27 August arrives, Mars nowhere to be seen. Will people who fell for the Mars Hoax now admit they were duped?

Question

And will they have learned something about not passing on and spreading disinformation without checking first whether it is true or not?

Or have the many contributors who have patiently and endlessly explained to them why it is a hoax and how the solar system actually works been completely wasting their time?

Is gullibility a curable disease in other words?

Answer 1

As one of those who has spent a lot of time trying to disentangle the urban legends from the facts about Mars (in the hope of encouraging people to find out more about how the Solar System works and of checking their facts with NASA and other reputable space web sites) I have to say I am pessimistic about the naive ever learning to know the difference between a credible source of information and an iternet-spread rumour.

I remember one contributor arguing that she thought the "Mars will look as big as our Moon" story must be true because she kept on hearing it everywhere.

Answer 2

Mars is set till next April .

It's a hoax..
I heard about the Mars hoax and the answer is no . I'll tell you the real scoop on it . In 2003 it was in fact true ! Mars was the closest it's ever been on August 27 2003 .
The next year a New York Observatory reprinted the story again on the August 27th date for a joke . It was hown in the states on the local news and they said " The latest Mars craze is going on again this year , It was said to be started again by a new york observatory as a joke and well it's been listed as spam. And it currently is circulating the internet as a forward . We spoke to our local astronomers to get the story and they showed us where Mars is . Under the horizon till next year. t's completely not true this year , It did actually happen last in 2003 as we all know but this time it's a joke. an April fools joke . No madness intended . "
So it's been floating around for 2 years . Actually there is alot of it going around, crazy emails floating areound of it , observatory phones ringing off the hook .
It has turned into one big hoax . For further reading put in Mars Hoax into google & google news .
Next year the Mars Hoax will float again I bet !

Answer 3

Gullibility is to do with personality not intelligence. It is no more curable than the inability of the masses to distinguish between ignorance (knowledge), stupidity (intellect or lack thereof) and cognition (thinking ability).

To accept, in good faith, information one has no reason to doubt is not gullibility - have you ever seen an electron? Yet you believe in them.

Answer 4

Mark my words: the Mars email will return in August '07 ... and '08 ... and '09 ... as regular as the Perseids meteor shower ... and 2010 ... 2011 ...

... and so on into eternity ... a flame stretching on as far as time itself ... an eternal symbol of everlasting human gullibility ...

... long after we have travelled to other planets, and the sun has burned itself out, and both Earth and Mars are but cinders ... long after our galaxy has collapsed into a massive black hole and that black hole has bled off its last bits of heat and energy off in Hawking radiation ... long after the entire universe has died a slow heat death and consists of nothing but bits of scattered iron ...

... somewhere it will be August ...

... and an email will appear saying "I heard Mars is going to be as big as the moon this month!"
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Answer 5

Whats the Mars hoax????

Answer 6

Probably not! Many people never learn. They remain suckers as long as they live, regardless of how many times they are duped.

Answer 7

This happened in 2001, so you are really late to be looking . It was nove a hoax.

Answer 8

Gullabilty is not curable
It comes from a lack of intelligence

Answer 9

That same email came out last year too

Answer 10

Your dad's telescope has been quite a hit.