Word of the day: Potemkin

The word of the day is Potemkin village:

1. a pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/potemkin+village)

"Some archaeologists believe that the canal was never meant to function.  It was a PR exercise, they say, a Potemkin demonstration by the Chimor government that it was actively fighting El Niño."

 - Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus