fun facts

This Viral List About 1915 Is Full of Lies

A list of fun facts about the year 1915 has gone viral. But many items on the list are false or misleading. As we’ve seen time and again, never trust the internet for your fun facts. It’s all lies. The list has been passed around for years, getting updated with little more than the year…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 30

The patron saint of the internet is Isidore of Seville, who tried to record everything ever known

In 1997 Pope John Paul II declared Isidore of Seville the patron saint of the internet. Saint Isidore died in the year 636, long before the first host-to-host ARPANET connection in 1969. But Isidore did try to record everything ever known in an encyclopedia that was ultimately published after his death. From The Telegraph: Saint…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 11

Google “Fun Facts” Right Now For a Random Fun Fact

Bored? Type the phrase “fun facts” into a Google search. I bet you’ll never guess what Google delivers. That’s right! A random fun fact! The coolest part? Google not only gives you the bite-sized fun fact, it provides a link to where the fact came from. Sometimes when I learn a new fun fact I…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 2

The ‘American Dream’ Was Coined in 1931

Today the phrase “the American Dream” is a staple of political campaigns, book titles, and economic discussions. Everybody’s heard it, but nobody knows quite how to define it. It’s a phrase that feels as old as the country itself. But the American Dream wasn’t invented in 1776. The term was coined in 1931. James Truslow…

Tech News Matt Novak Mar 6

Hungry female praying mantis will fake fertility to eat males

Everybody knows that the female praying mantis will sometimes eat her partner after he’s mated with her. But new research suggests that some female mantids on the verge of starvation will actually fake fertility in order to lure mates to snack on. The Washington Post reports on a new study from Proceedings of the Royal…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 23

The Dutch rode horses on their highways during the 1970s oil crisis

The oil crisis of the 1970s meant that Americans had to wait in long lines to fill up their cars. But in the Netherlands, the government decided that the best way to conserve fuel was to ban cars for one day a week. How did people cope? They took their horses on the highway. The…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 11

Fun Facts About Berkeley, California, USA

Some fun facts about Berkeley, California, USA: Berkeley has a population of 112,580 Berkeley was named for the Irish theologian and poet George Berkeley Berkeley has one of the highest rates of bicycle commuting in the country Berkeley’s telephone area code is 510 UC-Berkeley has a student to faculty ratio of 17 to 1 Berkeley…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 7

Ayn Rand personally profited from FDR’s New Deal

In 1936 Ayn Rand was no fan of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal programs. So it may come as a surprise to fans of Rand that the libertarian icon took money from the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Theatre Project. Like a lot of money. Rand’s courtroom drama “Night of January 16th” closed in…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 4

UberFacts Is Still Full of Lies

Today we’re fact-checking UberFacts so you don’t have to. Again. We looked at every “fact” tweeted by the incredibly popular Twitter account on Sunday from midnight until midnight PT. The account failed miserably. Again. We did this same experiment back in March and found that just 59 percent of UberFact facts in a 24-hour window…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 2

Dinosaur Nerds Are Already Mad At Jurassic World

The trailer for the new movie Jurassic World was released today. It looks fun! But some science-minded folks are already pouncing on the dino-filled movie for inaccuracies. Brian Switek, author of the book My Beloved Brontosaurus, writes that the film’s fictional super-intelligent, genetically-modified dinosaur shouldn’t have thumbs. Something about Brian’s tweet makes me think he…

Tech News Matt Novak Nov 25

Did Ben Franklin Want the Turkey to Be Our National Symbol?

