Hoaxes and Heists

For those of you who can't get enough misinformation and disinformation, the World Wide Web is arguably the best invention of all time. If you've already devoured Snopes.com, the Museum of Hoaxes is a great site with up-to-date information about hoaxes and other unusual current events. It's set up like a blog, as opposed to Snopes's directory format, so logging on just a few times a week can keep you abreast of many of the wacky things this world has to offer.

Museum of Hoaxes also delves back into the history of various hoaxes, almost a shadow history of the development of mass media and modern technology. For example, the April Fool's Database describes pranks going back before 1700. A must-read is the article about the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest, an interesting commentary on the power of television and burgeoning globalization. Leaving all sociological issues aside, this site is also very funny.

If practical jokes don't seem practical enough to you, check out HeistArtist. As the global economy struggles to recover, heists of all sorts are on the rise. The blog is sorted through types of heists, so you can read up on fake beards or getaways. For a bit of history, classic heists are also featured. The site is pretty new, but with content being added regularly it should be possible to satisfy some true-crime cravings on a frequent basis.