Lying clickbait: Fake locations, fake historical photos

Lying clickbait never rests, so neither can I.
Here are the latest examples I’ve seen while surfing the web.

A sponsored article titled “20 places on Earth you’re not allowed to visit ever” could have included a photo from one of many interesting locations. Instead it chose a Photoshopped fake.
The article used a picture where a star-shaped island was added next to Hawaii’s Molokini Crater reef. The result is an island formation that looks like the star and crescent symbol of Islam.

A Taboola sponsored article promising “actual Wild West photos” uses a modern photo taken by Ed Ross.
Ross, who died last year, used the Collodion process or wet-plates for his final eight years of work. By replicating the early photographic process, Ross created images that looked historical. (See articles by Nerve and Juxtapoz.)

Another article titled “Old love, new life: Finally ties the knot at 68” used a photo of actors Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. They are not married to each other as the headline implies and neither married at 68, for that matter.

The next three examples are variations on lying clickbait that I’ve seen for some time.

A Revcontent sponsored article titled “25 final photos taken before tragedy struck” used another picture from Brazil’s Pedra do Telegrafo. The rock cliff is just a few feet off the ground, but photos can make it look like people on it are in danger.
(See earlier examples from posts on July 31 and Sept. 10.)

A Taboola article titled “Historical WW2 photos that are pretty unnerving” used a picture of model Dee Marie taken in 2014 by photographer Mark Goodman. (See earlier examples from posts on Nov. 16, 2016, and March 19.)

Finally, a Taboola sponsored article titled “65 rare historical photos are truly unnerving” used a photo of actress Brigitte Bardot with Jacques Charrier in Saint Tropez in 1959. The only thing unnerving about Bardot is what an absolute smokehouse she was.

‘The Exorcist’ kicks off returning TV favorites

The fall TV season has gotten off to an uneven start. “Star Trek: Discovery,” a quality sci-fi space adventure show, debuted on CBS, while “The Orville,” a lousy Star Trek-homage/dramedy, has stunk up Fox.
Unfortunately all of the remaining episodes of “Star Trek: Discovery” will air on subscription video-on-demand service CBS All Access, to which I don’t plan to subscribe.
There aren’t many new shows I’m interested in, but I have a bunch of returning favorites, starting with the season-two premiere of “The Exorcist” on Fox tonight.
Season one was surprisingly good and scary. It also served as a fine sequel to the classic 1973 movie “The Exorcist.”
Other shows on my watch list include season 13 of “Supernatural” on the CW, premiering Oct. 12; season eight of “The Walking Dead” on AMC, premiering Oct. 22; and season two of “Stranger Things” on Netflix, available Oct. 27.
Yes, I'm a fan of science-fiction, horror and fantasy shows.

Related reading:

Fall TV season 2017 thoughts; ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ most anticipated (Sept. 4, 2017)

3 new physical halls of fame open with Wonders of Wildlife

Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium opened on Sept. 22 and along with it came three new physical halls of fame.
Located within the big new attraction in Springfield, Missouri, are the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame, International Fishing Hall of Fame and the National Archery Hall of Fame.
By my count, there are now more than 400 physical halls of fame you can visit in the U.S. And that count does not include high school halls of fame, which are basically just trophy display cases.
The Wonders of Wildlife is the passion project of Bass Pro Shops founder and CEO Johnny Morris, who is a leading conservationist.
The attraction features a 1.5-million-gallon aquarium and showcases 35,000 live fish, mammals, reptiles and birds. It also houses a large collection of record-setting game animals in immersive wildlife galleries and dioramas.
The 320,000-square-foot facility is located next to the Bass Pro Shops National Headquarters.

