Hoax Museum Blog: Photos

Reuters Searches for the Titanic beneath North Pole — Last week two Russian submersibles descended to the seabed beneath the North Pole and planted a flag, as a symbolic gesture of staking a claim to much of the Arctic Sea. When Reuters ran the story it seemed to have scooped all of its rivals by obtaining an actual photo of the Russian submarines beneath the North Pole. It ran a picture with the caption: "Russian miniature submarines are seen under water in the Arctic Ocean in this image taken from a television broadcast yesterday." The image was subsequently reproduced by many newspapers around the world.

But a 13-year-old Finnish schoolboy who saw the picture thought there was something strange about it. He had seen it before. And then he remembered where. It was a scene from James Cameron's Titanic. He contacted his local newspaper to share his realization.

Turns out that it was a film still from the movie. Reuters had simply lifted some images that appeared on Russian State TV, and the Russians were, in turn, using stock footage of submersibles searching for the Titanic (footage that Cameron evidently also used in his movie). Most news sources now seem to have pulled the image, but Canada.com is still running the story with the incorrectly captioned Titanic footage. In case they yank it soon, see the screenshot below.

High-Voltage Wire Repair — This video of a guy repairing high voltage cables from a helicopter has been going around a while -- for instance, it was posted on boing boing a few months ago, as well as digg -- but it was new to me. It has a surreal, science-fiction quality that makes it seem fake, especially when you see the repair guys sliding down the wires on all fours like spiders, but apparently this really is how live high-voltage wires are often serviced.

The guy doesn't get fried by the electricity because he's wearing a metal-fiber suit that acts as a "faraday cage" allowing the current to flow around him without harming him. Because the helicopter isn't touching the ground, it can safely be brought to the same voltage potential as the line, "like a bird on a line." (I really don't understand the technical aspects of electricity very well, so I'm just parroting the explanation given in the movie.)

The footage comes from an IMAX movie called Straight Up: Helicopters in Action, which is a Smithsonian documentary about "helicopters and their many and vital roles in contemporary society."

Redneck Limos — Pictures of so-called "redneck limos" are very popular on the internet. There's quite a few of them to be found, and here's a selection of the ones that seem to be most frequently posted on blogs.

Are they real or fake? My hunch is that most of them are probably real. After all, there's no reason vehicles like this couldn't be built, and there are companies that specialize in building things like this. One such company is SuperDuty Headquarters, whose sign can be seen in the rear window of the truck in the first picture below (although I can't find any pictures of that truck on their website).

The picture I'm most skeptical of is the one of the white stretch limo with the trailer attached to the back. That trailer could easily have been photoshopped on.

Manusia Kena Sumpah — I have no idea what the meaning of this video is, but whoever created it appears to be trying to simulate the appearance of a Feejee Mermaid-type creature. I found it linked to on the CeticismoAberto blog, where it's noted that the illusion of the creature is created in much the same way as magicians create the illusion of sawing a woman in half. In other words, this Feejee Mermaid actually consists of someone's head poking out the top of a box, with the body of the mermaid being manipulated separately from the head.

Reincarnation of Chris Farley — Could it be the second coming of Chris Farley? She's certainly got his eyes. Or did Chris Farley, perhaps, have a daughter?

Eric Schucard forwarded me this photo while I was in Africa (that's the same Eric Schucard who's responsible for the pictures of the MoH on the About the Museum page). This picture has appeared on quite a few blogs within the past month, but I don't see that anyone has come up with a definitive answer to the real question: photoshopped or not? Also, I can't find any clue as to the source of the photo.

My hunch is that it's not photoshopped. But that's just a hunch.

If you don't know who Chris Farley is, you can check out the wikipedia page about him -- and you can also consider yourself lucky for never having had to suffer through Beverly Hills Ninja.

Related topic: Baby Adolf

Best of the Forum – 29nd June 07 — Ok, I'm out of here on holiday, so most likely there shan't be forum roundup posts for the next couple of weeks. They'll be picked up when I get back.

