Claim: Heart glare reflection on the shores of Hawaii.
Reality: It's true the picture was taken in Hawaii. Waikiki beach, to be specific. But the 'heart glare reflection' isn't real. The photo was created in 2008 by DeviantArt user 'charmbuster'. He explained: "this is a slight photomanip, the shape was so close i had to make it a heart!" It's been floating around the Internet ever since. Sometimes it's titled 'sea heart' or 'beach heart.'
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April 2008
Claim: Heart glare reflection on the shores of Hawaii.
Reality: It's true the picture was taken in Hawaii. Waikiki beach, to be specific. But the 'heart glare reflection' isn't real. The photo was created in 2008 by DeviantArt user 'charmbuster'. He explained: "this is a slight photomanip, the shape was so close i had to make it a heart!" It's been floating around the Internet ever since. Sometimes it's titled 'sea heart' or 'beach heart.'
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2008
Claim: When the lightning flashes, this is not what you want to see. A tornado approaches an oil rig.
Reality: This is actually a composite of two photos. Amateur photographer Fred Smith captured the image of a waterspout illuminated by lightning on June 15, 1991 from his backyard overlooking Lake Okeechobee, Florida. In early 2008, an unknown hoaxer pasted an oil rig into the picture and added the "not what you want to see" caption. This version quickly went viral.
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2008
Claim: When the lightning flashes, this is not what you want to see. A tornado approaches an oil rig.
Reality: This is actually a composite of two photos. Amateur photographer Fred Smith captured the image of a waterspout illuminated by lightning on June 15, 1991 from his backyard overlooking Lake Okeechobee, Florida. In early 2008, an unknown hoaxer pasted an oil rig into the picture and added the "not what you want to see" caption. This version quickly went viral.
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Early 2008
Claim: Barack Obama smoking a cigarette.
Reality: Obama has admitted to being an occasional smoker. Nevertheless, this is not a real photo of him smoking. The original photo (minus the cigarette) was taken in 2004 while then-State Sen. Obama met with constituents at the University of Illinois. In early 2008, during Obama's presidential campaign, an unknown hoaxer digitally added the cigarette into his mouth, and the image then went viral.
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Early 2008
Claim: Barack Obama smoking a cigarette.
Reality: Obama has admitted to being an occasional smoker. Nevertheless, this is not a real photo of him smoking. The original photo (minus the cigarette) was taken in 2004 while then-State Sen. Obama met with constituents at the University of Illinois. In early 2008, during Obama's presidential campaign, an unknown hoaxer digitally added the cigarette into his mouth, and the image then went viral.
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2007
Claim: Sign in the window of an Armed Forces recruiting center reads, "Suicidal Teens Welcome! Enlist Here."
Reality: The recruiting center never hung such a sign in its window. An unknown hoaxer digitally placed it there as a joke, inspired by an episode of The Simpsons in which a similar sign is shown in the window of an army recruiting center.
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2007
Claim: Sign in the window of an Armed Forces recruiting center reads, "Suicidal Teens Welcome! Enlist Here."
Reality: The recruiting center never hung such a sign in its window. An unknown hoaxer digitally placed it there as a joke, inspired by an episode of The Simpsons in which a similar sign is shown in the window of an army recruiting center.
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2007
Claim: Meet "Hercules" — the World's Biggest Dog according to Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff and has a 38-inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.
Reality: There really is a record-breaking English mastiff named Hercules owned by power lifter John Flynn, but it's not the dog in this photo, which is a Neapolitan Mastiff. The identity of its owners is unknown. It's not clear whether the photo has been digitally altered.
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2007
Claim: Meet "Hercules" — the World's Biggest Dog according to Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff and has a 38-inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.
Reality: There really is a record-breaking English mastiff named Hercules owned by power lifter John Flynn, but it's not the dog in this photo, which is a Neapolitan Mastiff. The identity of its owners is unknown. It's not clear whether the photo has been digitally altered.
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Jan. 2007
Claim: The Oscar Mayer Wiener corporate jet.
