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REMOTE CONTROL FART MACHINE
Embarrass your boss, friends, and family! Press the remote button and set off one of 15 different fart sounds! THE TOILET MONSTER
As the unsuspecting victim goes to use the bathroom, they'll scream as they lift the lid and are greeted by the Toilet Monster!

The Hoax Museum Blog
Examining dubious claims and mischief of all kinds.
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Back in August 2006, the Irish company Steorn declared it had developed "revolutionary free energy technology." To back up its claim, they ran an ad in the Economist inviting a jury of independent experts to scrutinize its claims.

It's been almost three years, but the jury has finally delivered its verdict.


So the whole thing was a big waste of time. The mystery is why Steorn even bothered. What did they think they were gaining from this elaborate charade?
A new site (in French), roulez-leko.com, appears to announce the imminent introduction of the Leko, "the car by Ikea". The suspicious part: the car is set to debut right around April 1st. However, it could be legitimate because the first week of April is France's Sustainable Development Week, which the text on the site states that the debut is part of. We'll know soon enough if it's a hoax or something real.

If it is real, it serves as a reminder that companies should avoid making major product announcements on or around April 1st. Link: carconnection.com
James Katz, a professor of communication at Rutgers University, has studied the phenomenon of people who fake calls on cell phones. He's found that a very high number of people do this (above 90%). Reasons include: to avoid talking to someone nearby, to look important, or to look busier than they are. Katz has been quoted as saying: "They are taking a device that was designed to talk to people who are far away and using it to communicate with people who are directly around them."

Two apps available for the iPhone demonstrate the robustness of this trend: Fake Calls will make it look like you just received a call. Similarly, Fake Text will make it look like you just received an SMS text message.

Since I don't have a cell phone, let alone an iPhone, I won't be needing these.
Get a tan as you sit in front of your computer by logging onto ComputerTan.com:


It's Tan-Tastic!

The Times Online reveals that the site is actually a hoax created by the UK skin cancer charity Skcin "to raise awareness of skin cancer in the UK." However, within only 24 hours, 30,000 people had registered their interest in getting a "computer tan" before the site was revealed to be a hoax.

This isn't the first online tanning salon we've seen. Back in 2004 I posted about sunnysite.com.
Back in 1898 Rev. P.F. Jernegan claimed to have invented a device that could cheaply extract gold from sea water. He called it the "Gold Accumulator". He conducted a test of the machine in Narragansett Bay. The machine was lowered into the water, allowed to run overnight, and pulled up the next morning. Sure enough, there were gold flakes in the machine!

The trick was that Jernegan had an accomplice who was a trained diver. This guy simply swam underwater and placed some gold in the Accumulator.

Jernegan and his accomplice eventually fled to Europe, but only after they had founded the Electrolytic Marine Salts Company, based on the success of the Gold Accumulator, and extracted millions of dollars from investors. They were never caught.

The full story is in the Hoaxipedia.
Ninety-nine years ago there was enormous excitement in New England because thousands of people were spotting strange lights in the sky at night. But people didn't think the lights were from a UFO. Instead, they thought they were from a remarkable aircraft that Worcester inventor Wallace Tillinghast claimed to have built.

Tillinghast said his plane could fly 300 miles, carry three passengers, and maintain a speed of 120 mph. By comparison, other planes at the time topped out at a range of about 30 miles. Bleriot had only gone 22 miles when he performed the first flight across the English Channel in July 1909.

Predictably, Tillinghast was lying. Still, it's interesting that so many people claimed to have seen something. One prankster took responsibility for the lights, claiming he had tied small lanterns to the legs of owls.

More details are in the Hoaxipedia.
Hudson Pace sent this interesting clipping. He writes:




I assume the pictures were created via double exposure, in the same way spirit photographs are usually made. As for Herbert Winck, I can't find out anything more about him. But searching the google news archive for articles about invisibility machines, I did come across a March 3, 1937 article in the Chicago Tribune about an Italian inventor who supposedly created something that sounds very similar to Winck's machine. The article was syndicated. A similar version also ran in the Washington Post.


We've seen quite a few dubious devices that claim to enhance the performance and mileage of automobiles. The BioPerformance pills come to mind. However, the Magic Power System (aka MPS Power Shift Bar) is something special because it's a product that's not even vaguely plausible. It's on sale on eBay UK for the low buy-it-now price of £34.99 (about $52). All you do is plug it into the lighter socket of your car, and here's the improvements you will see:

• enhance fuel efficiency - saves gasoline (10-30%)
• increase engine torque - increase power (2-5ps)
• reduce car emissions - contribute to the environment unconsciously
• improve car audio sounds
• the small device cleans the entire car electrically including its body
• battery level check function: LED blue light for normal, LED red light for caution
• silent, no more noise

What a bargain! (via jalopnik)