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First Company Logo Visible From Space
Albert Sandberg writes, "KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) has created the first logo that is visible from space. The construction was made by 65,000 1x1-foot tiles and covers about 2 acres. The logo was built and assembled over about a month and is located in the Nevada desert near Area 51. The article also has a short video showing the construction in time-lapse. Now the aliens know where to get their slimy food :-)"
KFC = Klingon Fried Crispy
Could you please specify where this time-lapse video is?
May this post be indexed by spiders, and archived for all to see as my Internet epitaph.
Kodos wants Honey BBQ Wings!
It's just a stupid fast food joint, and a giant Mario head made up of throngs of NES players chanting "Mario! Mario!"
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
I, for one, welcome our new fried chicken overlords.
I wouldn't cry if someone dropped a space station on it.
So the aliens will locate us by tracking down Hitler's speeches, and when they get here they'll see the KFC logo. I guess they'll cap it off by landing in Darfur. First impressions are so important...
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
... that we all taste just like chicken.
... is titled How to Serve Man
if I can see my backyard from google maps.. that's (ahem) [B] VISIBLE FROM SPACE [/B]
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
How could an ignorant civilization have created such an intricate design that is only visible from high up? From the ground it looks like nothing. No human could have had the coordination to design such a picture. It must have been made by alien visitors, which neatly explains dinosaur fossils: those are their discarded "chicken" bones.
New Logo, new space sign, new oil (sans trans-fat). They're really shaking things up over there!
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
You mean with the naked eye. I'm sure several countries are able to see my sneaker's brand whenever they want.
I wonder why someone doesn't make an advertisement in crops after harvest (e.g. like crop circles)? Seems like it would relatively cheap and easy to make something 100-200 acres (100X larger than the KFC ad), and it would certainly get a lot of press. More people might see it as well, since every flight attendant in the country would point it out to travelers as they fly over.
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
This makes me think some people just have FAR to much money Also http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/AAAAAAAAA!
Shameless plugs and inaccessible site design FTW! - www.mistletoestreetmusic.com
What does it mean to be visible from space? This is totally absurd. My house is visible from space, I've seen it on Google Earth. There are other corporate logos that are probably visible from earth too, when you zoom in as much as they must to see this logo. Give me a break.
Lews
we've been beaming decades of reruns of "war of the worlds" into space via tv signals, so the aliens are certain to be wise to the bacteria threat and are certain to bring their antibiotics
but i don't think anyone has made a movie about alien susceptibility to "supersize me"-style death by artery clogging. so now when the aliens do come, this kfc beacon will guide them to their first meal of addictive tasty trans fats, and they shall die of arteriosclerosis, rather than sepsis
a brilliant plan! huzzah to kfc for saving the world!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
It seems a reasonable investment, when you think of it. They're targeting the highly desirable "ISS astronaut" market, and everyone knows how much fried chicken those guys eat. They're insatiable!
That green slime had it coming.
So when the little green men come and ask "Take me to your leader" they now at least have a mugshot to who they are looking for. A cartoon looking asian man with a goatee in a white suit with a red apron.
"Man, I love the smell they have around this planet. Where's it coming from again? Oh, right, this 'KFC' place. Goodness, it smells good. And hey! There's the logo. Tell me, Xghrth, why don't we come here more often?"
[15 minutes and an empty box later]
"Ungh.... THAT'S why..."
...everything is visible from space.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
Billions and Billions of chickens died for this????
Sad.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Didn't Maxim already do this by putting a magazine cover of theirs somewhere near Las Vegas? It showed up as an overlay in Google Earth so I wasn't sure if it was just a bitmap they paid Google to show, or if it's a representation of the actual billboard but overlaid on older satellite images.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
Oh great, now we'll be attracting all of those alien reefer heads to the Earth. The property values planet wide will start dropping.
I wonder how many flight attendants he's scored with?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I'm still waiting for the first company logo visible from earth (in space).
I always wondered how much it'd cost to paint the moon with a logo. I know it would be astronomical (heh), but surely it'd be worth it for whichever company (coke) did it? I mean, a logo on the moon! beat that, KFC. Who's going to be looking at their crappy from-space logo if the moon has a frikkin coke logo on it? ha!
I think I need some more coffee.
Darin Stevens couldn't be prouder of the accomplishment. Every marketer around the world just wrenched his fist upon reading this news - darn it, WE wanted to be the first logo seen in space!
OK Not really.
Nothing attracts a crowd, well, like a crowd.
Working to make ideas into reality. www.i4e.com
should actually be a poplar joke.
http://popem.ytmnd.com/
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
They'll see it and decide there's no intelligent life worth exploiting here.
"Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along."
When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks.
I can't wait to see a logo on the moon.
This is not such a bad idea; when the paranoids and UFO watchers check satellite shots of Area 51 they'll see the KFC ad, and notice they're hungry. Actually, Area 51 is probably near the top of the list of places people plug into Google Earth, so a lot of people are likely to see this.
"Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
I guess, the owner of the parallel Mars TLC (Taste-Like-Chicken) franchise abandoned the above ground market long ago.
shhh, we're trying to make them too overweight to withstand earth gravity...we should also wear placards that say "eat more chikin." oh wait...
Billboard on busy highway during rush hour, $5,000
Television ad during Superbowl, $1,200,000
Getting your logo on Google for free, Priceless
So, what's next and how much will be spent to get "free" advertising on Google?
Or, when will GOogle get wise and start charging for AdSpace or EarthAds?
. 62,400 repetitions make one truth -- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
I think we need the right not to look at advertising.
Am I alone in thinking that advertising should be restricted to certain public spaces designated as 'commercial', and should otherwise not be permitted? I strongly feel that I should be able to move around the world freely without having to look at KFC ads. We pay quite a lot of attention to our environment in a chemistry/biology context, but very little to it in terms of what kind of mental environment we are inhabiting.