Alien Abduction Caught On Film In Dickinson, North Dakota (Emidawg)
A video has come to light of an alleged alien abduction. Well, when I say ‘come to light’, I mean more that the gentleman involved has sent said film to the director of HBCC UFO Research.
Highlights of the video are said to include a ‘spiraling thing’ and ‘entities’ which remove his blankets. I’m looking forward to the forthcoming release of the film…

Wrestler’s Murder-Suicide of Family (Tah)
Over the course of last weekend, WWE wrestler Chris Benoit tragically murdered his wife and son, then hung himself. The bodies of the family were not found until around 2pm on Monday. However, a little after midnight on Monday morning, someone updated Benoit’s Wikipedia page stating he’d missed a match on Saturday “stemming from the death of his wife Nancy”.
Authorities were looking into this curious incident throughout this week. On Friday, the anonymous user who had made the edits admitted to the changes. He said that the edit was not made with knowledge of the crime, and was based on rumours and speculation. [Entry corrected to say "son" instead of "daughter."]

Evolution of Beauty (Bok)
A short video showing the transformation of a woman from as she naturally is to made-up, photoshopped, altered billboard model.

Japanese toymaker to sell “Air-Guitar”! (David B.)
Takara Tomy Corp are now marketing gadgets to make playing air-guitar just that bit more realistic. The toy can be hooked up to speakers, attached to an MP3 player, or strapped to the wrist to allow music to go along with the motions of playing in a rock band. The item is programmed with ten songs, and will play just as long as the air-guitaring continues.

Best of the Forum – 15th June 07 —
Artist fools punters into buying tins of cheap plaster… (David B.)
Tins of Italian artist Piero Manzoni’s excrement, sold as art to collectors for thousands of pounds, have been in the news recently, as it seems that they may contain nothing more than plaster.
A spokeswoman at the Tate museum in London insisted that the revelation did not invalidate the tin as a work of art.
“Keeping the viewer in suspense is part of the work’s subversive humour,” she said.
The world’s most famous photos (Beasjt’s number is 669)
This website displays a collection of what they say are the world’s most famous photographs. There has been some debate amongst the forum members as to which photos should be included.

Chatline for dolphin (Madmouse)
A dolphin raised by a deaf mother is having problems learning vocalisations. So a chatline has been rigged up at her Florida home so that she can communicate with dolphins in a nearby lagoon.

Ninja Power vs. the Old Dude of Doom!!! (Accipiter)
A ninja who targeted isolated Italian farms whilst wielding a bow and a knife was captured on Monday, after an elderly farmer confronted him with a rifle. The ninja was arrested, following his escape by bicycle, when the police pursued him to an abandoned farmhouse. He turned out to be Igor Vaclavic, a former soldier from the Russian army.

Best of the Forum – 1st June 07 —
Botched Fax Prompts “Terrorism” Scare (MadCarlotta)
Police shut down a strip mall in Boston on Wednesday after a branch of Bank of America received a faulty fax. The fax, which had been sent out by the bank's corporate office, had left off some of the text, leaving some dubious clip art. The plaza was evacuated for around three hours.

Roswell Theme Park (Madmouse)
Roswell city officials plan a UFO-themed amusement park that could open as early as 2010. Local shopkeepers base a large proportion of their trade around the UFO craze, and believe that the theme park would give tourists more to do whilst visiting.

Dutch Reality Show: Win This Person’s Kidney! (Slender Loris)
Earlier this week, Dutch TV station BNN announced their latest reality show. The premise was that a woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour would choose which of three contestants to donate a kidney to before she died. The Big Donor Show immediately sparked international furore, with mixed attitudes towards the show's concept. Today, it was revealed that the show was a hoax. Whilst it still aired, the woman playing the potential donor was perfectly healthy and, although the three contestants were in need of replacement kidneys, they were fully aware of the show's real premise. The show was aired and advertised as it was to draw attention to the shortage of donor organs in the Netherlands. Judging from the international coverage, they succeeded.

Japanese Ghost Girl (Boo)
Youtube hosts yet another unconvincing 'ghost' video. Look for the point where the special effects kick in.

Car made of cake (Nettie)
Photos of a Skoda advertisement wherein they make a whole car from cake.

