This is about false information. For the film, see The Hoax. The Hoax is a 2007 American Drama film based on the true story of American novelist Clifford Irving 's falsified autobiography

A hoax is a deliberate attempt to dupe, deceive or trick an audience into believing, or accepting, that something is real, when in fact it is not; or that something is true, when in fact it is false. Deception (also called beguilement or subterfuge) is the act of convincing another to believe Information that is not true or not the whole truth as in Deception (also called beguilement or subterfuge) is the act of convincing another to believe Information that is not true or not the whole truth as in In an instance of a hoax, an object, or event, is not what it appears to be, or what it is claimed to be - for example, "snake oil," which was sold by 19th century traveling salesman in the United States as a cure-all. Snake oil is a Traditional Chinese medicine used to treat Joint pain The panacea (pænəˈsiːə named after the Greek goddess of healing Panacea, was supposed to be a remedy that would cure all Diseases and prolong life indefinitely It differs from magic in that the audience is unaware of being deceived - whereas in watching a magician perform a magical act, the audience expects to be tricked.

It is possible to perpetrate a hoax by making only true statements using unfamiliar wording or context (see Dihydrogen monoxide hoax). "Dihydrogen monoxide" redirects here For the H2O molecule see Water (molecule. Unlike a fraud or con (which is usually aimed at a single victim and are made for illicit financial or material gain), a hoax is often perpetrated as a practical joke, to cause embarrassment, or to provoke social change by making people aware of something. In the broadest sense a fraud is a Deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, scam, scheme A practical joke or prank is a stunt or trick to purposely make someone feel foolish or victimized usually for humor Many hoaxes are motivated by a desire to satirize or educate by exposing the credulity of the public and the media or the absurdity of the target. Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human For instance, the hoaxes of James Randi poke fun at believers in the paranormal. James Randi (born August 7 1928 (stage name The Amazing Randi) is a stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of Paranormal Paranormal is an Umbrella term used to describe unusual Phenomena or experiences that lack an obvious Scientific explanation The many hoaxes of Alan Abel and Joey Skaggs satirize people's willingness to believe the media. Alan Abel (born 1930 is an American prankster, Hoaxter, Writer, Mockumentary Filmmaker, and jazz percussionist Joey Skaggs (born 1945) is a US prankster who has organized numerous successful Media pranks hoaxes and other presentations Political hoaxes are sometimes motivated by the desire to ridicule or besmirch opposing politicians or political institutions, often before elections. A political system is a System of Politics and Government. It is usually compared to the Law system, Economic system, Cultural Journalistic scandals overlap with hoaxes to some extent. Journalism scandals are high-profile incidents or acts whether intentional or accidental that run contrary to the generally accepted ethics and standards of journalism, or

Governments often perpetrate hoaxes to assist them with unpopular aims such as going to war (e. g. , the Ems Telegram). The Ems Dispatch (Emser Depesche sometimes called the Ems Telegram, is the document that was used by France as a pretext to declare the Franco-Prussian In fact, there is often a mixture of outright hoax, and suppression and management of information to give the desired impression. Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable harmful or sensitive as determined by a censor In wartime, rumours abound; some may be deliberate hoaxes. A rumour or rumor (see spelling differences) is often viewed as "an unverified account or explanation of events circulating from person to person and

The word hoax is said to have come from the common magic incantation hocus pocus^[1]. Hocus Pocus or hocus-pocus is a generic term used by magicians, usually the Magic words spoken when bringing about some sort of change "Hocus pocus", in turn, is commonly believed to be a distortion of "hoc est corpus" ("this is the body") from the Latin Mass. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Mass is the Eucharistic celebration in the Latin liturgical rites of the Roman Catholic Church.

