Blaaackooouut Froooom Spaaaaace!!!

August 22, 2003 2:30 PM

Amazing image of the blackout, taken from a space satellite. [via John Hoke]
posted by mathowie (42 comments total)

whoa!
posted by xmutex at 2:31 PM on August 22, 2003

Kinda scary
posted by Outlawyr at 2:34 PM on August 22, 2003

cool shot... not so cool situation
posted by maceo at 2:35 PM on August 22, 2003

Sorry...
posted by COBRA! at 2:36 PM on August 22, 2003

Toronto is still on, though....
posted by mrbula at 2:37 PM on August 22, 2003

Damn you Cobra.
posted by xmutex at 2:37 PM on August 22, 2003

What COBRA! said.
posted by mrbula at 2:38 PM on August 22, 2003

Hoke's ... er, hoax is right.
posted by crunchland at 2:39 PM on August 22, 2003

Giant Sharpie Marker from SPAAAAAAACCCEEE
posted by cinderful at 2:40 PM on August 22, 2003

I'm emailing Matt right now. This post is...Huh? Wha?

Nevermind.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 2:41 PM on August 22, 2003

Is it ok if I still pretend it's real?
posted by Outlawyr at 2:41 PM on August 22, 2003

But, but, but, this guy's coworker sent it to him so it must be real! I read it on the internet, so it's true!

I guess it was too good to be true, replace the originally linked image with this one. Still impressive that some of the area is blacked out.

(note to self: you should really read those snopes update emails you get every week before posting here)
posted by mathowie at 2:43 PM on August 22, 2003

Is there any other kind of satellite other than a "space" satellite, by the way?
posted by jpburns at 2:44 PM on August 22, 2003

It happens to the best of us.
posted by wsg at 2:45 PM on August 22, 2003

No, Outlawyr. Stop that. Right now.
posted by The Michael The at 2:45 PM on August 22, 2003

There's no danger in pretending. Can we get that Sharpie out and blot out Alabama too?
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 2:45 PM on August 22, 2003

Funny remark about non-space "satelites" in 3... 2... 1...
posted by xmutex at 2:46 PM on August 22, 2003

First posted: 2:30 pm

Debunked: 2:36 pm

6 minutes from posting to debunking!!

That's gotta be some kind of record...
posted by jasper411 at 2:46 PM on August 22, 2003

amazing image of the jackalope.
posted by quonsar at 2:47 PM on August 22, 2003

First posted: 2:30 pm

Debunked: 2:36 pm

6 minutes from posting to debunking!!

That's gotta be some kind of record...

It was pretty weird. Came to the main page straight from checking Snopes' "What's New" page and felt like I was in some sort of synchronicity loop....
posted by COBRA! at 2:49 PM on August 22, 2003

I was in Alabama during the blackout and I left the lights on.
posted by konolia at 2:50 PM on August 22, 2003

Came to the main page straight from checking Snopes' "What's New" page and felt like I was in some sort of synchronicity loop....

Holy crap. I just came from a porta-potty.
posted by pedantic at 2:51 PM on August 22, 2003

Is there any other kind of satellite other than a "space" satellite, by the way?


Yes.

[on preview] Sorry xmutex, it's not funny though.
posted by m@ at 2:52 PM on August 22, 2003

any wonder there was a blackout in the first place - do we really need all those f*cking lights on anyway?

we had no street lights where i grew up (no power for that matter) ... nor do i think we needed them.
posted by specialk420 at 2:52 PM on August 22, 2003

I don't understand the mentality that fakes something like that, unless it started life as a simulation and lost its explanation along the way.
posted by timeistight at 2:53 PM on August 22, 2003

Is there any other kind of satellite other than a "space" satellite, by the way?
the satellite of love (i watched it for a little while, i like to watch things on tv)
posted by andrew cooke at 2:54 PM on August 22, 2003

ban mathowie!!
posted by gyc at 2:56 PM on August 22, 2003

there used to be one of these in comstock park, mi.
posted by quonsar at 3:01 PM on August 22, 2003

yeah, MeFi has been going downhill since that matthowie jerk came around.
posted by xmutex at 3:01 PM on August 22, 2003

pile on matt!
posted by triv at 4:04 PM on August 22, 2003

Its still a cool concept shot but I'm bummed its not real.

Re: Andrew's comment above.
I find it amazing what a tragedy one night of no power in New York has been and how everyone on the east coast and around the world thought it was the funniest damn thing ever when California was having its rolling blackouts.

But then, I never lost power because I was next to a coast guard station in the harbor and then get special power from special power stations. Or something like that.

Just felt like jabbering for a moment.
posted by fenriq at 4:04 PM on August 22, 2003

Y'know, while I wasn't actually suspicious I did wonder at the total absence of cloud cover over seemingly a quarter of the globe. The snopes article explains that when they say it's a composite image.
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:12 PM on August 22, 2003

I wondered why during the blackout it was literally black in there affected area. Was this done in MS Paint? At least use the dropper tool to pick some of the color of northern Manitoba for chrissakes so it doesn't look so fake.
posted by birdherder at 4:24 PM on August 22, 2003

oh oh oh satellite of loooovveee, oh oh OH oh oh OH OH! (sorry just had to keep on singing that one)
posted by Sijeka at 4:28 PM on August 22, 2003

That's not a blackout, it's the first bite by the enormous mutant star goat! Quick, get all the marketing people and telephone sanitizers into the B ship!

</obDouglasAdams>
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:41 PM on August 22, 2003

We used to go to the "Arf-N-Barf

and i found out Q's old nom de guerre
posted by clavdivs at 4:52 PM on August 22, 2003

Do they still make Plymouth Satellites?
posted by Joeforking at 5:59 PM on August 22, 2003

See, now I don't feel so bad for posting the Blog High School thingie.
posted by headspace at 6:24 PM on August 22, 2003

Ok, so nobody posted a link to the original image. This image too, is not "real", in that it was pieced together from many, many different photos of the world to get the full, cloudless, nighttime view.

More info on this image is available from the Astronomy Picture Of the Day.
posted by Lafe at 6:35 PM on August 22, 2003

From the comments on Hoke's site:

Anyways, some poor sap linked up your pic via metafilter, congrats ;)

Hey, everybody, Sir Mildred Pierce called Matt a poor sap. We can't let him get away with that.
Let's get 'im!!!
posted by msacheson at 10:19 PM on August 22, 2003

quonsar, that Jackelope pic is clearly a photoshop job. I'm taking it to snopes.
posted by samuelad at 10:19 PM on August 22, 2003

it's amazing how they got all the clouds out of the way!
posted by delmoi at 1:34 AM on August 23, 2003