(Credit:
Jonathan Worth/PopSci)
I know most of you out there think we landed two Americans on the moon in 1969. Well, let me tell you that you're wrong. It's all a hoax! It was done on a sound stage and George Clooney and Dan Aykroyd were involved!
I mean, look at this real-life version of the Atari classic Lunar Lander vector game!
It took British engineer Iain Sharp less than $800 and a year to build this replica in his garage to honor the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, and it works almost like the real thing. It's powered by a pair of old PCs he wrote custom software for. In addition, the movements are controlled by things like old inkjet printer motors, and fishing line. But what's important is it works just like a real lunar lander would--if one existed.
If Sharp can make a device like this in his garage in his spare time then it's not a leap to assume the U.S. government could have made a full-size mock-up with the years and millions it took to make the so-called "moon shot" happen. This awesome toy might be all the evidence I need. Myth busted.
(Via PopSci)
Popular Photography magazine has a long history of April Fools jokes and this year they've taken the tradition to their Web site.
(Credit: PopPhoto.com)At first glance, you might mistake it for a profile of the latest gimmicky art photographer, but as you read you'll soon discover that you've been suckered by this year's installment of Popular Photography and Imaging's long tradition of April Fools pranks. This year, the magazine chose to pull your leg through its Web site, with a profile of a phoney photographer named Richard Baresall. The tale, complete with the trademark puns and zany humor that have endeared the magazine's editors with generations of photographers, is a bit more risque than I would have expected from them, but it's encouraging to see them expose this side of themselves.
Popular Photography has been including April Fools jokes in the print magazine for many years now and their readers enjoy finding them and typically write in or, in recent years, comment on the Web site's forums when they think they've discovered the joke. A few years ago, while I was on staff there, the magazine spoofed itself by applying Photoshop fixes to famous photographs, such as Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother. Some of the readership was upset, but most realized it for the lighthearted joke that it was.
Apple iPhone
(Credit: CNET Networks)Gossip about the superhyped Apple iPhone is like the latest Lindsay Lohan tidbit. You may not know that it's true, but it's worth repeating just the same. Such was the case for the Crave blog I posted two days ago that predicted a possible iPhone release date of June 15. At the time, we warned you that Apple's "leaked" FCC letter could be a hoax, and yesterday our Phonescoop friends discovered indeed it was. As Engadget says, the document in question was actually a Photoshopped filing for Apple's Airport Extreme base station. Aw shucks. But in all seriousness, a June 15 date (or thereabouts) isn't so far off base since it does coincide with Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference.
The moral of the story is never to believe any Apple iPhone news unless it comes from Apple itself. Of course that won't stop us from reporting future rumors, because you know you love reading them. We just ask that you read them all with a skeptical eye.
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