35 False 'Facts' That You Wrongly Believe (And 1 That You Should)

5. A Scientific Study On Peanuts In Bars Found Traces Of Over 100 Unique Specimens Of Urine

Nope, it never happened. This particular myth goes to the very heart of society's apparent revulsion at unhygienic bathroom practices but, try as I might, it's impossible to find a single reference to such a study (be it scientific or otherwise) having ever been undertaken or formally published, much less having arrived at this very specific finding. The myth makes a complex web of assumptions that leave it inherently flawed from the outset. Firstly it assumes that complimentary peanuts in pubs and bars are almost exclusively handled by punters who go to the toilet, don't wash their hands and then dive straight back into the nut bowl using the same hand they just used to do their business. Then it takes the whole thing to another level entirely by also suggesting that these same individuals actually urinate all over their hands. Almost by default men are the implicated culprits, though the suggestion that peanut-consuming pub-bathroom-goers urinate all over their own hands is infinitely more disturbing than the unspoken element of sexism. I don't know about you, but the last guy I saw peeing all over his own hand in a pub toilet was sitting outside in a pool of his own vomit half an hour later. He certainly hadn't gone via the peanuts to get there.

4. People Thought The World Was Flat Before Christopher Columbus

No they absolutely did not - nor had they for a very, very long time! When Columbus set sail for the first time in 1492, there wouldn't have been a man on his crew who had any concerns about any of them dropping off the side of the world at any point in time. Sailors had been exploring the Atlantic ocean for hundreds of years already and, in fact, the Greeks and Romans has been making the round earth claim since as far back as the 6th century BC. For some reason there was a period of reignited debate on the topic between the late 18th century and the early 20th century, but this was mostly a debate between secular and religious groups. As far as most educated people were concerned the earth was round. Greek philosopher Pythagoras initially proposed it in the 6th century BC and later, in the 4th century BC, his countryman Aristotle agreed, arguing that evidence supporting the claim was clear, including that constellations rose higher in the sky if a person travelled towards them and that the planet's shadow was round during a lunar eclipse. In the 3rd Century BC Ptolemy, a Greco-Roman writer, mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and poet, observed that mountains appeared to grow out of the ground when they were approached from a distance. Ptolemy went on to create the predecessor to today's longitude and latitude, so he clearly understood that the planet wasn't flat. In the 7th century Bede, a scholar and monk from England, published "The Reckoning of Time". In part it discussed the spherical nature of the planet and was widely distributed. Later, in the 13th/14th century, the Italian poet Dante described the Earth as spherical in his masterpiece, "Divine Comedy". The suggestion that people thought the world was flat prior to Christopher Columbus' explorations doesn't stand up to scrutiny.