Reality: Unfortunately there never has been an Oscar Mayer Wiener Jet. This image appears to have been created as a joke by the graphic designers whom Boeing commissioned to create the livery for the 747-400 Largo Cargo Freighter. The plane's unusual shape evidently reminded them of a hot dog.
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Jan. 2007
Claim: The Oscar Mayer Wiener corporate jet.
Reality: Unfortunately there never has been an Oscar Mayer Wiener Jet. This image appears to have been created as a joke by the graphic designers whom Boeing commissioned to create the livery for the 747-400 Largo Cargo Freighter. The plane's unusual shape evidently reminded them of a hot dog.
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Dec. 2004
Claim: This picture, taken from a high-rise building window in downtown Phuket,Thailand, shows the Asian tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004 bearing down on the city.
Reality: The city shown here is actually Antofagasta, Chile, not Phuket. The gigantic wave was digitally inserted into the picture. Also, the size of the wave does not accurately represent the real tsunami. Eyewitness accounts reported that the water came inland as a steadily increasing swell, not as a towering super-wave.
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Dec. 2004
Claim: This picture, taken from a high-rise building window in downtown Phuket,Thailand, shows the Asian tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004 bearing down on the city.
Reality: The city shown here is actually Antofagasta, Chile, not Phuket. The gigantic wave was digitally inserted into the picture. Also, the size of the wave does not accurately represent the real tsunami. Eyewitness accounts reported that the water came inland as a steadily increasing swell, not as a towering super-wave.
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Sep. 2004
Claim: This picture was published in Popular Science magazine in 1954, to illustrate what a "home computer" might look like in the year 2004.
Reality: The photo was actually created in 2004 by Danish software sales and support technician Troels Eklund Andersen as an entry in a Fark Photoshop contest. Andersen took a photo of a submarine's maneuvering room on exhibit at the Smithsonian, made it black-and-white, then pasted in the teletype printer, the old-style television, and the man.
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Sep. 2004
Claim: This picture was published in Popular Science magazine in 1954, to illustrate what a "home computer" might look like in the year 2004.
Reality: The photo was actually created in 2004 by Danish software sales and support technician Troels Eklund Andersen as an entry in a Fark Photoshop contest. Andersen took a photo of a submarine's maneuvering room on exhibit at the Smithsonian, made it black-and-white, then pasted in the teletype printer, the old-style television, and the man.
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2004
Claim: This strange-headed creature was recently found on Malta. It's been identified as a Diplocaulus, a species thought to have been extinct for over 270 million years.
Reality: This is a Diplocaulus, but not a real one. It's a model created by an amateur Japanese model-maker in 1992, who took a photo of it and submitted it to a magazine as part of a contest. In 2004, the image began to circulate via email with the claim that it was a real, recently found Diplocaulus.
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2004
Claim: This strange-headed creature was recently found on Malta. It's been identified as a Diplocaulus, a species thought to have been extinct for over 270 million years.
Reality: This is a Diplocaulus, but not a real one. It's a model created by an amateur Japanese model-maker in 1992, who took a photo of it and submitted it to a magazine as part of a contest. In 2004, the image began to circulate via email with the claim that it was a real, recently found Diplocaulus.
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2004
Claim: A fetal footprint!
Reality: A pregnant woman might see her belly bulge when a baby thrusts out a limb. However, the abdominal wall is too muscular and thick to allow a footprint to be seen with this clarity. Which suggests that the photo must be fake. In addition, the footprint seems disproportionately large for a fetus. However, the source of this photo remains unknown.
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2004
Claim: A fetal footprint!
Reality: A pregnant woman might see her belly bulge when a baby thrusts out a limb. However, the abdominal wall is too muscular and thick to allow a footprint to be seen with this clarity. Which suggests that the photo must be fake. In addition, the footprint seems disproportionately large for a fetus. However, the source of this photo remains unknown.
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April 2004
Claim: Recent gas exploration activity in the south-east region of the Saudi Arabian desert uncovered the skeletal remains of a human of phenomenal size.
