Forum | Register | Login | Contact
Hoax Photo Tests | Gullibility Tests
Random hoax | Twitter

Web Hoax Museum
Funny T-Shirts

exploding golf ball
Pranks, t-shirts, practical jokes, and gag gifts
prankplace.com

fake lottery tickets
Pranks, t-shirts, practical jokes, and gag gifts
prankplace.com
FM
Planet-Dissolving Dust Cloud Headed Toward Earth
Status: Fake; an example of the Weekly World News Effect.
I've received a couple of emails about this article on Yahoo! News detailing a cosmic "chaos cloud" that will obliterate the earth in 2014:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Scared-stiff astronomers have detected a mysterious mass they've dubbed a "chaos cloud" that dissolves everything in its path, including comets, asteroids, planets and entire stars -- and it's headed directly toward Earth! Discovered April 6 by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the swirling, 10 million-mile- wide cosmic dust cloud has been likened to an "acid nebula" and is hurtling toward us at close to the speed of light -- making its estimated time of arrival 9:15 a.m. EDT on June 1, 2014.

If it's not immediately obvious by its subject matter that the story is a joke, then it's source (the Weekly World News) should be a giveaway. It joins the time-traveling insider trader and the bogus japanese-to-english phrase book as examples of WWN stories mistaken as news, thanks to Yahoo!'s policy of not listing them as satire in their news feed.
Posted By: Alex | Date: Tue Sep 20, 2005 | Permalink | Total Comments: 14
Category: Journalism
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
Page 1 of 1 pages
The real question is whether this "chaos cloud" will get here before Planet X does and its gravity tears the earth apart. Film at eleven.
Posted by Captain Al  in  Alberta, Canada  on  Tue Sep 20, 2005  at  11:24 AM
You would think the 25% of U.S. Senators who are extraterrestrials (according to another Weekly World News story) would do something about this.
Posted by Big Gary in Dallas  in  Dallas, Texas  on  Tue Sep 20, 2005  at  11:48 AM
It was clear this was a hoax

When something travels towards you at the speed of light you don't see it until it hits.

Besides it sounds like some awful disaster movie plot. I won't be going to see it.
Posted by Sharruma  in  capable of finishing a coherent  on  Tue Sep 20, 2005  at  01:00 PM
Heh.. Weekly World News.. I've always wondered if they are actually *trying* anymore.. I mean what happened to the old standbys that were actually plausible? What's the point of a Hoax that's mind-blowingly easy to debunk?
Posted by Bobcat  on  Tue Sep 20, 2005  at  08:49 PM
Who needs a giant dust cloud when you have Katrina & Rita?
Posted by Big G  on  Wed Sep 21, 2005  at  06:32 AM
Legitimate news sources tend not to use exclamation marks to indicate the exciting nature of the story, as in: "-and it's headed toward earth!"
I like the concept, though - planet-dissolving dust, heh.
Posted by steve  in  richmond va  on  Wed Sep 21, 2005  at  10:48 AM
Who needs a giant dust cloud when you have George W. Bush?
Posted by Metaclypse the Older  on  Mon Sep 26, 2005  at  07:14 AM
"won't see it till it hits"??? sure only if it was always heading at you, what about if that thing was heading in another direction and has recently changed course heading towards earth now, we would have seen it before it started heading towards earth so your theory is wrong and I'm correct. we are all doomed, help.
Posted by science man  in  up north  on  Wed Oct 12, 2005  at  08:00 AM
Your all just saying that because your scared crapless, and its conferting to think its all a hoax....... *darts eyes back and forth*
Posted by Me  on  Thu Jan 19, 2006  at  12:00 PM
Who needs a giant dust cloud when you have Katrina & Rita?
Posted by Big G on Wed Sep 21, 2005 at 06:32 AM

Good Point
Posted by Alastor  on  Sat Jun 03, 2006  at  06:21 PM
Im still tring to find info to convince myself if this is true or not..., but i really have no clue at all...
Posted by someone  in  nowhere  on  Fri Jan 18, 2008  at  07:44 PM
its the day of judgement. we cant run away from it
Posted by sasha  in  malaysia  on  Sun Feb 24, 2008  at  06:02 AM
something that big we should all start to see it coming our way dont you think, maybe not right now; but at least a year or two in advance we would notice parts of the sky darkning, and soon after all those stupid selfish people rioting. that in its self would be a chaos cloud, and its also good reason why a goverment would not tell its poeple of a so called pending doom. and as for a space ark. LOL! not in our life time, im not saying that there could be other spices out there to help, but I dont think so. why would anyone out there help a spicies like ours out, when we cant even help our selves. as a spices we are not very nice when you think about it. would you help someone out that is killing, or stealing or will stab you in the back givin the chance. our only hope, if this is ture and like I said I DOUBT IT! would be god. not some space ark or alien spices within our goverment LOL!
Posted by matthew  in  chemult oregon  on  Fri Mar 14, 2008  at  01:01 PM
This is the first time I've heard about the dissolving cloud coming towards Earth. Could this be the bright star, everyone is saying is Jupter, but has been in the same spot in the sky for 11 months now? Besides, planets don't flicker, this light does, planets and stars move due to earth roation, this one doesn't--the space station also moves around in orbit--this celestial body is stationary. In the Winder we can see it from 7 pm to 7 a.m., well after the sun rises. What is it? I don't know and I don't think it is Jupter or any other planet, it it was it would be in an unusual close orbit to earth and NASA and Astronomy Magazine would be reporting on on it over and over, and they say nothing on this. But, this dissolving cloud is very interesting and I have never heard about it before. Thanks for sharing it. In return, I recommend getting prepared for any emergency it might bring in advance before it arrives in 20014, and I recommend going to http://www.simplylivingsmart.com for some simple ways to get prepared for any type of destruction or situation that may come our way.
Good luck and thank you for sharing the dissolving cloud.
Posted by Egypt Sasson  in  www.welcomewave.com (under construction)  on  Tue Sep 30, 2008  at  08:34 PM
Page 1 of 1 pages

Name:

Email (if you want to be notified of responses):

Location:

URL:

Note: To prove that you're a human being, not an automated spam bot, you've got to type in the word you see below. If you register as a member of the site you won't have to do this. Once registered, you'll then also need to login. If you're seeing this notice, and you've already registered, that means you haven't logged in. As a member you also won't have to enter your personal info every time you leave a comment.

Submit the word you see below:


Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?