The Ostrich Head Burial

    By now, you probably know that I don't really confirm much of anything. I kinda gave up on the whole verdict thing. Actually I just forgot to put that in. Eh. Well, the whole ostriches burying their heads in the ground is just NOT true.

The whole thing probably started when Pliny the Elder wrote that the ostriches' "stupidity is... remarkable; for although the rest of their body is so large, they imagine, when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole of the body is concealed. " 

He may have been right about many facts about the ostrich, but this just wasn't one of 'em. But, I guess it's not hard to see why he'd think this though. After all, the brain of an ostrich is pretty small in proportion to its body, and people tend to automatically assume a smaller brain means less intelligence. Plus, they also dig their nests into the ground, so when they flip or move their eggs around, it looks like they're burying their heads into the ground. 

Sorry Mr.Pliny sir, you are wrong.

When an ostrich DOES sense danger, it can run away, or try to scare off the danger if it's a predator by making itself look scary. But sometimes, if it's bold enough, it'll just straight out beating the peace outta whatever scares it!
Or you know, utterly fail and run away:

Well, that's all I had to say! GoodBye 

Verdict: FALSE

When you sleep, your Brain takes a break

​Well, this is sorta true. You see, when you're awake, your brain is constantly working to understand​ what is going on around you. When you sleep, you aren't aware of your surroundings because your brain is "refreshing" so to speak in order for you to fell ready to go when you wake up. This doesn't mean your brain completely shuts down though. If that happened, you'd die in your sleep! After all, your brain "still controls many body functions including breathing" while you dream (sleepfoundation.org). As you sleep, you eventually enter REM sleep, in which "dreams occur, breathing and heart rate increase and become irregular, muscles relax, and eyes move back and forth under the eyelids" (sleepfoundation.org). In order for all this to happen however, your brain must be working and at least somewhat active to allow for movement. So there. Your brain is active when you sleep.

Blue Pool Pee

Try saying that 20 times fast! Yup. You may have heard about this myth from your parents or even some movie. You also may have heard of the variation of the myth in which pee turns red (ew). Either way, legend has it that in some select pools, owners dump a urine indicator dye to discourage people from peeing in them. It also helps catch who and when does pee in the pool and warns others where the pee is to avoid it. At least, that's what the myth says it's for. But does it really exist? Nope. Sorry.  A professional named "Alan" at the Aqua Clear web site says: "There is no chemical that can function as an indicator for urine in a pool." So there. It's official. It does NOT exist.

Chocolate's not healthy at all

 Chocolate often gets a bad rep for being bad for you. "It's full of caffeine and sugar". "It will make you sick if you eat to much". These and more are the most common complaints about chocolate. People turn a blind eye to the good things about chocolate though. It's not this evil temptation treat
 that people make it out to be. Especially dark chocolate. Sure, it's not as nutritious as an apple, but it has its advantages too! Dark chocolate, for example, has many antioxidants like Flavonol. In fact, your average dark chocolate bar has the same amount of antioxidants as 2/3 cups of blueberries! 10% of a good quality bar of dark chocolate is fiber. Eating it also stimulates the production of Nitric Oxide in your body, which serves in part to "send signals to the arteries to relax, which lowers resistance to blood flow and therefore reduces blood pressure" (www.authoritynutrition.com).

White Chocolate is still chocolate

 

Well, many people argue that because white chocolate has cocoa butter, it must be chocolate. But, technically, and legally, that just isn't enough to call it chocolate. If it doesn't have cocoa powder, it likely isn't chocolate, and white chocolate just doesn't. Cocoa butter "doesn’t contain any of the flavor-giving cocoa solids" (Michael Laiskonis*). In fact is really just "edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean" (USDA). The butter is combined with milk powder and also sugar to turn it into what we call white chocolate. But, let's be honest. Whether or not it's "real chocolate" isn't going to make us stop calling it chocolate. To most of us, it still is, and always will be chocolate.

*Creative director of the Institute for Culinary Education

Chocolate = Acne?

