Destination: Argleton! Visiting an imaginary place. A fake town in Google Maps.
posted by gleuschk on Nov 3, 2009 - 25 comments

A rock given to the Netherlands as a gift by the American Ambassador to commemorate the Apollo-11 moon landing is tested and found to be nothing but petrified wood. Expect a "I told you so" from your neighbourhood conspiracy theorist at any moment. [more inside]
posted by dearsina on Aug 28, 2009 - 81 comments

Crap Detection 101 Howard Rheingold offers a fairly in-depth primer on media and internet BS detection. Lots of links to resources for enabling critical analysis of various information sources included.
posted by telstar on Jun 30, 2009 - 17 comments

Research journal accepts a computer-generated nonsense paper, and leads the editor-in-chief to resign his post. The authors write about their hijinks on their blog The Scholarly Kitchen. [more inside]
posted by NikitaNikita on Jun 12, 2009 - 83 comments

Sure you consider yourself a retro 8-bit gaming geek, but have you played Udon Boy in Ramen Land, or Kung Fu Psycho Rider? Don't feel bad, they're from Japanese culture store Meteor's annual Famicase, an exhibition of imaginary games.
posted by artifarce on Jun 5, 2009 - 7 comments

Jennifer Figge a 56 year old mother turned adventurer is the first woman to swim across the frigid Atlantic Ocean!. Or so they thought...
posted by Mastercheddaar on Feb 11, 2009 - 36 comments

80's Christian band, Sonseed sing about Jesus (YT). A great find says Doug. Not so fast say others.
posted by xmattxfx on Sep 12, 2008 - 84 comments

"Room With A Screw: My 45-day quest to convince a craigslist scammer to write me a poem-- and how she lost her mind and tried to become my friend"
posted by not_the_water on Aug 16, 2008 - 44 comments

Frédéric Bourdin can be anyone he wants.
posted by Dipsomaniac on Aug 13, 2008 - 36 comments

So apostrophree corrects these kinds of errors before people see them, preventing employees from spending time posting corrections and engaging in online flame wars about English usage?
posted by blasdelf on Aug 12, 2008 - 94 comments

Master of the hoax finally goes straight. Clifford Irving, author of the now infamous Autobiography of Howard Hughes, publishes his own autobiography, Phantom Rosebuds. Irving has already covered the story of that Hughes forgery pretty thoroughly in his earlier book, The Hoax, and Lasse Hallstrom retold the story in a film starring Richard Gere. Phantom Rosebuds though makes a case for the rest of Irving’s life - f for fake, the subsequent novels, the jail time and the dramatic consequences of the hoax which draw him into a world of espionage, renegade presidents, and rogue hitmen.
posted by blimp77 on Jul 11, 2008 - 5 comments

The Biggest Drawing In The World.
posted by Armitage Shanks on May 23, 2008 - 82 comments

One of my favorite albums of recent years is now available for the first time. And, it's free. You Are Not Dead: A Guide to Modern Living by MeFi's own Fake. {embedded Flash player and link to zipped mp3s} {torrent of better quality mp3s} {via mefi projects}
posted by dobbs on Mar 20, 2008 - 38 comments

Fake Memoir Exposed: Margaret Seltzer, pen name Margaret Jones, wrote a critically acclaimed memoir, Love and Consequences, that was published last week. NPR's "On Point" covered the story, and she gave Penguin an interview. After seeing a New York Times feature, though, her own sister outed her as a fraud. [more inside]
posted by lunit on Mar 5, 2008 - 83 comments

Fake terror. The Banana theory of terrorism. While I'm at it, fake Lutheran Ascetecism, fake bread, fake gay sex, fake DIY, fake beer (fur der Deutsch), fake punk petition, fake shopping, fake yogurt, and fake cops.
posted by parmanparman on Feb 16, 2008 - 20 comments

So you remember that 'dumb, totally fake' video of a bird pooping in a reporter's mouth that was posted and deleted a week ago? It's meta-fake. Maybe even pata-fake.
posted by blasdelf on Feb 1, 2008 - 40 comments

"There is not a bomb by the entrance of the museum" was the telephone message delivered to a museum employee at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum Wednesday evening. This, along with the posting of a video on YouTube entitled The fake bombing at the ROM, Toronto, 28.11.07 led to the cancellation of a gala AIDS fundraiser at the Museum and a massive police investigation. Today, Ontario College of Art and Design student Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson claimed responsibility for the "art project".
posted by rocket88 on Nov 30, 2007 - 98 comments

Where's an egg? Psuedo-Russian noir wumpus action. Confused? Consider bidding on the only copy of the instructions in existence. Need a break? Check out some other fine titles from completely made up game company Videlectrix.
posted by cortex on Jul 17, 2007 - 41 comments

On the sidelines of a photography exhibition in Singapore, an collective named "A Dose of Light" was preparing to display the final set of 36 photos (flash, slow-loading), taken by "Wu Xiao Kang", a photographer being treated by schizophrenia before he committed suicide at the age of 26 (text of press release). To add to the tragedy, the photographs were now in the possession of a photographic research institute and would not be released till 2010. Maybe, if people signed a petition, the institute might be persuaded to change it's mind? [more inside]
posted by your mildly obsessive average geek on Jul 13, 2007 - 8 comments

