Organic Tomatoes —
Posted recently on Yahoo! News: "A farmer tends organic tomatoes at a greenhouse in Langfang, Hebei province, near Beijing, China, February 6, 2007."
Shark Surfing —
In this video a surfer hitches a ride behind a shark, after getting the shark to swallow some chunks of meat attached to a fishing line. It looks like it was shot in southern California, and we do get some big sharks around here occasionally. Just last week a guy was killed off the coast of San Diego by a great white. But this video looks obviously fake. As many of the youtube comments point out, you can see the wake of a boat off camera in front of the shark fin.
I don't have any information about who made the video. At the end, the word "Notorious" appears on the screen, but I don't know who or what that is.
Many years ago, two brothers inherited their father's house. The brothers were not on good terms, in fact they didn't speak to each other and wanted nothing to do with one another. They could not come to agreeable terms over the disposition of their father's house. Neither brother wanted to sell, nor did they wish to live together. Taking a cue from King Solomon, they did the only logical thing. They split the house in half.
I don't know what the real story is with this picture, but I'm pretty sure it's not what the caption says. They look a bit like multi-level shotgun houses.
THIS spooky image of an unknown boy gave Angie D'Arcy the shivers when she had her photos developed. She took the picture in 2003 in Evercreech, Somerset, but only just got round to having the disposable camera film printed. Angie, 40, of Shepton Mallet, cannot remember anyone being in the shot when she took the snap and said the figure, dressed in old-style country clothing, remained a mystery.
"I don't believe in ghosts but I just can't explain it," she said.
"It was among pictures of our old house. No one recognises the boy."
The child also appears on the negatives.
I can't tell if The Sun printed the picture as a joke, or if they're really so clueless that they didn't realize the mysterious "ghost boy" in the photo is Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I'm leaning towards clueless.
Kobe Bryant Jumps Over a Car —
The latest viral video going around shows Kobe Bryant jumping over a moving Aston Martin. Is it real? I doubt it, though I can't definitively prove it's fake.
Think about it. Why would he risk his career by trying to jump over a car? That's what special effects are for.
A better quality version of the video can be seen at Bryant's website.
Serero Architects of Paris has won the competition to redesign the structure's public viewing platform and reception areas. The winning design (above), which will be 276 metres (905ft) above the ground, will not require any permanent modification of the existing structure. It will double the capacity of the public viewing area on the tower's top floor...
The design is already causing controversy, with critics questioning the wisdom of tinkering with the famous silhouette and spending money on upgrading a tourist attraction which attracts 6.9 million visitors a year.
But it turns out that the Eiffel Tower is not going to have an expanded observation deck, nor did Serero Archictects win a competition to redesign it. The Eiffel Tower management company has completely disavowed such a project, saying, "This is a hoax. We have no idea where this came from. The whole thing is preposterous." Meanwhile, Serero has posted an explanatory note on its website:
Our project for a the temporary extension of the Eiffel tower is an unsolicited proposal to the Eiffel Tower management company. We are confirming that the SETE did not organized a competition on this topic, in contrary with what was announced in the press. This project has been a victim of disinformation ( notably by the article published in The Guardian) which contributed to discredit our proposal. Many blogs and daily newspapers did present wrongly the project as the winner of a competition organized and approved by the Société d’exploitation de la Tour Eiffel.
Fred and Sharon’s Movies —
Nick Foister sent me a link to Fred and Sharon's Movies, which have become the latest viral video sensation. Fred and Sharon are a couple who claim to run a movie production business in Kelowna, Canada. But their movies are so bad they're actually funny. It takes talent to be that bad.
They have over 20 videos on youtube. If you haven't seen any of them, at least watch "Who Needs a Movie?" (below), in which they try to promote their movie production business.
Fred and Sharon also have a website. Their site was originally free and open, but the majority of it has recently been locked down so that you need to pay to see it. However, the fee is only $1, so I paid the buck. Turns out that all the "extra content" you get if you pay is simply more videos freely available on youtube. I would have felt cheated if I had paid more than $1, but since it was so little I didn't mind. They deserve it for producing some amusing content.
The question that many people are wondering is whether Fred and Sharon can possibly be for real. Or are they either a) the creations of an advertising agency, or b) comedians.
I haven't had much luck shedding light on this mystery. Though my gut feeling is that they're genuine. It's their effort to make people pay for their site that most makes me think they're genuine. An ad agency would never try to restrict access to content. But a couple like Fred and Sharon who suddenly start receiving hundreds of thousands of visitors to their site, and are faced with a huge bandwidth charge, probably would decide they need to make some money to cover the costs.
