Hoax Museum Blog: Urban Legends

What’s in a name — Qamar Mohammed Malik, a Pakistan-born engineer, submitted his CV to the Amec Group construction company, but was told that the company had no suitable vacancies. He then submitted a similar CV with inferior qualifications, but using a fake Welsh name, Rhyddir Aled Lloyd-Hilbert. This time he was told there was a job vacancy and was offered an interview.

Malik has now filed a lawsuit against the Amec Group, accusing the company of racism. The company defends itself, saying that, ""Mr Lloyd-Hilbert" was contacted for interview with regard to the quality inspector vacancy and not Mr Malik because the former indicated he was about to move to Wales whereas the latter had a Reading address."

Regardless of who's in the right, Malik's experiment represents a variation on what I'm calling the spurious submission hoax. (I made up this term for it, but if anyone can think of a better name, let me know.) Spurious submission hoaxes usually involve the submission of a disguised piece of work (typically the retyped text of a famous work) to a publisher, who inevitably rejects it. The most famous example of such a hoax was when Chuck Ross submitted the manuscript of Casablanca to over 200 movie agents, many of whom rejected it, saying the script needed work.
Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007.   Comments (7)
Insulting Surnames — The Vancouver Sun reports that linguistics researchers believe that many common surnames began as insults. For instance, centuries ago a guy might have been nicknamed "John the Bastard," and the insulting epithet would become his last name, adhering to all his descendants (until someone eventually changed it):
there is a whole category of names that are believed to have been given to children abandoned to orphanages - including the French name Jette (meaning "thrown out"), the Italian name Esposito (meaning "exposed") and the English name Parrish (meaning someone who was raised at the expense of the community.) ...
Both the English names Nott and Cave probably described someone who was bald.
A Barrett was a fraud, a Mallory someone unlucky and a Purcell a little pig...
Similarly insulting are the German names Armann (poor man), Scheunpflug (avoids the plow) and Schiller (cross-eyed)...
"Shakespeare is probably an obscene name, originally, for a masturbator," said Hanks.

This research is particularly interesting to me, because it helps to explain the source of my last name, "Boese," which means 'angry' or 'evil' in German. (It's spelled Böse in German.) Centuries ago one of my ancestors must have been a real jerk, and my family has been saddled with the name ever since.

This research also helps explain some of the "unfortunate last names" I've occasionally posted about.
Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007.   Comments (18)
75 Homeless Gnomes — Last month 75 gnomes suddenly appeared on the front lawn outside of a house in Springfield, Oregon. The police don't know where the gnomes came from, but they assume they were gnome-napped from other houses around town. It is one of the largest cases of gnome-napping anyone can remember.

The gnomes are currently being housed in the police station, although the police have warned that can only be a temporary arrangement:
“We need to get them out of here,” Springfield Capt. Richard Harrison said. “Every time I leave my office they’re sitting in my chair, working on my computer. I can’t seem to get rid of the darn things.”

The police urge anyone who is missing a gnome to come and claim it at the station. All the gnomes that don't get claimed will be put up for auction.
Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007.   Comments (6)
What does an elephant on acid look like? — One of the things that's interested me with the recent flurry of articles about Elephants On Acid, is how the artists who illustrated the articles chose to depict an elephant on acid. So here's a small collection I've put together of artistic depictions of elephants on acid. The two popular options are either to show an angry-looking elephant, or a psychedelic one.

(left) from the cover of my book; (right) from an album by Tusko Fatale, a Virginia-based band.



(left) from the Daily Mail; (right) from the Daily Telegraph.



(left) from the New Scientist; (right) from the London Times



A sad-looking elephant from the Guardian:



This looks like it should be a picture of an elephant on acid, but it's actually the logo of the 2008 Republican National Convention to be help in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota.



And finally, here's the one published picture of an actual elephant on acid, that appeared on the front page of the Daily Oklahoman on August 4, 1962. There are other pictures of elephants on acid from the two elephant-lsd experiments that have been conducted, but they're all hidden away in an archive at UCLA, having been deemed too controversial for the public to see.


Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007.   Comments (4)
Elephants on Acid Publicity — I received a couple of emails this morning along the lines of: Hey, the Guardian just published a list of the top ten weirdest experiments of all time. It sounds a lot like your list of the top 20 most bizarre experiments. They're not ripping you off, are they?

