# What Urban Myths seem to hold on for years or decades even when disproven **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2026, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852 "2026-06-12T19:02:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/141 "2026-06-15T17:36:38Z")
> [@solost](#): > > The only way true multitasking that is more efficient than doing the tasks separately may work is if the two tasks take up completely different brain space-- like, for example, watching tutorial videos while doing some mindless manual task, like folding laundry or something. Or watching tutorial videos while editing a document, or watching tutorial videos while responding to emails, or watching tutorial videos while doing literally anything at all. The sorts of tutorial videos you end up being required to watch at work are usually the sort of thing that’s completely unnecessary, and the only reason you hit play on them at all is because they have to run to the end before you’re allowed to hit the “continue” button. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/142 "2026-06-15T17:45:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The sorts of tutorial videos you end up being required to watch at work are usually the sort of thing that’s completely unnecessary, and the only reason you hit play on them at all is because they have to run to the end before you’re allowed to hit the “continue” button. Well, the types of tutorial videos I meant were ones, as a 60-something trying to stay relevant in a tech field, that I have to pay decent attention to. There are also ‘unnecessary’ videos that our company makes us watch, but they have questionnaires at the end that we need to score at least 90% on, or else…I don’t know what, since I haven’t, fortunately, had to find out. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/143 "2026-06-15T17:53:03Z")
> [@solost](#): > > There are also ‘unnecessary’ videos that our company makes us watch, but they have questionnaires at the end that we need to score at least 90% on, or else…I don’t know what, since I haven’t, fortunately, had to find out. If your company is anything like mine,… “or else you have to take the test again immediately with the same questions in the same order.” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/144 "2026-06-15T17:55:05Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > If your company is anything like mine,… “or else you have to take the test again immediately with the same questions in the same order.” Yeah, probably no different for my company…except that I imagine the fact I had to take it twice will go down somewhere on my Permanent Record. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/145 "2026-06-15T17:55:59Z")
What organizations are these that accept the tabs but not also the cans themselves? I find it hard to believe that _any_ company still believes that the tab is a different type of aluminum than the cans themselves, let alone that there is any way to stay in business by collecting the tabs but not the cans. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/146 "2026-06-15T17:56:49Z")
> [@solost](#): > > There are also ‘unnecessary’ videos that our company makes us watch, but they have questionnaires at the end that we need to score at least 90% on, or else…I don’t know what, since I haven’t, fortunately, had to find out. Our version of those will usually let you keep retaking the test until you “pass”. “They” figured out that we’d figured that out, so now you have to let the video play to the end at normal speed\[1\] before you’re allowed to take the quiz as many times as you want. It’s an arms race. * * * 1. some of them let you slow it down! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/147 "2026-06-15T18:07:40Z")
Sometimes the collection box has a slot that’s big enough for the tabs but not the whole cans. ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/148 "2026-06-15T18:10:08Z")
Ronald McDonald House and the Shriners both accept tabs as a direct result of the ULs surrounding them. To my knowledge, they don’t accept whole cans because they are more trouble to transport, and people still believe the myth. The scrap value of the tabs is practically nothing, but practically nothing is worth more than nothing. A million tabs is worth about $400, but they take up a lot less space than a million cans. My guess is that if you wanted to donate whole cans, they wouldn’t turn you away but they would ask you to scrap them yourself (they might even help you find a scrapyard) and then donate the proceeds. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/149 "2026-06-15T18:14:49Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Permanent Record The existence of a “Permanent Record” that recounts your elementary school misdeeds, for any and all to see should it come up, is also a myth. Perpetuated by school principals, no doubt. A comedian did a funny bit about this. Paraphrasing: “Not once have I had a Hiring Manager tell me ‘Well, Mr. Smith, we were going to hire you, but then we saw where Mrs. Spickle noted that you refused to stop chewing gum in class…’” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/150 "2026-06-15T18:25:05Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > The existence of a “Permanent Record” that recounts your elementary school misdeeds, for any and all to see should it come up, is also a myth. Perpetuated by school principals, no doubt. What now? _Of course_ there is a record-- at the very least it’s called a report card; with sections for grades as well as short descriptions of behavior, both good and bad. If a student’s behavior is particularly bad, I imagine there’d be some sort of extra file warning future teachers about the bad seed coming their way. On the good side, if a student has particularly positive achievements, I’m sure those are kept on file as well. It’s maybe not ‘permanent’ in the sense that it lives beyond one’s school days, but the idea that there are not records kept of students seems a little weird of a claim. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/151 "2026-06-15T18:27:32Z")
