Deception in History
The Hitler Diaries were authenticated by historians in the 1980s.
Fake – They were quickly proven to be forgeries.
Goldfish have a 3-second memory.
Fake – Studies show they can remember things for months.
Bats are blind.
Fake – Bats can see quite well; many species have excellent night vision.
You can cut a cake into 8 pieces with just 3 cuts.
Fact – Two horizontal cuts and one vertical cut through the center can do it.
Frank Abagnale Jr. impersonated a pilot, doctor, and lawyer before age 21.
Fact – His story inspired Catch Me If You Can; he conned millions before being caught.
The Trojan Horse was a real wooden structure used to infiltrate Troy.
Fake – It’s likely a myth from Homer’s Iliad; no archaeological evidence confirms it.
Humans only use 10% of their brains.
Fake – Brain scans show we use most parts of our brain regularly.
Glass is a slow-moving liquid.
Fake – Glass is an amorphous solid; the myth comes from old, uneven window panes.
The shortest complete sentence in English is “Go.”
Fact – It has a subject (implied “you”) and a verb.
Charles Ponzi invented the Ponzi scheme.
Fake – He popularized it, but similar schemes existed before him.
Rasputin survived being poisoned, shot, and drowned before finally dying.
Fact – Accounts suggest multiple failed attempts before his death.
Sharks can get cancer.
Fact – Despite myths, sharks can develop cancer.
You can boil water by cooling it.
Fact – In a vacuum, lowering pressure can cause water to boil at room temperature.
If you fold a piece of paper 42 times, it will reach the moon.
Fact – Exponential growth means the thickness doubles each time; mathematically, it would reach the moon. [Although it is physically impossible]
The fake wine scandal involved printing counterfeit labels for cheap wine.
Fact – Rudy Kurniawan sold millions in fake vintage wines before being caught.
The D-Day invasion was aided by inflatable tanks and fake radio chatter.
Fact – Operation Fortitude used deception to mislead the Germans.
Vikings wore horned helmets.
Fake – There’s no evidence they wore horned helmets; it’s a modern myth.
The sun is yellow.
Fake – The sun emits white light; it appears yellow due to Earth’s atmosphere.
A circle has infinite sides.
Fact – In geometry, a circle can be considered a polygon with an infinite number of infinitesimally small sides.
The Nigerian Prince scam originated in the 1990s.
Fake – Variants of this scam date back to the 18th century as “Spanish Prisoner” scams.
In 1969, a conspiracy theory claimed that which famous musician had died in a car crash and was secretly replaced by a look-alike?
Mick Jagger / Paul McCartney / Bob Dylan / Freddie Mercury
Paul McCartney
Fans believed clues were hidden in Beatles songs and album covers, including reversed audio and symbolic imagery on Abbey Road. Paul later joked about the rumor, saying, “If I were dead, I’d be the last to know.”
There is a genuine, real-world implementation for delivering the internet by avian carrier (Pigeon)
Fact – IPoAC or CPIP was implemented in 1999 on April 1 - sure it was April Fools, but the protocol would deliver on its promise and was even updated in 2011 to support IPv6
Which of the following platforms demonstrated that online crowdsourcing could outperform experts in solving complex scientific problems, such as protein folding?
Reddit / Foldit / GitHub / Wikipedia
Foldit
In 2011, players of the online game Foldit solved the structure of an AIDS-related enzyme that had stumped scientists for over a decade — in just three weeks!
If you shuffle a deck of cards, it’s likely that exact order has never existed before.
Fact – There are 52! (factorial) possible combinations—more than atoms on Earth.
Amanda Riley raised over $100,000 online by falsely claiming she was suffering from which illness?
ALS / Leukemia / Breast Cancer / Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Riley documented her fake cancer journey through blogs and social media, receiving donations and gifts from supporters. She was later convicted of wire fraud after investigators uncovered the deception.