OMGFact(s)Check

Vending machines kill four times more people each year than sharks do.

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:58:00 -0500

Plausable - the chances of death by vending machine are 1-in-112,000,000 where as the odds of death by shark attack are 1-in-251,800,000. A person is about 2.25 times more likely to be killed by a vending machine than a shark; death by shark attack is typically recorded at zero incidents annually, where as death by vending machine occurs around 2 to 3 times annually. There could conceivably be 4 vending machine related deaths and 1 shark related death during a particularly unlucky year.

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: Book of Odds

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a 50,000 word novel, “Gadsby”, which doesn’t contain the letter E.

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:52:00 -0500

True - impressively Ernest Vincent Wright was able to pen 50,110 words into a grammatically correct lipogramatic novel in 1939 without the use of the letter ‘e’ as well as avoiding any abbreviations where the letter would be omitted (but present upon expansion) such as Mr. or Mrs.

p.s. we briefly entertained the notion to write this fact-check as a lipogram, but were quick to realize that we are very much fact-checkers and not literary geniuses. If anyone out there in the internet can do it, we’d love to see it!

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: wikipedia

The longest English word, at 45 letters, is ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’.

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:56:00 -0500

False - that title belongs to the Chemical name of titin, the largest known protein, at 189,819 characters:

Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl[…]isoleucine (full name)

Second place goes to a 183 character word transliterated from Ancient Greek:

Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhy-
potrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokich-
lepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephall-
iokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis sits firmly in third place, there are disputes as to its legitimacy, as it is claimed that this word was invented purely to serve as a long word. It should be noted that, Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest english word to be in a current major dictionary.

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: wikipedia, Oxford University Press

The Statue of Liberty is made out of copper. When originally built, it looked like a shiny new penny!

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:18:06 -0500

True - the green hue we recognize today covering the Statue of Liberty is known as patina, which is the result of a chemical reaction between copper and oxygen (oxidation). Patina, unlike rust (which forms when iron oxidizes), actually protects the underlying copper.

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: wikipedia

‘Typewriter’ is the longest English word that can be made by using only one row of a keyboard.

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:44:00 -0500

False - ‘teetertotter’ is the longest unhyphenated word that can be spelled on a single row of a typewriter keyboard (QUERTY layout), coming in at 12 characters. There are four (4) other 10 character words that can be spelled out on a single row of a keyboard: perpetuity, proprietor, repertoire, and shakalshas.

update: out of our own curiosity, we looked up the longest word that can be spelled on a single row of a Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, we found three (3) 10 character words: unhandiest, dianthuses, and astonished. If you can find/think-of anything longer, let us know!

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: Taxonomy of Wordplay

Earth is the only planet not named after a God.

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:28:00 -0500

True - the exact etymology of the planet “Earth” is a tough one as it’s likely something to have developed over most of human history, Lynn Carter goes more in depth into this in her January 2003 article.

The related link over at omg-facts.com is a bit misleading:

Saturn was actually named after a Titan, the father of Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune. He is famous for having attempted to eat all of his children. However, astronomers have identified thousands of planets outside of our own solar system, to the point where we likely have run out of good god names for them - that’s why we have planets named “2M1207 b”.

Titans were also gods, predecessors to the Roman and Greek gods we think of today, whom are collectively called the Olympians. Uranus was also a Titan.

Regarding naming conventions: it’s true that astronomers have moved to a systematic catalogue style naming convention; this is less due to running out of “good god names” but rather, to make research easier internationally and remove ambiguity.

Naming still occurs though (along side the systematic designation); Eris, discovered in 2005, is one such example; the dwarf planet also goes by “136199 Eris” and “2003 UB₃₁₃”. Eris was also the Greek Goddess of Strife, we haven’t run out of god names yet!

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: Ask an Astronomer - Cornell

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to... speak.

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:59:00 -0500

False - the Speaker of the House does in fact speak; otherwise the speaker would not be able to accomplish the task bestowed upon them. The speaker’s task is to remain impartial and moderate the discussion. Interestingly, @OMGFacts’ own link contradicts the claim.

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: wikipedia

“Almost” is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:26:00 -0500

False - “Aegilops” is the longest word in the English language with all its characters in alphabetical order with eight (8) characters. Aegilops is a genus of plants generally known as goatgrasses and belonging to the grass family, Poaceae. ”Almost” shares second place with several other six (6) character words: biopsy, chinos, chintz, bijoux, abhors, begins, and chimps. And if you allow duplicate characters, “Almost” and it’s brethren are bumped to third place, as “billowy” is seven (7) characters in length, all in alphabetical order.

original claim:@OMGFacts; source: wikipedia, Taxonomy of Wordplay

Women speak about 7000 words a day. The average man? 2000.