I am generally relatively libertarian, believe it or not. I hate laws that interfere unneccessarily with people's right to do whatever they want. But the day I can't go anywhere on this planet without seeing an orbiting billboard is the day I become a serial killer. I guess I consider that a billboard or whatever isn't really 'over there' on someone else's property, because I feel its effects wherever I have the misfortune to observe it.
Put it this way - would we tolerate sound advertising that was audible from anywhere on earth? No. So why is visual advertising any different?
We are in danger of becoming a civilisation so enamoured with commerce that we have no independent culture or sense of aesthetics. I mean, we're branding the fucking PLANET now? It's sick. Commerce is a means to an end: we have made it an end in itself. As the first comment on the blog says, "this makes me want to kill myself".
Read Pynchon.
These people are scumbag profiteers. They pollute the airwaves with their obnoxious commercials and poison the public with their unhealthy food.
Now they are creating visual pollution on the grandest scale.
This is nothing but predatory profiteering and these giant ads, and this is not the first one, should be made illegal.
Damn. When is enough enough??
Just read the novel "Buy Jupiter" by Isaac Asimov. If I recall correctly, in that story the entire planet Jupiter is sold to aliens who want to use it as an enormous advertising surface targeted at spaceships travelling nearby.
it will sound something like this
......... THE COLONEL?!
Alien: Wait a minute, you're telling me, that I flew all the way to Earth, to get to your leader, and, and the colonel isn't even working today?
Worker: He really dead.
ALien: What?
Worker: I say he dead.
Alien: Is Mr. Sanders in?
Worker: What wrong wit you? I say you he dead!
Alien:
I'm not exactly sure what "visible from space" means, but I know that Mattel (the toy maker) owns a building near where I work and you can see their logo from pretty far away. Look up a satellite image of 333 Continental Blvd, El Segundo, CA 90245 (the logo is behind the Address window that Google pops-up).
Treat every day like it's your last; delete your browser cache before going to bed.
So Area 51 now has a fast food joint?
-86.49187 Longitude
41.66944 Latitude
It is on the Bendix Proving Grounds, just West of South Bend, Indiana.
Those are 20-30 meter tall trees. And the word 'Studebaker'(original owner) is about 550 meters long.
Hey, Mom! Is it beer, yet?
I hate corporate America.
Why bother.
Did anyone else notice at the end of the time lapse video the helicopter draft blowing away what looked like a tarp, and not tiles, making the design? Or am I just crazy?
A black hole is where God divided by 0
They must've forgotten about the "©2006 Google" clearly visible by satellite every 200 ft.
Maxim already did this. We were quite graced by a huge Eva picture that did feature the Maxim logo as part of the front cover.
KFC is not the first. I wish I could mod this story "Inaccurate".
Visible from space means, visible from where the atmosphere effectively ends. Even in the lower strata, the buildings and the roads will also have to be visible for the logo to be visible.
Its really visible when you use zooming technology, in which case my house and care are already visible thanks to Google Earth as proof.
And plenty of company logos can be found going through Google Earth.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
If you look on Google Earth you can find exactly where it was built (near Area 51, by some large green circles) and there is no indication any logo was or is going to be built there.
What about the company whose logo is the Earth?
didn't they ever hear about aliens doing cow mutilations? They're obviously more of the McDonalds type crowd.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
the future, a world where forests are replaced with the worlds largest export. Advertisements. Finger lickin' good!
Back in 93' I mowed with a tractor a RHCP logo into my field that was over 10 Acers... It was not only visible by traffic flying into San Jose but also from space. SO.. I'm suing! Accually, you can almost still see it after the grass grew in.. you'll see it in teh center... http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&X=1 551&Y=10252&Z=10&W=1 :-)
Here is a well known company whose logo is also visible from space.
With the naked eye, if you are standing on the moon? Or from the space station? From the video, it looks like its visible by SATELITES with LENSES from outer space. And its nothing new that you can read the logo of any truck, roof top, or other area since decades!
who | grep -i blond | date cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
How much was Slashdot paid to post this? Nothing? You got ripped off. More seriously, if I was running a news site, I might be inclined not to run any stories that were specificly related to the novelty of an ad campaign. I mean, I wouldn't shoot myself in the foot. For example, if the Chinese send somebody to the moon and the rocket just happens to have McWonton's logo on the side, I wouldn't refuse to run the story just for that. If, on the other hand, the payload includes a giant mylar LMart sign, why run a story on that without pay? I'd just say "in addition to exploring the moon, the rocket will also carry advertising".
If that become the journalistic standard, either news outlets will get paid to report this crap (probably unethical) or we can look forward to less obtrusive ads. I know. I'm a dreamer. See you at Jack Kent Cook Memorial Stadium... or Candlestick Park.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Apparently KFC never heard of Maxim's giant magazine cover of Eva Longoria.
Battlesuit-enabled Chicken Overlords and was glad when they roasted all the KFC execs after the Revolution.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I'm still waiting for the first company logo visible from earth (in space).
;-)
If there is anything that would lead me to seriously consider engaging in open rebellion against capitalist western culture, a la Camus, this would be it. The last thing some New Guinea Fore or Enga tribesperson or some Australian aborigine needs to see is a damned red and blue sphere with a wavy white stripe down the middle floating across the night sky (personally, I think Pepsi would do it first). I mean c'mon people, have some fscking perspective! Are marketing gurus really so stupid and vain that this would seem like a good idea?
Hmm, lack of perspective, marketing gurus, stupidity and vanity....
I think I just answered my own question.
Crap. I don't like rebellion.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard Feynman
It's not like they'll deliver there...
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
What is the ROI for trying to advertise to the 15 or so living in the ISS?
