# Can't remember exact title of RECENT misconception book: **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-remember-exact-title-of-recent-misconception-book/649673 "2013-02-08T03:12:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-remember-exact-title-of-recent-misconception-book/649673/1 "2013-02-08T03:12:03Z")
I’m pretty sure that what I am vaguely recalling is a book release within the past year. Perhaps it’s only been a matter of months. The title is something like: _# {hundred, thousand} Things Everyone Believes that are Not True_ For some reason I can’t find it using an Amazon search. Thank you in advance if you know what the heck I’m talking about. I sure don’t! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-remember-exact-title-of-recent-misconception-book/649673/2 "2013-02-10T22:53:13Z")
nm Inspired by one suggestion I received on the Super Bowl Commercials thread I had just started, I decided that perhaps Googling for sites was the way to go. And I found [this](http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/common-misconceptions-everyone-believes-that-total), which may have been what I was thinking about. * * * I have some doubts about some of them, though. Sometimes it’s just how the “correction” is phrased. I may as well express them here, instead of abandoning the thread to collective apathy, since now perhaps it may draw some responses. Number 23: It would have been better to say that 3 primary colors don’t exist **objectively** , since the usefulness derives from our particular human biology. **Unscientific** , as was implied, is misleading. Number 12: Didn’t we just have a thread on this one? Or a thread in which it came up as one example of arguably stupid phrases? I mean, not that I _ **could possibly care!!!** _ 😉 Number 8: I hesitate to say anything, as I feel I’m going out on a limb. There definitely was a thread on this fairly recently, and the upshot was the consensus among the big brains here that the sun was really white, even through the atmosphere, and that the illusion was caused by the surrounding blue sky. This, reinforced by artwork, was the explanation of our non-existent yellow sun. Against _ **that** _, a recent astronomy magazine showed the precise, somewhat lumpy curve of frequency distribution. The article stated that the peak was in “yellow” but the combination balance made the sun’s apparent color _ **yellow-white** _, even in space. I was a bit “relieved” since I had been pretty sure that the total spectrum could not be even, leading to pure white, as it seems people here had concluded. Also, I had once had a non-conversation with a Syracuse U prof who insisted that the sun was “white” because all of the hues could be separated out. * * * I’m pretty sure that it was a recent Sky and Telescope, since the public library branch I recall reading it in does not carry Astronomy. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-remember-exact-title-of-recent-misconception-book/649673/3 "2013-02-10T22:57:10Z")
#25 isn’t correct either. The reaction comes from an oil on the leaves. If the first person hasn’t washed themselves or their clothes well enough the oil can remain and affect the next person. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-remember-exact-title-of-recent-misconception-book/649673/4 "2013-02-11T20:09:35Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > #25 isn’t correct either. The reaction comes from an oil on the leaves. If the first person hasn’t washed themselves or their clothes well enough the oil can remain and affect the next person. Interesting detail. Hm. I had just noticed that there are comments to the list at the end. I had never scrolled down that far until just now. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-remember-exact-title-of-recent-misconception-book/649673/5 "2013-02-11T20:52:32Z")
Probably better suited to IMHO rather than General Questions **samclem** ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-remember-exact-title-of-recent-misconception-book/649673/6 "2013-02-11T22:27:47Z")
Poorly written from the get-go. The title is “Common Misconceptions Everyone Believes That Totally Aren’t True” and the subtitle is “Here are all the things you’ve been told are true, but absolutely aren’t.”. But they actually list corrections to unnamed things that supposedly everyone believes. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-remember-exact-title-of-recent-misconception-book/649673/7 "2013-02-11T23:27:48Z")
Wikipedia’s [List of common misconceptions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions)? ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-remember-exact-title-of-recent-misconception-book/649673/8 "2013-02-12T23:38:00Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Probably better suited to IMHO rather than General Questions > > **samclem** Agreed. Did the mods get the note along those lines (that the direction of the thread had changed) along with the report that I had double-posted post #2? > [@tellyworth](#): > > Wikipedia’s [List of common misconceptions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions)? Now, there is something I can use in a presentation. Thank you.