Fred and Sharon's site is registered to someone called Rob Korbynn. The only info I can find out about him is that he also seems to be the webmaster of The Ram's Horn, an Ontario-based journal about "food systems analysis." I'm guessing he's must be a guy who provides web services such as site design to clients in the Ontario area.
Even though I do think Fred and Sharon and for real, I also think they're now purposefully hamming it up for the camera. After all, they must realize they've suddenly got a huge audience.
Eating spaghetti while wearing a burqa —
This video of a burqa-wearing woman very awkwardly trying to eat spaghetti is doing the rounds. It's titled "Why Italian Restaurants Failed in Dubai."
All you have to do to find out it's fake is read the comments on youtube, where quite a few people have pointed out that the footage comes from a British comedy show, "3 non-blondes." It's a candid-camera style show, in which the performers pull various bizarre stunts in public to see how the people around them will react. Wikipedia reports: "Ninia Benjamin, Tameka Empson and Jocelyn Jee Esien play a range of comical characters to the unsuspecting public. Varying from a fictional celebrity named Marcia Brown, to a charity worker who only wants a kiss or a hug instead of a cash donation."
I've never seen a woman eat while wearing a burqa, but I assume she would lift the fabric covering her mouth up. She wouldn't try to shove food down from the top.
Snow Tower —
My sister forwarded me this photo. It comes with the caption:
Ottawa last weekend...this is NOT a fake photo. he has been building it for a
while.
Well, if the caption says it's not fake, then it must be real! 😏
But seriously, I'm labeling this one undetermined. It could very well be real, but on the other hand, I can't locate its original source. So who knows!
Update: It's real. The tower is the creation of Luc Guertin who lives in the Ottawa suburb of Orleans. The Globe and Mail reports:
He began in November with a normal shovel, lifting the snow and packing it down, then carefully squaring it off, just as he has done for years in the backyard to create snow banks around his rink every bit as upright and resilient as arena boards. He then switched to a shovel with a longer handle, and then longer still...
Guertin is now hoping for more snow, at least one more big wallop that will provide him without enough cold raw material to complete the turret he is now thinking of constructing at the end closest to the road.
Holding the Sun —
Pretending to hold the sun is one of the most popular tricks in amateur photography, because it's so easy to do and the results can look pretty cool. Teen/Nerd has collected together some of the best examples of the "holding the sun" trick from Flickr. A few are reproduced below.
The Puppy Over the Cliff Video —
Many of you have probably already seen the "puppy being thrown over a cliff" video that's been all over the internet in the past week. If you haven't, here it is, but be warned. It's disturbing. The Honolulu Advertiser offers this description of it:
Two Marines are seen in combat gear smiling as one holds a white-and-black puppy by the scruff of its neck. The dog seems to be about 8 weeks old and is motionless as it is held.
"Cute little puppy, huh?" says one Marine as he smiles broadly.
"Oh so cute, so cute, little puppy," says another in a child-like voice.
The Marine holding the puppy is then seen throwing the animal overhand into a desert-like gully below. The animal yelps until it thuds to the ground at the bottom of the gully.
"That's mean," one Marine says afterward.
When I first saw the video I felt it confirmed that there are some pretty sick people out there. But I didn't see anything that would make me suspect the video was fake. Nevertheless, a lot of people have been arguing that it's not real. For instance, see this youtube video. And more here.
The skeptics are suggesting that the puppy was already dead, and that the sounds of it yelping were dubbed in. But I think this is a case of being overly skeptical. That puppy looks alive to me. It's not making any noise initially because it's being held by the scruff of its neck. If you scruff a cat or dog it's going to become very quiet and submissive. It's an instinctive behavior.
The Honolulu Advertiser reports that the Marine Corps is investigating the video. The Marines have released a statement: "The video is shocking and deplorable and is contrary to the high standards we expect of every Marine... We do not tolerate this type of behavior and will take appropriate action." (Thanks, Nettie)
Chicken Plays Billiards —
A lot of people have posted this video to youtube in the past month, but no one identifies where the clip comes from. My question is: How was the shot created? The table looks like it's tilted to help the balls roll towards the pockets. Also, I'm assuming the egg is not real.
Extreme Street Soccer —
The following video shows kids (maybe in Brazil, I'm guessing) performing extreme freestyle soccer tricks. The tricks are pretty cool, but of course they're fake. The flips may be real, but the soccer ball must have been digitally inserted into the shots. The video is a viral ad for a new playstation game, FIFA Street 3. It reminds me of that Nike ad featuring Ronaldinho that was going around two years ago.