Slips in, slips out
I hate corporations,
Corporate abuse existed well before America existed. Which is why it was nearly forbidden in the constitution. Imagine if Jefferson had gotten is way? The world would be a better place.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
KFC attracts aliens? Aliens can be vegetarians, you insensitive clod! Regards, Zygkrjl
children first
captcha: nonsense
ha cha cha cha cha !!!!!!!! i did not mean for that to b erepeteitvea LOL
Is that really "visible from space" or is it "visible from space using a high resolution imaging satellite"?
I mean, I'm sure I've seen logos in Google Earth before, so this one wouldn't precede those ones. But if "visible from space" means visible with the naked eye, then how do we know this one is large enough??
This is bollocks.
I remember reading, decades ago, in the Guinness Book O' Records about the worlds' biggest sign - "so big it's visible from space" - being the Readymix sign in the Nullabor Plain.
You may or may not have heard the rumor that they were forced to change the name to KFC because the FDA said their chicken was not longer chicken... but apparently that is not true. According to snopes, here are the reasons they changed the name:
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Alien A: What's that sign? Alien B: Hey! That's KFC!
Now the aliens knows where to get their slimy food :-)
Maybe if those aliens are American, otherwise I'm sure that unless they eat humans most aliens won't associate the sign with something to eat.
The KFC logo is 65,000 tiles 1 foot by 1 foot - another way of saying 65,000 square feet. The Studebaker logo is approximately (using the Google Earth ruler and rounding down) 2000 feet long and 200 feet high, bringing it in at 400,000 square feet. Thats 6.15 times the size - and its been kicking around for 80+ years now. Significantly more impressive in my book.
I think the author of the article linked and the submitter are both drinking the kool-aid. Kudos to gurudyne for pointing out a bit of prior art thats more impressive to boot.
Their sites first post beats our site's first post.
Too bad now that they've spent their excess budget to advertise their food to astronauts with telescopes, they can't contribute more to feeding some of the 16,000 children on this planet who die every day from hunger (almost 6,000,000 per year).
You've obviously missed this onem l
http://slashdot.org/articles/06/08/15/1935259.sht
It is just to scare the aliens looking for the ships they lost that are being stored in area 51... now that the colonel is guarding the area!
FragHARD or don't frag at all
The article clearly says that the logo covers 87,500 square feet and that it only took 65,000 one foot by one foot titles. Last time I check, 87,500 square feet != 65,000 square feet.
Of course, maybe they are using new math. Or maybe it is a government coverup. Some of the logo was confiscated, probed with alien technology, and then returned larger than it started out....
Any other thoughts?
Correct spelling not guaranteed in this post.
Oh wow, you just made me realize why they put it near Area 51 ... Google Earth (and other desktop satellite imagery)! I couldn't figure it out before, but your link made me realize that even though Area 51 is a no fly zone, TONS of people will still see it online. Think of all the kooky UFO websites that republish satellite pictures of Area 51. They have a huge audience of folks who are browsing for more info on Area 51. Now all these late night UFOlogists will have the answer to their hunger pains.
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
at the end of the vid, does the camera heli blow the edge of the logo away? Drat! more effort!
This is either a major feat for mankind, or the sound of our entire race jumping the shark.
...the conversation in a passing UFO.
Grey 1:"You mean to say they actually *eat* that shit? Thank the Central Core for our intradermal nutrient absorption...Can you imagine what *their* stuff must taste like?"
Grey 2:"Yeah. The thing I really don't understand is that on the one hand, the humans complain that a visit from *us* is traumatic, but then they subject themselves to horrible experiences like that, and find that less scary! I'm really insulted!"
What does "visible from space" mean? Surely they don't mean with the naked eye; it's still far too small. And the last time I checked Google Earth, the bushes in my front yard were apparently visible from space.
Old Mill St at Groom Rd, Alamo, NV 89001
There is nothing there on the current version of the google maps but we may be able to see it in the future.
Wouldn't the first logo visible from space be this?
God Be Gone
There, fixed the headline for you.
They must have a Taco Bell in Area 51.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
how long do you think it will take for every local news station in the US to air this story as fill material. elections are over people are tired of the iraq story. They are looking the did you know story. So all in all I think it's a good idea. It' slike the biggest ball of yarn somewhere out in teh midwest. Its usefull but because of its size and uselessness its an icon.
The hidden message for their little promo on kfc.com is "finger lickin good"
I bet this brilliant f**ing "event company" just saw that they needed to clear a bunch of "weeds". Apparently they didn't bother to find out how long desert plants take to regrow. Scars in the desert can take decades to heal.
I was born and raised in the Mojave Desert. It's a beautiful place and it makes me sick to see a bunch of out-of-town yahoos clearcut a bunch of it for their little stunt. 'Course environmental awareness isn't the first thing that KFC brings to mind so it's par for the course.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Here's a picture of Earth from space:
d ia/pia08324.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multime
I can't see the logo. I think they need to get a refund from the sign shop.
Heinlein used it, too, in "The Man who Sold the Moon" (a "Future History" story about the first moonshot being done by a private entrepreneur).
The hypotheitcal, inexpensive, scheme was to set off a few "skyrockets" from the landing site to dust the moon with soot in a pattern, making the logo by selectively darkening the surface.
The logo of the "6+" (obviously 7up) company would have fit and been visible. So he sells the rights to the story analog of the Coca-Cola company (whose logo would NOT fit). That way they get to do an advertising campaign about how they paid so the moon would NOT be turned into a billboard by their competition, while the private-rocket-company guy gets his bucks and doesn't have to actually do anything (let alone carry a payload full of skyrockets and use them to paint the moon.) B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
what is in KFC food, it's space aliens. They had to do something with those frozen bodies before they spoiled.
Needs antialiasing.