Of course there are records of students, their behavior, their grades, etc. But (public at least) schools in the US routinely purge their records, and all (public) school students’ records in the US are governed by strict privacy laws. So there’s no chance of a potential employer turning you down because you got a D in Math. The only permanence in your “Permanent Record” is if your mom has all of that stuff in a drawer somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/152 "2026-06-15T18:39:34Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Many older Koreans believe that fans consume oxygen, drop the room’s temperature to dangerous levels, or blow air in a way that suffocates the sleeper. Known as “fan death”, this cultural superstition says that leaving an electric fan running in a closed room while you sleep can lead to suffocation, hypothermia, and death Germans have a similar thing for open windows in a vehicle, stories of Dopers who tried to open windows on a bus on a hot day w/ no interior AC, every native German went “Nein! Nein!” with severely disapproving looks. [Cite.](https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-deal-with-Germans-and-opening-windows-Why-is-it-such-a-big-no-no-to-leave-them-open-on-public-transport) ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/153 "2026-06-15T18:43:18Z")
I don’t know that they wouldn’t accept the entire can. What I know is that their representatives specifically ask me to collect tabs and that a lot of people I know would never donate the cans because they want the deposit. You can still get your deposit if the tab is missing. For all I know, the people who ask me for tabs do so because _they_ don’t want to deal with bags full of cans. Nothing about the tabs being worth more or being a different kind of ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/154 "2026-06-15T18:58:03Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Germans have a similar thing for open windows in a vehicle, My German father had a similar thing about car AC blowing directly into your face. IIRC he said it could cause a stroke. After a couple of summers in Texas, I didn’t hear that one so much anymore … ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/155 "2026-06-15T19:22:19Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > But we had an exercise at work where we broke into small groups, and were directed to find a solution to a ficticious emergency situation. I’d have no patience with a fictitious scenario (“Hey, we got real problems, let’s brainstorm those!”). But what we did (ad agency) was “Okay, we need some ideas for Acme Rocketsleds. Everybody come up with an idea or two and we’ll come in early tomorrow.” (or we’d meet at the IHOP next door) We got some great ideas, and even our delivery guy would come up with some (he said it was worth it for the free waffles). We became known as an off-beat, creative agency. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/156 "2026-06-15T19:24:25Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > It doesn’t really affect farmers because they will use whatever daylight that’s available, regardless of what the clock says. It could, because the truck that picks up the days milk (or eggs, etc) will be off. But of course, that is a simple fix. > [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > And people still believe in the “tongue map.” It is a generalization. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/157 "2026-06-15T19:27:40Z")
I had heard a similar argument against lap belts, but the argument wasn’t about the head, it was abdomen. The argument was that wearing a lap belt alone with no shoulder belt would result in great force distributed into a very narrow band-space in your abdomen, which could injure your intestines badly. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/158 "2026-06-15T20:02:10Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > For a good sized minority of people, it can cause major problems. It has a very high level of oxalate, and can easily cause kidney stones. Before I knew I had that particular problem, I ended up in the emergency room after having eaten a spinach salad once a day for four straight days. I’ve heard that cooking denatures the oxalate, so that the problem is only with raw spinach. Feel free to correct if that’s not true, or not true for you. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/159 "2026-06-15T20:17:23Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I’ve heard that cooking denatures the oxalate, so that the problem is only with raw spinach. Feel free to correct if that’s not true, or not true for you. Heat doesn’t denature oxalate, but boiling will reduce the amount by leeching it out into the water ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/160 "2026-06-15T20:49:28Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > The existence of a “Permanent Record” that recounts your elementary school misdeeds, for any and all to see should it come up, is also a myth. Perpetuated by school principals, no doubt. Even in elementary school I thought “Permanent Records” were BS. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852.md?page=9)