The headlines sound thrilling. One might say they bait a click.
"ANONYMOUS SAYS NASA HAS EVIDENCE OF ALIEN LIFE. DOES IT?" — Newsweek
"The world's biggest hacking group thinks NASA is about to announce alien life." — The Independent
Maybe you know of Anonymous as a band of socially enlightened hackers: liberators of knowledge from elites who want to hide it from the public. You certainly know what NASA is. So you click. And what you get, if you follow the articles to the amateur YouTube channel that is their source, is video of a man in a Guy Fawkes mask — "Anonymous Global," he calls himself — reading out old quotes from NASA spokespeople in a spooky, synthesized voice.
The man in the anarchist mask quotes a NASA science director's testimony from a congressional hearing in April, all totally public: "We are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history."
That quote — taken out of context and adorned with Anonymous Global's wild conspiracy theorizing — became the basis for millions of views and countless news articles, forcing the science director in question and NASA officials to explicitly deny the claims of a shoddily produced YouTube video this week. "There's no pending announcement regarding extraterrestrial life," a NASA spokesman wrote to The Washington Post, in case you were still in doubt.
Also at Space.com, MassLive, the The San Diego Union-Tribune, and The Guardian (editorial).
Update: (in response to a June 29th episode of The Alex Jones Show) NASA Denies That It's Running a Child Slave Colony on Mars
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Goop HQ is obsessed with wearable stickers that rebalance energy. NASA and a former NASA scientist are here to bring them back to Earth:
Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle and wellness website really may have stuck their foot in it this time. [...] It all kicked off when an article appeared on Goop promoting stickers. These aren't just run-of-the-mill stickers though. These are Body Vibes stickers that "promote healing."
"Body Vibes stickers (made with the same conductive carbon material NASA uses to line space suits so they can monitor an astronaut's vitals during wear) come pre-programmed to an ideal frequency, allowing them to target imbalances."
[...] But wires must have been crossed somewhere as NASA have now come out to say that they "do not have any conductive carbon material lining the spacesuits." In fact, their spacesuits are made out of synthetic materials and spandex, they explained to Gizmodo.
Body Vibes' stickers were reportedly created as a result of top secret research, but Mark Shelhamer, former chief scientist at NASA's human research division, wasn't particularly impressed by this. "Wow," he told Gizmodo. "What a load of BS this is."
Also at Vanity Fair. Here's some background reading on Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop. Paltrow was recently named CEO:
Last Monday, the actress turned life-style entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow summoned a small group of employees to her bright Santa Monica office. Goop, the weekly newsletter she founded nine years ago, has grown into an e-commerce empire, and she wanted to discuss the online marketing plan for the company's latest enterprise: pills. In 2014, sales of dietary supplements in the United States reached $36.7 billion, so it makes sense that Goop would expand its stock of wellness wares (Ayurvedic ashwagandha powder; a vaginal-muscle-toning egg made of jade) to include vitamins.
[...] Last year, Goop raised fifteen million dollars in venture capital and moved its headquarters from New York to Los Angeles, in the process losing its C.E.O., Lisa Gersh, the former C.E.O. of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NewNic on Friday June 30 2017, @11:21PM (7 children)
I think NASA made a mistake here. That's the sort of thing that you never deny, just mock.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Friday June 30 2017, @11:26PM (3 children)
So someone else is running it for them, the conspiracy is still alive and kicking. If they only kidnap little children and send them on a 20 year mission to Mars who is it that is abusing them? The ghost of John Glenn? At least these people don't lack for an active imagination.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @11:41PM
But if it takes 20 years to get there, they're no longer children once their labor is being exploited... oh, so NASA's right, there are no "child slaves" on mars...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @12:27AM
It's being run by J'onn J'onzz, so it's under the DEO's jurisdiction. NASA has nothing to do with it.
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Saturday July 01 2017, @12:59AM
I think John Carter will be wanting a word with you...
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 30 2017, @11:59PM
"NASA Mars Child Colony, coverup of Alien life: Using more than 140 chars to deny profoundly stupid rumors would be a waste of taxpayers money."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @01:46AM
I think somebody confused NASA with Jeffrey Epstein's flying 'Pizza Parlor' [newsweek.com]
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Saturday July 01 2017, @07:56AM
Of course they denied that it was on Mars, because it's really on the Moon!
M-o-o-n, that spells moon!
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 30 2017, @11:28PM (3 children)
You know what else is totally relevant?
Iron Fucking Maiden [beatsperminute.com] is playing tomorrow, and guess which sonofabitch here has tickets?
It's already a 30,000 people headcount. FUUUUUUUCK YEEEEEAH!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @01:11AM (2 children)
Anonymous says NASA is going to announce aliens, and immediately Eth pops up? Coincidence? I think not! And remember, Ladys and Germs, "Correlation is not causation, but coincidence more than likely is."
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Saturday July 01 2017, @08:07AM (1 child)
As long as he eats lots of beans and shares the effluent with the rest of the audience, who cares?
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @03:44PM
E's got giant fangs!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @04:29AM
NASA ain't doing shit now. Shuttle program is shut now. Mars, yeah, right. Moon, despite all, the US gov ain't giving no money for it. The best PR for NASA has been the MARS rovers that are, what, a decade old already?
So they are mucking around with youtube videos.
Sad.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 01 2017, @05:13AM (2 children)
People just have to think and follow up on known facts, and how they are known. Not something people do it seems. I'll guess it's good to whack the credibility of some crap videos to put a good dent into the whole rubbish part of the online video segment.
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Saturday July 01 2017, @08:04AM (1 child)
There's a group on youtube called Secureteam10 or something like that and their videos are nothing but street lights or space junk. The sad reality is that the people that subscribe to their crap channel also vote. They also waste oxygen and create CO2 but that's another thread.
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 01 2017, @08:06AM
The worst is the electricity they consume and the industrial waste the manufacture of their computers add to the environmental cost. And yeah the have a mental environment cost too..