Hoaxes

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true. —Francis Bacon

Documents at this web site.

• Beringer's stones. Dr. Hohann Bartholemew Adam Beringer discovers fossils he thinks carved by the hand of God, planted in his dig by colleagues as a prank to discredit him. (18th century)
• Fake and misinterpreted history. False versions of historical events flourish, sometimes misattributed or misunderstood, sometimes pure fiction.
• The Moon Hoax of the New York Sun. Newspaper reports discovery of men on the moon, 1835. Versão em português.
• Arthur Conan Doyle was duped in 1917 by faked photos of fairies taken by two teenage girls. [New: All five photos are now here, in high resolution.] Versão em português.
• The Cardiff Giant Hoax. The Cardiff Giant, a petrified 12 foot tall prehistoric man dug up in New York State in 1889, was a carved fake. P. T. Barnum even made a fake copy of the fake! Now the original, one and only, fake giant is peacefully resting at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Andrew Dickson White was there, and chapter LVI of his autobiography tells the whole story with exceptional perceptiveness. The incident inspired Mark Twain's A Ghost Story.
• The Keely Engine Company. In 1872 John Worrell Keely promised machines which would power steamships on a gallon of water by tapping "etheric energy". Gullible people actually invested in his scheme.

See my bibliography for the seminar Abuses of Science for additional references on some of these topics.

Links to other web sites.

• The Museum of Hoaxes by Alexander Boese. One of the most informative and entertaining collection of hoaxes.
• Trolls, Hoaxes, Media Hacks and Pranks. An astounding collection of links and short documents.
• Portuguese skeptic site, with material about hoaxes.
• In Search of Mathematical Miracles. Brendan McKay's collection of mathematical delusions, including Torah Codes and the perfect answer to Michael Drosnin, author of The Bible Code (1997), who challenged critics to find any Assassinations Foretold in Moby Dick.
• Alan Sokal's 1996 hoax of the journal Social Text. Information and documents. Impact of Sokal 'hoax' discussed by experts. By Devin Gordon (27-Jun-96).
• Piltdown Man, a scientific whodunit, well represented on the net at these sites: Richard Harter, Robert Carroll, The Unnatural Museum. New evidence was found in 1996.
• Sun Pictures and the Noah's Ark Hoax. Sun Goes Down in Flames: The Jammal Ark Hoax. Noah's Ark wood faked. Creationists duped.
• Kensington Runestone Home Page. Some think the Rune Stones found in the USA are authentic Viking artifacts. Others dismiss them as crude forgeries.
• Petrification Hoaxes.
• Nessie, The Loch Ness Monster.
• Alien Autopsy. In 1996 the Fox network aired a TV program including films of the autopsy of an alien, supposedly made after the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, incident, alleged to be a crash of an alien spacecraft. Read "Alien Autopsy" Film a Hoax and link to The Truly Dangerous Company, a motion picture special effects company which isn't taken in by the crude fakery of this bogus film.
• The Unnatural Museum - Hoax Journalism
• Short bibliography of books about hoaxes.

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