Welcome to the second edition of Chocolate Month! Okay so, a lot of people, mainly teens, claim that eating chocolate causes breakouts in facial acne. Since the 1960s, scientists have tried time and time again to prove whether or not there is actually a correlation between chocolate and acne. They have had no success. Until now. Sadly, a French study found that some of their subjects did get acne, however, they didn't take precautions to prevent other factors from messing with their results. So, maybe, this study can be discredited. Even so, according to Rachel Nazarian, a dermatologist from the Schweiger Dermatology Group, sugars and certain fats have shown to "cause the sebum in ...pores to become thicker and less fluid, so instead of moving dead skin cells lining ...pores to the surface, it forms a plug that clogs the pore, and eventually causes a blemish". So, if the chocolate in question is high in these, which, surprisingly, isn't very common, it might cause some acne. Even so, it is unlikely unless you have sensitive skin.

Verdict: maybe

It causes HEADACHES?!

Yup, this is one that has everyone with chronic migraines on edge!
People are scared to enjoy a chocolate bar! NO! Chocolate is supposed to bring joy and  ​satisfaction! NOT pain... right?

Well, a study from a LONG time ago said;
 

"well uh... maybe? Uhm... AMINES!!!" 

... 

OKAY, okay, so maybe it didn't say that EXACTLY, but it basically stated that a possible cause of headaches could be stuff with names that end in 'amines,' like 'histamines' that are in foods like, you know, CHOCOLATE. So there, that's it.

Verdict: T̶R̶U̶E̶      NEVER EVER EAT CHOCOLATE EVER AGAIN

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  CALM DOWN! BREATH!
Why? Because "a [more recent] study by the University of Pittsburgh has shown no link between chocolate and headaches," and that other study? It "eliminated chocolate as a possible headache cause," so actually:

Eat ON!!

Verdict: when has this ever been true...​

Twinkies last FOR. EVER.

Betcha didn't notice the Twinkie in Wall-e, did ya! Yup. Well, it's a long-held myth that Twinkies last for ever. It interests the best of us, including a chemistry teacher in 1976. Mr. Roger Bennatti "placed it on top of his chalkboard for an experiment to observe decay (or lack thereof) in preserved foods," and it stayed there for 30 years (http://bangordailynews.com). It is actually still at the school where he worked, at George Stevens Academy.
Wanna see?
No?
Sorry! ^.^

As you can probably see, the Twinkie is intact. Even so, I for one, would NEVER eat it. Sorry, but they're simply not immortal. Even Hostess doesn't believe it! They said that the new Twinkies now have a shelf life of 45 days. It is better than the old one, which survived around 25 days, but not everlasting. That's for sure.

Verdict: False... sorry

Drink 8 glasses of water everyday

It sounds healthy, and for some people, it does work, but there's one reason why this is a myth. Everyone is different! For example, the average 4-year old should only drink 4-5 glasses of water, so 8 is of course too much. Drinking too much water can overwhelm your body, making you lightheaded and/or dizzy. According to listverse.com, the amount of water you drink depends on other factors besides age too, "including your body size, the local climate, and how much physical activity you undertake. The Institute of Medicine suggests that the average adult man should drink about 13 cups of liquid (not necessarily water) every day, while the average adult woman should drink about nine cups per day". See? 8 glasses (or cups) of water isn't an amount that universally works! Ask your doctor to check what amount best fits you personally. Otherwise, enjoy water!

Verdict: FALSE-ish

Exercise = Better Bones?

It's something even some doctors dare to say: "Exercise to strengthen your bones!". It has been in magazines, tv shows, even to advertise exercise equipment. Is it true? Well, by now you can guess the answer: it is false. Where did it come from? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that when one is bedridden, they tend to lose bone density. People then began to believe that, by default, this must mean that being up and active, not only prevents bone loss, but strengthens bones too. Over a decade ago, it was tested whether exercise actually did anything. Their studies "failed to find anything more than a minuscule exercise effect — on the order of 1 percent or less, which is too small to be clinically significant... There was no evidence that bone was gained when people walked or ran" (www.nytimes.com). One might argue that these and other tests show some effect, and that this is enough to prove exercise helps. But, in reality, "there is no evidence that they make bone stronger or protect it from osteoporosis" (www.nytimes.com). Now, that doesn't mean exercise is useless and you can just avoid it. After all, it does strengthen your muscles!

