1. Bagpipes Are Scottish
Sorry, Braveheart fans, they were prevalent in the Middle East centuries before Western Europe.

2. Your Hair and Nails Keep Growing After Death

2. Your Hair and Nails Keep Growing After Death
Anders Wenngren

Skin dries and recedes after death, making hair and nails appear longer.

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3. Toads Cause Warts

3. Toads Cause Warts
Anders Wenngren

Humans can catch warts only from other humans. Those bumps on toads are just their skin glands.

4. SOS = ‘Save Our Souls’

4. SOS = ‘Save Our Souls’
Anders Wenngren

1. Bagpipes Are Scottish
Sorry, Braveheart fans, they were prevalent in the Middle East centuries before Western Europe.

5. Adam and Eve Ate an Apple

5. Adam and Eve Ate an Apple
Anders Wenngren

They ate the forbidden ‘fruit’ of the tree of knowledge, and nowhere in the Book of Genesis does it say this fruit was an apple.

6. Celebrities Die in Threes

6. Celebrities Die in Threes
Anders Wenngren

Of 449 celebs who died since 1990, only in seven cases did three die in the same five-day period, according to data from the New York Times.

7. Sleepers Swallow Eight Spiders Per Year

7. Sleepers Swallow Eight Spiders Per Year
Anders Wenngren

Spiders usually don’t crawl into beds during night-time wanderings because they offer no prey. You probably swallow zero spiders per year.

1. Bagpipes Are Scottish
Sorry, Braveheart fans, they were prevalent in the Middle East centuries before Western Europe.

8. Everest Is the World’s Tallest Mountain

8. Everest Is the World’s Tallest Mountain
Anders Wenngren

Only above sea level. From its underwater base, Hawaii’s Mauna Kea stands 10,210 metres tall – 1360 metres above Mount Everest.

9. Van Gogh Cut Off His Ear for a Lover

9. Van Gogh Cut Off His Ear for a Lover
Anders Wenngren

It was just a small piece of lobe, and he did it during a violent spat with Paul Gauguin. Whether Van Gogh then gave it to a local harlot remains contentious.

10. America’s Pilgrims First Landed at Plymouth Rock

10. America’s Pilgrims First Landed at Plymouth Rock
Anders Wenngren

In fact they landed where Provincetown, Massachusetts, is today, and signed the Mayflower Compact there. Plymouth came five weeks later.

1. Bagpipes Are Scottish
Sorry, Braveheart fans, they were prevalent in the Middle East centuries before Western Europe.

11. A Story Can ‘Break’ the Internet

11. A Story Can ‘Break’ the Internet
Anders Wenngren

“The Internet is a very resilient system,” says web pioneer Vint Cerf. “Shutting the whole thing down has not happened [since] it has been in operation.”

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