Contents 1 Character of hoaxes 2 Other hoaxes 2.1 Pre-19th century 2.2 19th century 2.3 20th century 2.4 21st century 2.5 April Fool's Day 3 Famous musical hoaxes 4 Other musical hoaxes 5 Hoax traditions 6 Email hoax 7 See also 8 Footnotes 9 References 10 External links

Character of hoaxes

Hoaxes are not always created, initiated or sourced the same way. Examples:

• Hoax by tradition (see below)
• Hoax by design (such as in war)
• Hoax originating in legitimate non-hoax use (see email hoax below)
• Hoax by scare tactics (virus hoaxes)
• Urban legend

This is by no means a complete list; but the import is to show that hoaxes take many forms. The main characteristic of hoaxes is presenting the information or media as something real or believable to human understanding but is in fact false. Whether there is intent to deceive is not part of the hoax characteristics, as hoaxes are known both with and without it.

Other hoaxes

Pre-19th century

• Wolfgang von Kempelen‘s construction of the chess-playing Mechanical Turk in 1770. The Turk or Automaton Chess Player was a Chess -playing machine constructed in the late 18th century and exhibited from 1770 for over 84 years by various

19th century

• The Great Moon Hoax of 1835, which helped to establish the market position of the New York Sun. " The Great Moon Hoax " was a series of six articles that were published in the New York Sun beginning on August 25, 1835 about The Sun was a New York newspaper that was published from 1833 until 1950
• The Cardiff Giant of 1869, which was created and "discovered"; reputedly after an argument about the reality of giants. The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous Hoaxes in American history was a -tall purported " Petrified man" uncovered on October 16,
• In what became known as the Berners Street Hoax in 1810, Theodore Hook tricked hundreds of people into showing up at a random address in Central London. The Berners Street Hoax was a famous Hoax perpetrated by Theodore Hook in London in 1810 The term Central London refers to the districts of London England which are considered closest to the centre
• The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Russian: "Протоколы сионских мудрецов", or "Сионские протоколы") is an antisemitic literary forgery that purports to describe a Jewish plot to achieve world domination. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ( Protocols of the wise men of Zion, Library of Congress 's Uniform Title; "Протоколы Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility Literary forgery, also Literary forgeries and mystifications, pertains to some Writing, especially in Literature, such as a Manuscript, presented PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ In a political sense conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power World domination (sometimes world conquest, global domination, or Colloquially taking over the world) in which a single political authority

• Idaho, the northwestern US state, was named as the result of a hoax. The State of Idaho ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. Lobbyist George M. Willing suggested the name, claiming it was a Native American term meaning "gem of the mountains. George M Willing was a wealthy industrialist and failed congressional candidate in the 1860s Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States " It was later discovered that Willing had made up the word himself. As a result, the original Idaho Territory was renamed Colorado. Idaho Territory was an Organized territory of the United States which existed from 1863 to 1890 The State of Colorado ( or chiefly by nonresidents) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. Eventually, the controversy was forgotten and the made-up name stuck.

• The sale of the Eiffel Tower for scrap, an elaborate scam run twice by the master con artist Victor Lustig. The Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel /tuʀ ɛfɛl/ is an Iron Tower built Victor Lustig ( January 4, 1890 &ndash March 11, 1947) was a Con artist best known as
• American con artist George C. Parker made his living selling and re-selling public monuments in New York City. George Parker (1870-1936 was one of the most audacious con men in American history The City of New York

20th century

• Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre radio broadcast on October 30, 1938, entitled "The War of the Worlds" has been called the "single greatest media hoax of all time", although it was not — Welles said — intended to be a hoax. George Orson Welles (May 6 1915 – October 10 1985 was an Academy Award -winning director, writer actor and producer for film stage radio and television Mercury Theatre was a Theatre company founded in New York City by Orson Welles and John Houseman. For the band see Broadcast (band Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or Video signals which transmit "Popular press" redirects here note that the University of Wisconsin Press publishes under the imprint "The Popular Press" The broadcast was heard on CBS radio stations throughout the United States. CBS Broadcasting Inc ( CBS) is an American radio and Television network. Despite repeated announcements within the program that it was a work of fiction, many listeners tuning in during the program believed that the world was being attacked by invaders from Mars. (Rumors claim some even committed suicide. ) Rebroadcasts in South America also had this effect even to a greater extent. South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a ^[2]

