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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 :-)"

48 of 436 comments (clear)

  1. That's a bad idea... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Funny

    KFC = Klingon Fried Crispy

    1. Re:That's a bad idea... by ParraCida · · Score: 5, Funny

      And now when an alien civilization takes pictures from outer space and discover 'the face on earth' they will know for absolutely sure that there is no intelligent life on this planet.

    2. Re:That's a bad idea... by hacksaw5150 · · Score: 3, Funny

      The only thing I can say is that this is one of the most depressing days of my life.

      I'm speechless. :(

    3. Re:That's a bad idea... by jazman_777 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Lionel Barrymore played a wonderful Kentucky Colonel opposite Shirley Temple's "Little Colonel." I try to recall that anytime I see the KFC logo.

      --
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    4. Re:That's a bad idea... by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Funny

      But they will now it can shred.

      Is this English?

      --
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    5. Re:That's a bad idea... by Pinkfud · · Score: 5, Funny

      Drat! I've been saving white tiles for 20 years to build a giant toilet. Now these guys steal my thunder with a Colonel Panic.

      --
      The world is my oyster. That's why it's always in a stew.
    6. Re:That's a bad idea... by jtwronski · · Score: 4, Funny
      the undeniable draw of a bucket of extra crispy


      My wife calls them "Matrix Chickens", and claims that KFC grows them in a warehouse without heads or feet. The cut-off neck and legs are used to inject whatever hormones and nutrition needed to grow the "chicken" body. I'm not sure if thats exactly how it happens, but I ate at a KFC not too long ago, and something is seriously wrong with their food. She's on to something. Video at 11 :)
    7. Re:That's a bad idea... by Greeneemer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What is the definition of "Visible From Space" anyways? I can see my house on Google Earth, does that make my house "Visible From Space" too?

      --
      ...i think
    8. Re:That's a bad idea... by Nuskrad · · Score: 3, Informative

      You are aware that most Google Earth images are from aerial photographs and not orbiting satellites?

  2. Great by dedazo · · Score: 5, Funny

    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...

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    1. Re:Great by kfg · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just so we're all perfectly clear on this point; I did not have anything to do with it.

      KFG

  3. It's so all alien visitors will know... by dafragsta · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... that we all taste just like chicken.

    1. Re:It's so all alien visitors will know... by dhanes · · Score: 3, Interesting
      The Indonesians apparently have a word for man (I'm sorry I can't come up with a link, I was told this by someone who taught Silat.) that basically means 'long pig'.

      Ever wonder why canabalism is considered so bad, why Jewish rules forbid pork, and why the saturated fats from pork products are so bad for humans? I've wondered that if human meat tastes like pork, and since humans and pigs are anatomically/physiologically close to each other one of the reasons canabalism is so horrible is that the ingestion of human meat is at least as bad or worse than pork.

      Disgusting Food for Thought.

      Disclaimer:) I do like bacon, prosciutto and chinese pork/chicken sausages. After thinking about the above though, I do try to limit the amount of pork that my family eats.

      --
      Wait, What?
  4. Let's define VISIBLE as naked eye visible by way2trivial · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Let's define VISIBLE as naked eye visible by Dr.+Eggman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I agree, because I've seen store logos that were clearly ment to be seen from planes in Google Earth. Like the massive Target at lat 40.783780 lon -73.833376

      By the way, does anyone know how big that Taco Bell logo was? You know, the giant one that Taco Bell said they'd give everyone in America a free taco if a piece of the Mir station hit it?

      --
      Demented But Determined.
    2. Re:Let's define VISIBLE as naked eye visible by StikyPad · · Score: 5, Informative

      Link to the Target, for the lazy.

  5. Patterns Not Visible From Ground? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  6. Use of crops for ads? by Salvance · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
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  7. brilliant! by circletimessquare · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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
  8. The target audience by Xaroth · · Score: 4, Funny

    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!

    1. Re:The target audience by Bent+Mind · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd say the target audience is people who use Google Earth or other up to date satellite service. I know I loaded Google Earth upon reading this. I wonder how long it will be before this ad shows up? I've heard Area 51 is a common search for Google Earth. It's not surprising this add was created near it.