Verdict: FALSE

Lie detectors are real?!

After years and years of the polygraph machine being featured in great and famed TV shows, it is actually a pretty common belief that these so-called 'lie detectors' are reliable enough to tell, for sure, whether or not a person is lying. But first, what is a polygraph? What does it do? Well, it is a machine that can distinguish a person's blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity (depending on the model, it may detect other things as well). These responses are thought to be directly related to a person's state of mind, hence they're called physiological responses. But, well, there are at least two problems with this.

1. "There is no evidence that any pattern of physiological reactions is unique to deception."  
2. "An honest person may be nervous when answering truthfully and a dishonest person may be non-anxious."

 (www.apa.org)

What this means is that polygraph tests, aren't necessarily accurate. In fact, even "courts, including the United States Supreme Court... *, have repeatedly rejected the use of polygraph evidence because of its inherent unreliability" (www.apa.org). So in reality, polygraph tests aren't conclusive, and don't test for lies, but physical responses which may or may not even be definitively connected with lying.

Verdict: Not Yet

* "cf. U.S. v. Scheffer, 1998 in which Dr.'s Saxe's research on polygraph fallibility was cited"

Does gum take 7 years to digest?

Almost every mother, at one point or another, -ooh that rhymes!- has told their child to not swallow their gum. 

"But why?," you'd ask.

"Because if you do, it'll be in your stomach for seven years".

Even so, whether it be on accident or on purpose, you'd inevitably swallow it. And then what? You'd have to think; "Is it true?" Well;

Nope. Nein. No. Niet. Negative.

While it's true that the stomach can't digest the gum resin, it can still separate it from what it can digest, like the sweeteners. What's left would just go through your digestive tract and exit in just a few days like any other hard-to-digest food like popcorn kernels. So, if you or someone you knows freaks out about swallowing gum, set them at ease! It is after all, just a myth. By the way, same goes for red meats. Just FYI. 

 

Verdict: FALSE 

GIFs!!!!!!!!!!

GIFs!!!!! Images in Graphics Interchange Format, are the best images on the internet. Thank you Steve Wilhite! He created the GIF in 1987 for CompuServe. They add animation to web pages, and can thus be used for an educational, informative, or even a comedic end (my personal favorite). Since then, GIFs have become super popular, especially for comedic effect on sites like that of BuzzFeed, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc.
For example, see the following from BuzzFeed:

"Are These The 43 Funniest GIFs Of All Time?"

See even funnier BuzzFeed GIFs here!

Whatever the purpose for making a GIF, there is a lingering misconception, which I will settle right now: 

How do you pronounce GIF?

It is pronounced with a SOFT G. Like "jif".

Proof? 

"The GIF (Graphic Interchange Format), pronounced 'JIF'..."   -CompuServe

"The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft 'G,' pronounced 'jif'. End of story."   -Steve Wilhite

Verdict: SOFT G

Sharks ≠ Disease?

Was the BBC wrong? Well, it seems it is the case. It has been a long-held myth that sharks don't get illnesses like cancer or tumors. But, this is just plain weird. The fact that sharks aren't "immune," at least to cancer, has been known, for over 150 years (according to the Discovery Channel). So, where did people get this misconception from? It looks like it was just another lie scammers told to promote their 'miraculous' shark cartilage treatments. Still don't believe it?

Ta-da!

Obviously, sharks aren't immune to tumors. They get cancer too. David Shiffman, a shark researcher and doctoral student at the University of Miami, flat-out said, "Sharks don't get cancer". There you have it, a professional sir has confirmed it! So, there. Sharks do get tumors and cancer.