• The 1934 "Surgeon's Photograph" of the Loch Ness monster, revealed some sixty years later to have been a plastic head and neck mounted to a toy submarine. The Loch Ness Monster ( Nessiteras rhombopteryx) is an alleged animal family and upward Incertae sedis, purportedly inhabiting Scotland 's Loch Ness
• The Bathtub hoax, perpetrated by American journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken in 1918, which was cited as factual even after the hoax had been revealed by the author. The bathtub hoax was a famous Hoax or Practical joke perpetrated by the American journalist H A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends
• Jorge Luis Borges published "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote", a fantastic short story about an author who rewrites Don Quixote word by word, as a real biographical note in the Argentinian magazine Sur. Pierre Menard Author of the Quixote (original Spanish title Pierre Menard autor del Quijote) is a Short story by Argentine The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such es '''''Don Quixote''''' (, see spelling and pronunciation below fully titled es '''''El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha''''' ("The Ingenious Hidalgo Don

• The Sokal hoax was a fake paper published in the journal Social Text, which was intended to reveal the uncritical misuse of scientific terms and ignorance of science in the field of postmodern cultural studies. The Sokal affair (also Sokal's hoax) was a Hoax by physicist Alan Sokal perpetrated on the editorial staff and readership of the Postmodern Social Text is a postmodernist Cultural studies Journal published by Duke University Press. Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement' While " Modern " itself refers to something "related to the present" the movement of modernism Cultural studies is an academic discipline which combines Political economy, Communication, Sociology, Social theory, Literary theory It is recounted in Beyond the Hoax‎ and Fashionable Nonsense. Beyond the Hoax Science Philosophy and Culture is a book by Alan Sokal detailing the history of the Sokal affair in which he submitted an article Fashionable Nonsense Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science (ISBN 0-312-20407-8 French: Impostures Intellectuelles; published in the UK
• The Zinoviev Letter, said to have been concocted by British intelligence and printed by the Daily Mail to swing the outcome of a general election by claiming a Soviet revolution was about to occur in the UK. The " Zinoviev Letter " is a 1924 letter that was allegedly addressed from Grigori Zinoviev, president of the presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Daily Mail is a British newspaper currently published in a tabloid format A general election is an Election in which all or most members of a given political body are up for election A soviet (сове́т, "council" originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The hoax was successful in that a Conservative government was elected. Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favour Tradition, where tradition refers to various religious cultural or nationally defined
• The Piltdown Man fraud caused some embarrassment to the field of paleontology when apparently ancient hominid remains discovered in England in 1912 were revealed as a hoax some 41 years later. The "Piltdown Man" is a famous hoax consisting of fragments of a skull and jawbone collected in 1912 from a gravel pit at Piltdown a village near Uckfield Palaeontology redirects here For the Scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal.
• In 1970, Clifford Irving and Richard Suskind contrived to write an autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, believing Hughes would not come out of hiding to denounce it. Clifford Michael Irving (born November 5, 1930) is an American writer best known for an "authorized Richard Suskind was a Children's author who participated with author Clifford Irving in creating a fraudulent Autobiography of the reclusive billionaire An autobiography, from the Greek αὐτός autos "self" βίος bios "life" and γράφειν graphein "to write" Howard Robard Hughes Jr (December 24 1905 – April 5 1976 was an American Aviator, Industrialist, Film producer / director, Philanthropist Irving sent a manuscript to his publisher McGraw-Hill in late 1971. