![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Are 'Texas Transgender Student Union' mailers from legitimate civil rights group? It's unlikely
Oct. 21st, 2026 08:58 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
snopes_feedThe pamphlets are connected to a Wyoming address notorious for scams and shell companies.
snopes_feed
Did JD Vance compare US economy to Titanic?
Oct. 21st, 2026 08:07 pmsnopes_feedThe vice president's comments resurfaced as polls showed Americans' faith in the economy was at its lowest in over a decade.
Image allegedly shows Paris burning amid ongoing unrest. Is it real?
Oct. 21st, 2026 12:36 pmsnopes_feedWhile real photos authentically show fires on the streets of the city, this particular claim needs a fact check.
10 Kim Jong Un rumors we've investigated over the years
Oct. 21st, 2026 12:23 pmsnopes_feedReports of the North Korean supreme leader's death have once again been greatly exaggerated.
Who ordered Starlink, Starshield slowdown in Ukraine? What we know
Oct. 21st, 2026 11:00 amsnopes_feedPresident Donald Trump said he and SpaceX founder Elon Musk had "nothing to do" with a decision to impose speed limits on Starlink in Ukraine.
Did Trump say 'everyone gets healthcare' if Democrats win?
Oct. 20th, 2026 11:25 pmsnopes_feedWhile the quote is authentic, Trump said it well before the 2026 midterm elections.
Gendering duct tape again
Oct. 20th, 2026 07:55 pmlanguagelog_feedThe Weather Channel recently published a story about the value of duct tape in keeping out flood water: "Duct tape kept out more flood water than sandbags in laboratory tests". Its newletter advertised that story as "A victory for dads everywhere":
The Wikipedia article on duct tape tells us about the history, in which the name for cotton duck came from Dutch doek meaning "cloth", and "duck tape" was originally a tape with "a rubber-based adhesive applied to a durable duck cloth backing", later perhaps reinterpreted as a tape used to seal heating and cooling ducts. That article's section on duct tape in popular culture hints at connections with stereotypically male roles like "handyman", but the gender association remains implicit.
Not so for the cover of Louann Brizendine's 2010 book The Male Brain:
In contrast, The Female Brain is a tangled curly telephone cord in the U.S.:
And an overstuffed purse in the U.K.:
I was originally puzzled by the duct tape brain, but readers set me straight — see "What's the Male Brain made of?" (3/25/2010).
Uncovering the facts behind 13 rumors about Trump renaming things
Oct. 20th, 2026 03:00 pmsnopes_feedFrom "Lake America" to "New America," we've investigated what Trump has (and hasn't) renamed.
Poll workers may mark your ballot. Here's why you shouldn't worry
Oct. 20th, 2026 01:00 pmsnopes_feedWe spoke to elections officials about the legitimate reasons poll workers sometimes write on ballots.
Is Kroger planning to cut 3,000 jobs over 3 years and move some to India? What we know
Oct. 20th, 2026 11:00 amsnopes_feedPosts also claimed AI would also replace some of the U.S. employees.
Noncitizens don't vote in large numbers in US elections. Here's proof
Oct. 20th, 2026 10:00 amsnopes_feedWe spoke to state election officials to learn how they prevent noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
AI doom as message overload
Oct. 19th, 2026 11:12 pmlanguagelog_feedNorbert Wiener's 1950 book The Human Use of Human Beings makes some uncannily accurate predictions, e.g.
It is the thesis of this book that society can only be understood through a study of the messages and the communication facilities which belong to it; and that in the future development of these messages and communication facilities, messages between man and machines, between machines and man, and between machine and machine, are destined to play an ever-increasing part.
And those messages will be an "ever-increasing part" of an ever-growing whole, alas — just ask anyone who has recently spent time with WorkDay and its ilk 
.
Weiner 's predicted "new industrial revolution" has a lot in common with current worries about AI:
Thus the new industrial revolution is a two-edged sword. It may be used for the benefit of humanity, but only if humanity survives long enough to enter a period in which such a benefit is possible. It may also be used to destroy humanity, and if it is not used intelligently it can go very far in that direction.
However, he underestimates the needed development time:
The introduction of the new devices and the dates at which they are to be expected are, of course, largely economic matters, on which I am not an expert. Short of any violent political changes or another great war, I should give a rough estimate that it will take the new tools ten to twenty years to come into their own.
Thus by 1960 or 1970, he argues,
It is perfectly clear that this will produce an unemployment situation, in comparison with which the present recession and even the depression of the thirties will seem a pleasant joke. This depression will ruin many industries — possibly even the industries which have taken advantage of the new potentialities.
The 60s and 70s had their problems, but not those problems. So who knows, maybe message-overload will continue to be our experience of AI doom?
Did French rioters target synagogue and Jewish businesses, but spare Muslim ones?
Oct. 19th, 2026 10:52 pmsnopes_feedPolice and Jewish institutions found no evidence the synagogue and Jewish businesses had been specifically targeted for antisemitic reasons.
10 rumors we've investigated involving Pope Leo XIV
Oct. 19th, 2026 02:03 pmsnopes_feedWe revisited our past coverage of the pope amid news that a tumor was removed from his right lung.
Are US stores selling 3D-printed salmon manufactured by Israeli company?
Oct. 19th, 2026 01:00 pmsnopes_feedSteakholder Foods specializes in making plant-based imitation meat using 3D printing.
7 rumors about Megyn Kelly we've examined
Oct. 19th, 2026 11:00 amsnopes_feedThe conservative pundit has featured in several Snopes fact checks over the years.
More caricatured AI reactions
Oct. 19th, 2026 10:17 amlanguagelog_feedFollowing up on yesterday's "Singularities" post, today's SMBC:
Mouseover title: "Meanwhile the Engineers are just lighting themselves on fire to see what happens."
The aftercomic:
In fact, there's a wide range of reactions from each group — and likewise from Linguists, although some possibilities are oddly missing…
See also "Intellectual Automation" (3/7/2011); "AI Panics" (11/27/2016); "'The real threat of AI'" (6/26/2017); etc.
Trump can rename an ocean. But can he force people to use the new name?
Oct. 18th, 2026 11:00 pmsnopes_feedThe president suggested "Trump Ocean" and "Ocean of the Americas" as potential new names.
16 claims about Hegseth we've debunked
Oct. 18th, 2026 06:00 pmsnopes_feedSnopes often fact-checks false rumors that satirize credible reports about the defense secretary.