It's nice that people are concerned, but there's no need to worry. I haven't been ripped off. After I posted my top 20 list back in September, New Scientist contacted me asking if I would like to create a shortened version of it for their magazine. I was more than happy to oblige, and the resulting article will appear in the Nov. 3 issue of New Scientist.

Apparently New Scientist circulated a pre-release version of this article to the media, and it's been picked up by a lot of British papers: The Daily Telegraph, The London Times, and the Daily Mail.

I've also found it in the South African Independent Online, the Sydney Morning Herald, and PhysOrg.com.

Here in America, the Hartford Courant had an article about my book, focusing on the creepy experiments to coincide with Halloween.

So there's been some good publicity. Hopefully it'll help sell a few books.

And speaking of publicity, I'll be doing a book signing at Dark Delicacies bookstore at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 18th. It's a bookstore that specializes in horror, so the first chapter of my book (the one with all the Frankenstein-style experiments) should hopefully find a receptive audience there. If you live in the L.A. area, come on by and say hello.

Update: My publisher also tells me that Playgirl magazine plans to review Elephants on Acid (probably because it has a chapter on weird sex experiments). Thankfully, they're not planning a photoshoot of the author to accompany the review. But I will be able to tell people that I've been featured in Playgirl.
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007.   Comments (6)
Helium Balloons Lift Car — In this video some guys from New Zealand attach helium balloons to a car until it floats away. Unfortunately, no one is in the car when it floats away. (Though that would have been a good update on the legend of Lawnchair Larry.)

Of course, the video is fake. TV3.co.nz reports that it was digitally edited to remove a crane, which is what actually causes the car to rise into the air. Also, the video turns out to be a viral ad created by Ford "aimed at selling Ford cars to generations X and Y."


Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007.   Comments (6)
Hawk Attacks Poodle — The Sacramento Bee reports that a strange event occurred at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael -- a hawk swooped down from the sky and snatched a woman's toy poodle. At least, that's what the woman claims:
To hear publicity coordinator Betty Cooper tell it, an employee was walking the center grounds when he was flagged down by the hysterical woman, who claimed a hawk had made off with her toy poodle.
And though it's a story straight out of the friend-of-a-friend-told-me handbook, it's not outside the realm of possibility.
The nature center does have a wild hawk population, the dog was about the size of a rabbit and there is an area adjacent to the park that's popular (though not strictly allowable) for running off-leash dogs.
"It's bizarre," Cooper said. "This is the first time I've ever heard about (something like this)."

It's actually not that uncommon for hawks to attack small dogs. I think it's usually a case of the hawk protecting its territory, rather than wanting to eat the dog. So I think the case at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center could be true.

It reminds me of the case of the Killer Hawk of Chicago, from 1927, which also (I believe) turned out to be true, despite suspicions to the contrary. Although the Chicago hawk attacked pigeons, not poodles. (via Legends & Rumors)
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007.   Comments (10)
A Ghost Standing By A Tree? — Christopher Ogden posed by a tree in the town of Ninety Six, South Carolina, and his dad took a picture of him (below). When the two of them saw the full-size image, they noticed something strange. A mysterious figure seemed to be standing beside Christopher, even though he was standing alone when the shot was taken. The photo made its way to a local paper, The Index-Journal, to whom Christopher gave this statement:
“As a civil engineer, I’m well educated, and I’ve looked at it, and my dad has looked at it, and in my own opinion, it does seem to me like there’s something strange there..
“I’m Caucasian, and wearing a striped shirt and a pair of jeans and sunglasses, and immediately next to me it appears there is an African-American person -- I can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman standing next to me -- wearing some kind of white garb. I can tell you for a fact that there was no one standing next to me when that picture was taken.”

There are three theories about what this might be: 1) a double exposure; 2) sunlight on a tree; or 3) a ghost.

I'm going with theory two.


Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007.   Comments (19)
A Cruel Prank — Newkerala.com reports on a cruel prank that took a tragic turn:
Dubai, Oct 29: An office boy of Indian origin working for a private firm tried to commit suicide after his colleagues played a prank on him and said he will not get his salary.
The prank turned into a tragedy as the boy who had been employed only for 15 days got so upset that he slashed his wrist with a knife. He lost consciousness and was admitted to Rashid hospital here yesterday.
One of the victim's friends said their company usually paid the salaries of the employees on the third of each month, Gulf News reported.
However, the boy was oblivious of the fact anf his colleagues enjoyed the ''game'' and teased him on and on.
The office boy panicked and even tried to meet the manager to check if he would be paid or not.
One of his colleagues said he disappeared in the afternoon. They searched for him everywhere and later found him in a room in the office bleeding and added that he had lost consciousness.