Verdict: FALSE

Swimming after Eating

Wait 30 minutes before swimming! This is one of the most common myths ever! But, is it really that bad to swim right after eating? The myth in essence is that one shouldn't do this because the stomach will still be digesting, and in the mean-time, occupying enough blood to put your leg and arm muscles at risk of tiring too soon. Except, it's not entirely true. Yes, your body will direct some blood vessels to your digestion system, "but not enough blood to keep your arm and leg muscles from properly functioning. Your biggest danger related to eating and swimming is probably a minor cramp" (www.dukemedicine.org). So, enjoy summer once its here! If you wanna swim after eating go for it! Do with this information what you will.

Verdict: FALSE

Coal = DIAMAAAAAANDS

No, diamonds are NOT made of coal. Forming coal is a multi-million year process, the oldest specimens tracked back to 300 to 400 million years ago. Diamonds, however have been found to have been made 1–3 billion years ago. Besides this time difference, there is another reason why diamonds aren't made from coal. Diamonds come from a pure element - carbon. Yes it's true that coal is made mostly of carbon, but "mostly" doesn't cut it! Because it is made of multiple elements, coal has many impurities. Impurities are the enemy of a nice, clean, sharp, diamond. This means that "at the most can change its chemical composition and transform into its nearly purest form which is Graphite but not diamond. The conversion of coal into diamond is almost impossible due to its impurities" (todayifoundout.com). IN ADDITION, the pressure needed for diamonds to form is found only 87 to 120 miles deep into the Earth's crust. Coal is rarely ever found deeper than 2 miles, so in other words:
Are diamonds made of coal?

Verdict: FALSE

Flushed away

 

 Okay, so a belief is held that a toilet will flush water counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, and clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. This is then often attributed to the Coriolis effect and said to be completely verified and backed up by videos online of American and Australian toilets flushing in different directions. However, this is a great misconception. The Coriolis effect* can't actually be the reason for this though. It doesn't make sense because  "toilets—and even tornadoes—are too small to be affected by the Coriolis, whose force would only begin to directly influence a storm's swirling mass if it were approximately three times larger than the supercell storm systems that typically generate tornadoes" (www.scientificamerican.com). So why the change? Well, I can't be sure of the origin of this myth. However, the reason toilets flush in different directions could be due to the manufacturers.

*The Coriolis effect is "an apparent force which describes how objects veer to the left or right when traveling on something that’s rotating" (www.sciencegeekgirl.com).

Could a T-rex see YOU?

In dinosaur movies like "Jurassic Park", there is a recurring idea for a scene. To avoid being spotted when the monster comes near, you MUST. STAY. STILL. But would this really work with a T-Rex? Is a T-Rex' eyesight, REALLY that bad?
Well;
"The T-Rex may well have had visual clarity up to 13 times better than a modern human. For reference, an eagle has about 3.6 times the visual clarity of a person. Additionally, it was determined that a T-Rex’s vision allowed an object to remain relatively clear up to six kilometers away. For humans, it’s only about 1.6 kilometers for the same clarity. As [Professor Kent Stevens] put it, “With the size of its eyeballs, (the T-Rex) couldn’t help but have excellent vision”"
(todayifoundout.com).

So... a T-Rex has really good eyesight. Like, ridiculously good. And, even if they didn't have the best eyesight, this myth is still on shaky ground. The T-Rex were predators, and if they could really be stumped just by standing still... I mean, come on! Besides, people can't stand completely still. I mean just look at the gif. If you were to confront a dinosaur, there is no way you wouldn't be at least somewhat jittery! So, I mean, in any case:

Verdict: FALSE

Sugar Happy!

Lollipops, chocolate, cake, and more sugary delights: a little kid's favorite snacks... And a parent's headache. They worry that their kids will get a sugar rush, and be hyper. But is this true at all? Nope. I mean, it might cause a shorter attention span according to a study conducted by a Dr. Wesnes, but not hyperactivity. In fact, "through various experiments over the years, scientists have discovered that no substantial evidence exists to support the claim that sugar causes hyperactivity" (http://www.yalescientific.org).