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc, ( is a Publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Authentication tests and Hughes's initial silence led some to believe the manuscript was genuine, but Hughes eventually gave a teleconference denying both participation in the book and knowledge of Irving. Authentication (from Greek αυθεντικός real or genuine from authentes author is the act of establishing or confirming something (or someone as Teleconference is the live exchange and mass articulation of Information among persons and machines remote from one another but linked by a Telecommunications system Weeks later, Irving confessed to the hoax and was later convicted of fraud. In the broadest sense a fraud is a Deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual He served 17 months of a two and a half year prison sentence. Suskind, sentenced to six months, served five.
• The Hitler Diaries, 1983 forgeries published by the Sunday Times. In April 1983, the German news Magazine Stern published extracts from what purported to be the diaries of Adolf Hitler, The Sunday Times is a Sunday Broadsheet Newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.
• The Cottingley Fairies, a series of trick photographs taken by two young British girls from 1917 to 1920. The Cottingley Fairies are a series of five photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths two young Cousins living in Cottingley, near Bradford
• The alien autopsy film, supposedly footage of the examination of an extraterrestrial being which had purportedly died in the Roswell UFO incident. The term alien autopsy is used to refer to a post mortem procedure typically an Autopsy, supposedly carried out on an extraterrestrial being. Extraterrestrial life is Life originating outside of the Earth. The Roswell Incident involved the recovery of materials near Roswell New Mexico, USA, on July 7, 1947, which has become the subject of intense The film, presented by Ray Santilli in 1995, was later revealed to have been faked by Santilli and Gary Shoefield. Gary Shoefield is a television and film producer He had a part in producing a famous hoax " Alien autopsy " film with Ray Santilli, which was the subject
• In the late 1970s and early 1980s, photographer Robert B. Stein created convincing UFO photographs using only a Kodak Pocket InstaMatic camera and throwable discs, and claimed to be a contactee. Eastman Kodak Company ( is an American multinational Public company which produces imaging and photographic materials and equipment Contactees are persons who claim to be in regular contact with extraterrestrials. His pictures appeared in many publications devoted to the paranormal. In 1985, he revealed how it was done.
• Rosie Ruiz finished first in the women's division of the 1980 Boston Marathon by riding the subway to a point near the finish line and jumping back into the race. Rosie Ruiz Vivas (born 1953 Havana Cuba) is a famous Cuban American Marathon runner who on April 21, 1980 ostensibly came in as the first place The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon sporting event hosted by the city of Boston, Massachusetts Her marathon title was revoked when the hoax was discovered.
• In the 1970s the Philippine government announced the discovery of the Tasaday a supposedly uncontacted stone-age tribe. The Philippines ( Filipino: Pilipinas, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (fil ''Republika ng Pilipinas'' RP - The Tasaday ( IPA) are a group ( Cf Tribe) of the deep and mountainous Rainforests of the southern Philippine island Uncontacted peoples are peoples who either by choice or chance live or have lived without significant contact with the 'modern' civilizations of the world Revealed to the world in a cover story in National Geographic, much controversy has ensued as to whether the tribe is real, a hoax or something in between. Overview The NGS's historical mission is "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural historical and natural

• Our First Time, possibly one of the first major internet hoaxes, although some characterized it as a botched scam. Our First Time (OFT was one of the first widely popularized Internet Hoaxes Eighteen-year-old teenagers "Mike" and "Diane" made a public announcement A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, scam, scheme