(This is from an antique Bloom County strip)
"Are earthlings white meated or dark meated?"
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
where they charge admission to see it (certain online casino name left blank). Next it will be McDee's crop circle postcards at 3$ a pop.
I don't have a problem if Pizza hut wants to pay to put their logo on a solid rocket booster or painting the shuttle....but some things should NEVER be done.
There was some report that the russians (or somebody) was developing a way to use lasers to put an image on the moon. The last thing I want when with my girlfriend on a full moonlit night is to look up and see the Golden Arches being projected on the Lunar Surface.
If that happens I'll support a strategic NUCLEAR strike on the laser facility!
The time may come when the firefox logo is visible. Of course, then we must all panic as the giant space fox has come to hump the planet...
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Am i the only one who thought they were placing the logo in space? I swear, the moment i raise my eyes and find a corporate logo hanging in the sky i'm going on a killing rampage.
Is this the beginning of a drive-through planet? Maybe KFC is onto something. Imagine a Sovereign-class starship coming through with an order... (oblig. Star Trek reference)
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
What about the Church of Scientology's Trementina Base ... a symbol created so that the souls of previous scientologists passing by in space-ships know where to land in order to come home. It's a marker set up by one of the worlds most influential business enterprises for the express purpose of being seen from space. KFC "first" indeed. Just because CoS is 99% nut jobs doesn't make it any less of a business enterprise.
My heart swells with pride to see humanity investing so much effort in such profoundly beneficial ventures.
I love the marketing companies of this world, the true innovators! These truly are the golden years of progress.
For a company infamous for cutting corners when it comes to the quality of meat they serve, this seems like an outrageous waste of money/real estate.
Meet your meat.
GoogleMap: http://tinyurl.com/ts7nh "About 1965, (3) probably in winter (Hoare, 2003), a decision was made to construct a giant rendition of the Readymix company logo virtually exactly halfway along the Eyre Highway, north of the 225 mile peg. ...The diamond, its long axis at a bearing of 82[degrees] true, measured two miles long by one mile high [3.2 x 1.6km, so each side was 1.8km], with each letter being 800x600 feet [240x180m]."
Reference:
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286- 9508372_ITM
In Soviet Russia the chicken fries you
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
You have reports of cruelty to animals, and widespread rumors of lab engineered chickens (albeit untrue), and THIS is what you spend your money on? Instead of pointless junk that doesn't serve any purpose other than get your name in the Guinness book of World Records, about you do something useful with the money. You can start by doing research to come up with a type of grease that WON'T kill your customers.
You can't be serious...
I think someone at KFC marketing misread a coordinate while reviewing the plans for the Vogon's new hyperspace highway.
Area 51 is in New Mexico, not Nevada. Way to screw it up for the aliens.
In 1000 years, archaeologists will look at this logo and conclude that it must have had some sort of religious significance.
http://outcampaign.org/
He just said what the rest of us were thinking.
I would say that the first company logo seen from space or even anywhere in the solar system would have to be Orion pictures. BTW, Orion, is that movie company that models its logo after that Irish constellation O'Ryan.
BTM
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
I don't think it's a coincidence that is appears near Area 51 either. It's bait, everyone knows what they do to aliens at Area 51...
For millenniums people (or other beings, who would know) have created images on the surface of Earth... for example, those pictures of people and horses in England, or hummingbirds in South America in Peru, so called Nazca lines. This KFC is a new thing in that it is meant to be visible in Google maps and is for human audience. Its interesting to think that those ancient figures may have been made to communicate with ETs, since its probable those people may have seen flying things, as people see today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines
They're fucking WEEDS, you trailer trash.
... but insuring marketing innovations like "If this logo gets hit by a falling space station then everyone in America gets a taco" must be like the career-crowning capstone of the profession. "Bah, any idiot can underwrite a life-insurance policy for a 36 year old male nonsmoker. Its the REAL men who can just close their eyes and say, yep, I know what the risk of getting plastered by satellite debris is. Incidentally, $234 premium for coverage through the end of the year on a $200 million policy with a $150 deductible. NEXT."
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
If they think that the guys in the International Space Station are going to phone for takeout they're being wildly ambitious.
When I first read the headline, I got excited to see orbiting billboards in the night sky! I guess I interpreted it wrong..
such as ... Howard Johnson's (HoJo).
Erm, I don't want to know which HoJo Howard is sticking his Johnson into...
What the hell were they thinking??
I had the idea about 10 years ago to sell a plan to put corporate logos on the moon, ie, Coca Cola, so that every aboriginal tribe around the world no matter where would look at night and see that. I then realized, such a thing is total blasphemy, an abomination, and a descration of the moon our ancestors gazed upon with wonder for thousands of years. Therefore, I told no one of such a horrid idea. I now see, with the popularity of Google Earth, such ideas grotesque ideas are coming to fruition.
Develop ftl, go set off a few novas in the shape of the Coca Cola logo and...and...oh, smeg it all.
You aren't alone. "Adbusters" magazine may be a little too far to the left for most libertarians, but they regularly report on the increasingly negative mental effects that nonstop/saturation advertising seems to be having on many people in our society. Ignore the politics of the magazine & follow the peer-reviewed research they cite. It's scary stuff.
Am I alone in thinking that advertising should be restricted to certain public spaces designated as 'commercial',
Well, isn't virtually almost all commercial advertising done on private property?
Yes, the road is public... But the store window/sign is on private property... I bet the same goes for billboards. I'm not sure about the air... (Land ownership includes underground, maybe also above?!?!?)
We DO have advertisments on blimps...Fortunately, blimps have long stopped being the latest fad.
You can't just paint a pair of golden arches on the interstate pavement and expect to get away with it... Problem is, open-markets and capitalism allow the golden-arch owning people to have lots of 'restaurants'. They exist in sufficient numbers for that to be advertising in itself! (besides the butt-load of other advertising they actually do).
