April Fools APOD: Missing the Joke?

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is titled, "April Fools Day More
Intense On Mars." I spent more time than I care to admit to looking
at the picture for a knee-slappin' joke, but I can't find any. Is
there some extremely subtle aspect of this picture that's funny, or is
the joke on us for looking for something funny?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040401.html

Tom

Tom Polakis asked:

I spent more time than I care to admit to looking
at the picture for a knee-slappin' joke, but I can't find any. Is
there some extremely subtle aspect of this picture that's funny, or is
the joke on us for looking for something funny?


A link at from the "Explanation" box (at the bottom of the photo) is
"intense on Mars." A link off of that page is "April Fools." Following
that link will take you to the following "newstory" g :


snip

Spam is out of this world
By Adam Turner
April 1, 2004

A torrent of interplanetary spam has been found responsible for crippling
the onboard computer of NASA's Spirit rover in January.

Spirit lay crippled on the Martian surface for two weeks after a glitch in
its onboard spam filtering saw countless offers of pornography and cheap
drugs choke its flash memory, according to NASA spokeswoman Shirley Knott.

"It would appear Russian spammers obtained Spirit's email address from a
leaked internal NASA mailing list," says Knott.

"The rover's limited onboard artificial intelligence was foolish enough to
apply for an shonky online marketing diploma. Soon after offers of cheap
WD40 and antenna enlargements began clogging the link between Mars and
NASA's Deep Space Network. Eventually, Spirit's file management software
choked and sent a distress message to the central processor which kept
rebooting."

Technicians solved the problem by upgrading the artificial intelligence on
both Spirit and its twin Opportunity.

"The rovers now have enough sense not to respond to spam or open unknown
email attachments, which makes them smarter than your average person," says
Knott.



The news comes too late for the British Mars probe Beagle 2, which is
believed to have fallen prey to a Martian strain of the Nigerian money
laundering scam.

Controllers have been unable to remotely reset the probe and expect it to
keep bombarding the earth with spam for eternity, introducing itself as the
brother of former Martian president Joseph Estrada and appealing for help to
transfer money back to earth.

unsnip


This must be what you are looking for.


---
Martin
http://home.earthlink.net/~martinhowell

"Tom Polakis" wrote in message
m...
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is titled, "April Fools Day More
Intense On Mars." I spent more time than I care to admit to looking
at the picture for a knee-slappin' joke, but I can't find any. Is
there some extremely subtle aspect of this picture that's funny, or is
the joke on us for looking for something funny?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040401.html

Tom

I think the joke is just in the explanation, not the image itself.

In a related story:


In 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2
that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to
occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet
Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational
alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore
told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment
that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange
floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds
of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One
woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their
chairs and floated around the room.
Comments

In 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2
that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to
occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet
Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational
alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore
told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment
that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange
floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds
of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One
woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their
chairs and floated around the room.
Comments

Those of us in the US, being on the opposite side of the planet, experienced
an opposite effect. I stepped on the scales at the exact moment, and found
for the duration of the transit, my weight increased approximately 37.317639
%. Fortunately it was all lost when Pluto reappeared. However even with the
uncertainties involved with the weight scale, this would not have been
enough (if applied in the opposite direction) to have cause me to float
around the room. So we must discount the one woman's story.

Clear Skies

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try the Lunar Observing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/
Lunar Picture of the Day http://www.lpod.org/
************************************

In 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2
that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to
occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet
Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational
alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore
told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment
that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange
floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds
of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One
woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their
chairs and floated around the room.
Comments

Those of us in the US, being on the opposite side of the planet, experienced
an opposite effect. I stepped on the scales at the exact moment, and found
for the duration of the transit, my weight increased approximately 37.317639
%. Fortunately it was all lost when Pluto reappeared. However even with the
uncertainties involved with the weight scale, this would not have been
enough (if applied in the opposite direction) to have cause me to float
around the room. So we must discount the one woman's story.

Clear Skies

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try the Lunar Observing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/
Lunar Picture of the Day http://www.lpod.org/
************************************

Tom Polakis asked:

I spent more time than I care to admit to looking
at the picture for a knee-slappin' joke, but I can't find any. Is
there some extremely subtle aspect of this picture that's funny, or is
the joke on us for looking for something funny?


A link at from the "Explanation" box (at the bottom of the photo) is
"intense on Mars." A link off of that page is "April Fools." Following
that link will take you to the following "newstory" g :


snip

Spam is out of this world
By Adam Turner
April 1, 2004

A torrent of interplanetary spam has been found responsible for crippling
the onboard computer of NASA's Spirit rover in January.

Spirit lay crippled on the Martian surface for two weeks after a glitch in
its onboard spam filtering saw countless offers of pornography and cheap
drugs choke its flash memory, according to NASA spokeswoman Shirley Knott.

"It would appear Russian spammers obtained Spirit's email address from a
leaked internal NASA mailing list," says Knott.

"The rover's limited onboard artificial intelligence was foolish enough to
apply for an shonky online marketing diploma. Soon after offers of cheap
WD40 and antenna enlargements began clogging the link between Mars and
NASA's Deep Space Network. Eventually, Spirit's file management software
choked and sent a distress message to the central processor which kept
rebooting."

Technicians solved the problem by upgrading the artificial intelligence on
both Spirit and its twin Opportunity.

"The rovers now have enough sense not to respond to spam or open unknown
email attachments, which makes them smarter than your average person," says
Knott.



The news comes too late for the British Mars probe Beagle 2, which is
believed to have fallen prey to a Martian strain of the Nigerian money
laundering scam.

Controllers have been unable to remotely reset the probe and expect it to
keep bombarding the earth with spam for eternity, introducing itself as the
brother of former Martian president Joseph Estrada and appealing for help to
transfer money back to earth.

unsnip


This must be what you are looking for.


---
Martin
http://home.earthlink.net/~martinhowell

"Tom Polakis" wrote in message
m...
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is titled, "April Fools Day More
Intense On Mars." I spent more time than I care to admit to looking
at the picture for a knee-slappin' joke, but I can't find any. Is
there some extremely subtle aspect of this picture that's funny, or is
the joke on us for looking for something funny?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040401.html

Tom

I think the joke is just in the explanation, not the image itself.

In a related story:


In 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2
that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to
occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet
Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational
alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore
told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment
that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange
floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds
of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One
woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their
chairs and floated around the room.
Comments