But wait, there's more:
An official of the company said the Indian office boy, who was not named, will be deported and his visa cancelled once he is discharged.

So first they scare this poor kid so much that he tries to commit suicide, and now they're going to deport him! I hope they at least pay him whatever salary he's owed.
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007.   Comments (4)
Music Faun Plastic Surgery — Hungarian plastic surgeon Dr. Lajos Nagy offers all the usual services at his clinic. You can get a breast enlargement, a nose job, liposuction, etc. But he also offers a rather unusual service: music faun surgery. He'll make your ears pointed so that you look like a music faun. His website, modernplasztika.co.hu, states:
A newfangled extravagance is spreading amongst the music-lover youngsters of New York, which, after invading America, is sure to conquer the whole world. Ears becoming pointed as a result of plastic surgery not only enhance the attractiveness of the face, but also improve the experience of listening to music. A sign of the popularity of this operation is that in big cities so-called Faun-Clubs are founded one after another, where entrance is only allowed with pointed ears. The reverberating success of this new look is supported by more and more celebrities with pointed ears, amongst whom we can find not only musicians, but, for example, models, as well.

Here's the description of what the procedure involves:
The procedure itself means a very careful dissection of the structures at the upper pole of the earlobe. The required reshaping is achieved by modellation of a specially designed chondro-cutaneous flap (a flap containing the own cartilage and skin of the patient). The new shape is fixed by means of absorbable sutures, skin closure is made with unabsorbable uninterrupted sutures.

I think the post-operative pictures on Nagy's site look like people wearing fake ears, so my hunch is that music-faun surgery is a joke. However, I wouldn't be willing to state this definitively. After all, there definitely are people who get surgery to make their ears pointed.

However, Dr. Nagy's site is registered to smartworks.hu, a Hungarian graphics studio, which makes me feel pretty sure that neither Dr. Nagy, nor his music-faun surgery, are real. The site is probably some kind of art project.
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007.   Comments (19)
The FEMA Faux Press Conference — As fires rage across southern California, FEMA has demonstrated that they're willing to step up to the plate and help everyone out. In fact, should reporters be unable to attend a press conference, FEMA is even willing to have its own staffers pose as reporters and lob softball questions at the FEMA deputy administrator.

The Washington Post reports that FEMA held a press conference on Thursday, but only gave the media 15 minutes advance notice. But from what was broadcast on TV, it looked like quite a few reporters had managed to show up:

Something didn't seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA's greatness.
Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We're told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of external affairs, and by "Mike" Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John "Pat" Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.
Asked about this, Widomski said: "We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute."
But the staff did not make up the questions, he said, and Johnson did not know what was going to be asked. "We pulled questions from those we had been getting from reporters earlier in the day." Despite the very short notice, "we were expecting the press to come," he said, but they didn't. So the staff played reporters for what on TV looked just like the real thing.

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007.   Comments (9)
Flower Portrait Controversy — The last time the famous Flower portrait of Shakespeare (the one showing him wearing a wide white collar) made news was back in 2005, when experts at the National Portrait Gallery declared it a fraud painted sometime during the 19th century.

Now a German scholar, Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel, is arguing that the National Portrait Gallery experts didn't examine the original painting. She believes that sometime in the past ten years someone stole the original Flower portrait and substituted a fake in its place:
Professor Hammerschmidt-Hummel said yesterday that the original had been substituted by a copy. In 2005 it was sent to the laboratories of the National Portrait Gallery and dismissed as a 19th century forgery after it was found to contain chrome yellow, a colour that was commercially available only from 1814 onwards.

“Where is the priceless 400-year-old original Flower portrait?” asked the professor, who lectures in English literature at the University of Mainz.

She said that she was basing her conclusions on tests that she carried out on what she says was the original – which she she last saw in 1996 – and on the version that she claims is a copy, which she saw in January.

The Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Portrait Gallery are disputing her claim:
A spokes-woman for the RSC said that the only time the painting had not been on display under CCTV coverage in the RSC Collection Gallery was when it was in a secure store room. Dr Tarnya Cooper, the portrait gallery’s 16th century curator, said: “The idea that this picture has been substituted for a different portrait between 1996 and 2005 is plainly nonsensical . . . Any perceived differences between photographs are likely to be caused by differences in lighting conditions.”

