An image purporting to show the underwater infrastructure supporting the canal-carved city of Venice, Italy, circulated across social media platforms in March and early April 2025, including Threads, Instagram and Facebook.

Claim: An image accurately depicts the underwater foundation of Venice, Italy

One such post published on X on March 15 had received more than 1.2 million views at the time of this writing:

(@BrianRoemmele/X)

It’s true Venice presented an early architectural challenge, being located in the marshy lagoons of Italy.

Despite Venice’s impressive architectural history, the image at the source of this fact check was generated using artificial intelligence (AI) and doesn’t accurately represent the “Most Serene” city’s underwater landscape.

It’s AI-generated image supposedly shows underwater foundation of Venice:

The online AI-detection tool Hive Moderation determined the image was 99.7% “likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content.” Google’s AI image detection app similarly determined that the picture was 93% likely to have been “generated by AI.” Both results can be seen in the screenshots below:

The image also displays signs of AI generation when enlarged, such as the unnatural shaping of the wood and how the posts appear to blend into the wooden mounds along the bottom, as shown in the magnified portions below.

(@BrianRoemmele/X)

Similarly, the above-water portion of the image also shows clear indications of having been created using AI. For example, the building on the left appears to have changing patterns, while the dome-shaped construction on the right has warped features that appear to melt into one another.

(@BrianRoemmele/X)

Although the illustration misrepresents what the actual foundations of the city look like, it’s true the substructure of Venice was initially built mainly of wood. The University of Washington Exploration Seminar Engineering Rome covers Roman and Italian engineering over 3,000 years, from ancient Rome to the 21st century. A 2024 article published by the group noted that Venice was constructed largely of large timber poles that were driven into the “Venetian Lagoon’s soft, marshy soil, which lacked load-bearing capacity.” The group added:

The Venetians collected large timber piles from the forests of Croatia and drove them deep into the islands of the lagoon. These piles had varying diameters from 10 to 25 cm and heights from less than 1 m to a maximum of 3.5 m, with around nine piles driven into the ground per square meter. Oak, pine, alder, larch, and elm were the primary woods used for these piles due to their durability and resistance to decay.

In this video, PBS’ science series NOVA also explained this unique construction in a 2022 documentary, “How Venice Was Built on a Swamp.”

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One account attributes a supposed bean soup mandate to a Minnesota senator who expressed his fondness for it more than a century ago.

Claim: “Bean soup has been offered on the U.S. Senate dining room menu every day since 1903”.

True, for more than a century, bean soup has essentially been on the menu of the U.S. Senate dining room every day.

Except for one day in 1943, the kitchen ran out of the soup during a bean shortage in the midst of World War II.

Historical accounts of this extraordinary culinary phenomenon can be found on social media platforms like Facebook and Reddit, one of which had received more than 23,000 upvotes at the time of this writing.

TIL that Navy Bean Soup Has Been On The Menu of the Senate Dining Room Every Day Since 1903
byu/Overall-Register9758 intodayilearned

Indeed, historical records confirm that bean soup was introduced to the menu in 1903 and has been served daily — except for one day.

The Architect of the Capitol, a federal agency responsible for the operation of the U.S. Capitol, writes on its website that “Senate Bean Soup” is on the menu daily.

“The origin of this culinary decree has been lost in antiquity, but there are several oft-repeated legends,” writes the Architect of the Capitol, noting:

One story has it that Senator Fred Thomas Dubois of Idaho, who served in the Senate from 1901 to 1907, when chairman of the committee that supervised the Senate Restaurants, gaveled through a resolution requiring that Bean Soup be on the menu every day.

Another account attributes the Bean Soup mandate to Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, who expressed his fondness for it in 1903

In 2003, The Washington Post reported (archive) that former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole recounted in a 1988 “Bicentennial Minute” oration on the Senate floor that:

… the Washington Times Herald reported on Sept. 15, 1943, that on the previous day bean soup was not available: Wartime rations had left the kitchen lacking the necessary Michigan navy beans.

