"Tekeli-li, or Hollow Earth Lives": A huge (comprehensive?) annotated bibliography of Antarctic and hollow earth fiction. Wow. (Thanks, Jonah!)
Image of Virgin Mary found in backyard: The Loudres of Ohio, defining miracles down.
The Unmasking of JT Leroy: The gutterpunk-backgrounded cult novelist -- whose work has always sounded quite dreadful to me -- is apparently entirely fictional (and portrayed in public by a woman in drag).
The self-creation of Christian Bailey: The man who ran the Lincoln Group, the paid propagandists in Iraq (via War and Peace)
Some guy really doesn't like Robert T. Kiyosaki: A lot of this page is simply angry net ranting, but I found "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" not only to be dreadful, destructive advice but poorly written to the point of incoherence.
Vehicle to autonomous biped robot conversion for the Mini Cooper r50.: Man alive, if these things discover energon cubes, we're toast.
The Oxes/"Arab on Radar" split 7": A prank by the great Baltimore math-metal band goes awry: "We figured the best way to get into the mood to writing those songs was to get to a level approximating an AOR show, who we loved seeing every time they came to baltimore."
The mystery of the Declaration of Independence: "The fact is the real name of Timothy Matlack who penned the Declaration of Independence is Tomislav Matlakowski..."
Charles "Bell Curve" Murray on women and IQ: I'm sure, just as with "The Bell Curve", this is in fact valuable cutting-edge scholarship that -just happens- to prove that white men should rule the world.
Google's "Kodee Kennings" results: The SIU Daily Saluki let the character of "Kodee Kennings", whose non-existant father was serving in Iraq, write a weekly column. Was the editor writing this? Kodee's "mom"? Boggling.
The Iraq War's Kaycee Nicole: A three-year hoax involving out-of-state actors (including a little girl whose non-existant daddy was serving in Iraq) perpetuated against the readers of Southern Illinois University's newspaper. Wow. Just... wow.
Blue Jeans of Death: What happens when counterfeit jean manufacturers use buggy Microsoft macros to drive their operations.
The DeMoulin Bros. Catalog of fraternal society gear: Amuse your friends at the next Odd Fellows lodge initiation with this 1930 catalog of "Burlesque and Side Degree Specialties".
The crackpot index: "20 points for each use of the phrase 'self-appointed defender of the orthodoxy'."
The Interstate Traveler Project: A "remarkable vision of the not so distant future!" The best thing about it, by far, is the choice of names for the "reporter".
Matthew Lesko, the question mark man: Entrepreneur, flim-flam artist, fashion plate. "'The government would say something like, "The Urban Homesteading Act." I’d call it, "Houses for a Dollar!" Well, there you go!'”
William Dowling on Nabokov's "Pale Fire": Teasing out a great twentieth century literary puzzle -- who wrote "Pale Fire"? (Spoilers aplenty, so please read the wonderful novel first.)
There's nothing as honest as a carnie!: "Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed suit Thursday against a circus that billed itself as Chinese when it appeared in Springfield, but actually featured Caucasian performers wearing silk beanies and black wigs."
Did the Chinese discover Nova Scotia?: When an amateur expresses disbelief that professionals are ignoring something that will "turn history on its head", he or she is usually confused.
The 10 most faked artists: Malevich is a surprising name to me; Utrillo and Dali were quite prolific, so I guess that's the appeal there. And I've read about the laughable number of Remington knockoff bronzes floating around.
Nickel and diming Ohio's Bureau of Workers' Comp: Ohio's pension fund invested in a rare coin portfolio that -lost- hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of coins. Was the fundraiser who ran it skimming?
Time's Up, Einstein: Like every other non-physicist in the world, I can't follow (though wouldn't the non-reversibility of time present problems?), but the marketing angle makes this interesting.
Jack Abramoff's mobbed-up gambling cruise business: A third-rate screenplay featuring Tom DeLay's lobbyist friend, a Gambino family bookkeeper, bank fraud, Congressman Bob Rey, and a gangland hit.
Strangely Enough: Paul Maliszewski, Michael Chabon, satire, hoaxes, The Baffler, and the Holocaust.
"As you can see, I have lot of questions about pork dairy potential.": And other letters to the world's most patient PR drones. (via delicious/redfox)
Confessions of a Car Salesman: Edmunds.com sends a writer to work as a car salesman for two months and find out what it's really like.
Kayfabe Confidential: This is the most wonderfully ludicrous idea for a roleplaying game ever: the James Ellroy wrestling noir starring Classy Freddie Blassie.
danger opportunity != crisis: This idea apparently came from the same place as the 25 Inuit words for snow.
Alek's Christmas Lights Webcam is NOT real: Photoshopping a bunch of pictures to represent fake webcam views strikes me as a pretty lame hoax, but to each his own.
The Real Moon Landing Hoax: Were Russians trying to reach the moon in 1968?
Isaac Newton, the last of the magicians: I was thinking about his Leibniz-bashing just the other day.
The man who buried the man who never was is dead: By the time of Operation Mincemeat, British intelligence had crawled inside the German's brains and thrown a tea party.