It’s one of those Thanksgiving fun facts I loved repeating when I was a kid: Ben Franklin liked turkeys so much that he wanted them to be our national bird, instead of the bald eagle. It’s a popular fun fact. But I was shattered to learn as an adult that this little nugget of trivia…

Tech News Matt Novak Nov 20

No, Colonel Sanders never killed a man in a shootout

The internet loves fun facts about Colonel Sanders. Yes, he was a real man named Harland Sanders. And yes, he really was a colonel. (Well, kind of.) But there’s one fun fact about everybody’s favorite chicken salesman that simply isn’t true. Despite what you may have read online, Colonel Sanders never killed a man in…

Tech News Matt Novak Nov 19

The US national anthem has a question mark after “home of the brave”

Everybody knows that “The Star-Spangled Banner” boldly proclaims that our flag flies over the land of the free and the home of the brave. But in Francis Scott Key’s original 1814 manuscript for our national anthem, there are surprisingly more question marks than you might guess — including after the phrase “home of the brave?”…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 28

Some people in the 19th century called brunch “blunch”

There are all kinds of dark alternate histories to think about. What if the Nazis had won World War II? What if the doomsday prophecies about 2012 had made any sense? And what if brunch had actually been called blunch? As the New Republic reports, it nearly happened. Well, the blunch one. When the concept…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 21

No, the first baby born under anaesthesia wasn’t named Anaesthesia

According to a recent post that’s gone viral among science and history nerds, the first baby born to a mother under anaesthesia named her baby Anaesthesia. It’s an amusing fun fact. But unfortunately, it’s too good to be true. Anaesthesia was reportedly a nickname sometimes used by the doctor who delivered the baby girl in…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 21

Elephants, monkeys, and the Holy Spirit can’t claim copyright in the US

A new paper from the US Copyright Office has been published to clarify what can and what cannot be copyrighted. Novels written by human beings are covered. What’s not covered? Photos taken by monkeys, murals painted by elephants, and songs written by ghosts. Things that can be copyrighted: Photos taken by a human Songs written…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 21

Less time separates us from T-Rex than T-Rex from Stegosaurus

Some of the most well-known dinosaurs that we think about today were separated by tens of millions of years. In fact, we’re closer to the time of the T-Rex than T-Rex was to the time of the Stegosaurus. Unfortunately, that documentary The Land Before Time was totally lying to us. We like to think of…

Tech News Matt Novak Jul 31

My new favorite Twitter account is @CrimeADay

Back in college I took an undergrad law course that devoted a day to looking at silly old laws that were still on the books. One of the laws stated that it was illegal to serve margarine in any Wisconsin restaurant without also offering customers butter. The whole class thought it was hilarious. And then,…

Tech News Matt Novak Jul 23

About 200 Americans get leprosy each year. 1/3 get it from armadillos.

Leprosy is both incredibly rare and treatable in the United States. There are only about 150-250 cases of leprosy in the U.S. each year. Most of these people get it when they travel overseas. But what about people who haven’t traveled outside the country? The government believes those people most likely contract it from armadillos.…

Tech News Matt Novak Jul 21

12 More Viral Photos That Are Lying to You

One fake, two fakes. Red fakes, blue fakes. Today we’ve got more fake images that you may have seen recently on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever else you get your daily dose of pixel-based newstainment. No, that supermoon isn’t real. No, that’s not what happens when sand is struck by lightning. And no, that’s not a…

Tech News Matt Novak Jul 15

fun facts

This Viral List About 1915 Is Full of Lies

The patron saint of the internet is Isidore of Seville, who tried to record everything ever known

Google “Fun Facts” Right Now For a Random Fun Fact

The ‘American Dream’ Was Coined in 1931

Hungry female praying mantis will fake fertility to eat males

The Dutch rode horses on their highways during the 1970s oil crisis

Fun Facts About Berkeley, California, USA

Ayn Rand personally profited from FDR’s New Deal

UberFacts Is Still Full of Lies

Dinosaur Nerds Are Already Mad At Jurassic World

Did Ben Franklin Want the Turkey to Be Our National Symbol?

No, Colonel Sanders never killed a man in a shootout

The US national anthem has a question mark after “home of the brave”

Some people in the 19th century called brunch “blunch”

No, the first baby born under anaesthesia wasn’t named Anaesthesia

Elephants, monkeys, and the Holy Spirit can’t claim copyright in the US

Less time separates us from T-Rex than T-Rex from Stegosaurus

My new favorite Twitter account is @CrimeADay

About 200 Americans get leprosy each year. 1/3 get it from armadillos.

12 More Viral Photos That Are Lying to You

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