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 #0063

Aug 23, 2026 — 10 rounds, declassified. The fabrication in each is marked; the truth of all three follows. Play today's case →

Round 1 ANIMALS
- ✓ TRUE
  Sharks have existed longer than trees have grown on land.
  TRUE — early sharks appeared over 400 million years ago, before the first true forests spread across land.
- ✓ TRUE
  Sharks can sense the faint electric fields of nearby prey using jelly-filled pores called the ampullae of Lorenzini.
  TRUE — these electroreceptors detect the tiny electrical signals given off by living muscle, even in murky water.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  A shark's skeleton is made of lightweight hollow bones, like a bird's, to help it stay buoyant.
  FALSE — sharks have no bones at all; their skeleton is made of flexible, lighter-than-bone cartilage.
Round 2 FOOD
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Vanilla flavor comes from the seeds of a desert cactus native to the American Southwest.
  FALSE. Vanilla comes from the cured seed pods of orchids native to Mesoamerica, not from any cactus.
- ✓ TRUE
  Vanilla is derived from the cured seed pods of orchids and was first cultivated in Mesoamerica.
  TRUE. The vanilla 'bean' is an orchid pod, and its cultivation began among Mesoamerican peoples.
- ✓ TRUE
  For a long time vanilla was hard to grow outside its native range because it depended on specific pollinators.
  TRUE. Without its native pollinators, vanilla set little fruit abroad until hand-pollination was developed.
Round 3 SCIENCE
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Batteries go dead in the cold because low temperatures crack the internal metal plates.
  FALSE. Cold simply slows the chemical reactions inside, cutting output; the plates don't crack.
- ✓ TRUE
  A battery makes electricity through chemical reactions that push electrons from one terminal to the other.
  TRUE. Chemical reactions at the electrodes drive electrons through the external circuit.
- ✓ TRUE
  Rechargeable batteries work by using an external current to reverse the chemical reaction inside them.
  TRUE. Charging forces the reaction backward, restoring the battery to its energized state.
Round 4 SPACE
- ✓ TRUE
  Halley's Comet becomes visible from Earth roughly every 76 years, with its most recent appearance in 1986.
  TRUE. Its next return is expected around 2061, keeping to its long, predictable cycle.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  A comet's tail always trails directly behind it along its path, streaming back like a rocket's exhaust.
  FALSE. A comet's tail points away from the Sun, driven by solar wind and radiation, even when the comet is moving away.
- ✓ TRUE
  Comets are often nicknamed 'dirty snowballs' because they are made largely of ice mixed with dust and rock.
  TRUE. As they near the Sun the ice vaporizes, releasing the gas and dust that form their glowing tails.
Round 5 HISTORY
- ✓ TRUE
  The Rosetta Stone records one decree carved in three scripts, and comparing them let scholars finally decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.
  TRUE — the Greek text was the key that unlocked the hieroglyphic and Demotic versions.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Napoleon Bonaparte was famously tiny for his era, standing only about five feet tall by the time he died.
  FALSE — Napoleon stood roughly 5'6"–5'7", average for his day; the 'short' myth came from confusing French and English inches.
- ✓ TRUE
  Napoleon placed the crown on his own head when he was made Emperor of the French in 1804 at Notre-Dame.
  TRUE — he crowned himself rather than let the Pope do it, a deliberate statement of his own authority.
Round 6 HISTORY
- ✓ TRUE
  The Maya civilization developed a full writing system and strikingly accurate calendars across Mesoamerica.
  TRUE — Maya scribes recorded history in glyphs and tracked astronomical cycles precisely.
- ✓ TRUE
  Maya cities such as Tikal featured towering stone pyramids, temples, and palaces rising above the forest.
  TRUE — Tikal's stepped pyramids still loom over the Guatemalan jungle.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The ancient Maya predicted the world would end in 2012, which is exactly why their long calendar simply stops there.
  FALSE — the Maya predicted no apocalypse; 2012 merely closed one long-count cycle, and the calendar rolls onward.
Round 7 GEOGRAPHY
- ✓ TRUE
  The Equator passes through Ecuador, a country whose name is Spanish for "equator."
  TRUE. Ecuador is named for the Equator, which runs through the country.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The Equator passes through the southern tip of India near the town of Kanyakumari.
  FALSE. The Equator does not reach India; the country's southern tip lies around eight degrees north of it.
- ✓ TRUE
  The Equator crosses through parts of Brazil, including areas near the mouth of the Amazon.
  TRUE. The Equator runs across northern Brazil, near where the Amazon meets the sea.
Round 8 FOOD
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The browning of a seared steak is caused mainly by caramelization of the meat's own natural sugars.
  FALSE. Meat browning is mostly the Maillard reaction between amino acids and sugars; caramelization is a separate sugar-only process.
- ✓ TRUE
  The Maillard reaction is a reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that produces browning and new flavors.
  TRUE. This heat-driven reaction creates the savory flavors and brown color of roasted, seared, and baked foods.
- ✓ TRUE
  Caramelization involves the breakdown of sugars alone and generally begins at higher temperatures than many Maillard reactions.
  TRUE. Caramelization is pure sugar breakdown and typically needs higher heat than protein-plus-sugar browning.
Round 9 SPACE
- ✓ TRUE
  Pluto was reclassified from a planet to a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006.
  TRUE. A new definition of 'planet' left Pluto out, reassigning it as a dwarf planet.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Pluto has never been visited by a spacecraft because it lies too far away to be reached.
  FALSE. NASA's New Horizons probe flew past Pluto in 2015, returning the first close-up images ever taken.
- ✓ TRUE
  Pluto and its large moon Charon are tidally locked, permanently showing the same face to one another.
  TRUE. They keep the same sides pointed at each other as they spin, an unusual mutual lock.
Round 10 GEOGRAPHY
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Portugal shares land borders with both Spain and France on the European mainland.
  FALSE. Portugal's only land border is with Spain; it does not touch France.
- ✓ TRUE
  Spain and Portugal together make up most of the Iberian Peninsula.
  TRUE. The Iberian Peninsula is shared mainly by Spain and Portugal.
- ✓ TRUE
  France borders many more countries than Portugal does, including Spain, Italy, and Germany.
  TRUE. France shares land borders with numerous nations, among them Spain, Italy, and Germany.

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