Baloney is a free daily lie-detection game. Each of ten rounds shows three short statements on one topic — exactly one is a plausible fabrication. You tap the fake before the timer, then every statement is revealed as true or false with a one-line truth, and you earn a shareable Baloney Detector verdict from 'Believes Everything' to 'Baloney Immune'. No account, no sign-up.

How do you play Baloney?

Open the site, read the three statements in each round, and tap the one you think is fabricated before the ~30-second timer runs out. After each round the fake is revealed along with the truth of all three statements, plus what percent of today's players got fooled. You win by smell, not recall — no trivia knowledge required.

Yes. Baloney is completely free and ad-supported, with no account, no sign-up, and nothing to install. A new set of ten rounds is released every day and is the same for everyone that day; your streak is saved in your browser.

Case File #0062

Aug 22, 2026 — 10 rounds, declassified. The fabrication in each is marked; the truth of all three follows. Play today's case →

Round 1 SCIENCE
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Lightning never strikes the same spot twice, because each discharge permanently ruins the air's ability to conduct there.
  FALSE. Lightning frequently hits the same place; tall structures get struck many times every year.
- ✓ TRUE
  The Empire State Building is hit by lightning roughly 20 to 25 times per year.
  TRUE. Its height makes it a favorite lightning target, struck around two dozen times annually.
- ✓ TRUE
  Thunder is the sound of air violently expanding after being superheated by a lightning bolt.
  TRUE. The bolt heats air explosively, and the rapid expansion creates the shockwave we hear as thunder.
Round 2 ANIMALS
- ✓ TRUE
  A praying mantis is the only insect known to be able to turn its head and look over its shoulder.
  TRUE. Its flexible neck joint lets it swivel its triangular head far to the side to track movement.
- ✓ TRUE
  A female praying mantis sometimes eats the male during or after mating.
  TRUE. Sexual cannibalism occurs in some mantis species, though it is not universal.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  A praying mantis has ears on its head that let it hear birdsong from hundreds of metres away.
  FALSE. Most mantises have a single ear on the underside of the thorax, tuned mainly to the ultrasound of hunting bats, not birdsong.
Round 3 FOOD
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The Caesar salad was named after the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, whose banquets featured an early version of it.
  FALSE. It is named for restaurateur Caesar Cardini, not the Roman emperor, and dates to the 20th century.
- ✓ TRUE
  The Caesar salad is generally credited to a restaurateur working in Tijuana, Mexico, in the 1920s.
  TRUE. The dish is widely traced to a Tijuana restaurant kitchen in the 1920s, near the U.S. border.
- ✓ TRUE
  The classic dressing is built from ingredients such as garlic, lemon, egg, and Parmesan cheese.
  TRUE. Emulsified egg, lemon, garlic, oil, and Parmesan form the backbone of the traditional dressing.
Round 4 ANIMALS
- ✓ TRUE
  Flamingos hatch grey-white and only turn pink over time from pigments in the algae and tiny crustaceans they eat.
  TRUE — carotenoid pigments in their food dye the feathers pink; a flamingo fed a plain diet fades toward white.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  A flamingo can balance on one leg for only a few minutes before muscle fatigue forces it to switch legs.
  FALSE — the one-legged stance is the low-effort, near-passive posture; flamingos hold it effortlessly, even while asleep.
- ✓ TRUE
  Flamingos feed with their heads upside down, using comb-like structures in the bill to filter small food from the water.
  TRUE — the bill works as a strainer while held inverted, sieving out algae and shrimp-like prey.
Round 5 ANIMALS
- ✓ TRUE
  Some ants can carry objects many times their own body weight, and ants can link their bodies into living rafts to survive floods.
  TRUE. Ants are famously strong for their size and will interlock into floating, water-resistant rafts.
- ✓ TRUE
  Ants communicate mainly through chemical signals called pheromones, laying scent trails that lead nestmates to food.
  TRUE. A forager leaves a pheromone trail that other ants follow and reinforce.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Ants are solitary insects that meet only briefly to mate before going their separate ways.
  FALSE. Ants are among the most social animals on Earth, living in colonies of thousands or millions with divided labour.
Round 6 LANGUAGE
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The word 'butterfly' was originally 'flutterby', and its two parts were swapped over the centuries through common mispronunciation.
  FALSE. The historical form is 'butterfly' (Old English buttorfleoge); 'flutterby' is a modern playful reversal, not the original.
- ✓ TRUE
  The word 'lord' descends from an Old English compound meaning roughly 'loaf-keeper' or guardian of the bread.
  TRUE. 'Hlafweard' (loaf-ward) contracted over time into 'lord'.
- ✓ TRUE
  The word 'window' comes from an Old Norse compound literally meaning 'wind-eye'.
  TRUE. Early openings let in air and light, so they were called a 'wind-eye'.
Round 7 GEOGRAPHY
- ✓ TRUE
  The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert, covering an area roughly comparable to the United States.
  TRUE. The Sahara is the largest hot desert, about the size of the continental US.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The Sahara is the single largest desert on Earth, larger even than the continent of Antarctica.
  FALSE. Antarctica is actually the largest desert on Earth; the Sahara is only the largest hot one.
- ✓ TRUE
  Antarctica is classified as a desert because it receives extremely little precipitation.
  TRUE. Despite the ice, Antarctica's very low precipitation makes it a desert by definition.
Round 8 GEOGRAPHY
- ✓ TRUE
  Vatican City is the world's smallest independent country measured by land area.
  TRUE. Vatican City is the smallest sovereign state on Earth by area.
- ✓ TRUE
  Monaco is the world's second-smallest country and hosts a famous Formula 1 street race.
  TRUE. Monaco is the second-smallest state and home to the Monaco Grand Prix.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  San Marino is a small island nation located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.
  FALSE. San Marino is a landlocked microstate completely surrounded by Italy, not an island.
Round 9 SPACE
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Saturn is the only planet in the solar system that has a ring system around it.
  FALSE. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings too; Saturn's are just far brighter and easier to see.
- ✓ TRUE
  Saturn's average density is so low that, given a big enough ocean, the planet would float in water.
  TRUE. Saturn's mean density is less than that of water, the only planet for which this is the case.
- ✓ TRUE
  Saturn's moon Titan has surface lakes and rivers filled with liquid methane and ethane instead of water.
  TRUE. Titan is the only other world known to have stable liquid on its surface, though it's hydrocarbons.
Round 10 GEOGRAPHY
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The Dead Sea is the largest inland body of saltwater on Earth, exceeding even the Caspian Sea in area.
  FALSE. The Caspian Sea is by far the largest inland body of water; the Dead Sea is comparatively tiny.
- ✓ TRUE
  The shore of the Dead Sea is the lowest exposed land on Earth, sitting over 400 metres below sea level.
  TRUE. The Dead Sea shoreline is the lowest dry land on the planet, roughly 430 m below sea level.
- ✓ TRUE
  The Pacific is both the largest and the deepest of Earth's oceans.
  TRUE. The Pacific is the biggest ocean and contains the deepest known point, the Mariana Trench.

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