An intriguing and mysterious website (Beasjt's number is 669)
Can you decipher the code?

Chad’s UFO — Chad wrote to the website of Coast to Coast with George Noory to talk about his experience with a UFO.

In April, Chad and his wife were on a walk when they saw the UFO for the first time. A few days later, he and a friend took a camera and found the craft again.

Chad claims that the craft is almost silent, but when neared, it seems to make crackling or humming noises - "almost like when you are near very large power lines." It usually moves slowly, but then will suddenly move off very quickly. It's also said to change direction abruptly.

Chad is worried that the UFO is causing the headaches and fatigue that he and his wife are experiencing (although it should be noted that his wife is pregnant, and her doctor says that would explain her symptoms).

As for the photographs, there are a number of questionable aspects to them. The size of the craft seems to be somewhat variable in comparison to the scenery around it. The lighting doesn't appear to match the lighting on the trees. I also have the personal problem that the UFO reminds me of a kitchen implement.

I can't identify the text on the wing(?). It reminds me of Klingon, but doesn't seem to actually be Klingon. If anyone recognises the text, do let us know.

Whiskey Floats on Water — This YouTube video demonstrates a physics trick right out of high-school science -- how to take a glass of water and a glass of whiskey and swap their contents, without using a third glass. It relies on the principle that whiskey is lighter than water and will float on top of it. The funny part is not the video, which is fairly straightforward, but rather the comments left by YouTube viewers, many of whom seem to think the video must have been faked. I guess they weren't paying attention in high-school science. I had a bottle of cheap whiskey on hand (Rebel Yell), so I tried the experiment myself, and I can attest that it definitely works. You just have to make sure not to allow the whiskey and water to mix too quickly, otherwise they'll combine together and you'll end up with two glasses of watered-down whiskey.

Colour-Changing Card Trick — This trick is quite an interesting little demonstration of misdirection. I shan't say more, so as to not give it away, but keep your eyes peeled - there is more to this than just one trick.
(Thanks, Nettie and David B.)

Crushing Crane Weights — In this video a pair of crane weights falls on a car, completely crushing it. The odds of someone capturing this scene on video as they're driving down a street suggest that it must be fake, but it's a pretty well done fake. A professional agency must have created it. (via Digg)

Catching Sunglasses — Here's a youtube video of a guy who catches sunglasses on his face. The sunglasses are dropped from a house, from a bridge, and thrown at him as he passes by in a car. Yeah, it's obviously fake. But it's kind of amusing.

GreenTeaGirlie — David Sarno at the LA Times uncovers a web of deception surrounding a recent YouTube sensation called GreenTeaGirlie.

It all started in late March when a 10-second video of a young woman introducing herself became one of the most-watched videos on YouTube. Why was this video so popular, many people wondered. After all, it wasn't very remarkable. Was she another lonelygirl15?

Soon after, two related websites appeared: greenteagirlie.com and kallieannie.com.

The first site, greenteagirlie.com, contained a link to Seattle's Dragonwater Tea Co. (promoting suspicion that GreenTeaGirlie was a marketing ploy) and later to a site called Vidstars.net, that claimed to be a marketing service using YouTube video stars to promote products.

The second site, kallieannie.com, was all about the GreenTeaGirlie, whose real name, apparently, is Kallie.

So what was going on? The LA Times reporter figured out there were two different deceptions perpetrated by different groups.

Deception One: A friend of Kallie shot the video of her and then gamed the YouTube system by creating hundreds of fake MySpace profiles that linked to her video, artificially causing it to appear on YouTube's most watched video list, bringing her to the attention of YouTube viewers who then really did begin checking out her video. The same guy helped created kallieannie.com.

Deception Two: A separate pair of pranksters took advantage of the GreenTeaGirlie phenomenon to promote a hoax of their own -- Vidstars.net. Their idea was to create a fictitious company that was supposedly using YouTube stars to promote products. They created the greenteagirlie.com site, and linked it to the Dragonwater Tea Co., as a way to make it seem as if GreenTeaGirlie was a marketing ploy. So it was a hoax within a hoax. All very complicated.