Busted! In one of the biggest counterfeit busts in years, a 19-month investigation reached its climax on Tuesday as federal officials conducted early-morning raids throughout the NY metropolitan area, arresting 29 people, seizing more than $230 million in merchandise and ultimately dismantling three operations believed to have imported more than $700 million in fake products over the last 24 months.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Jun 27, 2007 - 147 comments

Garbage + illumination = art? Various artists carefully pile rubbish on a gallery floor, or meticulously assemble a collection of ordinary items, plug in a light source, and create incredibly detailed and surprising shadows on the wall. Meanwhile, blog commenters cry "Fake!" and "Photoshop!". I guess they didn't see any of the Quicktime movies of Shigeo Fukuda linked here.
posted by maudlin on Jun 20, 2007 - 14 comments

Donald K. Snedeker 3206 Victoria Park Ave Toronto, ON M4A 2M5 Email Address: Donald.K.Snedeker@pookmail.com Phone: 416-757-0023 Mother's maiden name: Stephens Birthday: December 6, 1961
posted by acro on Jun 7, 2007 - 44 comments

What is the connection between cute semi-naked japanese girls, and Orson Welles' F is for Fake? Momus explains.
posted by vronsky on May 8, 2007 - 79 comments

Fake Iraqi Towns For Training.
posted by Sticherbeast on Jan 12, 2007 - 12 comments

What does the Digilog Dynamicator (DD-301), the 3P-III Palindrometer and the AP-302 Algorhythmic Prosecutor have in common? They're all products of Funk Logic; a company that designs filler panels for studio/live sound racks (or to quote them: "rack filler panels with stuff all over em'"). Notable: Their "Ideas That Never Made It" section.
posted by KevinSkomsvold on Sep 29, 2006 - 24 comments

Does something in this picture look a little . . . off? At first glance, it's just a picture of smoke from damaged buildings from the conflict in the Mideast. At second glance, it's a fine example of how not to embellish news photos.
posted by Mikey-San on Aug 5, 2006 - 100 comments

"After our transparently bogus story and our impossibly shitty video appeared on the website... we received a flood of messages from big-shot bigfoot hunters who were dying to find out about [the] footage. Our plan was working." So, Penn and Teller faked the Sonoma bigfoot footage. But only the BFRO fell for it. Conveniently, they deleted the evidence of that. With so many sasquatch enthusiasts expressing doubt about the video when it was released, can our favorite Libertarian and mime really use it to prove that bigfoot is bullshit?
posted by kyleg on Apr 27, 2006 - 70 comments

Tired of the same old blogs with the same old links? Well, Mark Evanier may have come up with the future of blogging with There's No Such Website! It's a list of five weird websites with camouflaged links, and one is fake. Can you find the bogus site without having to visit all the real awful ones? Play here and here and here and here and here (holiday edition) and here and here and here and here and (whew!) here. Don't you wish all blog links had a chance of being nonexistent?
posted by wendell on Apr 1, 2006 - 11 comments

This great picture was taken in the French Pig-Squealing Championships. This pic was alleged by Danish imams to be offensive to Muslims, and was included in the recent tour of the Middle East. The Brussels Journal asks some pointed questions. The Beeb belatedly explains - and (sorta) apologises.
posted by dash_slot- on Feb 9, 2006 - 35 comments

It turns out that last weeks' story about the Mercedes S class crashing during a safety demonstration on tv was a set-up, arranged by the television station in question. Whoops. via digg
posted by SharQ on Nov 28, 2005 - 28 comments

A Dutch television producer, who previously brought you Big Brother, now produces a show for British commercial television were you witness the training of three lucky guys to become astronauts and their subsequent launch into earth's orbit for 4 days. They are trained in a Russian facility and are launched with a Russian rocket. There is only one catch: it's all fake. When they leave their orbiter to make a space walk they will be welcomed by their family and friends, and find out they never left England.
If I were one of the contestants I'd go postal after this. But of course these contestants were specially selected to be prone to suggestion, so they will probably just forever hide in corner so they won't hear the constant mockery..
posted by kika on Nov 21, 2005 - 69 comments

At the CCC, we're dedicated to putting an end to the victimization associated with purchasing a counterfeit MINI Cooper.
posted by tomplus2 on Mar 23, 2005 - 19 comments

Basket balls. (.swf) (SFW)
posted by mic stand on Jan 24, 2005 - 39 comments

Jennifer Aniston explains everything in her blog. Well...um...probably not. But the interesting thing about this blog is how many of the people in the comments section assume it's really her. Odd.
posted by braun_richard on Jan 14, 2005 - 44 comments

The Cardiff Giant , The Mandelbrot Monk, and the amazing Centaur Skeleton from Volos. It's not just this administration that loves to manufacture evidence. Scientists too have often succumbed to temptation.
posted by acrobat on Dec 16, 2004 - 14 comments

