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China Announces Launch-Success Details — Before Launch
Ironsides writes "After faking the fireworks at the Olympics this year, one would have thought China had learned their lesson. Now, it appears they announced the success of their manned space mission before liftoff even occured, complete with dialogue."
Nothing like a guaranteed success
It looks like we'll be seeing $2 time machines imported from China any day now....
Also leaked was a transcipt for their prospective moon landing...
Shenzhou 11: Base this is Shenzhou 11. Shenzhou has landed. Jesus H. Christ Base, We're on the fucking moon. Over.
Base: Roger, Shenzhou, we copy you. We cannot believe you are on the fucking moon. Repeat: Cannot fucking believe it. Over.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Yeah, but because of timezones, it's already tomorrow over there, right?
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
They said it would be open, honest, and transparent so as to let everyone get a glimpse into this historic achievement as a gesture of kindness toward the world. I actually thought about watching it for a few seconds, because there is only so much I thought they could think they could get away with. I guess I needed another reminder.
Don't news agencies prepare stories before it happens so they can be published quickly? There was that article about Steve Jobs' demise which obviously did not happen.
You didn't get the memo?
That announcement was yesterday.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
My memory must be slipping. I could have sworn they announced it next weekend.
It isn't that uncommon for Press Releases announcing the success of an event to be drafted before the event takes place.
Sure, fabricating the actual dialogue ahead of time is shadier than most.. but really what they're doing isn't THAT different from what we do in America every day. It's only garnering attention because it was leaked, but I can't imagine that anyone who says they're shocked by this isn't feigning that shock.
You could just as easily be just as shocked at a Presidential candidate accidentally releasing both a victory speech and a concession speech before knowing the outcome of an election. It's not really news, it's just humorous that it was posted (way) too prematurely.
How many people are honestly surprised at this?
If they're lying about their success (and yes, even if the mission turns out to be a success, they're still lying by announcing it early) then what else are they lying about?
For all we know dozens of taikonauts have died or been wounded in the making of China's space program.
They wouldn't tell us if it was the case.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Personally, I'm not all that impressed by this incident. The Chinese lied about putting people in orbit? Please. Our government faked an entire moon landing. They have a long way to go before they'll catch up with us.
Yeah, but as others have pointed out, such scripted articles and speeches don't include supposed dialog from the future.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
Pilot: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Ground Control: We get signal.
Pilot: What !
Ground Control: Main screen turn on.
Pilot: It's you !!
Technician: How are you gentlemen !!
Technician: All your base are belong to us.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
Actually, newspapers print extracts from speeches politicians haven't yet given all the time - because they're scripted days in advance and, these days, intentionally provided to the press.
If you look at the 'dialog' in the story it's really nothing of the sort. It's canned phrases. Just like, as someone already noted, "One small step..." So there's obviously some phrases that it is known will be used during a successful launch, so the journalist can take a short cut in writing a story about it...
All major news outlets have pre-written obituaries for just about every major celebrity who's vaguely within range of snuffing it. Every few months there's a 'controversy' when one of 'em gets mistakenly published. I don't really see any difference to that...
Yes, and the obituary of every major public figure has already been written as well. Such prep pieces are responsible practice for newspapers that have to be ready on-the-spot.
This wasn't one of those pieces. This was an entire narrative complete with faked dialogue and details, such as being complete ahead of schedule. This wasn't preparation -- this was deception.
Unfortunately, lately we seem to have absolutely no room to talk, given the practices of our own "You-have-to-give-me-700-billion-dollars-right-now-no-questions-asked-or-there-will-be-disaster" government.
No, no, you should have said "Your ideas are intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter"
They use rorem ipsum instead.
Google News will never make such silly mistakes like Xinhua does. They only reincarnate the old ones. Subscribe to Google News today!
Some consider China a threat. When ruled by ideology, group think, and the lowest common denominator, this is what you get.
May I please have my frontal lobotomy if I bring back the ashtrays?
The difference between dummy text and "deception" is that the dummy text is not supposed to end up published. It seems likely that this article was published by accident, which makes it likely that this is in fact dummy text. I did not read any part of the parent's post that defended the publishing of propaganda.
Perhaps you wrote your reply in advance, not reading what you replied to, and accidentally posted it.
No, THEY didn't, your media outlet did.
How did you watch the games, by Chinese broadcast, or by your own country's broadcaster? I watched the intro on Australian, Canadian and American networks and got different views of the opening ceremonies.
One of those even bothered to point out that the footsteps were taped beforehand and given to the outlets as pre-made footage to be played.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
From the article (which is quite poetic), the "dummy quotes" are all things that they will say (assuming they're not all killed before they get chance).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_re_as/as_china_space_article_1:
'One minute to go!'
'Changjiang No.1 found the target!'...
'The air pressure in the cabin is normal!'
That guy that says "One minute", well every trial run that's what he said, it's part of the mission. The guy that says "Changjiang 1 on target", you guessed it, he says that so everyone knows it's on target. Air pressure, ..., someone checks it every few minutes and announces the results occasionally.
The only bit in the article that's a little weird is the "target is captured 12 seconds ahead of the predicted time". But they perhaps predicted a time 12 seconds late on purpose, or are just using that as a device to show how 1337 they are.
Imagine you're writing an article about Bush addressing the nation you might prep with:
"Bush had his usual statesman like swagger as he approached the dais, 'fellow Americans' he drawled, before telling us we should give up our hard won cash to support those billionaires who'd gone one gamble to far. Why? 'stability' says President Bush whilst Obama and McCain look on silently praying Mammon that such stability can be bought before their term starts ..."
That's got to be pretty close?
Thing is, if you watched the opening via other channels, you'd know that the firework footprints you were seeing weren't real, BUT not faked - because the announcers/commentators would have told you that they weren't real.
Just because the channel you're watching doesn't tell you the details doesn't mean it's faked.
The Olympics ceremony was all a show. In movies they often have someone else singing instead of the star, in fact they also have body doubles. Given the amount of cheating in the Olympics, I'd cynically say that it's very in line with the real spirit of the games. Put on a good show and hope you don't get caught.
Lastly, while the Chinese are most certainly corrupt, there has been some accountability - the food safety head actually resigned. I believe the one before him was executed - he was found guilty of taking bribes etc.
They most certainly didn't get a USD20 million "golden parachute" package as a reward.