So why did people start believing this? I can see why a parent might make this connection. I LOVE candy and sugar, whenever I see a see a sweet, sugary concoction being presented before me, I get really happy like:

So maybe parents made this connection based on kids' reaction to sweets? Or maybe its an excuse not to indulge kids with late night snacks? Either way, once eaten, the sugary sweets can't physically cause hyperactivity. Do with this info as you will. I'm gonna go eat a honey bun. And a cheesecake slice. And maybe a chocolate bar.

Verdict: FALSE

Humans only use 10% of their brains

 This is a misconception that EVERYONE has heard of. Is it true? Nope. Not at all. In fact, some neurologists laugh even at just the thought of it.

So what is the truth? 20%? 50%? 75%?
Well, according to neurologist Barry Gordon from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, "It turns out though, that we use virtually every part of the brain, and that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time". So really, throughout the day, humans use most of our brains most of the time. An exact percentage varies a bit

Tongue Taste Twist

Here's one you've probably heard before. People around the world believe that the tongue has certain areas that are used to identify different tastes. But, they are wrong. The TRUTH is that all areas of the tongue can more or less sense the different tastes equally. In fact, other areas of the mouth can too, like the back of the roof of your mouth. Why? Because these areas have taste receptors. But why did people ever think this was true? It all started with a scientist from Germany, D.P. Hanig. Hanig used a large group of people to see what areas of the tongue are more sensitive to what tastes. then, another scientist named Virginia Collings took Hanig's findings and converted the sensitivity ratings into numerical

Food isn't dirty if it has been on the floor for 5 seconds or less.

 

Otherwise known as the "Five Second Rule", this myth has been circling English speaking countries for decades. 

But is it true? 

Does it even make sense? 

Actually, how do I put this, 

 Logically, this idea is absolutely false, a lie, NOT TRUE whatsoever. The moment food hits the ground, bacteria or "germs" as shown in the first image don't wait for 5 seconds. Why would they? Of course, there are variables. For example, food falling on the floor of a public restroom will likely pick up more than maybe if it fell on the floor of your bedroom or a hospital. Then there's also the food itself. If it is wet, it will pick up more bacteria than something dry like a cracker. Plus, not all bacteria is "bad". In fact, some bacteria exist inside you to help with digestion and to fight the "bad" bacteria. Even so, you have no way of knowing whether the bacteria the food comes into contact with is "good" or "bad" unless you are a Mythbuster (or scientist) and have access to equipment to check. So why risk it? It isn't worth getting sick for, just find a replacement for that slice of pizza (or whatever fell) and eat "bad" germ free.

By the way, the Mythbusters actually busted this myth themselves as a mini-myth. Wanna see their results? 

Click here and enjoy!

Verdict: FALSE

Why do Chameleons change color?

Lots of people think that the reason a chameleon changes color is so it can blend in with it's surroundings. Actually, this was something that people assumed after seeing them change into colors similar to what's around them. In fact, how they change color wasn't even known until recently, so, I suppose that this guess about why isn't too far-fetched, or unreasonable. Or completely wrong. Camouflage has its part in why chameleons change colors, though small. Actually, it seems that the main reasons for changing colors have to do with a chameleon's mood, and needs. For example, if a chameleon is a darker shade of a color, it tends to mean it is angry. Lighter shades tend to be used to attract mates. In other cases, color change can be used to control the level of heat a chameleon  absorbs. Darker colors absorb heat, so if a chameleon is cold, it might change into a darker color. Or on the other extreme, they might change into a lighter color if they are too hot.

Verdict: Whatever the reason, I think we can all agree that chameleons are awesome!

BTW, if how chameleons change color interests you, click on the link below to see the science behind it!
Live Science: "Chameleons' Color-Changing Secret Revealed"