Claim: A long exposure photo of a lightning bolt hitting a tree.
Reality: It's a photo created by "light painter" Darren Pearson (aka Darius Twin). Light painting is "a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera." Pearson light painted the blue flames at the base of the tree. He then cut-and-pasted the lightning bolt itself into the photo from a NOAA image of a lightning strike.
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Oct. 2013
Claim: A long exposure photo of a lightning bolt hitting a tree.
Reality: It's a photo created by "light painter" Darren Pearson (aka Darius Twin). Light painting is "a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera." Pearson light painted the blue flames at the base of the tree. He then cut-and-pasted the lightning bolt itself into the photo from a NOAA image of a lightning strike.
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June 2013
Claim: This is what happens when lightning hits sand!
Reality: When lightning strikes sand, it can form fulgurites, which are glassy tubes of melted sand. But the object in the photo isn't a fulgurite. It's a piece of driftwood with sand piled on top of it, created and photographed by a guy who goes by the name "Sandcastle Matt" (his Flickr photostream).
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June 2013
Claim: This is what happens when lightning hits sand!
Reality: When lightning strikes sand, it can form fulgurites, which are glassy tubes of melted sand. But the object in the photo isn't a fulgurite. It's a piece of driftwood with sand piled on top of it, created and photographed by a guy who goes by the name "Sandcastle Matt" (his Flickr photostream).
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April 2013
Claim: Jennifer Aniston cut off her hair as a way of showing her support for a niece diagnosed with cancer.
Reality: This doctored image was initially created as an April Fool's Day joke by the site Daily Makeover, which said the actress had cut off her hair for a movie role. But months later, the image began circulating on social media accompanied by the niece-with-cancer claim. In reality, Aniston didn't have a niece with cancer.
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April 2013
Claim: Jennifer Aniston cut off her hair as a way of showing her support for a niece diagnosed with cancer.
Reality: This doctored image was initially created as an April Fool's Day joke by the site Daily Makeover, which said the actress had cut off her hair for a movie role. But months later, the image began circulating on social media accompanied by the niece-with-cancer claim. In reality, Aniston didn't have a niece with cancer.
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March 2013
Claim: This is an actual piece of carefully carved furniture, made to appear as if its been deformed by a digital glitch. It's not a photo file gone wrong.
Reality: Furniture designer Ferruccio Laviani did create "glitch" furniture for a Furniture Exhibition in Italy. His aim was to make furniture "which seems to have been 'deformed' by a strong jolt or by swaying movements." The picture above was a photo mock-up of the concept for the collection. In other words, it wasn't real.
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March 2013
Claim: This is an actual piece of carefully carved furniture, made to appear as if its been deformed by a digital glitch. It's not a photo file gone wrong.
Reality: Furniture designer Ferruccio Laviani did create "glitch" furniture for a Furniture Exhibition in Italy. His aim was to make furniture "which seems to have been 'deformed' by a strong jolt or by swaying movements." The picture above was a photo mock-up of the concept for the collection. In other words, it wasn't real.
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Jan. 2013
Claim: A satellite's view of the fireworks over Europe at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.
Reality: Fireworks would not have created such intense illumination. This is actually a scientific image created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to show changes in illumination in Europe from 1993-2003. Since Jan. 2013, the image has re-circulated every year following New Year's Eve with the same claim about fireworks.
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Jan. 2013
Claim: A satellite's view of the fireworks over Europe at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.
Reality: Fireworks would not have created such intense illumination. This is actually a scientific image created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to show changes in illumination in Europe from 1993-2003. Since Jan. 2013, the image has re-circulated every year following New Year's Eve with the same claim about fireworks.
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Jan. 2013
Claim: "Remember that as days get colder animals are attracted to the warmth of cars so check wheel arches or other hiding places."
Reality: The cow was cut-and-pasted onto the car from this image. (If a cow really was lying on a car hood, the front of the car would sag under the weight.) The image initially circulated with captions such as "Fail Safe Auto Alarm," but went fully viral when the Surrey Roads Police Dept. tweeted it with the caption about animals attracted to the warmth of cars.
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Jan. 2013
Claim: "Remember that as days get colder animals are attracted to the warmth of cars so check wheel arches or other hiding places."
Reality: The cow was cut-and-pasted onto the car from this image. (If a cow really was lying on a car hood, the front of the car would sag under the weight.) The image initially circulated with captions such as "Fail Safe Auto Alarm," but went fully viral when the Surrey Roads Police Dept. tweeted it with the caption about animals attracted to the warmth of cars.
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July 2012
Claim: An encounter with an angry koala.
Reality: Koalas don't have wolf-life jaws. The original photo of the koala (without the fangs) was taken in January 2009 by Flickr user Oz_drdolittle, who explains that the koala was wet because he had sprayed it with water to cool it down on a hot day. Around about 2012, an unknown hoaxer added the wolf fangs to the photo, and it subsequently went viral.
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July 2012
Claim: An encounter with an angry koala.
Reality: Koalas don't have wolf-life jaws. The original photo of the koala (without the fangs) was taken in January 2009 by Flickr user Oz_drdolittle, who explains that the koala was wet because he had sprayed it with water to cool it down on a hot day. Around about 2012, an unknown hoaxer added the wolf fangs to the photo, and it subsequently went viral.
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June 2012
Claim: A rare black lion!
Reality: Black lions are not biologically impossible. However, the lion in this picture is a white lion colored black through photo manipulation. The original image of a white lion was first posted at cutehomepets.com. It was then transformed into a black lion by "PAulie-SVK" who posted it on deviantart.com. From there it spread via social media.
