From Marcy LaViollette as seen on Lists of Note:

“Count” Victor Lustig was a con man of considerable note. Born in 1890, by the 1930s he was wanted by approximately 45 law enforcement agencies worldwide. He had 25 known aliases and spoke 5 languages. He cunningly gained $5k from Al Capone. Better still, in 1925, Lustig posed as a government official in Paris, took five businessmen on a tour of the Eiffel Tower, and then “sold” it to one of them as 7300 tonnes of scrap metal; the con went so well, he tried it again soon after.

He also wrote the following list of commandments for aspiring con men.

(more…)

From Marcy LaViollette:

To put it mildly, the Seattle Police have had a number of questionable uses of force recently, including a couple shootings and a few cases of extreme force. The community isn’t too pleased, including this prankster:

As seen on Slog News and Art

(more…)

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette as seen on Laughing Squid posted by Ed Hunsinger:

San Francisco’s Answer to Westboro Baptist Church

photo by EDW Lynch

Westboro Baptist Church showed up to protest in front of Twitter’s San Francisco office on Thursday, but found themselves severely outnumbered by a crowd of absurdist pranksters, including guest blogger EDW Lynch above.

photo by Rubin Starset

WBC’s hate-promoting signs were answered by multiple signs of randomness, nonsensical yelling, and even a unicorn. A portable stereo blared Lady GaGa, while press and people passing by ignored the WBC signs and took pictures and videos of the more entertaining signs. I was also there and turned on the video camera while holding my sign.

See more here.

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette:

My nerdy alma mater only has around 700 students, and yet cast over 1 million computerized votes in a recent Victoria Secret contest, while also spelling out WIBSTR, which stands for “West is Best, Screw the Rest” (a dorm slogan).

HUMOR LIFE: Harvey Mudd 1, Victoria’s Secret 0
by Carl Peaslee
CMC Forum
October 15, 2009

It seems that Harvey Mudd students have taken a special interest in the lingerie industry. That’s right. Our neighbors to the north are up to their brilliant shenanigans once again. Now, I don’t doubt that those Mudders love a school emblazoned pair of panties as much as the next student body but unless my US News and World Report deceives me, I don’t remember Harvey Mudd having OVER A MILLION STUDENTS!

The best part is, they didn’t just rig their own numbers, they catapulted six schools (among them the unlikely Bob Jones and Scripps College) to the top seven spots so that they could spell out the acronym WIBSTR or “West is best screw the rest,” apparently some kind of dorm related boast. (more…)

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette as seen on Bicycling.com:

Paint Your Lane
by By Dan Koeppel
Bicycling.com

Do-it-yourself bike lanes are illegal, perhaps dangerous, potentially damaging to the cause of legitimate bike advocates everywhere—and really, really effective.

The bridge is calm as Sunday morning dawns. At either end of the span, the freeway ramps are idle. Below, a few shorebirds peck at the marshy floor of the river. This is an out-of-character moment: During the week, thousands of cars pass through here, coming from the north, south and east, pinching into four lanes as they make their way toward the commercial centers of downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood and the city beyond.

But at first light on this July 19th, the only vehicles here on Fletcher Drive are three bikes, and those have been stashed in the brush. The cyclists who left them there are setting out traffic cones on the road. When the right-hand lane has been blocked off, the cyclists walk back to the shoulder to retrieve the object that, over the past few weeks, they have come to refer to as The Machine.

The $99 Rust-Oleum 2395000 looks like a tiny, four-wheeled wagon with low ground clearance and a handle that angles backward and up from the bed. The cargo area, so low it sits between the wheels rather than above them, is equipped with a mount for spray-paint cans; in the unused space, you can store five or six extra cans upright, ready to swap in when one runs dry. The 2395000 is most commonly used to create parking-lot stripes. (more…)

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette from College Humor, March 5, 2009:

Amir makes a blindfolded half-court basketball shot for $500,000. Or so he thinks.

Related link (see the other 6 College Humor prank war pranks):

Update: See end of post for some historical perspective from Steve Lambert…

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette January 20, 2009:

Bush Street Disappears in SF Overnight
by Lori Preuitt
Bay Area News
January 20, 2009

Signs covered with new pres.

Some pranksters in San Francisco had a little presidential fun overnight by changing out several Bush Street signs into Obama Street.

They made a cover for the metal signage that looks pretty darn professional.

Someone tipped off NBCBayArea.com to the stunt just before sunrise on Inauguration Day.

