• Some guy makes a shitty photoshop of plastic beads on mars, people somehow believe it.
    24 replies, posted
[QUOTE]For a while, it almost looked as if NASA was really spilling the beans — or rather, the [I]beads[/I] — about the [URL="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50016485/ns/technology_and_science-space/"]Curiosity rover's hush-hush discoveries on Mars[/URL]. And that was precisely the problem.A spoof website, [URL="http://nasaupdatecenter.us/"]NASAUpdateCenter.us[/URL], made a splash on Thursday by proclaiming that Curiosity discovered "small spheres" that turned out to be made of plastic. The purported press release drew heavily on the logos and page design used by [URL="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/"]NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory[/URL], and was accompanied by a picture showing strings of the tiny spheres — which looked suspiciously like Mardi Gras necklaces. Curiosity's science team is scheduled to provide an eagerly awaited update on the rover mission at an American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco on Monday. [URL="http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-from-mars-rover-scientists-mum-for-now"]Some of the initial news reports[/URL] suggested the scientists were getting ready to announce a discovery that would be "one for the history books." (On Thursday, [URL="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1398"]NASA said such "rumors and speculation" were incorrect[/URL].) "I basically thought that with all the hype NASA made last week about an earthshaking release, we could build off that hype and set off the story before them," Domatron Graves, a.k.a. Xavier Jenks, explained in an email. Graves, who told me he's a 25-year-old Mardi Gras production artist and "publicity stuntman" from New Orleans, was the prime mover behind the "plastic beads" prank. The website was meant as a joke, and as a sly [URL="http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/30/15575429-plastic-beads-on-mars-the-short-life-of-a-nasa-spoof-site?lite#"]marketing campaign[/URL] for Graves' Mardi Gras team, the [URL="http://chewbacchus.org/"]Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus.[/URL] Hence the plastic beads. One of the pages on the site even featured a [URL="http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/11/29/mars-wookiee-face.jpg"]"Face on Mars" picture[/URL] that morphed into the furry visage of Chewbacca from the Star Wars saga. The way Graves tells the story, NASA wasn't amused. He said he received a phone call from someone claiming to be from JPL, informing him that his use of the space agency's logos was a federal offense. Graves and his Web team had the bogus "press release" taken down by 1 p.m. ET today. "I'm trying not to go to jail," he told me over [URL="http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/30/15575429-plastic-beads-on-mars-the-short-life-of-a-nasa-spoof-site?lite#"]the phone[/URL]. I haven't yet been able to track down exactly who spoke with him. Bert Ulrich, who serves as a multimedia liaison at NASA Headquarters in Washington, told me he wasn't aware that anyone from the agency contacted Graves. "It's news to us," he wrote in an email. There is a law on [URL="http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/30/15575429-plastic-beads-on-mars-the-short-life-of-a-nasa-spoof-site?lite#"]the books[/URL] that forbids the unauthorized use of NASA's official logos and program identifiers ([URL="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2011-title14-vol5/pdf/CFR-2011-title14-vol5-part1221.pdf"]14 CFR 1221[/URL]), backed up by the threat of a six-month jail term ([URL="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title18/pdf/USCODE-2011-title18-partI-chap33-sec701.pdf"]18 USC 701[/URL]). But it's unlikely that NASA would actually pursue prosecution — and even if the agency did prosecute, you could argue that Graves and his pals would be protected by policies governing fair use and parody. In any case, that argument is now moot. One of the issues might have been that the look and feel of the fake press release was so serious, even though the claim was clearly ridiculous. Real names were used in the wrong contexts, and the claims were couched in terms typically used to describe [URL="http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/14/13868790-spheres-spark-new-martian-mystery?lite"]Mars' truly weird blueberries[/URL]. It'd take a sharp observer (like Bad Astronomy's [URL="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/11/29/hoax_site_says_nasa_s_curiosity_rover_found_plastic_beads_on_mars.html"]Phil Plait[/URL]) to see right away that the whole thing was baloney. The full text of the bogus press release has been taken down, but you can get a sense of the tone from this screenshot: [IMG]http://m.static.newsvine.com/servista/imagesizer?file=boyleCD7224F6-7835-1815-85F6-8067CEF30B02.jpg&width=500[/IMG] NASA is one of the more trusted agencies in the federal government, although surveys suggest [URL="http://www.people-press.org/2010/04/18/distrust-discontent-anger-and-partisan-rancor/"]that trust has fallen[/URL] in recent years. The hubbub over Martian discoveries is particularly sensitive, in light of the [URL="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50017592/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/no-earth-shattering-mars-discovery-curiosity-rover-yet-nasa/"]misunderstandings surrounding what Curiosity has or has not found so far[/URL]. So it's understandable that the space agency might not appreciate a spoof that gave the wrong impression — as opposed to a spoof like the [URL="http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/15/13301004-mars-fans-make-viral-video?lite"]"We're NASA and We Know It" viral video[/URL], which celebrates the Curiosity mission's true accomplishments. If Graves had been able to hold out a little bit longer, he would have added some references to the Mardi Gras krewe's home page — to signal that the website was a spoof and generate a little online traffic for Chewbacchus. That's what he did in the case of the [URL="http://www.nolabigfoot.com/"]New Orleans Bigfoot Society[/URL], another prank website that he and his friends cooked up last year. But after the hurried removal of the faux NASA Web pages, the spoof website has been reduced to a text-only page with a Web link paying tribute to "the Sacred Drunken Wookiee!" Let's just hope Lucasfilm doesn't go after Graves for copyright infringement. NASA's displeasure is nothing, compared to the wrath of the "Star Wars" empire.[/QUOTE]
Aliens celebrated Mardi Gra
[QUOTE=J!NX;38659775]Aliens celebrated Mardi Gra[/QUOTE] three tits, even better
[QUOTE=SlickBlade;38659788]three tits, even better[/QUOTE] why not just one mega boob?
[QUOTE=SlickBlade;38659788]three tits, even better[/QUOTE] Three tits? That's awesome. [img]http://static1.fjcdn.com/comments/Three+tits..+That+s+awesome+_48626ae30313a121366684e5b758da14.jpg[/img]
unititty
I feel like I live in a world of idiots. Why is it the shit photoshops that I see people believe the most?
[QUOTE=Corey_Faure;38660201]I feel like I live in a world of idiots. Why is it the shit photoshops that I see people believe the most?[/QUOTE] Because people figure that if it looks like a bad photoshop its probably not because who would be THAT bad at photoshopping an image?
Like he needed to use Photoshop. Just toss some beads into some reddish sand and take a picture of it.
It would have been more believable if they claimed NASA probed Uranus and found beads in it.
Enhance
[QUOTE=Mechwarrior;38660241]Because people figure that if it looks like a bad photoshop its probably not because who would be THAT bad at photoshopping an image?[/QUOTE] *raises hand*
These people are smart as hell, I must admit.
I wonder if the scientists even expect to find any significant life on this big, dusty, deserted planet. Probably not.
[QUOTE=Gekkosan;38677114]I wonder if the scientists even expect to find any significant life on this big, dusty, deserted planet. Probably not.[/QUOTE] um i thought they were looking for signs of the once upon a time existence of life, not actual life
[QUOTE=J!NX;38659805]why not just one mega boob?[/QUOTE] 3 Mega Boobs?
BEES?!
[QUOTE=TrulliLulli;38677329]um i thought they were looking for signs of the once upon a time existence of life, not actual life[/QUOTE] Among a lot of other stuff I'd assume. Geographical stuff, for one. As for finding life on the planet Mars, which I don't think is the scientists' main goal, one simple fossil or such could prove it, unless of course it remained as the only fossil ever found. It would be weird. Or some ancient ruins of a once modern city, but there seems to be none of those peeking on the surface on Mars at least.
[QUOTE=J!NX;38659805]why not just one mega boob?[/QUOTE] You sick fuck.
[QUOTE=SlickBlade;38659788]three tits, even better[/QUOTE] But but I only have 2 hands!
[QUOTE=taipan;38686634]But but I only have 2 hands![/QUOTE] You've got a mouth, don't you?
"nicknamed blueberries"
[QUOTE=J!NX;38659805]why not just one mega boob?[/QUOTE] [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31693224/Kung.Pow.avi_snapshot_00.28.37_%5B2012.12.04_10.24.20%5D.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=jechtman;38692034][img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31693224/Kung.Pow.avi_snapshot_00.28.37_%5B2012.12.04_10.24.20%5D.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] D'aw that's just one regular boob.
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