Yes, I hope we don't ever have "painted ads on the moon"/" billboards"... Sadly, I'm not sure it can be reasonably prevented. But for the immediate future, all they need to do is buy land on the top of a hill and make a really big "Hollywood" style sign.
So who wants to get started on building the giant visible-from-space goatse?
http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en& q=&z=18&ll=42.302262,-83.231338&spn=0.002515,0.004 973&t=h&om=1
It's the roof to a building near "the henry ford"
a) Define "pork", using the bible, of course.
b) Genetically engineer pigs enough so that they no longer match "a"
c) Profit!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
"Kentucky Fried Chicken" was changed to KFC back in 1991! You may or may not have heard the rumor that they were forced to change the name to KFC because the FDA said their chicken was not longer chicken... but apparently that is not true.
Yeah, that's absolute idiocy. I was working for McDonalds at the time, back in high school, and we had the same bullshit: "The patties are 100% pure beef" implied that we'd created/purchased a company called "100% Pure Beef". We didn't; the supplier (name a Canadian or American national meat packaging company) and the ingredients were marked clearly on the box: beef. Some even stated province: Pure Alberta Beef. 100% Ontario Beef. New York's finest Dead Cow. (OK, the last one was a joke... d'Uh)) The fact is (and as a former manager, a position to which I was promoted quickly because I actually showed up on time and *most* days liked my co-workers, customers and my job) McDonald's hamburgers are a higher grade of beef (Cdn AAA) than you can usually buy in the supermarket. That's lower fat than is commonly available to consumers. And it's very important to McDonalds - higher fat would be bad for the cooking process (admittedly not an open flame, unfortunately) and for the dietary disclosures now required. Throw a 1/4 pound of top-end premium ground into a frying pan, and I guarantee you'll get more fat than if you threw a *half* pound of uncooked McDonalds quarter-patties in the pan. (Try a few McDonalds, tell them you're on some sort of my-parents-were-idiot-hippies raw beef diet, sooner or later one of them will let you have uncooked patties. American or Canadian, I'll bet money than 1/2 pound of McDonalds patties gives less fat than 1/4 of extra-lean grocery store beef.)
As for KFC, all you need to do is bite into it to know it's chicken. I don't know what sort of scientifically (and culinarily) inept uncircumcised inbred NDP-voter started the rumor that "KFC can't call themselves KFC because they don't serve chicken", but it's really sufficiently asinine that the offender shouldn't be allowed to vote or procreate. If you disagree, there's a great B-Movie (sparsely available by Torrents, etc.) called "The Willies" - you'll enjoy the Tennessee Fricassee Chicken scene for sure.
I can't speak for the PETA comments against KFC, which I hope are the usual PETA bullshit. I am a carnivore but I feel for anything with a nervous system - but I will remind you that PETA has been right on occasion. OTOH, if there were anything more stupid than chicken, it would be called a "plant", it would breathe carbon dioxide, and it would think George Bush was a terrific President.
Yes, KFC is chicken. Yes, it's fried. Yes, the founder was from Kentucky. If you're too stupid to understand that the K and the F became liabilities with the diet craze(s) (whatever happened to *moderation*, you know, like us adults do), you don't deserve to breathe or breed.
But so long as you money is still real, "Can I take your order?" (We don't even want to get into my experiences with fat people: "Double Big Mac combo, large sized, large soft drink... better make it a Diet Coke, I'm trying to lose weight..." Me, screaming in my mind at the top of my lungs: "THEN MAKE THIS YOUR WEEKLY NOT DAILY TREAT TO YOURSELF, GET AN ACTIVE HOBBY, AND CUT OFF THE BON-BONS, YOU FUCKING HIDEOUS AND STINKY BEACHED WHALE." Spoken: "Oh yes, a Diet Coke will do *wonders* for your physique." - if they were any dumber, or if I were a commissioned salesperson, I'd tell them I was gay and sell them a *simply fabulous* pair of culottes and a front-load washer - they're dumb enough to trust "diet" over common sense, so they must be dumb enough to trust a cute little rubber door seal over gravity.)
Finally, say what you want about KFC, but sometimes I just get a craving for it - it's damned good (except when you go to a sucky franchise whose left it under the heat lamps too long, in which case it's only slightly better than cafeteria food). KFC, aside from their proprietary seasonings,
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
the US government recently used a radar gun to clock the volume of vlad's farts, 8000 decibels! christ on a cracker lockwood you ought to be shot!!!!
who fucking cares?
Blah, blah, blah...whatever... We're all such losers for caring so much about this stuff in the first place, right?
Looks like an allowable animal must both chew the cud and have a cloven hoof. Pigs have a cloven hoof but don't chew the cud. So, force the pig to chew the cud and you're ok? Some parts of "the law" strike me more as a guide for surviving in the desert in ancient times rather than arbitrary rules to follow. For example, Basically, the Dietary Law is a prohibition against eating scavenger animals. The article goes on about how the more complex digestive system of grazing animals leads to less toxicity in the meat. Perhaps farm pigs fed a controlled diet should be considered "clean".
I'm sure many football (North American, and the rest of the world) have their logo's visible from space. E.g., This year's Grey Cup location.
Oh - PLEASE - not another "the first XXX visible from space" thing.
h tm
What exactly does that mean? We were told that The Great Wall of
China was the only human construction visible from space...that
didn't mean anything either.
We have commercial satellites that can comfortably resolve 1/2 meter
features and unclassified military photos down to maybe 10cm - and I'm
pretty sure there must be classified stuff that's better than that.
So - almost any large-ish store sign (say a McDonalds golden arches)
will be "visible from space".
Perhaps they mean "Naked eye visible from space".
