5 Super Facts

With this blog post I wanted to bring attention to my other blog. The goal of this fairly new blog is to generate a list of what I call super facts, which are important facts, not trivia, known to be true and yet are either disputed by large segments of the public or highly surprising or misunderstood by many. Because these facts are fundamental and true and yet there is so much confusion and dispute surrounding them, I consider these facts to be very special. That’s why I call them super facts.

In a sense the blog is a myth busting blog. A myth busting blog that focuses on important information. I call this blog “Superfactful”. I am trying to get more subscribers and visitors to my new blog. This post is essentially a shoutout to my Superfactful blog. I am featuring five selected super facts. To read more about the super facts click on the images or links below.

I can add that about half the posts on “Superfactful” are not super facts but just fun facts or reviews of non-fiction books.

Super Fact #4 : The Speed of Light in Vacuum Is a Universal Constant

The speed of light in vacuum is a universal constant. The speed of light in vacuum is the same for all observers regardless of their speed and the direction in which they are going. It is always c = 299,792,458 meters per second. If you try to catch up to a light beam and try to travel close to the speed of the light beam, you will not be able to catch up. The speed of the light beam will still be c = 299,792,458 meters per second compared to you no matter how fast you go. This is possible because time and space don’t behave like we expect.

Click here or the picture below to visit Super Fact #4
The picture shows two people Alan and Amy. Alan is on the ground. Amy is flying by Alan in a rocket speeding left. Both Alan and Amy are pointing lasers to the left.
In this picture Amy is traveling past Alan in a rocket. Both have a laser. Both measure the speed of both laser beams to be c = 299,792,458 meters per second.

Super Fact #7 : Poverty and child mortality have been sharply reduced worldwide

Extreme poverty as well as child mortality has been sharply reduced the world over. The countries that are the worst-off today are still better off than the countries that were doing the best at the beginning of the 19th century. Over the last 20 years extreme poverty and child mortality have continued to decline sharply.

Click here or the picture below to visit Super Fact #7
The graph shows share living in extreme poverty in brown and share not living in extreme poverty in purple. The graph begins in 1820 at ends in 2018.
This graph from Our World In Data shows a steep decline in extreme poverty over time. Click on the picture to visit the original article.

Super Fact #25 : Global Warming is Happening and is Caused by us

Global warming or if you call it Climate Change or Climate Disruption is happening, and it is happening very fast, and we also know that it is caused by us primarily as a result of our burning of fossil fuels. There is a long-standing scientific consensus on these two facts because the evidence is conclusive. Check the evidence in the post.

In other words, politicians dispute this, political think tanks dispute this, many amongst the public dispute this, but scientists extremely rarely dispute this because the evidence is too strong.

Click here or the picture below to visit Super Fact #25
Hockey stick curve going back 1,000 years. The recent uptick in global temperature is very sharp and very sudden | Global Warming is Happening and is Caused by us.
The so-called hockey stick curve depicting the last 1,000 years. The blue line is the first hockey stick curve ever created (by Michael Mann). He used proxy measurements such as tree rings, green-dots 30-year average, red temperature measurements. Wikimedia commons <<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en>&gt;. This graph is taken from this page.

Super Fact #28 : That Earth is round was well known long before Columbus

That Earth is round, or spherical (or closely spherical) had been known for at least a couple of thousand years by the time Columbus set sail. Columbus did not set sail to prove that earth was round, and he knew it was round.

Click here or the picture below to visit Super Fact #28
The earth globe showing the side with the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean covers most of this side.
Columbus did not use Eratosthenes calculations from 1,800 years earlier and therefore thought that the earth was much smaller than it really was. He did not know about the Pacific Ocean. Earth Pacific Ocean view Stock Illustration ID: 1617553012 by Matis75.

Super Fact #35 : Natural Disasters Kill Less People Now Than 100 Years Ago

Natural disasters kill a lot less people now compared to 100 years ago. That is despite a larger population and despite the fact that climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of many types of natural disasters.

Click here or the picture below to visit Super Fact #35
The graph shows 300 to 400 thousand annual deaths at the beginning of the 20th century, then 971 thousand annual deaths in the 1930’s, then it continuously gets lower until the annual deaths in the 2010 to 2016 period is 72 thousand deaths per year | Natural Disasters Kill Less People Now Than 100 Years Ago
This graph from the Gap Minder article shows the annual deaths from natural disasters in ten-year intervals starting with 1930. The trend is down.

To see the list of Super Facts Click Here

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

27 thoughts on “5 Super Facts”

  1. Haha, I was just looking at your blog to see if you had written anything new! 😀 Your articles are always so super interesting. It’s nice to know that poverty and child mortality has been reduced as well 🙏 it seems so unfortunately prolific. I hope one day it can be wiped out totally, but that’s probably unrealistic.

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    1. Thank you so much Violet for your very kind words. I started my Leonberger blog almost three years ago, originally to promote my at the time upcoming Leonberger book, and later blogging became a hobby. My Leonberger blog seems to be getting a lot of attention and a lot of google search traffic. Then I started my superfactful blog in August 2024. It has had a bit hard of a time to get off the ground and has a lot less traffic, which is why I am advertising it on my Leonberger blog. It is interesting that you found both independently.

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  3. Thanks, Thomas, and I appreciate your insights. With more than a few of these super facts, it seems like the media continues to get hit us over the head with the opposite points of view. You’ve got me curious about that super fact. I’m wondering how and why we continue to get so many diverse opinions over what you’ve determined as facts?

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    1. Thank you so much Grant. About your question; I don’t know the answer but it is not the medias responsibility to educate us on the state of the world. They report the latest news. We have to seek out the information, which is out there. There are also political forces that are interested in intentionally confusing us. I should say that it is not really me determining what is fact. I just follow what the experts in the field say. If they are unanimous because of strong evidence, and I can understand the evidence, then that’s what I have to follow, regardless of general impressions in society. There’s a lot of basic and well established information, that’s not in question, but that people have totally misunderstood. The Swede Hans Rosling was a pioneer in realizing this. He wrote a book called Factfulness.

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  5. Great post, Thomas. Thank you for the research and sharing. As for media, I rarely trust the information they espouse and have to recheck on my own. Everything is soooo politicized these days.

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    1. Thank you Sara. The flat earth belief is really bizarre and it used to be extremely rare at the end of the 20th century but now it has made a comeback largely due to social media. Social media is not making us smarter.

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      1. True there’s been a lot of craziness coming out of social media. People are writing “colonizer” on a white woman’s recipe because she enjoys trying other cultures’ dishes. It’s wild. But the smartest people see what’s happening in the big picture.

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  9. Interesting facts! Especially that Natural Disasters Kill Less People Now Than 100 Years Ago. I
    wondered about this, knowing that the vast media network makes it seem otherwise. Plus, our rescue systems are much better than they were for which I’m very thankful.

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    1. Yes despite the fact that some types of natural disasters have become more common and more severe (physically) as well as more costly, a lot fewer humans are dying from them. We have become much better at preventing deaths and rescue people, like you say.

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