I’ve been making a collection of myths I have come across over the years. Here’s a selection for your entertainment and, perhaps, edification.

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MYTH: The largest pyramid in the world is the Great Pyramid in Gaza, Egypt

FACT: That’s the highest. The largest pyramid by volume is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, Mexico

MYTH: Milk is drunk everywhere

FACT: Most of the world’s adult population, about 65%, is lactose-intolerant

MYTH: The ancients thought the world was flat, and that everything revolved around us

FACT: A globe was made around 150 BC, and the idea that the Earth orbits the sun dates from at least 230 BC

MYTH: Color photography started in the 1930s thanks to Kodak

FACT: It was well established before the First World War, notably in Russia with Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky

MYTH: The Christmas star happened in December

FACT: The best bet is, what we think of as the Xmas star was a close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in 2 BC

MYTH: Blue moons are rare occurrences

FACT: A blue moon (the second full moon of the month) occurs at least once every three years

MYTH: White (or pink) skin color is normal

FACT: 100,000 years ago we were all black, before migrations to higher latitudes resulted in loss of melatonin

MYTH: Evolution and Intelligent Design are equal contenders in explaining life on Earth

FACT: ID is thinly concealed Creationist mumbo-jumbo, per the ruling of the (Republican) judge in the Dover School District trial, 2005.

MYTH: There are exactly seven colors in a rainbow

FACT: The spectrum of white light, as in a rainbow, can be split into an arbitrary number of colors

MYTH: Everest is the world’s highest mountain

FACT: Depends where you measure from. If “highest” means, “farthest from Earth’s center,” that’s Ecuador’s Chimborazo

MYTH: Neanderthals had low intelligence and were ill-suited to the environment in which they lived

FACT: Neanderthals were spectacularly successful in Ice-Age Europe. Most of us carry up to 4% of their genes

MYTH: Science always progresses from idea to hypothesis to theory to experiment to law

FACT: Many “discoveries” in science came about by serendipity, including penicillin, X-rays, and the cosmic background radiation

MYTH: Bath water going down the plug hole swirls in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere due to the Coriolis Effect

FACT: The Coriolis Effect only works on much larger scales than your bath!

MYTH: Roman chariot wheels led to the “standard gauge” used by railways worldwide

FACT: The most common gauge of 4ft. 8 1/2in. (1435 mm.) is only 200 years old

MYTH: Without the unique “Rosetta Stone,” Egyptian hieroglyphs couldn’t have been deciphered

FACT: Many Rosetta-type stones were unearthed following the original discovery in 1799

MYTH: WD-40 fixes everything

FACT: You also need duct tape