So, if I'm understanding this controversy correctly, Hammerschmidt-Hummel is saying that the Flower portrait is real because the one we have is a fake. But the RSC and Portrait Gallery are saying that the Flower portrait is fake because the one we have is the real one.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007.   Comments (2)
Fake Stigmata Controversy — During the 20th century, Padre Pio was one of the most famous and popular Catholic monks. He died in 1968 and was made a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2002. He was recently declared the Patron Saint of New Year Blues.

Pio was particularly famous for the supernatural phenomena associated with him. In particular, stigmata were said to have mysteriously appeared on his hands and feet. But a new book argues that Pio faked his stigmata:
a book called Padre Pio and the Italy of the 19th Century, by historian Sergio Luzzatto says the wounds were self-created using carbolic acid and he claims to have found documentary evidence to prove it in the Vatican's secret archives.

According to Wikipedia, this is hardly the first time charges of fakery have been leveled against Pio:
His accusers included high-ranking archbishops, bishops, theologians and physicians.
They brought several accusations against him, including insanity, immoral attitude towards women - claims that he had intercourse with women in the confessional (However, the same priest who accused Pio of these sexual acts later recanted his story and repented on his death bed.), misuse of funds and deception - claims that the stigmata were induced with acid in order to gain fame—and that the reported odor of sanctity around him being the result of self-administered eau-de-cologne.
The founder of Rome's Catholic university hospital concluded Padre Pio was "an ignorant and self-mutilating psychopath who exploited people's credulity." In short, he was accused of infractions against all three of his monastic vows: poverty, chastity and obedience.
In 1923, he was forbidden to teach teenage boys in the school attached to the monastery because he was considered "a noxious Socrates, capable of perverting the fragile lives and souls of boys."

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007.   Comments (72)
Undercover Agent Shuts Down Bradbury Play — Joe Littrell forwarded me this strange news story posted at scifidimensions.com. I can't tell if it's real or a joke.

Supposedly a man identifying himself as "Agent Egan," a California "undercover investigator," halted a performance of Ray Bradbury's play Dandelion Wine at the Fremont Center Theatre, half an hour into the performance. Bradbury himself was in the audience.
The play, one of Bradbury’s most autobiographical works, includes performances by several young actors, and when the announcement was made from the stage about the cancellation 30 minutes after the scheduled start time, reference was made to an obscure California law requiring a State of California licensed teacher to be present at all performances with young actors. The company spokesman said, however, that they had never before been advised about such a requirement, and certainly not at show time. The play’s director, Alan Neal Hubbs, later suggested to this reporter that the play’s cancellation might have more to do with Mr. Egan’s finding an excuse to shut down the performance due to his previously having been denied free tickets to the play...

When this reporter approached the official for a photo-interview to explain why he had shut down the performance, he threatened to confiscate this reporter’s camera on the claim that he worked as an undercover police officer; however, when asked by this reporter to produce a badge or other official identification, “Egan” refused.

If this incident really happened, and if it's not some kind of publicity stunt, it seems incredible that a theater would halt a play on the word of some random guy claiming to be an undercover agent who refuses to show any kind of identification.
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007.   Comments (6)
Gravity Speakers — This video purports to show an amateur experiment in which someone created a small gravitational field "using a speaker and a generated sound wave." The instructions say that a Bose Companion 2 Series II speaker was used, and a "sine wave at 16 khz" was generated.

Obviously it's fake. Audio speakers will not create a gravity field. But I'm not sure how they created the special effect. (Not that I know much about creating video effects.)

Perhaps they used some kind of fancy editing software. Or perhaps they did it a really low-tech way -- moving the objects one frame at a time to make it appear as if they were sliding towards the speaker. If they did it the latter way, they managed to make the sliding effect look very smooth.

Perhaps it's a viral ad for Bose speakers.

For some reason this video keeps getting removed from Metacafe. Hopefully it'll stay up long enough for you to see it.


Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007.   Comments (62)
Can of Dehydrated Water — Dehydrated water is an old joke, but I've never actually seen a can of the stuff. Here one is, posted on Flickr by David Reeves. His caption reads, "Spotted on the chemical storage shelf in an adjacent laboratory." The strange thing is that Bernard Food Industries, the company listed as the maker of this product, is a real company. Why were they manufacturing this stuff? I assume it was a joke.



