JohnStoneFitness.com is a site that documents the remarkable physical transformation of a man named John Stone. Within the space of a few months he goes from being a pale, flabby, out-of-shape guy, into being a buff and muscular bodybuilder. Emily emailed me to ask if the site was for real. She felt that his muscle development happened a little too quickly to be believable, and quite a few people whom I've shown the site to have had the same reaction. But I would say it's definitely for real. If a person is really committed to a fitness program, they can make pretty dramatic changes to their body within only a few months.

This should be a joke, but I don't think it is. Apparently inspired by the pet rock phenomenon of decades ago, an entrepreneur is now trying to sell globs of artificial fat under the name 'My Pet Fat.' The gimmick is that carrying around this artificial fat will supposedly inspire you to eat less and thus lose unwanted body fat. This is so dumb that it has to be real.

In the latest hoax to hit eBay, someone attempted to auction off the state of West Virginia. Bidding hit $100 million before the auction was yanked.

Another journalist is in trouble for possible plagiarism and creating hoax stories. This time it's Jack Kelley of USA Today.

Back in August I noted there were rumors that the Phantom game console was just a hoax. Turns out it's real.

Pareidolia is defined as the perception of meaningful images in random patterns. In other words, seeing things that aren't really there. For instance, people might see a face in a cloud. Or they might see the Virgin Mary in the window of a Boston hospital. When people start seeing religious images on the walls or windows of buildings, it almost always leads to good business for the business affected, as massive crowds flock there to see the image. So now there's a company calling itself ISeeJesus.com that will facilitate the appearance of religious images at your place of business via 'special prayer techniques.' How you take advantage of the crowds that will then flock to see the image is up to you.

I'm not sure if this is real or fake. The Floral Sculpture Clinic says that it will implant bone tissue sculpted into the shape of a flower beneath your skin. The result will be a visibly raised bony pattern on your skin. If real, it's very strange.
Update: Boing Boing reports that the Floral Sculpture Clinic is indeed a hoax. It's part of a conceptual art project dreamed up by the Dutch artist Simone Van Bakel. The images of the inserted implants are photoshopped.

A new book by Peter Lamont chronicles the history of the Indian rope trick. According to him the trick is a hoax, not just in the sense that it's an illusion. Rather, in the sense that the trick never existed. It was never performed. In fact, it began its life in 1890 as the fictional creation of a Chicago reporter. The book is reviewed by The Guardian.

Flatulent Technologies is a company that is committed to "extracting energy from everything that stinks or rots." Sounds like a great idea. The company's NYSE ticker symbol is even better: FART. Too bad a little disclaimer at the bottom of the company's webpage admits it's a parody.

The Kensington Runestone, unearthed in Minnesota in 1898 and hailed as evidence of the presence of Norse explorers in ancient America, is off on a grand tour. First stop Sweden.

Why own a living, breathing dog that you have to feed every day, when you can own a RealDog instead?

The Newseum presents The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs in Stalin's Russia.

How to fake a UFO photo, courtesy of Skeptical Inquirer.

The Arizona Republic has a short piece on Mokele-Mbembe, the African Loch Ness Monster.

Anson also sent along a second site: Majestic Twelve. This is the webpage of a super-above-top secret organization that may or may not cooperate with aliens in the abduction of human beings.