      --
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  9. What the aliens are thinking by aendeuryu · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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..."

  10. Maxim? by CODiNE · · Score: 3, Informative

    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
    1. Re:Maxim? by JazzLad · · Score: 5, Informative

      It has been taken down; here is what it looked like

      --
      "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
  11. Meh by user24 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Meh by Pinkfud · · Score: 5, Funny

      If I could do something to the moon, I'm afraid everyone would be looking at F**K instead of a logo. The world has no idea how lucky it is that I don't have that power.

      --
      The world is my oyster. That's why it's always in a stew.
    2. Re:Meh by Fordiman · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah. Coke's working on setting off supernovae, timed so that it lights up the night sky with "Coke Brings Life"

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      110100 1101000 1101000 1100110 0 1101111 1101000 1100011 1
  12. Target Market = Tinfoil hat wearers by Scott7477 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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."
  13. Re:Visible from space? by 4D6963 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Come on, you got his point, don't you? I was about to comment on that too, you don't need to make something friggin huge to have it seen from space, it's all about the resolution you can get from your satelitte, so saying that it's the "First Company Logo Visible From Space" is absurd, for more accuracy it should be "First Company Logo Meant To Be Visible From Space"

    --
    You just got troll'd!
  14. Billboard from space by linuxtelephony · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  15. Time for a new right... by caitsith01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Time for a new right... by Detritus · · Score: 4, Funny
      Am I alone in thinking that advertising should be restricted to certain public spaces designated as 'commercial', and should otherwise not be permitted?

      Yes. Next question.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  16. This one is from the 1920s by gurudyne · · Score: 4, Interesting

    -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?
    1. Re:This one is from the 1920s by spitzak · · Score: 3, Informative
  17. First? Ha! by kiltyj · · Score: 5, Funny

    They must've forgotten about the "©2006 Google" clearly visible by satellite every 200 ft.

  18. first? by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 3, Funny

    What about the company whose logo is the Earth?

  19. Ads need to be visible standing on the Earth by derek_farn · · Score: 3, Insightful
    What is the point of ads visible from Earth orbit? Are there lots of people in orbit to sell to? The ads need to be visible by somebody standing on the Earth. Perhaps they could be on the Moon.

    Here is a well known company whose logo is also visible from space.

  20. What About Eva? by cdrudge · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apparently KFC never heard of Maxim's giant magazine cover of Eva Longoria.

    1. Re:What About Eva? by Poeir · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Maxim giant magazine cover isn't a logo, that's the only real difference here.

      --
      Sigs are like bumper stickers.
  21. Company Logo Visible from Earth by j_f_chamblee · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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
  22. KFC = Kentucky Fried Chicken by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Informative
    I thought this one sentance at the end of TFA was quite interesting:
    KFC has also now reintroduced the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken" into their marketing materials.
    "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. According to snopes, here are the reasons they changed the name:
    • A move to de-emphasize "chicken" because KFC planned to offer a varied menu that included other types of food. (The Boston Chicken corporation took the same approach for the same reason, changing their name of its retail food outlets to Boston Market.)

    • A desire to eliminate the word "fried," which has negative connotations to the increasingly health-conscious consumer market.

    • A recent trend towards the abbreviation of long commercial titles, as demonstrated by other companies' employing shortened forms of their names, such as The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) and Howard Johnson's (HoJo).
    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
    1. Re:KFC = Kentucky Fried Chicken by Rugikiki · · Score: 3, Informative

      From the link at the bottom of the page, one is redirected to the Lost Legends page, which explains it to be a hoax.

  23. First Company Logo visible From Low Earth Orbit by LordSnooty · · Score: 3, Informative

    There, fixed the headline for you.

  24. Raping the desert by linuxwrangler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  25. From nerds to KFC: by Zorque · · Score: 5, Funny

    Needs antialiasing.

  26. Don't forget.. by Junta · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  27. I never really seriously wanted to be an actuary by patio11 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... 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."

  28. Kentucky Fried Chicken, from a McDonalds perspecti by BigBlockMopar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "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.