…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
Web TV Hub reveals a hoax involving a 3 year old genius kid painter, finger paints and the Playmates toy company telling you where to buy Mutant Ninja Turtle toys. This is followed by a very funny spoof on the hoax entitled 3 Yr Old Genius Plant by AlaskaRobotics.
3 Yr Old Genius
3 Yr Old Genius Plant
Submitted by Charlie Todd and reblogged from the Gothamist, October 9, 2007:
For some reason, Norwegian comedians thought that City Councilman James Oddo would be a perfect target for their program, Rikets Rost. Oddo, a Republican and the minority leader in the Council (he’s recently supported legislation such as banning aluminum bats and giving the Department of Transportation the authority to name streets), apparently consented to the interview because the request was to discuss presidential politics.
This piece is by Andy Brice from his Successful Software blog published August 16th, 2007:
I put out a new product a couple of weeks ago. This new product has so far won 16 different awards and recommendations from software download sites. Some of them even emailed me messages of encouragement such as “Great job, we”re really impressed!”. I should be delighted at this recognition of the quality of my software, except that the “software” doesn”t even run. This is hardly surprising when you consider that it is just a text file with the words “this program does nothing at all” repeated a few times and then renamed as an .exe. The PAD file that described the software contains the description “This program does nothing at all”. The screenshot I submitted (below) was similarly blunt and to the point:
Even the name of the software, “awardmestars”, was a bit of a giveaway. And yet it still won 16 “˜awards”. Continue reading “The Software Awards Scam”
Ever since the 1970s, spoonbending (and the bending of other cutlery, metal bars, and the like) has been held up as physical evidence for telekinesis, a form of PSI in which thoughts alone can allegedly be employed to alter the physical environment. In this episode, Michael Shermer attends a seminar on spoonbending and discovers the power of group think to actually bend metal!
Bogus Beckham Bends Truth in L.A. Calls
August 2, 2007
Los Angeles (AP) — An imposter pretending to be soccer superstar David Beckham made a dozen crank calls to county offices to chat about charity work and drop names of celebrity friends, officials said.
… Clerk Maria Saenz and student worker Susana Guillen, avid fans of the real Beckham, “were just jumping up and down” after the first call, Saenz said.
Officials realized the calls were a hoax after Department of Children and Family Services staffers grilled the caller.
“It just smacked of bogusity,” department spokeswoman Louise Grasmehr said. Continue reading “David Beckham Prank Calls “Smacked of Bogusity””