04-01-2008, 01:22 PM
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#8 (permalink)
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Eat your vegetables
Super Moderator
Location: Arabidopsis-ville
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hehe. Super Pii Pii brothers. Good find, Cyn.
Here's mine... heard about it on CNBC this morning:
Quote:
Google, Virgin Launch Hoax Mars Settlement
by Cassimir Medford on 01 April 2008, 10:57
Google and Virgin Group in an April Fool's Day prank on Tuesday launched Virgle, a joint venture that touts open-source development to establish Earth's first human settlement on Mars.
The April Fool's Day announcement spoofed Google's supposed goal of world domination, unveiling details of Virgle's 100-year plan, which includes an IPO along with the first manned expedition to Mars in 2016.
Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page said they will share leadership of Virgle City, the first Martian municipality, with Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group.
By making Virgle's Mars project open source, Google and Virgin will tap into Earth's global talent pool or "the Long Tail of human creativity" as they call it.
NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz thinks Virgle's Mars exploration timetable is very aggressive compared to NASA's.
"NASA is currently working on plans to return to the moon by 2020 and what we learn on the moon will prepare for a trip to Mars, but we have to learn a lot more than we currently know before we tackle something like that," she said.
The round trip to Mars could take a year and when one includes a minimum 18-month stay on Mars, the trip could last four years, Ms. Schierholz said.
A manned mission to Mars is a NASA goal, but that would occur no sooner than 2030.
And Virgle’s space travelers must figure out a way to produce food and other staples on Mars since there is no room to pack enough for a four-year trip.
Google’s extravagant hoax, which includes pages of explanation and a YouTube video featuring Messrs. Brin and Page discussing the project, is not the first April Fool's ruse for the search king.
The Mountain View, California-based firm's April Fool's stunts date back to 2000, when the company unveiled MentalPlex, a search technology that "reads" the user's mind to determine the query subject.
In 2005, Google unveiled the Google Gulp, a drink that could expand one's intelligence, and in 2007 Google introduced Gmail Paper, a free service that would convert email to print and send the letters via snail mail.
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"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq
"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy
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