“There’s a sucker born every minute” is a phrase often credited to P.T. Barnum (1810–1891), an American showman. It is generally used to mean that there are (and always will be) a lot of gullible people in the world. Some sources state that Barnum was not the person who actually uttered this phrase, but the author doesn’t really matter — the idea that people often believe far-fetched “schemes” does.

There are indeed a lot of unsuspecting people out there. And with the arrival of the Internet and popularity of social media, it seems that many people are apt to believe just about any crazy thing that pops up on the Internet.

“Zero Gravity” Day?

Another hoax that circulates on social media every year is “Zero Gravity Day,” a date when people on Earth would supposedly be able to experience weightlessness if they jumped into the air at a specific moment that day, and will be able to balance brooms without them falling over. False. If you could stand your broom up yesterday, you will also be able to stand your broom up today or any day of the year.

Mars Hoax

The annual “Mars Hoax” rears its ugly head every August. Ever since a historically close approach of the red planet to Earth occurred in August 2003, a deceptive Internet story has circulated every year since, which implies that on a specific night in late August, Mars will loom in the sky as the same size as the full Moon. Totally untrue of course, yet, every year there are countless numbers of people who actually believe that it will happen and perpetuate the story by sharing it online.

Prepare For Darkness (NOT!)

Another hoax claims our planet Earth will be plunged into total darkness for 15 days, all thanks to a “rare phenomenon” caused by the movements of Venus and Jupiter. Of course, like the Mars story and Zero Gravity Day, this impending world-wide blackout is completely and totally false. The reason given for the blackout supposedly was due to a then-close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the predawn morning sky. Venus, always the brightest planet, came to such close proximity to Jupiter as seen from here on Earth, that its dazzling light heated the Jovian atmosphere.

Of course, the two planets were actually separated in space by 535 million miles; the Newswatch 33 story somehow managed to overlook that rather important point. Jupiter’s reaction to Venus’ “close approach” was to supposedly release a huge amount of hydrogen into its atmosphere which in turn was apparently ejected into space and next Sunday will induce a massive explosion occurring on the Sun.

Wait . . . it gets better.

Blue Sun, Then Comes the Darkness

The story continues to state that the Sun will then react to the outburst by attempting to cool itself down, and in the process, will then turn blue as a result. And that’s when everything on this planet of ours is supposed to go dark.

Additional details go on to state that Bolden doesn’t think the Earth will experience any major issues during the blackout: “This event will be similar to what Alaskans experience in the winter,” Bolden supposedly says. “The only other effect it will have is everyone will get to have a true Black Friday after Thanksgiving.” There’s even a hashtag — #NovemberBlackOut –- where people can tweet what they are going to do during the days of darkness. All of this, complete and utter nonsense, of course! Moreover, the “15 days of darkness” hoax has been circulated a few times before, most recently this past June.

How about that? This hoax is actually a “summer rerun!”

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