1. It is dangerous to use a cellphone at a gas
station
This misconception came about due to a bunch of
emails being spread around the Internet describing
cases of explosions caused by cellphone use. The
emails were purported to have been sent by Shell
Oil. When questioned, Shell denied sending the
emails. Furthermore, not only has there never been
a case of a cellphone causing an explosion at a
gas station, no one has been able to prove that it
is even possible in scientific testing. According to
Snopes: “News reports routinely attribute gas
pump fires to cell phone use whenever a fire
occurs at a service station where such a phone
was in use at the time, and police and firefighters
at the scene often simply assume the connection
between the two to be valid.” Despite this
complete lack of evidence of likelihood of accident,
Australia and New Zealand both display signs at
gas stations telling people to turn off cellphones
and the city of Cicero in Illinois has made the use
of cellphones at gas stations illegal.
2. Charles Lindbergh was the first man to fly the
Atlantic Ocean
Charles Lindbergh was not the first man to fly the
Atlantic Ocean, although he was the first to have
flown across it solo. The first flight had been done
first in stages between May 8 and May 31, 1919,
by the crew of the Navy-Curtiss NC-4 flying boat
which took 24 days to complete its journey. The
first truly non-stop transatlantic flight was made in
1919 by John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown in
a modified Vickers Vimy bomber.
3. The US Highway system was designed to allow
planes to land in emergencies
The United States Interstate Highway System was
not designed with airplane landings in mind.
4. Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press
or movable type
Johannes Gutenberg was not the first to invent the
printing press or movable type; these were in use
in China and Korea centuries before. Gutenberg
was the first European to use movable type, and
he probably invented it independently.
5. Web cookies are dangerous and should be
avoided
In fact, cookies are plain text files which a website
can store on your computer with information to
manage your browsing. Unless there is a security
flaw in your webbrowser.
6. Apple Macs don’t get viruses
While it is true that Macs almost never get viruses,
it is also true that there are some in existence.
7. Hitler created the autobahn
Many people believe that Hitler and the Nazis
conceived of the idea of the first Autobahn
(essentially a large motorway) in Germany (and the
first laned free public motorway in the world). But
in fact the autobahn was built in 1931 and opened
by Konrad Adenauer, the Mayor of Cologne.
8. Planes dump their toilet waste while up in the
air
Not only do planes not dump their waste mid-
flight, it is also impossible for them to do so short
of some kind of catastrophe which causes the
waste tanks to explode open (because the valve is
on the outside of the plane). When toilets are used
on a plane, the waste is dumped into a special
tank. The waste remains in the tank until the plane
lands, and then special ground crew members
pump the tanks.
9. Pong was the first video game
Pong was invented in 1972 by Atari and it was an
arcade style game that featured two opposing
paddles and a ball with which you played virtual
tennis. It was the first commercially successful
video game and it launched the video game
industry.
10. The web is the Internet
This is a very common misconception, most likely
brought about due to the fact that most people
use the web as their almost exclusive method of
using the Internet.

in case #charity