Crawford County police were alarmed when they discovered leg bones sticking out of a pair of work boots that were standing on the bank of Lake Shepherd Springs in Arkansas. They launched a massive investigation, until they realized the bones came from an animal. They warn that whoever is responsible for the hoax will be prosecuted for committing a crime.

Croydon residents can rest easy. Signs alerting them to the danger of a crocodile inhabiting a local pond were just a prank.

Here's one to add to the list of 'eerie patterns that people see in random objects' (already on the list would be the 666 forming on the Alamo, and the Virgin Mary appearing on a hospital in Boston). A woman who lives in Hertford County, North Carolina claims that an image of an Indian chief has appeared in her wooden door over the past three months (she's had the door for seven years). The appearance of the face is attracting the usual gaggle of curious visitors. I've been looking at the picture of her door that accompanies the story, and I just can't make out the face.

Does this photo that's been circulating through email really show the management of Microsoft as they looked back in 1978?

Check out this site dedicated to the art of Johann Dieter Wassmann, a university lecturer/sewerage engineer/artist who lived and worked in Germany from 1841-1898. It's incredibly elaborate, including his life history and samples of his work. And nowhere on the site does it suggest that the entire thing is a hoax, that Johann Dieter Wassmann never existed. You only find this out if you click on the link at the bottom of the page that says 'Next Show: Melbourne International Arts Festival, 12-25 October, 2003.' This takes you to the website of the Melbourne Festival itself where it admits that, "The Wassmann Foundation and artist Johann Dieter Wassmann are constructions created by American-born installation artist Jeff Wassmann and Australian curator/writer Kirsten Rann." Thanks to John Plutt for telling me about this site.

A visitor sent me this photo of the Real East Coast Blackout of 2003. It definitely represents an improvement over that phony blackout picture that was circulating last week.