Regular readers of this blog know that in 2008 I created a course called “Lying About the Past” in which my students studied how, over the past several centuries, a variety of people have created false versions of the past, for fun or profit. The goal of the course was to teach my students much…
Tag: Hoaxes
Reddit, Hoaxes, and Wikipedia
One of the students in my course “Lying About the Past” emailed me today to let me know that someone has created a Wikipedia entry about the class hoax that was debunked by reddit users on the serial killer sub-reddit. A Wikipedian with the username “lamnurki” created the entry on June 22, 2012 and it…
Here There Be Monsters
After a month away from the blog recuperating from pneumonia that just wouldn’t quit, I’m back… While I was gone, Brendan Fitzgerald published a very interesting piece on my course Lying About the Past in The Morning News titled “Here There Be Monsters.” Similar to Yoni Applebaum’s piece for TheAtlantic.com back in May, Fitzgerald grapples with what the course…
A Book and a Museum
Will you be in Portland anytime soon? If so, you need to visit the world’s oldest museum: the Faux Museum. More than 10,000 years old, the Faux Museum has mounted such important exhibitions as “The Presidential Briefs: The Underwear of the Presidents” and “The Faux Masters,” a critical examination of 24 artists who created work…