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Name of Site: James Randi Educational Foundation
URL: http://www.randi.org/
Plug-Ins: Yes
Navigability: Medium
Graphics: Medium, Good Quality
Internal Links: Lost Count
Review: James Randi is arguably the world's greatest hoax exposing exponent.
After a successful career as a master of illusion and escape, he turned
his talents to educating people about the way charlatans the world over
use trickery to fool the public for fun and profit. His site is a massive
testament to his tireless efforts, including a regular Internet audio
show, educational resources about critical thinking, regular ramblings
and a huge archive which details the endless stream of hoaxes that he
exposes one by one, using pure logic and scientific method. His million-dollar
challenge to anyone who can prove paranormal, psychic or occult powers
has been on offer for years and years and not one candidate has come close
to claiming the prize. With a background as an entertainer, this site
is filled with humour as it sets out to save us all from being taken for
fools. - SS
Rating: *****
Name of Site: HOAXBUSTERS
URL: http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
Plug-ins: No
Navigability: Easy
Graphics: Low, Low Quality
Internal Links: 11
Review: Established in 1995 as part of the US Department of Energy Computer
Incident Advisory Capability task force, this Site has been locating and
reporting Internet hoaxes since their very conception, in an attempt to
rationalise the hysteria and stem the flow of superfluous flotsam bobbing
around in the ether. Being a government initiative, the creators of the
site aren't exactly brimming with creativity - the only graphic on the
entire site being a copy of the Ghostbusters logo, with a court jester
replacing the ghost - but their public service pedantry has led to a meticulously
comprehensive collection of every Web hoax imaginable. The hoaxes are
sorted into categories, with an index and search facility, as well as
plenty of information about hoax awareness, chain letters, the cost of
hoaxes and a healthy listing of resources that are well worth exploring.
After browsing the listings, you will be much wiser to the next piece
of unsolicited crap that lands in your in-box. - SS
Rating: ****
Name of Site: The Skeptics Society
URL: http://www.skeptic.com/
Plug-ins: No
Navigability: Easy
Graphics: Heavy, Good Quality
Internal Links: 20
Review: Scepticism is almost a philosophy in itself - taking the stance
that nothing is to be believed or taken as a fact until it can be tested
and proved. Billions of people across the globe rule their lives and make
big decisions - personal, business and political - based quite often on
spurious beliefs and facts. One only has to look back in history and find
that humanity has been fooled time and time again by current opinions
that later turn out to be completely false. As science has progressed
it seems humanity hasn't, as it clings on to occult beliefs and leaves
itself open to mass manipulation by profit and power hungry hoax-mongers.
Fear not, the Skeptics are here. Armed with critical thought and scientific
method, they will debunk any myth or fallacy you can throw at them. Their
approach is one filled with humour but laced with urgency as they see
whole populations being led astray, ripped off and left for dead. The
site is crammed with free resources, merchandise and activities to further
the cause of healthy scepticism. Some of our greatest thinkers are members,
and their contribution to our culture is profound. Bookmark, subscribe
and free your mind from the shackles of ignorance. - SS
Rating: ****
Name of Site: Vmyths
URL: http://www.vmyths.com/
Plug-ins: No
Navigability: Easy
Graphics: Medium, Medium Quality
Internal Links: 30
Review: A site dedicated solely to computer virus myths, this independent
operation is driven by the quest to save the Net from imploding into a
cesspool of mass hysteria and overreaction to the hollow threats of a
viral cyber-meltdown. They are commercial, sponsored by a range of non-anti-virus
software companies, so they do have a bit of a budget to include some
nice features on the site, over and above your standard "index of
hoaxes" some similar sites contain. Editorial commentary and plenty
of journalistic content goes more into the causes, motives and impacts
of the various hoax fads that populate our in-boxes. What is scary is
that it seems the powers that be, both industry and government, seem to
be pouring gasoline on some of the hysterical fires with their own agenda
of demonising other nations or selling more security software. Be aware
and informed. Vmyth wants the truth and nothing but the truth to shine
through the pixels on your monitor. - SS
Rating: ****
Name of Site: The AFU and Urban Legends Archive
URL: http://www.urbanlegends.com/
Plug-ins: No
Navigability: Easy
Graphics: Minimal, Good Quality
Internal Links: 30+
Review: By now, most people have heard of the term "urban legends"
and more than likely it is thanks to this very Website. Spawned from a
newsgroup -alt.folklore.urban - that kicked off back in 1991, well before
the invention of the Web browser, this site captures our imagination with
its endless tall stories that humans just love to share at dinner parties
and barbecues. The great thing here is that the discussion goes beyond
reporting of myths and hoaxes. There is a whole population of contributors
from all walks of life who love to offer their erudite opinions as to
the fact or falsehood of any given myth. A treasure trove of banter adds
to the already entertaining notions expounded in the myths themselves,
as explanations are given for such diverse conundrums as whether Beethoven
really was black, or whether dead scuba divers really do turn up in the
middle of forests. Fascinating stuff! You'll be stuck here for weeks.
