Fellow fedizens!

[lucaswerkmeister@wikis.world]

Fellow fedizens! As decreed by https://xkcd.com/843/ some fifteen years ago, it is once again time to spend the morning reading through the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions.

#xkcd #xkcd843 #misconceptions #Wikipedia

[lucaswerkmeister@wikis.world]

now unfortunately, as you’ll quickly notice when you follow that link, the list has been split in thrain on account of its length, and unlike last year (https://wikis.world/@LucasWerkmeister/113945873067149318) it seemingly no longer fits into one page even with the references removed. so I guess it’s up to you whether you look through all of the individual lists, or some of them, or just through the brief overview page and call it a day

[lucaswerkmeister@wikis.world]

be that as it may, this year I learned:

• Michelangelo was standing, not lying down, while painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling (I probably read this before but had partially forgotten it again)

• the electrocution of Topsy the Elephant was not an anti-alternating current demonstration organized by Thomas A. Edison during the war of the currents

• the dodo’s intelligence was above average for an avian, and also its meat was inedible

[rojun@mementomori.social]

@LucasWerkmeister Misconceptions Tuesday! A game to play with your cohorts is to use as many misconceptions during the day trying to pass them for truths while trying to spot misconceptions others are using.

[rojun@mementomori.social]

@LucasWerkmeister
- Seeds are not the spiciest part of chili peppers. 

[sarpau@mastodon.social]

@LucasWerkmeister xkcd rules 👍

[gimulnautti@mastodon.green]

@LucasWerkmeister Great subpage!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions_about_history

[vikingkong@misskey.vikingkong.xyz]

@LucasWerkmeister@wikis.world Looks like some sort of cargo cult.

[jerzone@techhub.social]

@LucasWerkmeister
Lemmings do not engage in mass suicidal dives off cliffs when migrating.
"The lemmings in the film were actually purchased from Inuit children, transported to the filming location in Canada and repeatedly shoved off a nearby cliff by the filmmakers to create the illusion of a mass suicide."
#wtf

[angelastella@social.treehouse.systems]

@LucasWerkmeister

We programmers could spend the days until the equinox educating ourselves about our own misconceptions or rather plain falsehoods:

https://github.com/kdeldycke/awesome-falsehood

These have teeth.

cc @mina

[mina@berlin.social]

@angelastella

That looks fabulous!

@LucasWerkmeister

[mina@berlin.social]

@angelastella

I am missing "Object oriented programming is always a good idea".

@LucasWerkmeister

[iron_bug@friendica.ironbug.org]

@LucasWerkmeister I didn't know any of the mentioned "misconceptions". it was the first time I had read that weird assumprions.

[angelastella@social.treehouse.systems]

@mina @LucasWerkmeister

Tools and methods talk gets too meta and that's the stuff holy wars are made of.

[gcvsa@mstdn.plus]

@LucasWerkmeister Also useful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

[fishidwardrobe@mastodon.me.uk]

@LucasWerkmeister i have said it before and i'll say it again: some of these are pretty silly. this may be more a reflection on the target readers than the writers — but does anyone *actually* believe there is a scientific basis for astronomy, for example?

(some others of these, on the other hand, are not silly at all.)

[mariellequinton@ottawa.place]

@fishidwardrobe @LucasWerkmeister are you confusing astronomy and astrology?

[stylus@social.afront.org]

@LucasWerkmeister but in that universe we have the Misconception Paradox, which is that anything listed in the article will become an uncommon misconception by February 8, and new common misconceptions will need to be found. It's ultimately self-defeating.

[ahimsa_pdx@disabled.social]

@LucasWerkmeister
I looked throught the first list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions_about_arts_and_culture ) to see which ones I didn't know about.

Here's one common misconception that I learned is wrong. Hemingway did not write the famous 6 word story, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." So, thanks, learned something new!

Going to keep reading, hoping to learn some more ...

[arratoon@beige.party]

@mariellequinton @fishidwardrobe @LucasWerkmeister Pfff, you’re saying stars and planets actually exist? Yeah, right… 😉