Ramtha's School of Enlightenment: Warning: MIDI files! If I were a Cro-Magnon warrior from Atlantis, I'd want a better website. (and her elf capes) (via)
Richard Perle vs. Lord Conrad Black, round 2: These guys so deserve each other.
Richard Perle and Lord Conrad Black's excellent adventure: How a neo-conservative defense policy analyst and a conservative Canadian media baron became friends, then enemies, then figures in a huge financial scandal. (see also)
Attack of the Catspiders: A beautifully done Blair Witch-esque series of photos devolves into a running joke on a GTA fan forum. Wonderful in about six different ways. (via)
"There are six known different hyperspace library models or 'Omni Dimensional Networks', all of which can be used for data compression or different learning modes.": "Isn't 'Meaningless information' a contradiction in terms ?." Read about Autosophy's revolutionary technology and decide for yourself!
Mythical Geography: For sale: Maps of explorers' and cartographers' honest mistakes. (via)
Norma Khouri's sensational (fake) biography: "In a survey of 23,000 readers last year, Angus and Robertson found that 'Forbidden Love' was ranked No.55 out of readers' favourite 100 books of all time, from any culture. It has spawned a publishing trend, bestselling first-person accounts of women fleeing barbaric, often Muslim, cultures to the West." (via)
Clubbo: Music to Believe In: Forty years of fictional failure, as told in words, pictures, and MP3s. (via)
The Masons and Oak Island: Was the purported pirate treasure buried on Oak Island actually some sort of Masonic allegory? (see also)
"There's just you, foisting your own ideal image of a black metal band onto us because you really liked our album.": John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats (an out of the closet metal fan) puts together an absolutely flawlessly clichéd fake interview with Kult of Azazel. (via)
Anatomy of a 419 scam: "This is the one truth I have learned from my private banking clients. Do not betray my confidence. If we can be of one accord, we should plan a meeting soon. I await your response."
Pitchfork gets burned on a Beastie Boys review: Half the reviews they print are poorly disguised creative writing exercises to begin with.
Ricky Jay: The Wizard of Odd: A profile of legendary actor/scholar/magician Ricky Jay. Nothing new here, but everyone should know about this genius.
Broadside regarding the arrival in town of Dr Puff Stuff Sham Quirko Ye-Trick: From a wonderful archive of Scottish broadsides. "This may be considered as the most fortunate event that ever happened to the inhabitants of Europe." (via)
Purportal: Your one-stop urban myth debunking shop.
Giants in the earth: I've seen better Photoshop jobs on Fark, frankly. (via) (see also)
Impossible objects: Two steps beyond a ship in a bottle.
Baron Munchausen trading cards: Smoke Little Joker Tobacco and thrill to the exploits of the greatest liar since Herodotus. (via)
"Lolita": plaigirised, pseudoplaigirised, other?: I like Rosenbaum's work a lot ("The Secret Parts of Fortune" is excellent), but his ideas about "Pale Fire" are consistantly insane, and this article is basically unreadable. (via)
The development of spectacle: "A site devoted to Renaissance and Baroque theatrical spectacle," so all you Debordians can settle down. Extra points for flying machines! (via)
The curious case of Sidd Fitch: George Plimpton's wonderful April Fool's prank from a 1985 Sports Illustrated
Lauren Slater's misrepresentations of psychology: I enjoyed her Guardian piece and her description of the Rosenhan experiment was fascinating, but B.F. Skinner did not, in fact, raise his daughter in a box.
Waxy vs. the NannyChat programmer: It's hard to choose between this debunking and the Infocom bot as Waxy's best project of the month. (see also) (and this)
Ricky Jay's Radio Journal: This, then, is what they invented the Internet for.
Garth Marenghi, sculptor of nightmares: "Let me clarify my position on this matter. 'Slicer IV' was not technically part of the 'Slicer' trilogy, although it was, indeed, part of the 'Slicer' series. 'Slicer IV' stands as a book in its own right even thought the character of Blade features once more in the plot line." (via)
Giants in the Head: The Cardiff Giant in American Historical Consciousnes: I wish anything I had written as an undergrad had been this interesting.
Secrets of the Magus: Actor, learned scholar, wonderful writer, dazzling slight of hand artist: a portrait of Ricky Jay, one of my personal heroes. (via)
Mars, or, Misunderstanding: A masterful account of Helene Smith (the Medium from Mars), her Martial exploits, and alien walk-ins today.
Nasty phishing/keylogger trick: These sorts of attacks are getting more and more sophisticated.
Not Churchill's parrot: 'Too tiresome for words.' (via)
Into the cuckoo's nest: Faking madness, then and now -- how very 'Shock Corridor' (via)
Pickled dragon: That's a nice piece of cryptotaxidermy. (via)
Fantastic Royalty: Includes such entries as 'The Pseudo Lascaris Princes and Their Fantastic Claims' and 'The Pretended Duchess of Braganza and Her Purported Claim to the Portugese Throne'.
More than liking to drive, I wanted to punish them for their constant whining...: Another reason that Johnny will be the BEST DAD EVER. Or, you know, the worst.