- SS
Rating: *****
Name of Site: Urban Legends Reference Page
URL: http://www.snopes2.com/
Plug-Ins: No
Navigability: Easy
Graphics: Medium, Good Quality
Internal Links: 33
Review: Unlike the free-for-all urbanlegends.com, this site is created,
researched and maintained by two individuals who claim to do enough legwork
on each hoax, myth, wives-tale and folk story that their site can be held
up as a credible authority on all things dubious. A great feature is their
simple graphic layout of the topics covered - from war and luck to wooden
spoons and Christmas - and a four-colour coding system for true, false,
unsure and 'unknown origin'. This gives them the scope to really work
on their research and investigate each tale before throwing it into its
respective pigeonhole. There are some amazing tales, and they become more
amazing when you find out which ones actually happened. The rest you can
have a good chuckle at and chalk up to a good education in scepticism.
A tech quirk here is that some of the pages do not scroll, even though
the text goes below the window, so you have to actually highlight the
text with your mouse and drag down to see the whole story... weird...
time to start another myth... the entire site was built with a Commodore
64 and uploaded using Morse code? - SS
Rating: ****
Name of Site: Australian Skeptics
URL: http://www.skeptics.com.au/
Plug-Ins: Yes
Navigability: Big but Easy
Graphics: Medium, Good quality
Internal Links: Lost count
Review: The Aussie Skeptics are a lively bunch of party animals who somehow
manage to get a ton of good work done in between talk fests, playful mental
aerobics and the eternal philosophical quest for a laugh. In fact not
only have they achieved milestone after milestone for the cause of clear-headedness,
they have built themselves a site that would do any part-time, volunteer
enterprise very proud. It is true to their cause of critical thinking
- very well organised, clean, visually appealing and stacked with content
that will keep you clicking well past your bedtime. It even comes in eight
languages! Their "Great Skeptic CD" archives 20 years of work
ranging from their many TV appearances exposing frauds and scamsters to
firewalking, spoon bending, water divining and homeopathy. They even have
a regular segment - "The Skeptic Tank" on Sydney Internet radio
station www.netFM.net, and are diligently pursuing rip-off merchants and
human leeches wherever they lurk with a passion that burns for nothing
but the advancement of humanity and the cessation of unnecessary suffering
due to ignorance, greed and twisted thinking. Pseudo-science is dead,
long live science! - SS
Rating: *****
Name of Site: Scambusters
URL: http://www.scambusters.com/
Plug-Ins: No
Navigability: Easy
Graphics: Low, Medium Quality
Internal Links: 30+
Review: Proclaiming to be "The #1 Publication on Internet Fraud",
Scambusters goes all out to make all who visit more aware of just how
much trickery is out there and how being forewarned of the scams will
make us all that much more impervious to the scamsters' evil ways. Because
of all the information provided, it is basically a text and link affair,
taking you through the various types of scam, from auctions to credit
card fraud, outrageous pyramid schemes and plain old criminal activity.
There are lots of little features to the site, including a competition
to submit new scams, where victims tell their tales to warn others, a
site search, free resources on how to protect yourself, a newsletter to
stay up to date and an archive of all past reports. It's all free, so
why not subscribe? Better to be scambusted than scammed. In some cases
people could have saved themselves entire life savings, had they been
wise to the hoaxes and frauds perpetrated upon them. - SS
Rating: ***
Name of Site: The Museum of Hoaxes
URL: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/
Plug-Ins: No
Navigability: Easy
Graphics: Heavy, Good Quality
Internal Links: 20+
Review: It seems human history is littered with pranksters and frauds
as this testament to creativity and gullibility will show. From 750AD,
when a forged document legitimated the handover of the Papal States by
Italy to the Catholic Church, trickery and tomfoolery have captivated
generation after generation and many of the classic hoaxes are stored
right here in the Museum. Marco Polo never going to China, perpetual motion
machines, a project to saw the Island of Manhattan off and rotate it,
the "War of the Worlds" debacle, Dick Smith's Sydney Harbour
iceberg prank and the hilarious Hong Kong Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
hoax all make for good reading. There is a top 10 April fools chart and
a few other titbits about hoaxes, but the site has a lot more potential
than it is currently exhibiting, when compared to some of the other sites
in the genre. It is light and fun and if you have a few minutes to spare
now and then it's worth popping in for a quick tour. Maybe you can email
the curator with some suggestions to boost attendance. - SS
Rating: ***
Name of Site: World Wide Scam Network
URL: http://www.worldwidescam.com/index2002.htm
Plug-Ins: Yes
Navigability: Silly
Graphics: Medium, Medium Quality
Internal Links: Heaps
Review: From a Web design point of view, this site could well fall into
the category of some of the ones it's trying to expose, with each link
popping up in a new window and some coding errors preventing you from
using your back button to get back to where you came from, but the scope
is well worth the frustration. They list scam after scam, detailing the
methods and means by which the all-too-common pirates of this world practise
their skullduggery. We almost need an entire island-continent to deport
these people to, so they can rip each other off and leave the rest of
us alone, but unfortunately that was already thought of in 1788. The list
of scams is staggering - pyramid schemes, Internet malls, stock market
rip-offs, currency exchange gold mines, lottery scams, work at home offers
- where will it all end? Probably when they have all our money and we
have to start concocting scams to get it all back. There is a funny send-up
of eBay, with ridiculous items for sale and regular updates of the latest
rip-offs coming your way. Bookmark this site and be sure to avoid these
bloodsuckers like the plague. - SS
Rating: ****
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