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June 2012
Claim: A rare black lion!
Reality: Black lions are not biologically impossible. However, the lion in this picture is a white lion colored black through photo manipulation. The original image of a white lion was first posted at cutehomepets.com. It was then transformed into a black lion by "PAulie-SVK" who posted it on deviantart.com. From there it spread via social media.
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March 2012
Claim: This a Moon Melon, scientifically knows as asidus. It grows in some parts of Japan, and is known for it's weird blue color. It can switch flavors after you eat it. Everything sour will taste sweet, and everything salty will taste bitter.
Reality: This is actually just a slice of normal, red watermelon that was colored blue by using a digital color filter. Some fruits and vegetables do come in shades of blue, but watermelon doesn't.
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March 2012
Claim: This a Moon Melon, scientifically knows as asidus. It grows in some parts of Japan, and is known for it's weird blue color. It can switch flavors after you eat it. Everything sour will taste sweet, and everything salty will taste bitter.
Reality: This is actually just a slice of normal, red watermelon that was colored blue by using a digital color filter. Some fruits and vegetables do come in shades of blue, but watermelon doesn't.
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Feb. 2012
Claim: During a photo-op on his 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney's family accidentally misspelled their last name. The greatest Freudian slip in history!
Reality: That isn't actually Romney's family in the photo. Nor was his name misspelled when this scene happened in real life. The misspelling was achieved via photoshop. The original picture was taken by Reuters photographer Brian Snyder at a Romney campaign rally in Elko, Nevada.
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Feb. 2012
Claim: During a photo-op on his 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney's family accidentally misspelled their last name. The greatest Freudian slip in history!
Reality: That isn't actually Romney's family in the photo. Nor was his name misspelled when this scene happened in real life. The misspelling was achieved via photoshop. The original picture was taken by Reuters photographer Brian Snyder at a Romney campaign rally in Elko, Nevada.
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2011
Claim: An "Angolan Witch Spider" spotted crawling on the side of a house in Texas. It took several gun shots to kill it.
Reality: The image is the creation of artist/photographer Paul Santa Maria who took a photo of a normal-sized wolf spider outside his Florida home and used Photoshop to expand it to gigantic proportions. "Angolan Witch Spider" is a creative name, but there is no such species in reality.
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2011
Claim: An "Angolan Witch Spider" spotted crawling on the side of a house in Texas. It took several gun shots to kill it.
Reality: The image is the creation of artist/photographer Paul Santa Maria who took a photo of a normal-sized wolf spider outside his Florida home and used Photoshop to expand it to gigantic proportions. "Angolan Witch Spider" is a creative name, but there is no such species in reality.
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2009
Claim: $181 million lottery winner finds love of his life two days after hitting it big.
Reality: The woman is the Swedish actress, singer, and glamour model Natacha Peyre. The man next to her remains unidentified. According to reports, Peyre has been dating Swedish pop singer Dhani Lennevald for a number of years, and he's not the man in the photo, nor is he a $181 million lottery winner.
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2009
Claim: $181 million lottery winner finds love of his life two days after hitting it big.
Reality: The woman is the Swedish actress, singer, and glamour model Natacha Peyre. The man next to her remains unidentified. According to reports, Peyre has been dating Swedish pop singer Dhani Lennevald for a number of years, and he's not the man in the photo, nor is he a $181 million lottery winner.
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circa 2009
Claim: The corporate headquarters of Viagra.
Reality: The building is real, as is the suggestively shaped topiary. But it's not the headquarters of Viagra, which isn't a company — it's a drug manufactured by Pfizer, Inc. (Of course, the joke wouldn't work if the photo was captioned "Pfizer's Corporate Headquarters.") But this isn't even Pfizer's headquarters. It's the corporate offices of Swagelok Northwest, located in Portland, Oregon.
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circa 2009
Claim: The corporate headquarters of Viagra.
Reality: The building is real, as is the suggestively shaped topiary. But it's not the headquarters of Viagra, which isn't a company — it's a drug manufactured by Pfizer, Inc. (Of course, the joke wouldn't work if the photo was captioned "Pfizer's Corporate Headquarters.") But this isn't even Pfizer's headquarters. It's the corporate offices of Swagelok Northwest, located in Portland, Oregon.
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Sep. 2008
Claim: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin poses in an American-flag bikini while holding a rifle.
Reality: This image started to circulate online soon after Palin was chosen as John McCain's Vice-Presidential candidate. It was created by an unknown hoaxer who cut Palin's head from a photo of her marching in a July 4 Parade and pasted it onto the body of a bikini-wearing model.
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Sep. 2008
Claim: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin poses in an American-flag bikini while holding a rifle.
Reality: This image started to circulate online soon after Palin was chosen as John McCain's Vice-Presidential candidate. It was created by an unknown hoaxer who cut Palin's head from a photo of her marching in a July 4 Parade and pasted it onto the body of a bikini-wearing model.
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April 2008
Claim: Charlton Heston's home gun collection located under his 1860s Manor House.
Reality: Images of this gun collection began to circulate online following Heston's death. Heston was a well-known gun enthusiast, but the guns shown here belonged to attorney Bruce Stern, who died in 2007. After Stern's death, the collection was mostly auctioned off. It was one of the largest firearms collections ever to go up for auction.
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April 2008
Claim: Charlton Heston's home gun collection located under his 1860s Manor House.
Reality: Images of this gun collection began to circulate online following Heston's death. Heston was a well-known gun enthusiast, but the guns shown here belonged to attorney Bruce Stern, who died in 2007. After Stern's death, the collection was mostly auctioned off. It was one of the largest firearms collections ever to go up for auction.
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