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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 :-)"

30 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 MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Funny

      But they will now it can shred.

      Is this English?

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    3. 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.
    4. 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 :)
  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.

  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 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. 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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  8. 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..."

  9. 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.
  10. 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."
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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?
  14. First? Ha! by kiltyj · · Score: 5, Funny

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

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

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

  16. 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!
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. From nerds to KFC: by Zorque · · Score: 5, Funny

    Needs antialiasing.

  20. 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.
  21. 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.