Blog Posts

Snapple “Real Facts” Debunked

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Filed under: Prank Busters, Publicity Stunts

From Joe King:


We Fact-Checked Snapple’s ‘Real Facts’
by Adrienne Lafrance
The Atlantic
October 11, 2013

With 30 seconds and a web connection, you can, too.

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Of course a duck”™s quack echoes.

But claims to the contrary are so often repeated that the BBC has aired audio proof of the echo, Mythbusters has investigated the acoustics of a quack”™s reverberations, and others still have uploaded Internet videos of waterfowl in sound studios selected to amplify the effect.

No matter. The myth persists. It”™s the kind of claim that’s repeated as fact but shared like superstition””forwarded in chain emails, published and republished among ZOMG-mindblowing facts, even printed on the cool undersides of bottle caps.

SnappleCap-200“Real Facts,” they”™re called. And though the quotation marks are Snapple”™s, not mine, they”™re fitting.

Since 2002, the tea maker has been slinging bottle-cap factoids. Some are true, some are outright false, and plenty others are incomplete or ambiguous to the point of absurdity. But it”™s easy to pluck out the spurious ones with a search engine and the right kind of bullshit detector. (more…)

Roosevelt Riding a Moose: 1912 Political Fakery

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Filed under: Political Pranks, The History of Pranks, Urban Legends

From Joe K & Deborah T:


Myths debunked: Sadly, Theodore Roosevelt never rode a moose
by Heather Cole
blogs.law.harvard.edu
September 20, 2013

Many of Theodore Roosevelt”™s adventures seem like something out of a tall tale: he survived an assassination attempt; nearly died while exploring the Amazonian jungle; and became the first president to drive a car and fly in a plane; among many others. Despite having been a larger-than-life figure, this is one thing that TR never did:

TR-riding-moose-425

Read the full article by Heather Cole, Assistant Curator of Modern Books & Manuscripts and Curator of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection