Thursday, August 10, 2006
Mars opposition – yet another urban legend
Hello, good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – a moment of reflection on the internet connection. I am Steven Lang.
Today we are going to talk about Mars – the planet – or rather we’re going to talk about a bogus e-mail chain letter entitled “Mars Spectacular”
This e-mail that has been circulating all through the internet contains quite a pretty powerpoint presentation with lovely pictures of Mars saying that on August 27th the planet Mars will appear brighter than ever in history and will be as large as the full moon to the naked eye.
It even has a photo of the moon and another photo illustrating how big Mars will look next to the moon.
Actually this is balderdash.
The e-mail started way back in 2003 when on August 27th Mars did come unusually close to Earth – but it still did not appear even close to the size of the full moon.
If you received such an e-mail and then passed on to someone – you are probably a little embarrassed – but how were you to know?
The answer to that one is quite easy – go to the Snopes dot com web site – that is S.N.O.P.E.S dot com web site. It is all about urban legends and essentially it tells you whether they are true or not.
So for each entry it starts off telling you what the claim is – in this case – that Mars is going to pass remarkably close to Earth.
Then it tells you about the status of the claim – that is whether it is true or flase.
The site then offers an example of the urban legend and an explanation of the origins or the legend.
Incidentally, not all urban legends are without basis.
It is a good reference site because all its explanations are linked to credible sources, and while idly surfing through the site I could not find fault with any of their explanations.
The site has hundreds if not thousands of urban legends, but on the front page of snopes dot com there is a list of the 25 top urban legends and currently the one about Mars Spectacular is number one.
Now if you’re curious about the name of the site – snopes is the name of a family that appears in many of William Faulkner’s books.
I still haven’t worked out the linkage – but the site is well worth the visit – if only for amusement’s sake.
And that’s a wrap for today’s edition of Cybersurf, thanks for listening and do join me again next Wednesday – same time same place.
Today we are going to talk about Mars – the planet – or rather we’re going to talk about a bogus e-mail chain letter entitled “Mars Spectacular”
This e-mail that has been circulating all through the internet contains quite a pretty powerpoint presentation with lovely pictures of Mars saying that on August 27th the planet Mars will appear brighter than ever in history and will be as large as the full moon to the naked eye.
It even has a photo of the moon and another photo illustrating how big Mars will look next to the moon.
Actually this is balderdash.
The e-mail started way back in 2003 when on August 27th Mars did come unusually close to Earth – but it still did not appear even close to the size of the full moon.
If you received such an e-mail and then passed on to someone – you are probably a little embarrassed – but how were you to know?
The answer to that one is quite easy – go to the Snopes dot com web site – that is S.N.O.P.E.S dot com web site. It is all about urban legends and essentially it tells you whether they are true or not.
So for each entry it starts off telling you what the claim is – in this case – that Mars is going to pass remarkably close to Earth.
Then it tells you about the status of the claim – that is whether it is true or flase.
The site then offers an example of the urban legend and an explanation of the origins or the legend.
Incidentally, not all urban legends are without basis.
It is a good reference site because all its explanations are linked to credible sources, and while idly surfing through the site I could not find fault with any of their explanations.
The site has hundreds if not thousands of urban legends, but on the front page of snopes dot com there is a list of the 25 top urban legends and currently the one about Mars Spectacular is number one.
Now if you’re curious about the name of the site – snopes is the name of a family that appears in many of William Faulkner’s books.
I still haven’t worked out the linkage – but the site is well worth the visit – if only for amusement’s sake.
And that’s a wrap for today’s edition of Cybersurf, thanks for listening and do join me again next Wednesday – same time same place.
