Museum of Hoaxes displays long history of fake photos

A sampling of the dozens of photo manipulations on display in the Museum of HoaxesIf you can believe the Museum of Hoaxes, inscrupulous people have beeen manipulating photos since 1840.

The online museum has an illuminating "Hoax Photo Archive" that traces deception in dozens of photos over the past 170 years. Some of the examples are well known, others not so much. And some of the photo manipulation could be considered egregious in attempting to mislead the public for political gain, while other deceptions are minor and relatively inconsequential.

All, however, remind us that what you see might not reflect reality and that journalism ethics is more important than ever in separating fact from fiction and  trusted sources from unscrupulous operators.

Design for change

Check out this inspiring TED presentation from a young woman whose non-profit approach to design is reshaping education in the poorest county in rural North Carolina.

Emily Pilloton is using grants, her own persistance and supportive educators to give students a design-centric educational environment that not only teaches important life skills but leaves lasting evidence of those lessons for the community as a whole to see and cherish.

It's pretty heady stuff to think a young woman can drive this kind of change amid such poor conditions. It shouldn't be surprising, given her TED bio that reads, in part:

"At graduate school, people were starting to talk more about sustainability, but I felt it lacked a human factor," she said. "Can we really call $5,000 bamboo coffee tables sustainable?" Convinced of the power of design to change the world, at age 26 Pilloton founded Project H to help develop effective design solutions for people who need it most.

 I was once told the best design is design you don't see but which makes your life better, easier, more rewarding. This would seem to fit that bill.

Recommended reading -- for punks

I snagged a promo copy of Rise Against's 2006 album "The Sufferer and the Witness" at a recent Californian "sale for charity" (we sell promotional items that companies to the newspaper and donate the proceeds to a local charity). 

I loved Rise Against's fury and intelligence whenever I heard them on XM but I never pulled the trigger on buying a full album. So getting "The Sufferer" for $3 and benefiting a good cause was a no-brainer. 

I'm still wading through all the music (a video of "The Good Left Undone" from the album is above) but I was struck by something I caught at the tail end of the liner notes: recommended reading from the band.  

Halloa?

So, check out Rise's Against's recommended reading list:

• "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
• "People's History of the United States of America" by Howard Zinn
• "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand 
• "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen
• "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut 
• "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn

One might argue with the politics of those choices -- the band is named Rise Against, after all -- but isn't it nice to see a band promoting reading and intelligent thought instead of simply rattling off thanks to friends and equipment suppliers?