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:47:00 -0500

False - an article published in Science (one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journals in the world) in 2007 found:

Women are generally assumed to be more talkative than men. Data were analyzed from 396 participants who wore a voice recorder that sampled ambient sounds for several days. Participants’ daily word use was extrapolated from the number of recorded words. Women and men both spoke about 16,000 words per day.

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men? — Mehl et al. 317 (5834): 82 — Science

In the 40’s, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it ‘Bitch.’

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:53:00 -0500

False - the company Société Bic (founded in 1945 - then known Société PAA) shortened it’s name and the name associated with its products from the family name of the founder Marcel Bich to the phonetic “Bic” in 1953, in line with the post-war trend of companies renaming to easier-to-remember and globally pronounceable names. Sure the United States was a consideration in the name change, but not the only consideration.

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: wikipedia

The Bible is the number one most shoplifted book of all time.

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:18:00 -0500

Plausible - but, being that the Bible is also one of the largest selling and longest running books in history, this claim doesn’t seem all that odd. We couldn’t find any statistics on book theft, but we did come across the opinion of one book store owner in an article in the New York Times. When asked what the most frequently stolen title was:

“The Bible,” he said, without pausing.

Admittedly, this quote is not very concrete evidence; but given the bible got almost a 2000 year head start on other books (and is still widely published and in circulation today), we’ll say plausible.

original claim: @OMGFacts; sources: wikipedia, New York Times

A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:03:00 -0500

True - gold can be rolled thin enough to be translucent, so thin that it is used as a filter on the helmets of astronauts. According to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), a little gold goes a long way:

Gold is malleable, so it can be flattened into extremely thin sheets. […] Gold leafing—also known as gilding—is an ancient technique. Traditional artisans beat raw gold between pieces of leather until it was almost too thin to be seen. One ounce of gold may be hammered thin enough to cover more than 9 square meters (96.9 square feet) of a surface. The gold leaf may be only 0.18 microns (seven millionths of an inch) thick; a stack of 7,055 sheets would be no thicker than a dime.

So let’s go with the what the AMNH says: 1 troy ounce of gold can be hammered to cover 96.9 square feet. A regulation tennis court, from baseline to baseline including the alleys is 78 feet x 36 feet or 2808 square feet. This would require roughly 28.9 troy ounces of gold, which is 898.89 grams of gold. A 1000 gram ingot of gold from Harrods measures in at: 115.0 millimeters x 52.0 millimeters x 9.0 millimeters (4.5 inches x 2.04 inches x 0.35 inches) well within the dimensions of the only matchbox I could find (a 250 count of large kitchen matches at roughly: 5.5 inches x 3 inches x 1.5 inches). Interestingly enough, this is one of the Top 10 myths that the Mythbusters won’t tackle citing the cost of gold; which, as of this writing, the needed amount of gold would cost around $30,769.00 USD. We have seen this myth written as “matchbook” and not “matchbox” that would have to be a pretty wide matchbook, and certainly it would be plausible to find a matchbook to fit the aforementioned necessary dimensions.

original claim: @OMGFacts; sources: wikipedia, Harrods, American Museum of Natural History

Over 2500 left-handed people a year are killed from using equipment made for right-handed people.

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:36:16 -0500

Unverifiable - now, one would expect this data would be relatively easy to come by, statistics are collected on all sorts of accidents [pdf]. A quick (by quick we mean: more time than we intended to spend) internet search reveals a lot of results from fact-aggregating web sites that list this claim as fact almost verbatim. Unfortunately none of these sites provide any statistics, sources of statistics, or even sources that actually have data of what they are attributed to having (some sites claim one organization or another has the data, upon investigation, they don’t) to back up these claims. Part of what makes this so hard to quantify or verify is that until relatively recently left-handedness had been widely (and sometimes forcefully) discouraged, there are still many people today that were painstakingly “retrained” into right-handed dominance. We’re certainly not saying left-handed fatalities due to right-handed instruments don’t occur, but there doesn’t seem to be enough data to back this claim up; so we’ll put this one in the unsubstantiated rumor category, for now.

original claim: @OMGFacts; sources: can’t find any.

There are two golf balls sitting on the moon.

