Factoids

[SaggyBalls]

Factoid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A factoid is a spurious (unverified, incorrect, or invented) "fact" intended to create or prolong public exposure or to manipulate public opinion. It appears in the Oxford English Dictionary[1] as "something which becomes accepted as fact, although it may not be true", namely a speculation or an assumption. The term was coined by Norman Mailer in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe.[2] Mailer described a factoid as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper", and created the word by combining the word fact and the ending -oid to mean "like a fact".[3][4]

There are strong connections between factoids and urban legends.Contents

Examples

Many residents of the Australian city of Mount Isa believe that their city, in terms of its area, is the world's largest or second largest. In reality Mount Isa is the largest city in Australia, but there are several cities around the world with larger incorporated areas. Their own local council web site incorrectly suggests it is the second largest city on earth.[5]

The media in Canada have often reported that the city of Toronto was named by UNESCO as the most multicultural city in the world. Although there have been some reports suggesting that Toronto may be one of the world's most diverse cities (see Demographics of Toronto), the United Nations agency has never designated any city as being the most multicultural or diverse.[6] Nonetheless, the belief in this status persisted for years, even finding its way onto UNESCO's own web site,[7] into the pages of the New York Times[8] and The Economist,[9] and into international media reports in respect of Toronto's two Olympic bids.

The Great Wall of China is often thought as being the only man-made object visible from the moon.[10]

Other meanings

The word factoid is now sometimes also used to mean a small piece of true but valueless or insignificant information, in contrast to the original definition. This has been popularized by the CNN Headline News TV channel, which, during the 1980s and 1990s, used to frequently include such a fact under the heading "factoid" during newscasts. In the United Kingdom, BBC Radio 2 presenter Steve Wright uses factoids extensively on his show.[11]

As a result of confusion over the meaning of factoid, some English-language style and usage guides recommend against its use.[12] Language expert William Safire in his On Language column advocated the use of the word factlet to express a "little bit of arcana"[13].

So I was watching the primaries on CNN and an ad for 'clean coal' came up.

here are some factoids I found at americaspower.org

Factoids

Coal provides America’s railroads with more traffic and revenue than any other commodity.

A typical train car holds between 115 and 117 tons of coal.

Wyoming is the largest coal-producing state.

Coal accounts for half of the electricity use in the U.S.

Coal costs less than any other major fossil fuel source.

The world’s largest producers and consumers of coal are China, Poland, Russia, India and the United States.

Total world consumption of marketed energy is projected to increase by 57 percent from 2004 to 2030.

Coal’s share of total world energy use climbed from 25 percent in 2003 to 26 percent in 2004 and is expected to increase to 28 percent by 2030.

America has more than 250 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves, the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of oil, more than three times Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves.

Texas is the largest coal-consuming state in the U.S. and is the largest consumer of electricity.

According to an electric power industry journal, 23 of the 25 power plants in the U.S. that have the lowest operating costs (and therefore provide power to their consumers at the lowest prices) are powered by coal.

Today, America’s coal-based generating fleet is 70% cleaner (based upon regulated emissions per unit of energy produced) thanks, in part, to $50 billion invested in new technologies.

Since 1970, the use of coal to generate electricity in the U.S. has nearly tripled in response to growing electricity demand.

U.S. electricity demand continues to increase even as energy efficiency gains are made. Despite the fact that we are continuing to become more energy efficient, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that electricity demand will grow by 41% by 2030.

Using coal to generate electricity is less than a 1/3 of the cost of other fuels.

Intermittent energy resources like wind and solar are used for meeting peak energy demand because they are not always available. That is different from coal, which is used to provide “baseload†power — the constant, steady supply of electricity we depend upon throughout the day.

America has more than 200 years of available coal reserves.

motherfucker.