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Oliver Buchannon
René Lauritsen

Useless But Fascinating

Five More Things You (should) Know That Aren’t True.

Aug 13, 2026

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5 min read

Five More Things You (should) Know That Aren’t True.

Lemmings, the Great Wall, ostriches, Einstein, and knuckle-cracking — five things nearly everyone is sure of that fall apart the moment you look.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen

Myths & Misinformation

People Start 85% of Wildfires. That Doesn’t Debunk Climate Change — and the Arson Story Is Mostly Made Up.

Aug 11, 2026

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7 min read

People Start 85% of Wildfires. That Doesn’t Debunk Climate Change — and the Arson Story Is Mostly Made Up.

Who strikes the match and what turns a match into a firestorm are two different questions. Arson is real, a minority of cases, and falling — while heat and drought quietly do the rest.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen

This Changed Everything

The Biggest Mask Study Ever Run Found One Thing That Worked in Covid — and It Wasn't the Mask You Were Wearing.

Aug 4, 2026

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7 min read

The Biggest Mask Study Ever Run Found One Thing That Worked in Covid — and It Wasn't the Mask You Were Wearing.

The randomised trials arrived after the mandates ended — and the biggest one ever run found the mask that worked wasn't the cloth one nearly everyone wore. What the evidence actually shows.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen

Things Companies

The Banana in Your Fruit Bowl Is a Genetic Clone. Its Predecessor Was Wiped Out in 1965. Its Replacement Is Dying Now.

Jul 30, 2026

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10 min read

The Banana in Your Fruit Bowl Is a Genetic Clone. Its Predecessor Was Wiped Out in 1965. Its Replacement Is Dying Now.

How a Victorian duke's greenhouse curio became the world's most-eaten fruit — and why the fungus killing it now killed its predecessor in 1965.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen

Useless But Fascinating

Five Things You Know That Aren't True.

Jul 28, 2026

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6 min read

Five Things You Know That Aren't True.

Bulls can't see red, Vikings never wore horns, and a copywriter with a deadline invented the diamond ring — five things almost everyone gets wrong, corrected in about two minutes.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen

This Changed Everything

One Nobel Prize. Four Billion People Fed. And the First Poison Gas Attack in History.

Jul 23, 2026

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11 min read

One Nobel Prize. Four Billion People Fed. And the First Poison Gas Attack in History.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen

This Changed Everything

SpaceX, Artemis, China’s Moon Race — It All Started With a Rocket Built by Slaves

Jul 21, 2026

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10 min read

SpaceX, Artemis, China’s Moon Race — It All Started With a Rocket Built by Slaves

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen

Things Companies

The Recycling Symbol Is a Lie. They Knew in 1973.

Jul 16, 2026

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6 min read

The Recycling Symbol Is a Lie. They Knew in 1973.

Those three chasing arrows on your yoghurt pot don't mean it can be recycled. They never did. The plastics industry stamped them there knowing full well the stuff was heading for landfill — because a public that believes recycling works is a public that stops asking questions. Fifty years later, a US state is suing them for it.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen

Things Companies

Diamonds Aren't Rare. An Ad Agency Made You Think They Were.

Jul 14, 2026

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7 min read

Diamonds Aren't Rare. An Ad Agency Made You Think They Were.

The engagement ring. The two-months'-salary rule. The word "forever" that quietly ensured you'd never sell the thing back. All of it was invented — deliberately, on paper, by a mining cartel and a Philadelphia advertising agency. And now, in 2026, the most brilliant illusion in commercial history is finally cracking.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
You Can’t Wash Your Fruit Clean. The pesticide isn’t on the fruit. It’s inside

Jul 9, 2026

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6 min read

You Can’t Wash Your Fruit Clean. The pesticide isn’t on the fruit. It’s inside

This is the story of what really happens to fruit between the plantation and your bowl: the chemicals that soak in, the ones your government banned at home and exports anyway

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Fun Facts: Ten More Things That Sound Made Up (But Aren’t)

Jul 7, 2026

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4 min read

Fun Facts: Ten More Things That Sound Made Up (But Aren’t)

A tailor who jumped off the Eiffel Tower. A moon where it rains petrol. A family photo sitting in the lunar dust. Ten more true things that have absolutely no business being true — checked, sourced, and ready for your next conversation

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Fun Facts: Ten True Things That Sound Like Lies

Jul 3, 2026

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4 min read

Fun Facts: Ten True Things That Sound Like Lies

Ten facts so odd they sound invented — and every single one checks out. Consider it a palate cleanser after last week.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Nestlé Was Warned Its Baby Formula Could Kill Babies — and It Never Really Stopped. In 2026, the Scandal Came Back.