The conventional definition for the altitude at which space "starts"
is 100km. At that altitude, with our eyes able to resolve about 1/12th
of a degree, at 100km we can resolve something that's 100km * tan(1/12 degrees)
which is 0.145 km - 145 meters. So this sign is about 20km across
- yep, you can definitely see that "from space" with your naked eye.
Of course you'd be able to see one that was MUCH smaller than that - a
logo that was around half a kilometer across would be visible too - so
KFC could have saved themselves some money!
I'd be surprised if there were no company logos more than 145m across
in the world - but I can't find any - so maybe KFC do get the award for
being first - but I'd be surprised if that were true.
This turkish flag: http://members.tripod.com/kibrisevi/ozel/Bbayrak.
is big enough to see with the naked eye from space...but it's not a
company logo. You'd be (just) able to tell it was there - but you
couldn't resolve the design on it unaided.
www.sjbaker.org
The venerable Kernel!
enjoyed now and by future boxer rebellion types
(guess the Neal Stephenson novel)
Oops! I misread the article. I read 65,000 one foot tiles and mindlessly translated that as "65,000' across"....silly me.
I'm sorry...
So it's ACTUALLY more like sqrt(65000) feet across. Well, that's under 80 meters - and it needs to be 145m across if you're going to see it at all from space. But even then, it would be a pinkish spec - you wouldn't be able to see what it was.
Bah - this is B.S.
Oh - and the altitude of 100km for the lower edge of space came from Wikipedia: "The Kármán line lies at an altitude of 100 km above the Earth's surface, and is commonly used to define the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space. This definition is accepted by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which is an international standard setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics."
www.sjbaker.org
Now they should rename themselves to Milliways.
Let's just hope that no violent and hateful chicken-like alien race will see and understand it.
Does this not appear fake to anyone else? Especially the picture from "space". Note that the ground around the logo is blank and not the normal scrub brush you would find in the desert and can clearly see outside the blank area. Even the construction picture looks fake and there is no link to the video.
Ah, well. I must admire the advertising firm who came up with this. All the credit and exposure they would have gotten from actually doing this without the expense... Oh, and they didn't have the environmental impact people are complaining about either.
"Computer Scientists can count to 1024 on their fingers" (non-mutant, non-mutilatated, human computer scientists)
Now we finally know what the strange drawings on the plains of Nazca probably meant.
I hope any intelligent aliens out there that see "The Colonel" in all his corporate glory, just drive on by...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
http://www.googlesightseeing.com/index.php?s=cater pillar
Although this one has been erased in the name of housing development.
XJS*C4JDBQADN1.NSBN3*2IDNEN*GTUBE-STANDARD-ANTI-U
Coca Cola puts up a HUGE billboard on the visible side of the moon?
How long before they start building these things in space? Soon we'll all be looking at giant KFC advertisements in the sky. You won't be able to take a photograph of a nice sunset or the aurora borealis without a giant neon sign of "McDonald's" in the background.
Not sure if anyone put in the coords: 37 38' 45", 115 45' 3"
That puts it right next to the Little A'Le'Inn in Rachel, Nevada. Google Earth and Maps don't have a hi-res of the area. Windows Live Maps has a b&w map of the area, but it looks old (but it's definitely the place).
Let us be thankful we have commerce. Buy more. Buy more now. Buy more and be happy.
That's all i can say.
Privacy is terrorism.
In July 2005 Sanrio commissioned Surface to Air to make a Hello Kitty crop circle near Stonehenge, to celebrate Hello Kitty's 30th birthday. It's approximately the size of the Colonel's greasy nose.
Surprised they didn't carve it out of the jungle in Madagascar. One of the most unique ecosystems (or what is left of it) is being destroyed by KFC and its huge chicken farming operations.
Hey, a new way to spam Google.
Sorry, visible from Space?
Someone's getting "Space" and "An Aircraft" confused. Because you sure as hell COULD NOT see that from space.
how we brutally slaughter chicken for taste.
... with ...
Who knows, some might think that this is a 'free for all' planet, and might decide to help themselves
Read radical news here
The firefox crop circle in oregon? Was it big enough to be visible from space?
This is the place in google.maps, the logo is supposed to be just in the centre: http://maps.google.es/maps?f=q&hl=es&q=s&ie=UTF8&o m=1&z=14&ll=37.642986,-115.746546&spn=0.032351,0.0 86517&t=k&iwloc=addr
"When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks."
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Well at least now the 2-3 astronauts in the ISS will be added to the KFC customer base... I guess the next step is to build a KFC outlet on the ISS itself.
during which time the logo design pieces were kept hidden and under cover from identified and unidentified flying objects.
>>>Doesn't this defeat the purpose of the advertisement? I would've thought KFC *wants* fly-by's to see the ad.
"He who questions training trains himself at asking questions." - The Sphinx, Mystery Men (1999)
How about Tower 42, built for the Natwest bank in the shape of their logo? The KFC boys are at least 27 years behind
Why, as in why did the editors think this was worthy of condemning electrons to potential-drop hell? And as in why did the KFC marketing 'droids think that this would do something worthwhile for their corporate masters.
When did I last subject myself to a KFC? Probably not in the last decade or two. Do I feel motivated to rush out and partake of small bits of bony chicken drenched in greasy batter? Uh, no.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
The Nazca Lines were first, and much bigger. The picture at bottom left is even a baby chicken. Or a moose upside down.
Reduce, reuse, cycle
The Whipsnade Lion was built in 1933 to indicate the position of Whipsnade wildlife park. Aerial Picture.
Reduce, reuse, cycle
Nice try KFC, but it's been done before
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
What about the American logo, easily visible from space, in August 1945 in the region of Hiroshima, Japan -- a feat repeated a few days later at Nagasaki. Amazing -- American ingenuity! ..sorry, I'm in a dark mood today.
