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 #0073

Sep 2, 2026 — 10 rounds, declassified. The fabrication in each is marked; the truth of all three follows. Play today's case →

Round 1 SPACE
- ✓ TRUE
  The International Space Station circles Earth about every 90 minutes, so its crew sees roughly 16 sunrises a day.
  TRUE. At orbital speed it laps the planet 16 times daily, giving astronauts frequent sunrises and sunsets.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The International Space Station draws its main electrical power from a small onboard nuclear reactor.
  FALSE. The station runs on large solar arrays, not a reactor, converting sunlight into electricity.
- ✓ TRUE
  The International Space Station has been continuously occupied by rotating crews since the year 2000.
  TRUE. Humans have lived aboard without interruption since the first long-duration crew arrived in late 2000.
Round 2 HISTORY
- ✓ TRUE
  The Black Death tore through Europe in the mid-1300s, killing a very large share of the continent's population.
  TRUE — the plague killed tens of millions, perhaps a third or more of Europeans.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  During the Black Death, physicians correctly blamed fleas on rats and quarantined the animals to halt the spread.
  FALSE — medieval doctors had no idea fleas or rats carried the disease; the flea-rat link was only understood in the 1890s.
- ✓ TRUE
  The word 'quarantine' comes from the Italian for forty days, the period ships were once held in isolation.
  TRUE — Venetian-era ports isolated arriving ships for forty days as a plague precaution.
Round 3 SCIENCE
- ✓ TRUE
  The gold in Earth's crust was likely forged in extreme cosmic events, such as colliding neutron stars, and delivered by ancient asteroid impacts.
  TRUE. Heavy elements like gold form in rare, violent events and were later delivered to the surface.
- ✓ TRUE
  Gold is so malleable that a single gram can be hammered into a sheet of about one square metre.
  TRUE. Gold's extraordinary ductility allows a gram to be beaten into a remarkably thin, wide foil.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Gold is the densest naturally occurring element, heavier than osmium, iridium and platinum.
  FALSE. Osmium and iridium are denser than gold; gold is very dense but not the densest element.
Round 4 FOOD
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The word 'ketchup' comes from a Nahuatl term the Aztecs used for a spiced tomato relish served at feasts.
  FALSE. 'Ketchup' traces to the Hokkien Chinese word ke-tsiap, a fermented fish and brine sauce, with no Aztec or tomato connection.
- ✓ TRUE
  Some early English ketchup recipes were built around mushrooms or walnuts rather than tomatoes.
  TRUE. 18th- and 19th-century England knew mushroom and walnut ketchups; tomato was just one of many 'ketchup' bases.
- ✓ TRUE
  The sauce's Southeast Asian ancestor was a fermented fish preparation, not a tomato product.
  TRUE. The original was a salty fermented fish/seafood sauce; sweet tomato ketchup is a later Western reinvention.
Round 5 FOOD
- ✓ TRUE
  Chili peppers are native to the Americas and spread across the rest of the world after transatlantic contact.
  TRUE. Chilies originated in the Americas and only reached Asia, Africa, and Europe after 15th-century contact.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The heat of a chili pepper comes from capsaicin, which is concentrated mainly in the seeds themselves.
  FALSE. Capsaicin is concentrated in the pale inner membrane (the placenta), not the seeds; seeds just sit near it.
- ✓ TRUE
  Capsaicin binds to receptors that also respond to heat, which is part of why spicy food can feel 'hot.'
  TRUE. Capsaicin activates heat-sensing receptors, so the brain interprets spice as a burning, hot sensation.
Round 6 SCIENCE
- ✓ TRUE
  Stainless steel resists rust because its chromium forms an invisible, self-repairing oxide layer on the surface.
  TRUE. That thin chromium-oxide film reforms when scratched, keeping the steel protected.
- ✓ TRUE
  Gold is so chemically unreactive that it barely tarnishes, which is why ancient gold artifacts still gleam.
  TRUE. Gold resists reacting with oxygen and most acids, so it keeps its shine for millennia.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  As iron rusts, it slowly loses weight because the metal flakes away into lighter oxide dust.
  FALSE. Rusting adds oxygen from the air, so a rusted piece of iron actually weighs more than before.
Round 7 ANIMALS
- ✓ TRUE
  A kangaroo is a marsupial whose newborn is born tiny and hairless, then finishes growing inside the mother's pouch.
  TRUE. The joey is roughly bean-sized at birth and crawls to the pouch to develop further.
- ✓ TRUE
  A kangaroo cannot move its hind legs independently on land, so it is unable to hop or walk backwards.
  TRUE. Its large tail and the way its legs work together make backward motion effectively impossible.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  A kangaroo's tail is a simple, muscle-free counterweight used only for balance while standing still.
  FALSE. The tail is heavily muscled and acts like a fifth limb, pushing the body forward while the kangaroo walks slowly.
Round 8 NATURE
- ✓ TRUE
  Honey is so low in moisture and naturally acidic that it resists spoiling, and sealed honey found in ancient tombs has remained edible.
  TRUE. Its low water content and acidity prevent most microbes from growing, so it can last essentially indefinitely.
- ✓ TRUE
  Honeybees make honey by repeatedly passing nectar between workers and fanning it with their wings to evaporate water.
  TRUE. The process concentrates nectar into the thick, shelf-stable syrup we call honey.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  If honey crystallises and turns grainy in the jar, it has spoiled and should be thrown away.
  FALSE. Crystallisation is a normal, harmless process; gently warming the jar returns the honey to a liquid.
Round 9 ANIMALS
- ✓ TRUE
  Bats are the only mammals capable of sustained, powered flight rather than just gliding.
  TRUE. Other 'flying' mammals such as flying squirrels only glide; bats flap and truly fly.
- ✓ TRUE
  Many bats navigate and hunt in darkness by emitting high-frequency calls and reading the returning echoes.
  TRUE. This echolocation lets them detect and chase insects in total darkness.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Bats are completely blind, and their eyes contain no light-sensing cells at all.
  FALSE. All bats can see, and many fruit bats have large eyes with excellent vision; they are not blind.
Round 10 HISTORY
- ✓ TRUE
  The Berlin Wall, which split East and West Berlin for decades, was finally opened in 1989.
  TRUE — the border opened on the night of 9 November 1989 amid mass demonstrations.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  West Germany built the Berlin Wall to stop East Germans from pouring into the prosperous capitalist west.
  FALSE — it was East Germany that built the Wall, and it was meant to stop its own citizens from fleeing westward.
- ✓ TRUE
  The Berlin Wall stood for roughly twenty-eight years before it was opened to free passage.
  TRUE — it divided the city from 1961 until 1989.

← All past cases