So to sum up, GreenTeaGirlie is an artificially hyped YouTube star, who has nothing to do with Vidstars.net, which is a hoax website pretending to be a company that uses YouTube stars to promote products.

Or, at least, that's the way it seems for now. Unless it's all a hoax within a hoax within a hoax, engineered as a byzantine marketing stunt for Green Tea.

For those interested, here's GreenTeaGirlie's YouTube page that lists all of her videos.

White Peacock — It may look like something out of a fairytale, but it's definitely real. Plus, it's a pretty cool photo. Here's a different picture of a white peacock on Wikipedia. (via Reality Carnival)

Magic Faucet — A picture of an actual scene -- nothing has been digitally manipulated or removed. A lot of people are familiar with this illusion. My wife, for instance, took one look at it and told me that not only did she know what the trick was, but that it's also possible to buy table-top versions of it. But for those who haven't seen it before, it is kind of cool. The trick is that the pipe supplying the water (and holding the faucet up) is concealed by the stream of water. I'm not sure where this picture was taken.

Is it possible to cut glass with scissors? — A YouTube video claiming that it's possible to cut glass with scissors by placing the glass underwater has been attracting some skepticism. Geekologie suggests that the guy in the video is swapping out pieces of glass with other pieces of glass as he pretends to cut it.

Hmm. I'm no expert on this subject, but after some quick googling, I'm inclined to believe that it is possible to cut glass with scissors by holding the glass underwater.

SpectrumGlass.com, which appears to be a commercial glass company, addresses the claim on their site (though not with specific reference to the YouTube video). They say that the trick does work, though it doesn't make a very clean cut. They quote from Scientific American to explain why holding the glass under water aids the cutting process:
An article by some guy name Paul Umstead, titled "How to cut glass without a diamond cutter," also asserts that the glass-under-water trick works. Umstead sounds like he knows what he's talking about, which is more than I can say. So I'm going to say that it seems to be true that you can cut glass with scissors by holding the glass under water. I would test it out myself, but I don't have a spare pane of glass lying around.

Yemeni Man Grows Horns from Head — 102-year-old Saleh Talib Saleh says he had had dreams when he was younger of growing horns from his head.
At the age of 77, he started noticing a hard patch on his scalp. It wasn’t really bothering him and, since at the time there were no local medical facilities, he just ignored it.
Gradually, the hard patch grew into what looked like a horn. The growth reached 1.6 feet before the stress on it, due to everyday life, caused it to weaken and fall off.

Almost immediately, a second ‘horn’ began growing in the place of the first. Many people from around the Gulf countries have travelled to visit Saleh in order to view what he considers to be a ‘gift from Allah’.

So, is this story true?
Well, I haven’t been able to track down much coverage of it (these aren’t the easiest search terms to isolate). Saleh has said he had no local medical facilities when he first grew the horn, but there is no mention of his having been to see a doctor (or a doctor seeing him) in the following twenty-five years. The only photograph I’ve found is the one in the linked article.

(Thanks, Tah.)

Edit: The complete photograph (shown in the article) seems to have some sort of Arabic writing at the bottom. Can anyone translate?

Riding The Tiger — I found this picture posted on Weird Asia News. It could easily be real. Especially if that woman has some experience handling tigers (though she doesn't look like she does). Or the tiger is really tame. My hunch is that it is real. However, I wouldn't be willing to sit on a tiger's back. My cat is vicious enough, and she's a lot smaller. So assuming that it is real, I wonder what the story behind it is. Maybe you pay a buck and have your picture taken with a tiger, and hope you don't get killed.

Pet Spa Video — Dave emailed us asking about this video that had been posted on youtube.

The video shows a 'pet spa' machine, used to automatically wash and dry pets, and a cat's reaction to it.

The person who submitted it to the site added to their posting:


So, as to whether it's a real machine and a real video, I'd say yes. The CBS news website has run an article on the owner of one of the pet spa machines.
As for the video, some cats do freak out when in an enclosed space, or when water is sprayed on them. I suspect the cat was a little more nervous than those belonging to the satisfied customers.