“Somehow,” Dole said, “by the next day, more beans were found and bowls of bean soup have been ladled up without interruption ever since.

Newspapers.com hosted an archived version of the 1943 article, titled, “Capitol Stuff,” written by John O’Donnell. It read, in part:

The war caught up with the worthy members of the U.S. Senate yesterday when they assembled after the summer siesta. For the first time in a half century the Senate restaurant ran out of its supply of its famed bean soup (ten cents a cup, 15 cents a plate).

[…]

Until yesterday, the diner in the Senate restaurant was assured of the famed plate. At noon came the startling news, never before announced: “Sorry, no more bean soup.”

Two hours later, there was bean soup in the kitchen.

[…]

But the failure of the Senators to get the soup on the day of their return to the Capitol was significant. It has been our studied belief that Washington food (or its lock), the Washington humidity and the Washington liquor are responsible for most of the crapulous ill-tempers and high-placed tantrums in this wartime capital of the world.

The U.S. Senate Historical Office lists two bean soup recipes on its website:

The Famous Senate Restaurant Bean Soup Recipe (serves 8):

• • 2 pounds dried navy beans
  • 4 quarts hot water
  • 1 1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • salt and pepper to taste

Wash the navy beans and run hot water through them until they are slightly whitened. Place beans into pot with hot water. Add ham hocks and simmer approximately three hours in a covered pot, stirring occasionally. Remove ham hocks and set aside to cool. Dice meat and return to soup. Lightly brown the onion in butter. Add to soup. Before serving, bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper. Serves 8.

Bean Soup Recipe (for 5 gallons):

• • 3 pounds dried navy beans
  • 2 pounds of ham and a ham bone
  • 1 quart mashed potatoes
  • 5 onions, chopped
  • 2 stalks of celery, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • half a bunch of parsley, chopped

Clean the beans, then cook them dry. Add ham, bone, and water and bring to a boil. Add potatoes and mix thoroughly. Add chopped vegetables and bring to a boil. Simmer for one hour before serving.

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A video shared to TikTok on Feb. 17, 2025, suggested spiders could be more sentient than previously thought.

Claim: When spiders sense danger, they run toward people for protection.

An on-screen text read, “Spiders run at you because they sense danger and think you’re there to protect them, but in our minds, we’re terrified and squish them.”

At the time of this writing, the video, shown below, had received more than 1.2 million likes on the social media platform.

@thecontroversialqueen #fyp ? admire the perc – !

No, scared spiders don’t run toward people for protection.

The video creator wrote in a caption that the clip was “literally for entertainment purposes,” and that the notion that spiders intentionally run toward people for protection is false.

Understanding Spiders Behavior:

“Spiders do not usually run towards people when they sense danger. This would be like humans running towards something like Godzilla,” said spider scientist Sebastian Echeverri.

“Usually, if they sense danger (so, hear a very loud sound, or feel the wind caused by our movement, or see the shadow of something huge looming over them) and a person is around, the danger they are sensing is the person themselves.”

Echeverri added:

A spider will typically run away from a person if they can perceive us well. Many spiders don’t have good vision, so they may not even really be able to get a sense of the entirety of a person since we are so much bigger than them. They may run away from a person’s arm, footstep, or the light of the phone, or even the sound of their voice, without really understanding that it is all one creature.

Although spiders usually have six or eight eyes, the Australian Museum writes but “few have good eyesight.” Instead, the arachnids “rely instead on touch, vibration and taste stimuli to navigate and find their prey.”

With more than 50,000 known species, spiders are among Earth’s most diverse taxonomic animal groups. Different species can also exhibit other characteristics or traits.

But at their core, spiders have an innate instinct to protect themselves.

“Spiders are wild animals and, like other wild animals, do not look to humans for protection,” said Echeverri.

“The only conceivable situation I can imagine where a spider may be used to approaching a human would be in the case of a person that owns a pet jumping spider and has taken the time to train it to jump up onto their hand. Even then, that spider is not looking for shelter or protection, but either whatever food reward the trainer has used or is just being curious.”

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