It is generally given in the US that the higher the grade of beef, the higher the fat content (seen as marbling) for a particular cut. That said, higher dollar primals generally have less fat than standard ground beef becuase most primals are trimmed prior to grinding (get a whole sirloin roast ground, and it should be in the 12-15% fat range, iirc, vs 30% for standard ground beef).
Unverified (by me) rumors have it that McDonalds (among others) intentionally introduces older livestock into the beef to keep the cost down, which also would keep the fat content down (as older animals have less fat). I would not doubt it.
As for KFC - yes, of course it's chicken.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
If they really want to bring aliens in for KFC, they'll have to figure a way to get the *smell* of KFC to disseminate more widely through the solar system ;-)
Here's Google Earth's placemark for this: http://www.soretoga.com.ar/KFC_Space_Logo.kmz
I, for one, welcome our new chicken-loving overlords.
I thought I saw one on Mars.
Your post was utterly unreadable.
the beef in the in burger at mcdonalds maybe a 100% beef but it's the other ingredient people are scared of.
As for KFC near area 51,,,i guess everything goes when you try to get aliens to visit us. Seti aint working so let's try plain advertising
Forget the chicken. I don't think the Dead Chook Inc logo rates as a first. Check out Google Earth at -32.216903, 125.360089. Caiguna, Australia is the nearest, um, place. It's about 13km to the south east of the logo. For the geographically challenged, do a Fly To Caiguna, Australia. Zoom out to an eye alt of about 40km. Towards the top left of the satellite image you'll see a diagonal track that crosses a vertical track. Go to the bottom of the vertical track and zoom in.
Done in about 1965 and a bit faded since it was last touched up but at 3.2km long it's big and as far as I'm concerned it's a compay logo since its what used to be on the cement trucks. It used to show up in satellite images quite clearly but has faded a lot now.
Actually thought Kentucky Fried had to change the name because they where not longer using what would be considered "Chicken". KFC had moved to using vat grown beakless, feetless, featherless genetic combination of Chicken, Turkey, Goose, and Squirel (for favor)
Neo-Poultry: it is better for you
Have we forgotten about that giant red sun in the shape of a chicken on the upper west side of manhattan that was breifly visible from space in the late 90s.
In high school I had a friend that made manager at McDonalds in 6 months and was running the place at 8 months, so saying you're a former McDonalds manager doesn't mean much. I imagine the turnover had to be huge for him to advance so quickly, though. I don't remember ever having much of a problem with turnover or people showing up on time when I was working at a restaurant, but maybe you just get a lot more of the dregs of society in fast food. OTOH, he was getting paid almost 3 times what I was before heading off to college and had management experience, something I didn't get until many years later.
;)
Seems to me a Big Mac, fries, and a diet coke was 2 points over my weight on the weight watcher's chart - that's for food in a day, not a single meal. Thankfully I haven't had a craving for one of those since 1996 when I barfed one up on choppy seas (getting SCUBA certified).
I rarely eat KFC, but I recall they had a problem with being high in trans-fats, which are known to cause health problems. I'm sure it isn't as bad as health problems related to chain smoking, so you should be fine (yes, that was a feeble attempt at sarcasm).
Let me guess... you drink 6-12 355mL bottles of Miller Lite, right
While I appreciate the twisted aspect of this article and the depressing message it contains, I do think the term "visible from space" is being a bit abused here. Visible to whom under what conditions? Certainly not to space shuttle astronauts with the naked eye (even The Great Wall, which is REALLY big, isn't visible in that way -- nor is the CITY of New York during the day!). And certainly to Them (whomever They may be), the old KFC sign on the corner down the street was ALREADY visible from space using Some Technology....
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
I think the view from the plane would be the targetted audience.
No, there is at least one animal dumber than a chicken, and at least here in the states we are all getting ready to celebrate it's stupidity by making it the main course of next Thursday's dinner.
(And for the record, gravity or not, front load washers are the greatest advance in laundry since running water. They can clean twice the clothes with a quarter of the water (or less) and half the detergent. The water level never actually gets above the seal anyway- that just keeps it from splashing out.)
If I don't put anything here, will anyone recognize me anymore?
It will save the planet.
Think of your own reaction to driving past some dismal greasy spoon on the highway.
That's what you DO. You drive past.
The aliens will figure there's nothing good to eat and motor on through.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
...the first graffiti visible from space?
Door seals on a front loading washer is a solved problem by the way (in some nations, solved in the 1970s). Sticking with pre-historic top loading twin tubs wasting water and using four or five times the energy - well, that really is stupidity :-)
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
I didn't want to have to reply to this, I really didn't, but I read one of the replies that didn't make the point I was after. Smoking causes lung cancer and emphysema, it's proven scientific fact. It's not really a question of bias. Even if your cholesterol is as good as you imply, there's simply no way cigarettes and excess alcohol intake is healthy. Now maybe you offset the cardiovascular effects that cigarette smoking has on your overall health in the short term, but in the end its bad effects will get you. I really don't mind when people smoke heavily or drink heavily as long as they acknowledge the facts that these things are poisons. I used to drink and smoke heavily myself, and I still drink a fair amount. But I don't pretend it's good for me just because I do it without dying or adversely affecting my health statistics. Scientists and doctors don't know everything about health and diet, sure, but they definitely know some things. So don't delude yourself into thinking you are smarter than the entire medical community because you haven't yet experienced any personal repercussions.
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
This means that your rooftop can now be rented out as advertising space.
This is made possible by Google Earth and the other satellite mapping services.
I wonder how long it will be before the local high school seniors rearrange the Colonel into something a little more, shall we say, anti-establishment?
Serious question: how do you know when the satellite will take the next snapshot? It's been a few years around my neck of the woods.
