Things We Might Believe Which Are Not True There are a lot of things which we believe are are not true, or we can’t be sure they are true. Some things it is hard to disbelieve because we have been hearing about them for years. If we look at the pyramids on the Giza plateau, we see the Sphinx on the same plane in the front of them. Looking at the nose on the Sphinx we see it was broken off. The story goes when Napoleon was in Egypt with his army, they shot the nose off the Sphinx with a cannon. This is false even though we have been told this forever and as far as the pyramids go, they are not tombs for the pharaohs because none have ever been found in them. Going to the moon was one of the greatest events in all of human history. Apollo 11 was the first to land on the moon with a crew. We are told Apollo 17 was the last. Some hint that this is not true, there was an Apollo 18 which secretly landed there. The excuse for stopping the flights at the time was the interest in it by the population of the country was lost. What a weak excuse and one which was certainly not a reason to stop. Air Force space suits were found in a room in an old base and had the name tags of Air Force astronauts on them. It seems there was more going on than what we were told. Sometimes we are told things which defy science and most people might still believe them. Let’s take the simple case of the so called penny which is dropped off the top of the Empire State building. The penny is said to keep accelerating. That is not true. There is something called terminal velocity and when that is reached the object can not go any faster. If you drop a penny off the roof of the Empire State building it will reach terminal velocity and continue down at that speed. I have heard the saying we only use 10% of our brains since I was a little kid. Science tells us the brain is only a tiny part of the body and yet it uses 20% of all the bodies energy and far more of the brain is used than we are told. When a test was given to see the amount of a person’s brain being used it was around 35% at the time. I would imagine it depends on how complex the task is which is being performed. When you were young did you ever ask your parents to try coffee? If you did was the answer it will stunt your growth? This was a routine answer told to children at one time and may still be today. It is not true and if some who tried it when they were young had their growth stunted, it was for some other reason. Over the years, some benefits of coffee have been listed. So many times, it has been said the highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest. I will say something for it, it is the highest cemetery, containing many dead bodies of people who tried to climb it and died doing so. There is a mountain in Hawaii which is a volcano which starts from under the ocean and if it is measured from its base, it is almost a mile bigger than Mount Everest. Its name is Mauna Kea. If you see a group of people playing the bagpipes and walking in a parade, what is the first country you think of? You probably said Scotland and I couldn’t blame you. Most people believe bagpipes come from there, but that is not true. There is ancient evidence they could be Turkish, Egyptian or even Hittite. Nero minted a coin showing him playing the bagpipes. I don’t know if he ever did. What do you think about the story Einstein failed math? The story has been circulating for many years. It isn’t true, but he did fail an entrance exam once. As far as math goes, he was very good at it as one would imagine. While this is a little off topic, I thought it was interesting enough to mention. Both Einstein and Tesla when asked how they invented things or discovered complex equations said the same thing. They said the device or equation would appear in their mind and they would copy it. Sounds very strange, doesn’t it? How many times have you heard the saying it is too dangerous to wake a sleep walker? I have seen answers to this which state it doesn’t hurt them to wake them up and even though they may wake confused they shouldn’t harm you or themselves. I am not a doctor however. Were you ever told if you shave hair it will come back thicker? I have heard this over the years. It is not true, but seems true because when hair grows back it has a blunt tip. I think almost everyone thinks that bulls hate the color red, and why not. We see matadors waving a red cloth in front of them and the bull charging. The problem with this saying is the bull is color blind. When it charges it is because something is being waved at it. Many people believe alcohol will warm you up on a cold day. The warm feeling is not from warmth however. It actually cools your core temperature and dilates blood vessels which is the cause of the core temperature going down. The next time you see a movie of people out in the cold drinking to get warm, don’t believe it. How many times did we hear about how short Napoleon was and also he had a complex about it. He was even called the little corporal. The idea he was small was said to be British propaganda. His actual height was 5 foot 7 inches, large for the day. So many people think the Vikings wore helmets with horns on them. How many times have we seen this in movies? A historian has said the first time Vikings were shown with horns was at a production of a Wagner opera in Germany in 1876. Were you ever told never to touch a baby bird because its mother will never allow it back in the nest if it detects you. That is not true. The mother will be more than happy to get her baby back. I would just like to say that some of the things we were told in school have turned out to be wrong. Take the tale of Christopher Columbus who was said to discover America. Many now believe people from all over ancient history were landing here and many before Columbus.
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