fibrillating, it has been described as looking like worms inn a sack. There is electrical activity but is is not synchronised.

The defibrillator temporarily stuns the electrical activity in the heart and effectively resets it.

Flatline isn't really a thing, but the closest thing to it is asystole, where the heart has no electrical activity.

The reason VF is an 'arrest' is because, although the heart is moving' there is no blood output.

You can also used a defib i atrial fibrillation but that's done as a pre booked procedure, not an emergency.

And Hitler not German

A pound of anything is the same as a pound of anything else!

No. A kilogram of something weighs the same as a kilogram of something else.

There are different systems of imperial weights depending on the substance. A pound of flour weighs more than a pound of gold because everyday things like flour are weighed using the Avoirdupois system 1lb = 16 oz = 7,000 grains = 0.454 kg) but precious metals are weighed using the Troy system (1 lb = 12 oz = 5,760 grains = 0.373 kg). Imperial measures are ludicrously complicated.

@motherofawhirlwind

All part timers doing the same hours get the same amount of time off, it's just if you have Mondays as a non working day you get to decide when more of your time off is than if you worked Mondays and had to have Bank Holidays off.

All part time HR peeps have Mondays off if they possibly can!

As a part time worker I prefer to not work Mondays because if I work 20 hours per week and 8 are in a Monday . A bank holiday would pay 4 hours so I would then have to work the extra 4 hours elsewhere

@DrSophia

That it is illegal to open someone else's post if its delivered to your address.

It is if it is to the 'detriment' of the person it is addressed to and you do not have a 'reasonable excuse' for doing it. Being nosey isn't considered a reasonable excuse.

@sweetbellyhigh

That it's spitting image.

It's not, it's spit and image.

All because of the programme I suspect

@FatOaf

A pound of anything is the same as a pound of anything else!

No. A kilogram of something weighs the same as a kilogram of something else.

There are different systems of imperial weights depending on the substance. A pound of flour weighs more than a pound of gold because everyday things like flour are weighed using the Avoirdupois system 1lb = 16 oz = 7,000 grains = 0.454 kg) but precious metals are weighed using the Troy system (1 lb = 12 oz = 5,760 grains = 0.373 kg). Imperial measures are ludicrously complicated.

Is a precious metal under the Troy system defined as such. How do you become precious? I've never even heard anything about this.

That anorexia is about control

@sweetbellyhigh

That it's spitting image.

It's not, it's spit and image.

@sweetbellyhigh

What??? It's spitting image!

I had to google this and it COMES from spit and image originally but it evolved into spitting image by the end of the 19th century. So unless we go back to using Victorian English for everything, spitting image it is!!

www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/spitting-image-origin-meaning

@mrsm43s

That is true. I work part time and have a Monday off, my DH works part time and has a Tuesday off. We work at the same place with the exact same terms and conditions and I get more hours of annual leave than he does. Our 'base rate' of annual leave is the same, but I get a public holiday adjustment on top which is what makes the difference (because most public holidays are on a Monday).

@mistermagpie - but you both still get the same number of days off. On a week where there is a Monday bank holiday, he works one less day than you (assuming you work the same number of days). So you have hours for that day added to your leave, so that you can have the time off that he has already had at another time to equal you up - not to give you more. You will both work exactly the same number of hours over the year - but not working a Monday means that you get more choice in when you take a few of them (because they are added to your leave rather than taken on a set Bank Holiday day).

This is obviously calculated differently in different countries, because where I live you only get the public holiday entitlement for days you regularly work (or more specifically you have to have worked a certain percentage of them over a certain period of time preceding that date). So if I am never rostered on a Monday I'll never get the public holiday for it. Which is why I DO work Monday and have my day off as a Wednesday instead.

@HunterHearstHelmsley I can assure you as a teacher this does not work! We don't get an additional day of leave if you don't work on Monday.

One year was fantastic for me, due to where bank holidays Monday fell and I think a royal wedding I had an additional 2 days off and as I only worked on a Monday that became a 5 week holiday 🤣 (it came after the Easter holidays).

@ClareBlue

And Hitler not German

He was a German citizen although he was born in what is now Austria (then Austria-Hungary). So he was German from the date that he acquired citizenship, same as people who acquire British citizenship become British from that point onwards.

@MasterBeth

Ghosts and Jesus.

There is extensive evidence that Jesus existed. Wether or not he was a prophet or the messiah is another question but any reasonable person can’t say he didn’t exist.

@shortroundd

That Michael Flatley is Irish-American born and bred.

Mel Gibson is Australian, Olivia Newtown John is Australian or I think a lot of people back in the day believed Mother Teresa was Irish.

He is Irish American, born in Chicago to Irish parents.

Is a precious metal under the Troy system defined as such. How do you become precious? I've never even heard anything about this.

www.britannica.com/science/troy-weight

@Valkyrie40

That napoleon was french.

He was French though.

A chap who died by being shot on a tube train by the met police under Cressida Dicks watch.

Totally innocent and nothing like the chap the police wanted.

Beyond farcical.

That above was for @sweetbellyhighregatding Jean Charles

Yes, I understand Michael Flatley was very much Irish American also.

That urine is sterile.

Australia/NZ common law marriage is not forced marriage. No one is forcing you to live with another person.

The courts won’t force a 50:50 split after 2 years and 1 day if eg there are no children. It’s a law to protect mostly women (and sometimes men) who bear children & delay/derail careers to ensure their efforts aren’t lost in a long term relationship.

Believe it or not, some women are strung along through no fault of their own by their partner saying “ we’ll get married once the baby is here/we’ve bought a house” and myriad reasons that are simply a way to avoid taking care of the caregiver to their children in the event of a split.

There is no such thing as "Irish American". Or "French American", Scottish American" or "Japanese American".

Michael Flatley was born and raised in South Chicago and is American.

That he had built a successful career on his talent for Irish dancing and entertainment doesn't alter this.

That when driving past a row of parked cars, the driver on the opposites side of road to the parked cars automatically has right of way. - They don't (do I need a diagram?)

Well it would be pretty stupid to drive into the opposite side of the road into oncoming traffic to overtake parked cars, and I think if there was an accident you would probably be to blame.