Author Topic: Astounding pic of the Big Blackout of 2003 (Read 3927 times)

RobW · « **Reply #1 on:** August 19, 2003, 08:03:04 PM »

Wow!

kelly · « **Reply #2 on:** August 19, 2003, 08:12:35 PM »

Cool.

Bernie · « **Reply #3 on:** August 19, 2003, 08:29:05 PM »

MrsLop · « **Reply #4 on:** August 19, 2003, 08:35:55 PM »

Thanks. It brought to mind the last great Blackout of the 1960's. At that time Rhode Island was also effected.

What a great overview.

Myrna

JohnKentucky · « **Reply #5 on:** August 19, 2003, 08:47:16 PM »

Apparently it's a fake. A friend looked at it and he said:

That's totally fake. My area wasn't blacked out, but the Photoshopper thinks so. Plus look how the lights next to the blackout are sharper than the rest. And the land in that area is black, when all other dark areas are dark blue.

Yeah, open it in Photoshop and check the colors and that "blackout" area is the darkest area in the photo. Especially apparent if you flatten the curves out:

JohnKentucky · « **Reply #6 on:** August 19, 2003, 09:00:11 PM »

Here are some real ones:
before
after

giantmike · « **Reply #7 on:** August 19, 2003, 09:00:29 PM »

I could tell it was fake right away because of the lack of blackout in the Detroit area. I know for a fact that Detroit was blacked out (as well as many miles around it), as I have dozens of friends in that area (due to going to a Michigan college). However, in that image, none of that area is blackened.

I'm sure there must be a real sattelite photo somewhere, and that would be something to behold.

krissel · « **Reply #8 on:** August 19, 2003, 10:06:42 PM »

As soon as the pic fully loaded I saw it was phoney.

Not only is the area darker than other unlit land areas but NJ and PA are totally gone. I know for sure that we (central NJ) had power as well as eastern PA. In fact that is where the grid shutdown was stopped or the entire East Coast southward would have gone out, too.

Our local paper had the before and after pics printed on its front page a couple days ago and you could see the difference. However 20 hours before the blackout was 8:15 PM and 7 hours after was 11:15 PM so there would have been fewer lights on anyway as people (well, not me) go to bed. Although I even question the 8:15 time for the first pic cause it is still somewhat light out at that time (especially to the west) and not nearly as dark as the photo makes it seem.

Diana · « **Reply #9 on:** August 19, 2003, 10:17:28 PM »

*grin...you guys got to it before I did. I was distracted by the many real images out there and when I finally got here to post the "it's a fake" message, ya'll had already figured it out.

There doesn't seem to be an ISAT Geostar 45 and searching for it wasted a bunch of my time. I did get a bunch of really cool bookmarks for my collection though.

I did find a copy of the image that was used in the fake though. It's for sale..(the northern hemisphere portion) at this site

see ya,

RHPConsult · « **Reply #10 on:** August 19, 2003, 11:41:54 PM »

TS has the "truth" before Snopes. Pretty

Shucks . . .I bit, chewed and swallowed this whole . . . in seconds!

There's probably a lesson in there . . . somewhere

Some hoaxes, you must admit, are better than other hoaxes!

jb · « **Reply #11 on:** August 20, 2003, 01:45:04 AM »

Here are JohnKentucky's Before and After pictures.

jb

kelly · « **Reply #12 on:** August 20, 2003, 08:17:13 AM »

I like the Fake better.

Gregg · « **Reply #13 on:** August 20, 2003, 08:20:24 AM »

IAWK

RobW · « **Reply #14 on:** August 20, 2003, 09:31:10 AM »

I feel so used.

Even so, IAWK&G. To quote the late, great baseball Hall of Fame player (and Phillies broadcaster) Richie Ashburn, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."

News:

Author Topic: Astounding pic of the Big Blackout of 2003 (Read 3927 times)