We always read them, pause and then wonder – is it really true that “Cats are the most common animals to be reported roaming around college campuses” or “Every 23 seconds someone is having sex in a carpet store”?
Wait a second, a carpet store, really?
Yeah, let’s face it, if you haven’t already guessed, the “Facts of the Day” on the Daily CONNtact aren’t true. But this still doesn’t take away from their absurd, yet entertaining content.
So why don’t they use real facts, or even true facts that sound false? According to Sushane Erskine, Co-Editor of the Daily CONNtact, it’s all about keeping the tradition alive.
“The previous editors told me that they used fake facts, so I decided to continue the tradition. Everyone on campus knows that the facts are fake, so why should we change?”
And just like everything else today, these false facts can be found on the Internet.
Erskine explains that the process usually goes something like this: “I use Yahoo or Google to search for false fun facts. When searching through the facts, I randomly select them and try not to get fun facts that are offensive.”
This is not as easy as it sounds – last year a Fact of the Day about swine flu caused so much concern that the administration sent out a campus-wide email verifying that this “fact” was indeed false.
At first learning about this, I was in disbelief that such things exist. So I took it upon myself to investigate these false facts and surprisingly enough found that there are multiple websites dedicated to lists and lists of false facts.
One website warns its readers at the top of the page “These facts are NOT true, but they sound good!” and then goes on to list false facts such as ”John F. Kennedy was an accomplished ventriloquist” or “M &Ms were candy covered peas during a chocolate shortage in the 1950s.”
Wait, these sound good? Well that’s debatable, but regardless, if you simply type “false facts” into Google, you’ll be able to find false facts about smoking, Christmas, steroids…the list goes on.
So as crazy as it sounds, you can find false facts about basically anything. It’s unclear the actual purpose behind these posers but they are overall entertaining and good for a laugh (i.e. Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul, has a large collection of Beanie Babies).
The Daily CONNtact has received student response questioning the validity of the facts and, although disappointed to learn that a 9-volt battery doesn’t in fact have the same amount of kinetic energy as a bowl of Lucky Charms (shocker), we can thank the CONNtact for continuing the tradition of providing us with these outrageous yet amusing “facts” that are sure to always give us a laugh.