Nullarbor. While a little local knowledge wouldn't go astray, neither would a quick look at an atlas or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullarbor_plain wiki ...
WANRING: This warning is misspelt.
You've got a great point, but consider the effect a large coke has on your body. Let us take a look at Ye Olde nutrition index. A Big Mac has 560 calories, and 47 grams of carbohydrates. A large coke has 310 calories, resulting from 86g of carbohydrates (all sugars.)
If you ate the kind of meal I usually eat when I eat at McD's, you'd have a couple of McChickens and a diet coke. The coke has no nutritional value, although I still think the jury is out on nutrasweet. And the McChickens have 370 calories, a little under half of which are from fat. Whee. But a large coke would have just as many calories as one of those, and I'd get half again more calories. 640 calories, on the other hand, is not unreasonable for lunch on a 2000 calorie diet.
But actually, carbohydrates have a greater impact on your body than fat. It is healthier for you to eat 600 calories of fat than 600 calories of carbohydrates. First, even saturated fat raises both your HDL and LDL levels. On its own, eating lard would probably not elevate your cholesterol score as a result of this. But carbs kick your pancreas into gear, and huge influxes of "ready" carbohydrates are the most damaging influence. In addition, your brain decides whether or not you are hungry based on glucose levels. Over time it becomes resistant to glucose and it takes more and more carbs to feel full. This leads to a vicious cycle of addiction that frequently leads to obesity. However, as you are putting ever-increasing loads on your pancreas, it is likely (but AFAIK not yet conclusively proven, only very strongly indicated) that this is the cause of the diabetes epidemic in the US. Apparently now India is also experiencing the same effects as their economy heats up and more people eat more processed foods, which are typically carb-heavy and have tons of added sugar, to improve both flavor and shelf life. Take a look at hot dog packages sometime and count carbohydrates if you want to know how much of the meat you buy is actually meat...
Of course you are quite correct that eating a big mac and a large fries is, as you say, more than pretty much anyone should be eating. In fact, back in the olden days, McDonalds only had one size of french fry, and it was what we now call a "small". This is all irrelevant to me however, because I can remember when they had crispy french fries that someone might actually want to eat, which was much more recently... and I won't bother to even eat their damned fries now.
But the bottom line is that saying that the diet coke is irrelevant is like saying that you shouldn't care if you get stabbed when you've just been shot, because you already have a more serious wound.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
kfc isn't slimy. if you get the original, its just breaded chicken. its the crunchy that's a bit greasy. its fried chicken, what do you expect?
anyways its good.
I recall a while back some company did propose to launch a huge , foldable billboard in space with
a symbol on it which would appear on cetrain products, and be viewable worldwide in the night sky.
They even tried to sweeten the deal by saying that it would have an instrument platform on it.
It never did get off the ground (pun intended), and just the very idea sparked a huge outcry.
#The cheapest way to do that would be to send a robot up there to paint it.
And the guy who spawns this should go up there with the robot to stay, because he sure as hell won't be safe on Earth anymore after this stunt.
> b) Genetically engineer pigs enough so that they no longer match "a"
You might want to check out Harry Turtledove's short story The R Strain, in which this exact thing happens.
For an advert to be "visible from space" it must be distinguishable and recognizable by the naked human eye from 62 miles up.
The article says approximately 65000 1 foot tiles were used, that's almost certainly a 256x256 square making 65535 tiles.
If each tile is 1ft across, then the total size is actually 256 feet (78m) squared.
The Eva advert was 697m2, and could certainly not be seen from space.
The KFC ad is 6084m2, 10x larger, but is still only vaguely unlikely to be visible with the naked eye.
To try and imagine the visibility a bit better, scale it down (78m wide & 62 miles becomes 1.4m wide at 1 mile), so paint the KFC sign on a 1.4m x 1.4m board and see if it can be recognized from 1 mile away. The scaling calculation is fairly easy, but what it can't factor in is the fact that there's 62x more atmosphere to look through when you scale back up. I'll believe it when I see it (from space).
boakes.org
Yeah yeah yeah, so predictable... Slashdot will tell us how Organic friendly we should all be and that we are disgusting if we eat at KFC. What a bunch of arrogant pukes. I like fried chicken and your rabbit-pellet pasty, sickly white vegan physique is more than enough reason for me to keep eating it. My god, what a bunch of freaking babies this site has become.
I do not believe it is of sufficient size to be visible by the naked eye from low earth orbit.
Just because some fool said it is visible, doesn't make it so.
How many escape pods are there? "NONE,SIR!" You counted them? "TWICE, SIR!"
You a crazy man.
Unfolds? Try dropping back and punting to the original satellite methodology.. The first american satellite that was used for communication was a giant silvered balloon, that radio was bounced off of. Scale that up to something say 5 miles across, that, uninflated, fits in the payload bay of the shuttle. Inflate it with a gas that will fit in a small space. Launch to orbit, eject satellite. Allow time for orbits to separate sufficiently, then inflate. When the orbit decays, light material like mylar will burn up on re-entry.
-- All That's Evil in the Geek Space
Define "visible from space"? We've had satellites that can read license plate numbers from space for something like 30 years. I think what they meant was "world's first really big, flat logo out in the desert that you can see using Google Earth if you zoom in really, really close".
Things that are visible from outerspace:
The Himalayas
New York City
Bill O'Reilly's ego
Things that are not visible from outerspace:
KFC logo in the desert
http://www.bynarystudio.com
Google maps uses flyover data. You can see the shadow of the airplane in many shots.
Your backyard is not locatable/visible from space, unless you have Seekret Military Technology or an extremely shiny backyard. In either case your Google Maps data is not from satellites once you've zoomed in enough to see your yard.
Look it up, I'm serious.