Reality: The picture was created in 2002 as an entry in an "Archaeological Anomalies" photoshop contest on Worth1000.com. The massive skeleton was digitally added into an aerial shot of a mastodon dig in upstate New York. The image went viral in 2004, when someone invented the story about the skeleton being an ancient Arabian giant.
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April 2004
Claim: Recent gas exploration activity in the south-east region of the Saudi Arabian desert uncovered the skeletal remains of a human of phenomenal size.
Reality: The picture was created in 2002 as an entry in an "Archaeological Anomalies" photoshop contest on Worth1000.com. The massive skeleton was digitally added into an aerial shot of a mastodon dig in upstate New York. The image went viral in 2004, when someone invented the story about the skeleton being an ancient Arabian giant.
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Feb. 2004
Claim: John Kerry shares the stage with Jane Fonda during an anti-Vietnam War peace rally in 1971.
Reality: The image of Kerry was taken at a 1971 Peace Rally in Long Island. Fonda didn't attend this event. In 2004, when Kerry was running for President, she was pasted into the shot (causing it to then go viral) as an apparent politically motivated attempt to raise questions about Kerry's patriotism by associating him with Fonda, the bête noire of pro-war conservatives.
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Feb. 2004
Claim: John Kerry shares the stage with Jane Fonda during an anti-Vietnam War peace rally in 1971.
Reality: The image of Kerry was taken at a 1971 Peace Rally in Long Island. Fonda didn't attend this event. In 2004, when Kerry was running for President, she was pasted into the shot (causing it to then go viral) as an apparent politically motivated attempt to raise questions about Kerry's patriotism by associating him with Fonda, the bête noire of pro-war conservatives.
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Aug. 2003
Claim: A NASA satellite image shows the blackout that hit the northeastern United States on August 14, 2003.
Reality: This is actually a composite image created three years before the blackout. It was made by combining hundreds of photos taken by Defense Department meteorological satellites in order to show what the surface of the Earth looks like at night from space. Following the blackout, an unknown hoaxer simply blacked out the appropriate portion of the image.
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Aug. 2003
Claim: A NASA satellite image shows the blackout that hit the northeastern United States on August 14, 2003.
Reality: This is actually a composite image created three years before the blackout. It was made by combining hundreds of photos taken by Defense Department meteorological satellites in order to show what the surface of the Earth looks like at night from space. Following the blackout, an unknown hoaxer simply blacked out the appropriate portion of the image.
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April 2003
Claim: A Louis Vuitton designer SARS mask.
Reality: During the SARS epidemic of 2003, thousands of people sought to protect themselves from airborne germs by wearing surgical masks. But Louis Vuitton never offered a designer SARS mask. This image was created by an unknown hoaxer who digitally added a mask to a photo of Eva Herzigova modeling a Louis Vuitton handbag.
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April 2003
Claim: A Louis Vuitton designer SARS mask.
Reality: During the SARS epidemic of 2003, thousands of people sought to protect themselves from airborne germs by wearing surgical masks. But Louis Vuitton never offered a designer SARS mask. This image was created by an unknown hoaxer who digitally added a mask to a photo of Eva Herzigova modeling a Louis Vuitton handbag.
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Feb. 2003
Claim: An Israeli satellite in space captured images of the space shuttle Columbia exploding upon re-entry on February 1, 2003.
Reality: Images of an exploding space shuttle that circulated online soon after the Columbia disaster were actually screenshots from the opening scene of the Touchstone Pictures movie Armageddon (1998). In the movie, the space shuttle Atlantis is struck by meteorite fragments.
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Feb. 2003
Claim: An Israeli satellite in space captured images of the space shuttle Columbia exploding upon re-entry on February 1, 2003.
Reality: Images of an exploding space shuttle that circulated online soon after the Columbia disaster were actually screenshots from the opening scene of the Touchstone Pictures movie Armageddon (1998). In the movie, the space shuttle Atlantis is struck by meteorite fragments.
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