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false widow

Quiz: How much do you know about falsehoods?

If you don’t want to see some spiders, look away now.

THEY’RE BACK AGAIN.

As temperatures start to slide in a more wintery direction, the National Poisons Information Centre issued a warning that you’re now more likely to encounter a false widow spider in your home. They’re more tolerant of cold temperatures than our own native spiders.

You may have been living alongside one for many months without realising, and they do not randomly bite humans, but nonetheless the public is being urged to familiarise themselves with how to treat their nasty bite and when to seek medical advice.

The bite is nothing compared to the real black widow, so let’s see how much you know about other fakes and falsehoods.

You're going to have to look at some pictures of spiders now. Are you okay with that?
Yes
No
Is this a false widow?
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Yes
No
And this?
Yes, obvs.
No, that's zygiella x-notata also known as the missing sector orb weaver (they really went all out naming this one, didn't they?).
Now this one.
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Yes, and seriously, it better be the false widow because I am losing my patience with all these spiders already.
No - yet another false false widow.
This copy of the Mona Lisa is so good that it made experts question whether a fake was hanging in the Louvre. How much did it sell for at a Christie's auction earlier this year?
Christie\'s
Nothing - Christie's don't sell imitations of other artworks.
€20,000

€950,000
€2,900,000
When was the first augmentation mammaplasty using silicon implants carried out?
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1840
1901

1962
1991
Everything wasn't as it seemed with late '80s R&B duo Milli Vanilli. What were they up to?
Alamy
A Ponzi scheme involving their fans
Their world tours were a front for the distribution of counterfeit goods

They were cyborgs
They didn't sing any of their own vocals
What was used as fake blood in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho?
Alfred's own blood
Ketchup

He invented a special wax that was liquid at room temperature
Chocolate sauce
These are fake hands.
True
False
A radio adaptation of War of The Worlds is associated with causing some listeners to believe that the United States was actually being invaded by aliens. Who was the narrator?
Fred Foy
Orson Welles

Ray D'Arcy
H.G. Wells
The Trojan Horse may have first seemed like a great present, but that subsequently turned out not to be the case. Who was inside?
Romans
Greeks

Spartans
A slightly smaller wooden horse
Several Ponzi schemes offer more than they can deliver, but what did Charles Ponzi's original Ponzi scheme involve?
A direct sales home cleaning product business
Trading penny stocks on fake car companies

Cryptocurrency
Arbitrage of international reply coupons for postage stamps
Which US state did Donald Trump falsely claim would be hit by Hurricane Dorian? You might remember that he used a sharpie pen to alter the hurricane's projected path on official charts.
Alarmy
Alabama
Georgia

North Carolina
Pennsylvania
You may have spotted a hoax plaque on O'Connell Street Bridge at various stages over the past 16 years or so. Who is it dedicated to?
Alamy
Fr. Pat Noise
Dublin City Council CEO Owen Keegan

All the dogs in Ireland
Dublin's seagulls
Finally, is this diamond real or fake?
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Real
Fake
Answer all the questions to see your result!
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You scored out of !
You are a diamond tester
Share your result:
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You scored out of !
You are the Dublin City Council staff member who keeps ordering the hoax plaque to be removed from O'Connell Street bridge
Share your result:
You scored out of !
You are Charles Ponzi
Share your result:
Alamy
You scored out of !
You are one of these fake handbags and wallets (take your pick)
Share your result:
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You scored out of !
You are this extremely real spider
Share your result:

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