Long Handles —
I know there are some weird motorcycles out there, but even so, I'm going to vote that this is fake, even though I don't see any obvious evidence of photoshopping. I just don't think it would be possible to steer a bike like this. Especially not on a highway. (via bcmacsac1's flickr page)
Update: I should have known better. I should have known that just because something looks incredibly stupid is not a reason to doubt its reality. And the discovery of more pictures of this long-handled motorcycle has convinced me that it is, in fact, real.
Apparently such bikes are called "ape hangers". The motorcycle shown in the pictures is an extreme example of one. I'd guess it was designed more for show than for serious riding. Thanks to everyone whose comments convinced me of my error, particularly BlueMoon for finding the additional photos.
Head-Swallowing Trick —
I found this series of photos in an old issue of Life Magazine (Dec. 7, 1936). It was titled "Tricks of Paris Season" and had this caption:
Patrons of a Paris nightclub are being entertained with this spectacle of one man swallowing another's head. M. Nicol pries open M. Martin's mouth, lowers his head, rams it in until the spectators see it disappear. Only the cold sober feel cheated by this act.
I assume the method of the trick is obvious enough not to require explanation.
Man mistakes Madonna for Monroe —Everyone dreams of finding a painting by Van Gogh or Picasso in their attic. In Lawrence Nicastro's case, what he found -- so he thought -- was a rare picture of Marilyn Monroe posing as a naked hitchhiker. The BBC reports:
He and his wife Phyllis then spent four months researching the photograph. Mr Nicastro suspected it had been left by a customer at his service station in New York city in 1962. The couple brought in Monroe expert Chris Harris, who confirmed it was a genuine, exciting find. Harris scheduled a news conference to unveil the image but allowed some journalists a sneak preview. They suggested the photographic treasure was in fact a shot of Madonna from her graphic 1992 book, Sex.
This isn't a hoax, of course, unless you count that guy who called himself a Monroe expert, but couldn't tell the difference between Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. I'm no Monroe expert, but I can see the difference right away.
I found the picture of Madonna posing as a hitchhiker after a bit of googling. I'm just assuming it's the same picture that confused the expert. Click here for a larger version (still with the pink cover-ups, so that it's safe for work).
Capsizing Boat —
A series of photos of a ship being capsized by a large wave and then righting itself is doing the rounds. (That's a bit of a pun.) The photos are real. According to an article in the Mad Mariner (mirrored here), they were taken in California's Morro Bay Harbor by Gary Robertshaw on Dec. 4, 2007. The boat is a Coast Guard vessel on a training mission. From the Mad Mariner:
In a sequence of 10 photographs, reprinted here with Robertshaw's permission, a towering wave tosses the boat high atop its crest, and then swallows it entirely. And for a few breathtaking frames, the vessel, dubbed "unsinkable” by the Coast Guard, disappears in the roiling surf.
Just as Robertshaw began to worry the boat wouldn't resurface, it popped up...
A Coast Guard spokesman in Long Beach said no one aboard the boat was hurt that day, although the crew did take a beating. The wave that battered the boat was estimated to be 22 to 25 feet high.
"Everybody was alright," the spokesman said. "That boat's made to roll."
Backwards Singing —
In this video some guy, who calls himself One Man Sho, sings gibberish while performing various actions such as knocking over wooden blocks and drinking a glass of orange soda. Then the video plays in reverse to reveal that he was actually singing the national anthem backwards.
It would be possible to fake this. For instance, you could dub over the voice, though I imagine it would be a technical challenge to match the dubbed voice to the movement of his lips. Or you could sing gibberish and then dub over the reversed portion of the video. So I downloaded the video to check that the second half really is the first half played in reverse. It is.
So I'm concluding that the video is real. This guy actually memorized how to sing the national anthem backwards. An impressive, but odd talent.
Urban Legend ER —
I don't check out CollegeHumor.com very often, but I came across this short movie they put together called "Urban Legend ER," which I thought was amusing. It imagines what an ER might look like if all the most popular urban legends were real. Warning: It's a little gory in a few places.
I can't tell if The Sun printed the picture as a joke, or if they're really so clueless that they didn't realize the mysterious "ghost boy" in the photo is Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I'm leaning towards clueless.
Pictures have been circulating showing an expanded observation deck that is supposedly going to be added to the Eiffel Tower, transforming it into something resembling a giant mushroom. An article in the Guardian stated:
Everyone dreams of finding a painting by Van Gogh or Picasso in their attic. In Lawrence Nicastro's case, what he found -- so he thought -- was a rare picture of Marilyn Monroe posing as a naked hitchhiker. The BBC reports:
