SKEPTOID BLOG: My Hoax by Brian Dunning October 26, 2013 Update: the hoax piece has been correctly identified! Since I started producing the Skeptoid podcast in 2006, and blogging on various matters pertaining to scientific skepticism, I have produced exactly one piece that was a pure hoax. I made it up, beginning to end, wanting to see if anyone would catch it.



They have not.



The piece remains prominently displayed on the Internet. Although it is placed into the context of actual historical events, it is a hoax, from beginning to end. Anyone familiar with its context should have been able to spot it. Nobody has.



It has my name on it, and it is in a place where my material is commonly found. I even told it, word for word, beginning to end, in a talk at a major conference. Nobody spotted it then either; or if they did, they didn't say anything to me. This kind of blew my mind a little. It was even videotaped and streamed to the Internet.



I will give an exquisitely appropriate gift to the first person who emails me and correctly identifies the hoax piece. But to discourage random guessing, you must provide a citation showing that the piece is a hoax. (You may have to prove a negative here, so anything that thoroughly discusses the context but makes no mention of my hoax will do.)



If nobody emails me with the correct solution before January 1, 2014, I will at that time reveal the hoax piece.



(To save you time, this is NOT one of the joke videos I've made or anything that presents itself as a joke or a hoax, notably the Death Valley videos made with Richard Saunders, nor was it the SkepticBlog post promoting John Rael's obvious hoax Bigfoot film.) Hint #1: The setting of the hoax was outside of the United States.



Hint #2: Anyone who knows my personal interests should easily figure out the genre of the hoax.



Hint #3: The conference talk referred to was at Dragon*Con.



Update: the hoax piece has been correctly identified! Since I started producing the Skeptoid podcast in 2006, and blogging on various matters pertaining to scientific skepticism, I have produced exactly one piece that was a pure hoax. I made it up, beginning to end, wanting to see if anyone would catch it.They have not.The piece remains prominently displayed on the Internet. Although it is placed into the context of actual historical events, it is a hoax, from beginning to end. Anyone familiar with its context should have been able to spot it. Nobody has.It has my name on it, and it is in a place where my material is commonly found. I even told it, word for word, beginning to end, in a talk at a major conference. Nobody spotted it then either; or if they did, they didn't say anything to me. This kind of blew my mind a little. It was even videotaped and streamed to the Internet.I will give an exquisitely appropriate gift to the first person who emails me and correctly identifies the hoax piece. But to discourage random guessing, you must provide a citation showing that the piece is a hoax. (You may have to prove a negative here, so anything that thoroughly discusses the context but makes no mention of my hoax will do.)If nobody emails me with the correct solution before January 1, 2014, I will at that time reveal the hoax piece.(To save you time, this is NOT one of the joke videos I've made or anything that presents itself as a joke or a hoax, notably the Death Valley videos made with Richard Saunders, nor was it the SkepticBlog post promoting John Rael's obvious hoax Bigfoot film.) by Brian Dunning @Skeptoid Media, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

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