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

21. Sushi Is Raw Fish

No it is not! How often have you heard someone say, "Sushi? No thanks, I don't do raw fish"? Well if you didn't already know, you're about to find out exactly how to respond to their objections. For one thing, in traditional Japanese cuisine when raw fish, or raw meat, is served on its own it's known as sashimi. Sashimi and sushi are not one and the same thing and the two terms aren't interchangeable. Sushi simply refers to any dish served with vinegared rice. While many of these dishes feature raw fish or other raw meats, just as many of them don't. Sashimi can be consumed with sushi and vice versa though equally, one can be consumed without the other, reiterating that sashimi and sushi are not the same thing. The most commonly occurring sushi outside Japan are nori rolls - sushi rice and various other fillings rolled between sheets of edible seaweed ('nori'). These include many varieties of roll created specifically for western tastes and which are rarely, if ever, seen in Japan. The most well-known of these is the California Roll, consisting of avocado, imitation crab stick, cucumber and fish roe, usually rolled in the traditional way but often made with rice on the outside and the seaweed roll on the inside. It would actually be pretty easy to eat sushi every day and never have to touch raw fish at all. The health benefits of doing so, however, might be debatable.

20. Toilet Waste Is Routinely Jettisoned From Aircraft

No, actually it isn't. Most modern aircraft use a vacuum waste system, which sees all our in-flight contributions sucked into a holding tank underneath the plane. The entire contents of the tank are then sucked back out of the plane into a waste disposal truck once it reaches the tarmac at the end of the flight. The mechanism by which the contents are emptied can only be accessed from the outside of the plane by airport ground crew. There's no way for any member of the on-board crew to jettison the contents of the tank from inside the aircraft, whether on the ground or in the air. In the unlikely event of a malfunction, some of the holding tank's contents might leak but it certainly wouldn't be a routinely undertaken procedure, if for no other reason than safety. Aside from all the other questionable outcomes, at high altitudes jettisoned waste content would likely freeze as it left the confines of the tank. In turn, this could result in serious damage to the aircraft itself, or to any other aircraft in the relative vicinity. Though there have been instances of people reporting aircraft waste landing on them, on their houses or in their yards but these are few and far between and, often, unsubstantiated.