list-of-common-misconceptions

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

There was no lethal weapon at hand, but I seized a shovel which the workmen had been using to fill the cases, and lifting it high, struck, with the edge downward, at the hateful face.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

a girl can have so much fun reading wikipedia's List of Common Misconceptions

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

wikipedia is a gem

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

"the prefrontal cortex doesn't fully form until yr 25!!" y do u wish to take more agency away from teens and young adults. y do u refer to phrenology to inform yr worldview. I'm about to undevelop yr prefrontal cortex with a baseball bat if u don't shut the fuck up

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

Mozart did not die from poisoning and was not poisoned by his colleague Antonio Salieri or anyone else. The false rumor originated soon after Salieri's death and was dramatized in Alexander Pushkin's play Mozart and Salieri (1832), and later in the 1979 Amadeus play by Peter Shaffer and the subsequent 1984 film Amadeus.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

The Bible does not say that exactly three magi came to visit the baby Jesus, nor that they were kings, or rode on camels, or that their names were Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, nor what color their skin was. Three magi are inferred because three gifts are described, but the Bible says only that there was more than one magus; still, artistic depictions of the nativity have almost always depicted three magi since the 3rd century. Though they are often depicted as being present for Jesus' birth, the Bible specifies only an upper limit of two years for the interval between the birth and the visit. The association of magi with kings—a connection vehemently opposed by John Calvin as a "ridiculous contrivance"—comes from attempts to tie Old Testament prophecies such as Psalm 72 and chapter 60 of the Book of Isaiah, to the magi; most accounts describe the magi as being astrologers or magicians.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

While modern life expectancies are much higher than those in the Middle Ages and earlier, adults in the Middle Ages did not die in their 30s or 40s on average. That was the life expectancy at birth, which was skewed by high infant and adolescent mortality. The life expectancy among adults was much higher; a 21-year-old man in medieval England, for example, could expect to live to the age of 64.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

The Middle Ages were not "a time of ignorance, barbarism and superstition"; the Church did not place religious authority over personal experience and rational activity; and the term "Dark Ages" is rejected by modern historians.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

The name "golf" is not an acronym for "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden". It may have come from the Dutch word kolf or kolve, meaning "club", or from the Scottish word goulf or gowf meaning "to strike or cuff".

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

The musical interval tritone was never thought to summon the devil, was not banned by the Catholic Church, and was not associated with devils during the Middle Ages or Renaissance. Early medieval music used the tritone in Gregorian chant for certain modes. Guido of Arezzo (c. 991 – c. 1033) was the first theorist to discourage the interval, while rock musicians popularized this myth to justify their use of the tritone.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

There is no evidence that Viking warriors wore horns on their helmets; this would have also been highly impractical in battle.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

There is no evidence that violent video games cause people to become violent. Studies have consistently found no link between aggression and violent video games, and the popularity of gaming has coincided with a decrease in youth violence. The moral panic surrounding video games in the 1980s through to the 2000s, alongside isolated incidents of violence and legislation in many countries, likely contributed to proliferating this idea.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

The black belt in martial arts does not necessarily indicate expert level or mastery. It was introduced for judo in the 1880s to indicate competency at all of the basic techniques of the sport. Promotion beyond 1st dan (the first black belt rank) varies among different martial arts. In judo and derived martial arts such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, holders of higher master ranks are awarded alternating red and white panels, and the highest grandmasters wear solid red belts. Some other arts such as taekwondo use black belts with a number of gold bars to indicate the holder's dan rank.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

The idea that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute before she met Jesus is not found in the Bible or in any of the other earliest Christian writings. The misconception likely arose due to a conflation between Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany (who anoints Jesus' feet in John 11:1–12), and the unnamed "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus' feet in Luke 7:36–50.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

It is rarely necessary to wait 24 hours before filing a missing person report. When there is evidence of violence or of an unusual absence, it is important to start an investigation promptly. The UK government advises "You do not have to wait 24 hours before contacting the police." Criminology experts say the first 72 hours in a missing person investigation are the most critical.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

Vomiting was not a regular part of Roman dining customs. In ancient Rome, the architectural feature called a vomitorium was the entranceway through which crowds entered and exited a stadium, not a special room used for purging food during meals.

[list-of-common-misconceptions]

The ancient Greeks did not use the word "idiot" (Ancient Greek: ἰδιώτης, romanized: idiṓtēs) to disparage people who did not take part in civic life or who did not vote. An ἰδιώτης was simply a private citizen as opposed to a government official. Later, the word came to mean any sort of non-expert or layman, then someone uneducated or ignorant, and much later to mean stupid or mentally deficient.