History is full of hoaxes, and that includes people who aren't really people. These "people" are handy, because they can be used as sources, they can be quoted, and they can be blamed. Because they don't exist, they won't mind!

Film fans and critics often rail against so-called “quote whores”—reviewers who are willing to write a positive notice for any movie as long as the studios wine and dine them enough—and David Manning of the Ridgefield Press was seemingly one of the worst. Around 2000, his glowing reviews frequently appeared on the posters for such universally loathed films as The Animal (“another winner!”) and Hollow Man (“stupendous!”). Manning would have been a running contender for America’s worst working film critic, save for one key detail: he didn’t exist. As it turned out, a marketing executive at Sony had invented Manning as a tool for building positive press for films released by the corporation’s subsidiary Columbia Pictures.

Read more about Manning and nine other nonexistent folks you may know at Top Tenz. Link

The Queensland, Australia newspaper The Morning Bulletin covered stories from the recent floods. One livestock farmer was particularly devastated.

MORE than 30,000 pigs have been floating down the Dawson River since last weekend, with a piggery at Baralaba paralysed by flooding which has killed most of its bred live-stock.

Baralaba Butchers' Sid Everingham owns and runs the piggery near Baralaba.

Mr Everingham said: "We've lost probably about 30,000 pigs in the floods, we tried to get as many weaners and suckers out by boat, but we could only save about 70 weaners, and the suckers didn't survive long, because they needed that mother's milk, and all the sows have been washed away.

But later the story was clarified.

What Baralaba piggery-owner Sid Everingham actually said was "30 sows and pigs", not "30,000 pigs"

Link

Cockpit Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet CRJ700 in Cologne

Put yourself in an airplane cockpit! What kind of airplane? That's your choice, as there are 14 cockpits to select from, from a helicopter to a bombardier (shown here), models from all over the world! Take a look all around in the 360-degree panoramas to get a feel of being in control, at 360 Cities. Link -Thanks, Jeffrey Martin!

Who are the most popular people on the internet? Well, they are not popular just for being on the internet -it takes a presence in the real world. However, the internet can measure a celebrity's popularity pretty well. And the most popular person, teen pop singer Justin Bieber, got his start on the internet.

In the past twelve months, more people have searched for the 16-year-old wonder on Google than have searched for "china," "jesus," or "boobs."

Bieber also left other celebrities in the dust. The only person who came close was Lady Gaga.

Based on a rigorous analysis of Google Trends we've identified the most popular people on the Internet. Since Google provides only comparative data, we compared everyone we could think of to Bieber. Feel free to check the data and post a comment if we left anyone off the list.

Business Insider counts down the top 20, ranked in comparison with Bieber's popularity. Link -Thanks, Adam!

Author Jules Verne {wiki} was born on this date, February 8th, in 1828. To celebrate what would have been his 183rd birthday, Google is paying homage to his 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Google's logo is shaped as if you are looking out a submarine's portholes. On the search page, you can see through the portholes at marine life as your vessel moves. And there's a joystick on the right you can use to change the orientation of your submarine! Link -via Happy Catholic

Learn more about the interactive logo at the Google Blog. Link

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We've seen a lot of high-speed video slowed down in order to see movements in greater detail. If you could pick any subject to watch in slow motion, many of us would select a cute kitten playing in the yard, showing off its graceful (or not) kitteh moves. -via Cynical-C

Many of us have trouble remembering what movies won Academy Awards only a few days after they are bestowed. How can we be expected to remember those that didn't win? Or maybe you do! In today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you'll be given films that were nominated for Best Picture. Can you match them to the film that actually won that year? I scored 55% (6 out of 11), and only because the year is included with each question. You will do better! Link

There are plenty of wonderful things to do on a snow day! And if you do these things, be sure to take pictures. This illustration by Grant Snider is available as a print. Link -via Laughing Squid

The former butchering facility in Dresden, Germany featured in Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 book Slaughterhouse Five is a real place that you can visit. The book is a work of fiction, but Vonnegut was really held prisoner in Dresden's Schlachthof Fünf (Slaughterhouse Five) during the city's fire bombing in World War II. Read more about the underground meat locker that saved the lives of POWs like Vonnegut at Atlas Obscura. Link

If you want to give a kiss to impress for Valentines Day, you should brush up on what you think you know and what you don't know about French kissing. Above all, you don't want to be one of the types of kissers guaranteed to be a turn-off.

The Saint Bernard–someone who slobbers way too much, leaving their partner’s face looking like a microwaved glazed donut.

The Wrecking Ball–someone who lunges in so hard they clank their teeth against the other person’s, breaking more than the moment and possibly leaving their partner with the smile of a hockey player.

The Meat Grinder–someone who forgets (or doesn’t care) that they have braces and like a Saw film proceeds to attack their partner’s tongue and lips with their cheese grater grill.

Vlad the Impaler–someone who repeatedly shoves their Gene Simmons-sized tongue down their partner’s throat, testing their gag reflex.

Oh, there are more, which you'll find at Geeks Are Sexy. Link

It's time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what the pictured item is? Great guesses win prizes!

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: I thought Jared was the first with the correct answer (the item is a bottle opener!) then it turns out that sandyra was actually earlier with the correct answer and I overlooked it. So, both are now winners! Wilbur's answer was the funniest: "These are used exclusively for constructing wooden spiral staircases. (too bad you don't have the hammer in the pic)..." All win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!

We know that 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything, but how did Douglas Adams come up with it? In this excerpt from the book 42: Douglas Adams' Amazingly Accurate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything,  author Peter Gill teases us with some background on how Adam's radio comedy series (and later, book) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came about.

As the book's title suggests, Adams, like most authors, was not afraid to borrow, and there are revealing similarities between Welsh's Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. One of these provides perhaps the most intriguing explanation for "Why 42?". As you may remember Adams had Deep Thought perform a little expectation management and say: "You're really not going to like it" before revealing the Ultimate Answer.

Curiously, Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe had told of visitors to the UK searching for family roots finding "the answer a little disappointing" – after travelling around the world in search of "the solution to the most puzzling question of all". A coincidence, perhaps . . . but this coincidence is on page 42.

Coincidence or not, knowing the origin of "42" takes nothing away from the genius of Adams' work. Read more from the book at The Guardian. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

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"If you're looking for a 1960 model, this may well be it." Those were big words back in 1948, when this short documentary was produced by Popular Mechanics. Which will it be: a three-wheeled golf cart that resembles a flying saucer, an airstream camper on wheels, or a souped-up model T with the dashboard of an airplane? http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2010/4/22/the-streamlined-car-of-1960-1948.html -via Nag on the Lake

Flickr user NiferCritter thought this was such a neat scene that she knew photographic evidence was required.

I passed a storefront window w/ such an oddity of things, that it needed to post a sign that it was indeed a store:

Link -via Evil Mad Linkblog

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The guys from MST3K recognize fans celebrating a Super Bowl win in the crowd behavior seen in the 1975 film Giant Spider Invasion. The Packers were a recurring joke in the series. -via Buzzfeed