Law and Magic Blog

Magical Internet Thinking

From PC Magazine, "10 Most Heinous Hoaxes on the net." Some of them appeal to magical thinking, like the "we captured BigFoot and we've got him in a freezer" hoax. The one about legislatively setting the value of pi to 3? Here's the text of that Indiana bill. Some of the other hoaxes listed are no laughing matter, such as the one that led to the suicide of young Megan Meier. Federal prosecutors charged Lori Drew, one of the people behind that hoax, under the Computer Fraud and Abuse act. A jury found her guilty of three misdemeanor counts, but a judge threw out the verdict this year.

Fasten Your Seat Belts....It's Going To Be A Bumpy Ride

Via iTricks, more FBI/TSA fun: a magician who claimed to have mailed himself to Vegas from Syracuse, New York got himself investigated for his trouble. Of course it was a hoax. Wade Live (real name Wade Whitcomb) says he did it to benefit a friend's website. Here are photos purporting to show the trip. The feds have closed the book on this one after ruling it never happened. More here from the Magic Newswire. BTW, the feds don't usually take kindly to having their time wasted....