At least four blocks of signs had been changed in the heart of the city’s Financial District.

There were also chalk drawings on the ground pointing up to get pedestrians to notice the “change.” (more…)

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette:

Some Beijing Olympic Fireworks Faked
by Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
August 11, 2008

Because one organization is responsible for filming the Olympics — Beijing Olympic Broadcasting — foreign TV networks had no choice but to accept the altered video.

Some of the fireworks seen in television coverage of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics games in Beijing were created digitally, according to a report in The Beijing Times.

Twenty-nine fiery footsteps traced in the air above Bird’s Nest National Stadium were created using real fireworks. But The Telegraph in the U.K. reports that because event organizers feared they would be unable to capture the pyrotechnics live on camera, a digital effects team spent almost a year preparing a computerized version of the 55-second footstep sequence, which was inserted into the live video feed.

“Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks,” Gao Xiaolong told The Beijing Times, according to Sky News. “But most of the audience thought it was filmed live — so that was mission accomplished.” (more…)

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette:

One of the most difficult things for a DIY label to do is to create an engaging music video on a shoestring budget. The Get Out Clause has found a novel way around this problem using a combination of Manchester’s state of the art CCTV system and a little knowledge of the Freedom of Information & Data Protection Act. The Get Out Clause set up at various locations around Manchester city centre where they knew there would be CCTV coverage and performed their new signal Paper. The footage was then requested under the Freedom of Information & Data Protection Acts and a video was cut together in their home studio.

Read more about it on here on Telegraph.co.uk.

Submitted by Marcy “Still owns an Atari 2600″ LaViollette as found at MightyGodKing.com: Man, those games of yesteryear never looked so fun…

For more vintage Atari games, visit MightyGodKing.com

Update, April 7, 2008: EdgarGonzalez.com interviews David Serero about the success of his Eiffel Tower Design hoax here.

From Marcy LaViollette: Please tell me this is a prank!

[Editor: Right. And next the Statue of Liberty's torch will be replaced with an umbrella due to global warming...]

From the Serero Architects Web site:

Serero Architects unveils its design for the extension of the Eiffel Tower top floor. The project will extend the top floor plate of the tower by grafting a high performance carbon Kevlar structure on it. The structure will be temporarily bolted to the slab without requiring any modification of the existing structure. It will expand the usable floor area from 280 m2 to 580m2.

Related articles:

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette [this posting has been updated to give proper attribution for this hilarious work, thanks to Scott Beale of Laughing Squid].

Here’s a helpful guide from Wry Baby founders, Kelly and David Sopp, to aid new parents who may not understand the subtleties of good parenting.

More tips here.

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette:

The Conjugal Harmony Difference

Imagine having a wife who is always glad to see you, never cheats or stays out all night, and who rocks your ever-loving world twice a month with a pent-up vengeance you haven’t felt since college. Now imagine she never takes your credit cards, doesn’t spend all day talking to her mother, and never knows if you’re out with friends or sleeping around. Now stop imagining and open your eyes to the world of Conjugal Harmony. For almost a decade we’ve connected honest, background cleared, non-prisoners with exciting, passionate, loyal mates on the inside, and with rates so low you might think you’re the crook!

Whether you’re in California, Connecticut, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York or Washington State, we can find just the right inmate for just the right marriage for just the amount of time you’re willing to dedicate.

Need more information to be convinced? Check out how it works and the company’s FAQs

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette:

Wong Hoy Cheong’s Re-Looking Art Exhibit

How differently would people view colonialism if the roles were reversed? Wong Hoy Cheong’s art piece “Re: Looking,” exhibited at the Venice Biennial in June 2003 among other international venues, asks this question under the guise of a documentary detailing the fictional history of Malaysia’s colonialization of Austria.

The deadpan detail may confuse viewers who doubt their historical knowledge. Interviewees include an Austrian migrant seeking a better future in Malaysia, a Malaysian sociologist explaining the Austrian fascination with death, and an Austrian whose father died fighting in the war.

Even the room where the video is screened has been transformed into the living room of a colonialized Malaysian home, containing fake visual histories including paintings, photographs, and display cases which show memorabilia of exotic items from the homeland.

View the artist Wong Hoy Cheong’s Web site and read more at Universe in Universe Worlds of Art, which includes an interview with the artist.

Photograph: Universe in Universe

Submitted by Marcy LaViollette: Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show is perfect for anyone who’s ever watched (and tried to make sense of) Japanese TV shows. Written by Kim Evey and directed by Greg Benson.