Jun 30, 2026

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7 min read

Nestlé Was Warned Its Baby Formula Could Kill Babies — and It Never Really Stopped. In 2026, the Scandal Came Back.

In 1974, a report titled “The Baby Killer” accused Nestlé of helping drive sickness and death among infants in the developing world

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Birds Are Scared of Women. Nobody Knows Why

Jun 26, 2026

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5 min read

Birds Are Scared of Women. Nobody Knows Why

Across five countries and 37 species — pigeons, magpies, blackbirds, the lot — city birds let men walk noticeably closer before bolting. Women, they flee from. Scientists have absolutely no idea what's going on

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Your Tap Water Started as Factory Waste

Jun 23, 2026

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8 min read

Your Tap Water Started as Factory Waste

The fluoride in your drinking water and your toothpaste began as a toxic byproduct of aluminium smelting — a waste the industry couldn't legally dump and couldn't afford to store. Then it became a public-health triumph

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Science is for sale: Five Times Industry Bought the Science

Jun 15, 2026

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7 min read

Science is for sale: Five Times Industry Bought the Science

A prestigious journal. A respected scientist's name on the paper. A conclusion that just happens to protect a billion-dollar product. The playbook is always the same, and it has killed an astonishing number of people. Here are five times a company paid to manufacture the science

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
The Sugar Industry Paid Harvard to Blame Fat

Jun 12, 2026

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8 min read

The Sugar Industry Paid Harvard to Blame Fat

In 1967, three Harvard scientists published a study in the world's most prestigious medical journal clearing sugar of any role in heart disease and pinning the blame on fat. The sugar industry had secretly paid them to write it.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Your Olive Oil Is Almost Certainly Fake

Jun 10, 2026

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8 min read

Your Olive Oil Is Almost Certainly Fake

Real extra virgin olive oil can cut your cardiovascular risk by 30%. The bottle in your kitchen probably isn't real extra virgin olive oil. Read on

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Exxon Knew about fossil fuels. They Knew in 1977

May 31, 2026

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6 min read

Exxon Knew about fossil fuels. They Knew in 1977

Inside the 1977 briefing that told Exxon's executives exactly what burning fossil fuels would do to the planet — and the $23 million campaign the company ran to convince the public it wasn't true.

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
There Is Plastic in Your Brain. The Amount Is Rising.

May 29, 2026

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7 min read

There Is Plastic in Your Brain. The Amount Is Rising.

A 2025 study found microplastics in every human brain tested — at concentrations 50% higher than eight years ago, crossing the blood-brain barrier, and present at five times the rate in people who died with...

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Becoming a Parent Rewires Your Brain — Permanently

May 27, 2026

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7 min read

Becoming a Parent Rewires Your Brain — Permanently

But the change is not what the clichié describes. It looks considerably more like what happens during adolescence than like anything resembling decay. And it does not just happen to mothers. Read on...

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
5 True Facts That Sound Completely Made Up

May 22, 2026

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6 min read

5 True Facts That Sound Completely Made Up

Nobody Has Lasted an Hour in the World’s Quietest Room, The Shortest War in History Was Over Before 10 a.m, read more

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
The Most Successful Lie Your Schoolteacher Ever Told You: Columbus Did Not Sail West to Prove the Earth Was Round — Everyone Already Knew That, and Had for Eighteen Centuries

May 20, 2026

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8 min read

The Most Successful Lie Your Schoolteacher Ever Told You: Columbus Did Not Sail West to Prove the Earth Was Round — Everyone Already Knew That, and Had for Eighteen Centuries

He Sailed Because He Was Catastrophically Wrong About How Big the Planet Is, the “Ignorant Experts” Who Doubted Him Were Right, and the Whole Heroic Confrontation Was Invented by a Novelist Three Hundred Years After He Died

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Here's the Trick Influencers and the Wellness Industry Pulled on You Last Year:

May 15, 2026

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8 min read

Here's the Trick Influencers and the Wellness Industry Pulled on You Last Year:

They Sold You Billions of Dollars Worth of Anti-Inflammation Supplements That Your Body Pisses Out 99% of Before They Do Anything. And the Word “Anti-Inflammatory”. Read on...

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
Women Are More Empathetic Than Men — Myth or Truth? Real on Every Self-Report Survey Ever Done. Almost Gone on Behavioural Tests.

May 13, 2026

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8 min read

Women Are More Empathetic Than Men — Myth or Truth? Real on Every Self-Report Survey Ever Done. Almost Gone on Behavioural Tests.

It is one of the most repeated findings in popular psychology. Women feel more. Women understand others better. Women are wired for empathy. The trouble is that the entire claim rests on a single type of evidence — questionnaires asking people how empathetic they think they are. Read on..

René Lauritsen
René Lauritsen
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