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:01:00 -0500

Needs further verification - amazingly, there are two credible sources citing two different numbers. Starting with what is universally agreed: the Apollo 14 mission (the 8th manned Apollo mission, and the 3rd to land on the moon) did bring Alan Shepard, Stewart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell to the moon (Shepard and Mitchell would walk on the surface, Roosa remained aboard the command module) along with a golf club and golf balls. Now here’s where the details diverge, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) consistently states that there are three (3) golf balls on the moon. Yet in interviews with Alan Shepard (the only astronaut to take a swing on the lunar surface) claims to have hit two. Reviewing video of the event, it looks to us like only two (2) were dropped, shot, and subsequently left on the moon. Both sources are credible on the matter, I guess the only real way to figure this one out, is to send me; I’ll check on those footprints too!

original claim: @OMGFacts; sources: NASA Facts Archive, NASA Apollo’s Lunar Leftovers, Academy of Achievement - Alan Shepard Interview, The Open Video Project - Golfing on the Moon

Iguanas, Koalas and Komodo dragons all have two penises.

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:19:00 -0500

True - this is known as a hemipenes (plural for the pair, singular: hemipenis), and is a trait of of male squamates (scaled reptiles e.g. snakes, lizards), and some species have hemipenes that are forked at each tip. The hemipenes are typically held inverted in the abdomen of the squamata, and due to this inversion hemipenes do not contain a fully sealed sperm channel like in a mammal, but rather an open groove that seals itself when the hemipenis is erect.

Update: in our haste, we managed to miss that the original claim sandwiched a marsupial in between two squamates. This is also true, koalas (along with opossums, Tasmanian devils, wombats, wallabies, and others) have what is called a bifurcated penis this differs from the squamata’s hemipenis as bifurcated penis is not inverted; female marsupials also have two vaginas and two uteri.

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: wikipedia 1, 2

In the US, an estimated 1 billion birds die each year from smashing into windows.

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:49:58 -0500

Plausible - the actual estimate from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is between 100 million and 1 billion annually, and accounts for up to 5% of the fall bird population. With urban sprawl and development, this is becoming an increasing issue. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service also offers some tips to help prevent these collisions.

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service [PDF]

Sheep can recognize each other through pictures.

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:06:50 -0500

True - and it even comes with a citation! An article published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nature, in 2001 states:

The human brain has evolved specialized neural mechanisms for visual recognition of faces, which afford us a remarkable ability to discriminate between, remember and think about many hundreds of different individuals. Sheep also recognize and are attracted to individual sheep and humans by their faces, as they possess similar specialized neural systems in the temporal and frontal lobes for assisting in this important social task.

The ability for animals to recognize other animals is a measure of self-awareness often used as a measure of intelligence. The mirror test is one test of self-awareness developed in the 1970s by developed by Gordon Gallup Jr. based in part on observations made by Charles Darwin. In order to pass this test, the subject has to be able to recognize that the reflection seen in the mirror is themselves, rather than another being. Interestingly, children younger than 18 months fail the test. Other animals that do pass the mirror test include many (if not all) the great apes, bottle nose dolphins, elephants, pigs, and European Magpies. Animals such as dogs and cats, do not. Studies like these also help us better understand ourselves, and our ability (or often inability) to recognize individuals across races.

original claim: @OMGFacts; sources: Nature, wikipedia, Cognitive Daily

The distress code “Mayday” comes from the French for help me, M’Aide.

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:44:00 -0500

True - well, almost! How should we count spelling mistakes? Although, my french is rusty.

It derives from the French phrase venez m’aider, or m’aidez, meaning “(you) come (and) help me”

original claim: @OMGFacts; source: wikipedia

The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:36:52 -0500

False - Poison Dart Frog (formerly Poison Arrow Frog) is a name that refers to over 175 species of frogs in the family Dendrobatidae (some of which are critically endangered). Of these, only three are known to be lethally poisonous to humans, and of those, each frog on average produces enough poison to kill 10 grown men.

original claim: @OMGFacts; sources: wikipedia, National Geographic, Smithsonian Institute

In ancient China, people committed suicide by eating a pound of salt.

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:25:08 -0500

Plausible - Wikipedia has a reference to this claim (ahem, citation needed), but it is not out side the realm of possibility. Salt is toxic in large quantities, roughly 1g/kg of body weight. A pound of salt would be lethal for up to 1000lbs of body weight.

Remember readers, suicide is no laughing matter: SAVE.

original claim: @OMGFacts; sources: wikipedia,The Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University