Get a Pair... Ever tell anyone to "Get a Pair?" Ever wish you (or someone you love) had more conviction, more commitment, more..."cajones?" Well, now you can finally "fix" that situation. Because, now there are Balsies.
posted by Dunvegan on Nov 16, 2004 - 19 comments

FraudFrond: There are over 32,000 cell phone towers in the U.S. disguised as fake trees, how many can you find? [via]
posted by falconred on Sep 25, 2004 - 17 comments

Did NASA fake the moon landings? I'm convinced!
posted by glenwood on Sep 1, 2004 - 19 comments

The kidnap videos in Iraq are suspicious. Some say they are fake. Some make their own... what do you think of this one? A rare bit of humor from Al-Jazeera. [.wmv]
posted by pemulis on Jul 12, 2004 - 11 comments

Let's say that you have a cell phone, and you need to sound as if you're somewhere else, or you need to get the long-winded person you're talking with off the phone.
posted by Witty on Jun 22, 2004 - 7 comments

The Kaceesque story of a woman in prison for faking her daughter's leukemia to gain thousands of dollars in donations, now says she concocted the scheme to keep her husband from leaving. Teresa Milbrandt said she regrets what she did, which included shaving her daughter Hannah's head and giving her sleeping pills to make it look like she was undergoing chemotherapy. The husband went to Prison As Well.
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is a parenting disorder where parents, usually the mother, fabricate symptoms in their children, thus subjecting the child to unnecessary medical tests and/or surgical procedures, though It is a highly controversial condition, which some doubt even exists.
posted by Blake on Mar 29, 2004 - 4 comments

"Although the Holtans had never visited Italy, they wanted a house that looked authentically Tuscan." Lake Las Vegas, NV may be even tackier, and more aesthetically insidious, than its famous namesake 17 miles to the west -- it's a planned village of million-dollar fake villas, indoor waterfalls, and elevator buttons for dogs. (NYT/RR)
posted by serafinapekkala on Dec 22, 2003 - 38 comments

The adorable haggis. Think nothing of the myth of sheep and oatmeal.
posted by the fire you left me on Dec 6, 2003 - 10 comments

Clone blogs: spurious blogs that look real, but exist solely to purvey smut in a very shady way. They're becoming ever more clever, those spammers.
posted by moonbird on Nov 17, 2003 - 32 comments

How to Fake Being an Indie Rock Expert. The best advice I've seen all day -- "Start somewhere safe: Sonic Youth."
posted by serafinapekkala on Oct 3, 2003 - 70 comments

Man Sells Fake Bronze, Gets Paid With Fake Cash. From the You-Can't-Trust-Anyone-Anymore Dept.: "A Vietnamese man who used cow fat and paint to pass off a lump of iron as valuable black bronze found buyers, but was paid in counterfeit bills."
posted by tpoh.org on Jun 29, 2003 - 9 comments

How to quit being fake John Kusch: “When I was 13, I decided to become a fake poet.... When I was 27, I decided to become a fake writer. When I was 32, I decided to become a fake personal assistant.... I was tired of dressing Fake Business Casual, of lowering my fake gaze in the boardroom while dropping off copies during a fake meeting, of waiting until the fake members had their pick before being allowed to have a leftover cookie.... So I got a job working nights in a jail, alphabetizing things that nobody else can be bothered to alphabetize, where I will be left alone, where I can be a real nobody in a real nowhere, under the radar screen that I am beginning to suspect is fake, too”
posted by joeclark on May 22, 2003 - 64 comments

Synthetic Trees could purify the air - "It looks like a goal post with Venetian blinds," said the Columbia University physicist...synthetic trees could help clean up an atmosphere grown heavy with carbon dioxide..."You can be a thousand times better than a living tree...There are a number of engineering issues which need to be worked out," he said. (BBC) Hurry up, then - "Ice dams are blocking Latvian ports, winds and storms are battering Europe, Portugal is freezing, Vietnam has lost one-third its rice crop, and the cold has caused close to 2,000 deaths in usually temperate South Asia."
posted by troutfishing on Feb 23, 2003 - 18 comments

As our own Royal Family slams them, can we be certain of anything reported in the British press? Celebrity gossip is king: if an unpopular public figure isn't ruined, then they're dragged through the gutter by an amoral PR guru. Celebrities mysteriously go out with other celebrities, until their single reaches number one (usually they're with the same PR company). It happens all the time. And models have sex videos 'stolen', only for one newpaper to 'find' out and charge people to look (and trailers suddenly appear on Kazaa). Is nothing real?
posted by wibbler on Jan 9, 2003 - 8 comments

"Customers who bought this product from Amazon also bought fake recommendations? Yes, Amazon just admitted algorithms don't work alone in the recommendations and shopping histories department. What happened is that, besides betraying those of us who thought recommendations were made by objective software, strange things started to happen at the store. Like the one Joshua Allen wrote about on his blog (Better Living Through Software): while trying to buy the book Essential.NET, he received the following hint: "people who shopped for this product also wear clean underwear". It's not an algorithm, it's a super-algorithm with x-ray vision.
posted by nandop on Dec 7, 2002 - 17 comments