• The Priory of Sion (French: Prieuré de Sion), a mythical secret society sworn to install the Merovingian dynasty on the throne of France, was fabricated in the 1960s by a French con artist, Pierre Plantard, who wanted to be perceived as the "Grand Monarch" prophesied by Nostradamus. The Prieuré de Sion, translated from French as Priory of Sion, is the name of multiple groups both real and fictitious Secret society is a term used to describe a variety of organizations The Merovingians (also Merovings) were a Salian Frankish dynasty that came to rule the Franks in a region (known as Francia in Latin A dynasty is a succession of rulers who belong to the same family for generations Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard ( March 18, 1920 &ndash February 3, 2000) was a French draughtsman, best known for being Michel de Nostredame (14 December 1503 or 21 December 1503 &ndash 2 July 1566 usually Latinized to Nostradamus, was a French Apothecary False documents created as part of the hoax have been used as reliable sources for bestsellers purporting to be non-fiction such as the controversial The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail as well as novels such as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. A false document is a form of Verisimilitude that attempts to create a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected Suspension of disbelief for a Work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (retitled Holy Blood Holy Grail in the United States) is a controversial book by Michael Baigent Dan Brown (born June 22 1964 is an American Author of Thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code The Da Vinci Code is a controversial mystery / detective Novel by US author Dan Brown, published in 2003 by Doubleday
• The Paul is dead hoax of 1969 had it that Paul McCartney of The Beatles was secretly replaced after a fatal car accident in the late 1960s. " Paul is dead" is an Urban legend alleging that Paul McCartney of the British rock band The Beatles died in 1966 and The Beatles were a pop and rock band from Liverpool, England formed in 1960 "Clues" have been discovered by fans on different song lyrics and album covers. An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially-released audio recording product or Album. This hoax was not started by The Beatles themselves, but by a caller into a radio show on 12 October 1969. Paul McCartney is one of the two Beatles still alive. Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born 18 June 1942 is an English rock Singer, Bass guitarist songwriter Composer,

21st century

• Bonsai Kitten, an Internet hoax consisting of a fictional domain of a company that sold kittens inside jars as ornaments. Bonsai Kitten was an internet Hoax that claimed to give instructions on how to grow Kittens in bottles as a form of decoration similar in fashion to a Bonsai
• In 2006, A.N. Wilson was the victim of a hoax when he included a love letter by Sir John Betjeman in his biography of the poet. Andrew Norman Wilson (born 27 October, 1950) is an English writer known for his critical biographies novels and works of popular and cultural history Sir John Betjeman, CBE ( 28 August 1906 &ndash 19 May 1984 was an English poet writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who It turned out to be a fake letter with an acrostic that said "AN Wilson is a shit". An acrostic (from the late Greek akróstichon, from ákros, "top" and stíchos, "verse" is a Poem or other Writing ^[3][4]
• De Grote Donorshow, a hoax reality television program which was broadcast in the Netherlands on Friday, June 1, 2007 by BNN. De Grote Donorshow Reality television is a genre of Television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations documents actual events and usually features ordinary A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Events 193 - Roman Emperor Didius Julianus is Assassinated 987 - Hugh Capet is elected Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. The program involved a supposedly terminally ill 37-year-old woman donating a kidney to one of three people requiring a kidney transplantation. Terminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe an active and Malignant Disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated Kidney transplantation or renal transplantation is the Organ transplant of a Kidney in a patient with End-stage renal disease. Viewers were able to send advice on who they think she should choose to give her kidney to via text messages. Text messaging, or texting is the common term for the sending of "short" (160 characters or fewer including spaces text messages from Mobile phones 50 000 people subsequently requested an organ donor form. Organ donation is the removal of the tissues of the Human body from a person who has recently Died, or from a living donor for the purpose of transplanting

April Fool's Day

• The April 1, 1985, issue of Sports Illustrated featured "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch" by George Plimpton. Sports Illustrated is an American Sports Magazine owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Sidd Finch was a fictional baseball player the subject of the notorious article and April Fools' Day hoax "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch" written by George Plimpton George Ames Plimpton ( March 18, 1927 &ndash September 25, 2003) was an American Journalist, Writer, The article was about an eccentric pitcher said to be a prospect for the New York Mets who could throw a baseball 168 miles per hour. "Mets" redirects here For the medical term see Metastasis. The hoax was perpetrated with the knowledge of the magazine and of the baseball team. Plimption later reworked the material into a novel.