Update: Looks like these cans must have been a gag product that Bernard Foods produced at some time, because someone is selling one on eBay. Perhaps I'll bid on it.
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007.   Comments (47)
San Diego Fires — San Diego is on fire again. I've been watching the TV most of the day, tracking the progress of the fires. It's amazing how many people have been evacuated and homes have been destroyed. From what I hear, many more people have been affected by this fire than by the fire back in 2003.

I'm lucky that where I am in San Diego (relatively close to downtown), I'm not in any danger. All that I'm dealing with is the smoke. But that's pretty bad. The air smells strongly of it, and if you're outside for any length of time you start to feel it in your lungs.

Here's a photo I took a few minutes ago from my roof (looking west). You can see the layer of smoke hanging over the city. But still, the smoke is not as bad where I am as it was during the 2003 fire. Compare the photo below to the photos I took during the 2003 fire.


Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007.   Comments (12)
Zeolite Natural Cellular Defense — "George" writes: "I would appreciate your opinion about waiora's zeolite "natural cellular defense" for treating cancer (www.waiora.com). do you think there's something to it or is it just a scam?"

I don't actually see where Waiora claims that their "Natural Cellular Defense" product can be used to treat cancer. In fact, their website states, "These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease." However, what they do claim sounds rather dubious to me:
Waiora’s Natural Cellular Defense has been clinically formulated to help support a healthy immune system, remove heavy metals and toxins, and balance your body’s pH levels.

Natural Cellular Defense is 100% natural and non-toxic and is derived from zeolites. For centuries, the powdered forms of specific zeolites have been used as traditional remedies throughout Asia to promote overall health and well being. The story of these “volcanic rocks” has been passed down from generation-to-generation as more and more people have experienced its life-changing benefits.

Zeolites are natural volcanic minerals with an unique, complex crystalline structure. It’s honeycomb framework of cavities and channels (like cages) works at the cellular level attracting heavy metals and harmful toxins. In fact, because it is one of the few negatively charged minerals in nature, zeolites act as magnets drawing toxins to it, capturing them in its cage and removing them from the body.


According to Wikipedia, zeolites are often used in filtration systems, such as water purification systems. In aquariums they're sometimes used to absorb ammonia and other nitrogenous compounds. They're also the active ingredient in QuikClot, an emergency coagulant.

So maybe Waiora is right that zeolites will attract toxins inside the body. What I would worry about, however, is that they would also remove good minerals from the body. I'm not a doctor, so I'm in no position to pass judgement on the therapeutic value of zeolites. But I would want to see a lot more evidence before I accepted Waiora's claims.
Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007.   Comments (18)
Towel Jesus — From Cranky Media Guy, with the comment, "New horizons in pareidolia":
A Houston woman says the face of Jesus is a message sent straight from God and left on a bathroom towel...

She says she used the towel to clean an air conditioner.
"I guess it just got stained," she said.
So Lucille washed it. And bleached it. Twice. And then her granddaughter used the towel.
"It kind of scared me, because I was going to dry my hair," Desiree Ramos recalled. "But then I just threw it. And then I went to go tell my grandma."...

You might not see the face in the towel. If you do, you might not believe it resembles Jesus. Lucille Lopez doesn't care. She does. And she's thankful for the gift she got from God.

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007.   Comments (12)
Woman finds toothbrush in her nose — The Mumbai Mirror reports that doctors in India removed a three-inch piece of a broken toothbrush from a woman's nose. The woman claims she's not sure how it got there:
So how did it get there? The woman claims she is not sure. She says, “Around two months ago as I was brushing my teeth, my husband accidentally pushed me and the toothbrush in my hand broke. I was left holding the lower portion of the brush but couldn’t locate the rest of it. Soon after, I started bleeding profusely from the nose,” she said. She visited the family doctor to stop the bleeding. “But since that day, I began getting breathless and a foul smelling discharge began to come out of my nose. I used to get restless gasping for breath sometimes,” she said.

Doctors are skeptical about the woman's explanation, saying that it's impossible that the toothbrush could have entered her nasal cavity through her mouth, but the woman isn't saying anything more.

I'm sure she must know how it really got there. After all, how could anyone lose a toothbrush up their nose accidentally? Sadly, the true explanation probably involves spousal abuse.
Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007.   Comments (8)
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