Famous musical hoaxes

Main article: Musical hoax

Other musical hoaxes

• Recordings by the pianist Joyce Hatto
• The voices of Milli Vanilli

Hoax traditions

During certain events and at particular times of year, hoaxes are perpetrated by many people and groups. A Musical Hoax (оr Musical Mystification is a piece of classical music composed by one individual but intentionally misattributed to another. Joyce Hatto ( 5 September 1928 &ndash 29 or 30 June, 2006) was a British Pianist and Piano Teacher Milli Vanilli were a pop and Dance music project formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1988 fronted by Fab Morvan and Rob The most famous of these is certainly April Fool's Day, which is open season for pranks and dubious announcements. This article is about the informal holiday For other uses see April Fool.

A New Zealand tradition is the capping stunt, wherein university students perpetrate a hoax upon an unsuspecting population. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island A capping stunt or capping is a New Zealand university tradition wherein students perpetrate a Hoax upon an unsuspecting population A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects The acts are traditionally executed near graduation (the "capping"). Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an Academic degree or the associated ceremony

Many Spanish-speaking countries have Innocent's Day, on December 28, to make "innocent" a person with jokes and hoaxes. For the painting by Peter Paul Rubens see " Massacre of the Innocents (Rubens " The origin for the pranking is derived from the Catholic feast day Day of the Holy Innocents for the infants slaughtered by King Herod at the time of Jesus' birth. For the painting by Peter Paul Rubens see " Massacre of the Innocents (Rubens "

Email hoax

See also: E-mail spoofing

An example email hoax is a doctored image distributed via chain emails, as pictured here. E-mail spoofing is a term used to describe fraudulent e-mail activity in which the sender address and other parts of the e-mail header are altered to appear as though the e-mail originated The photo image imbedded in this email was actually intended for an online photo-manipulation contest and not for distribution as a falsehood, but was distributed by another person who allegedly attributed the photo as originating from a 1954 Popular Mechanics Magazine article. A Photoshop contest, or sometimes photochop contest, is an Online game in which a Website or user of an In truth, the magazine never published it in 1954, but they did publish an article in December 2004 exposing it as a hoax. ^[5]

Careful examination of the image will typically reveal unnatural flaws in it; for example, shadows and lighting. The television set appears to be hung on the wall without any apparent means of supporting mechanisms, and the shadow is wrong. The man has shadows on his clothing inconsistent with the surrounding lighting, and he has no shadow on the wall behind him. The form-feed paper exit on the front of the teletype printer is misaligned with the paper feed port at top, and the paper exit port is supposed to be behind and under the printer, not in the front. In addition, the computer's console is actually the Maneuvering/Reactor Control Panel of a nuclear submarine (specifically the USS Trepang (SSN-674)) on display at the Smithsonian Institution. 1971 Following local operations out of New London Connecticut, Trepang proceeded to the Arctic early in 1971 The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of

In 2001 another image, purporting to be the "National Geographic Photo of the Year" and depicting a shark leaping from the sea to attack a helicopter crew member, was widely distributed by email, prompting the magazine to publish an article uncovering the hoax. Helicopter Shark is a composition of two photographs that gives the impression that a Great White shark is leaping out of the water attacking military personnel climbing a suspended Overview The NGS's historical mission is "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural historical and natural As the article revealed, the image had been composited from two photographs taken in entirely different locations.

See also

• List of hoaxes
• Famous April Fool's Day jokes
• Forgery
• Counterfeit
• Impostors
• Simulated reality
• Conspiracy theory
• Urban legend
• Virus hoax
• Pseudoscience
• Fictitious entry
• Website spoofing

Footnotes

References

• Curtis Peebles (1994). Curtis Peebles is an Aerospace Historian for the Smithsonian Institution and the author of several books dealing with Aviation and aerial phenomena Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth, Smithsonian Institution, ISBN 1-56098-343-4. The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of

External links

• The Museum of Hoaxes
• The Culture Jammer’s Encyclopedia
• Virus Hoax Busters
• Snopes - Urban Legends Reference Pages

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