Photos: Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium

Strange sports: Lingerie MMA, pizza acrobatics, lumberjack contests

In the 1989 movie “Say Anything,” a character played by John Cusack said he was into kickboxing, which he described as the “sport of the future.”
Of course, he was wrong. Kickboxing was popular for a while, but soon faded, overtaken by mixed martial arts.
It’s hard to predict what sports might be popular in the future. There certainly are a lot of wannabes.
I’ve written quite a bit about fringe sports over the years.
In my last post, I highlighted several geek sports leagues for video games, fighting robots, drone racing and robot car racing. Maybe one or more of those are sports of the future.
What follows are several goofy sports I’ve seen lately.

Lingerie Fighting Championships

After the Lingerie Football League (now called Legends Football League) burst on to the scene in 2009, there was an explosion of sexy women’s sports. It begat bikini and lingerie basketball and hockey, as well as copycat football leagues.
Lingerie Fighting Championships started in 2013. It features wrestling and MMA fighting by sexy women dressed in lingerie.

Pizza acrobatics

Pizza acrobatics is the skill of tossing of pizza dough in athletic and creative ways.
Pizza acrobats have two main opportunities every year to show off their skills and compete for the title of World Pizza Champion – at the World Pizza Championships in Italy, or the World Pizza Games, which are held during the annual Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, according to Atlas Obscura.

Lumberjack sports

Lumberjacks are some tough men and women and there are competitions worldwide to show off their skills in tree felling and sawing and axing through thick tree trunks.
In the U.S., there are the Lumberjack World Championships, held every July in Hayward, Wisconsin, and the Stihl Timbersports U.S. and world championships.

DodgeBow

DodgeBow is a sport that combines dodgeball and archery.
Up to 24 players compete in an arena with bows and arrows designed specifically for the activity. The arrows are topped with foam and reportedly hurt less than paintballs. If you get hit by an arrow, you’re out. The last team with archers still standing is the winner. The game starts with a “Hunger Games”-style dash for arrows.
The first DodgeBow Arena opened in Montreal.
A similar sport is Archery Tag, which has locations throughout the U.S.

Car curling

Last March, a bunch of crazy Russians created a new sport called car curling.
Instead of 40-pound granite stones and brooms, the game is played with Soviet-era cars known as Okas. Like in Olympic curling, the idea is to slide an object on ice closer to the center of a target than your opponent’s object. Those with the most points win.
(See articles by UPI, the Washington Post and the Daily Mail.)

Related reading:

Geek sports: Video games, fighting robots, drone races, more (Sept. 21, 2017)

Fringe sports, sexy sports, fake sports – a roundup (June 28, 2014)

Geek sports: Video games, fighting robots, drone races, more

There’s been an increase in activity lately in the U.S. in digital sports, ranging from competitive video game tournaments to robot races. I figured it was time for a quick roundup on the subject.

E-sports

Competitive video game matches for cash prizes have become a big business with tournaments around such games as “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” and “Dota 2” from Valve and “League of Legends” from Tencent-owned Riot Games.
Activision Blizzard and Take-Two Interactive Software are trying to move e-sports to the next level as a professional sport with city-based teams for their games.
Activision is setting up the Overwatch League for its sci-fi shooter game “Overwatch” and Take-Two is developing the NBA 2K e-sports league with the National Basketball Association.

Roborace

With the development of self-driving cars, it was only a matter of time before people wanted to race them.
Roborace is developing a driverless electric car racing series. To date, the organization has been doing technology demonstrations, gaining partners and sponsors (such as Nvidia and Michelin) and developing the sport.

Drone Racing League

The Drone Racing League (DRL) describes itself as the premier, global drone-racing league.
A DRL drone recently received the Guinness World Records certificate for fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote controlled quadcopter (179.3 miles per hour).

Aerial Sports League

Another drone racing organizer, Aerial Sports League, claims to be the global leader in drone sports entertainment and media.
Its events have attracted over 500,000 spectators in the past two years.

BattleBots

BattleBots is the original robot fighting league and has its own primetime show, most recently airing on ABC. Reruns are now airing on the Science Channel.

MegaBots

MegaBots is launching an international sports league featuring giant, human-piloted robot combat. To hype the league, U.S.-based MegaBots challenged a Japanese robot team to a duel. That battle is expected to take place soon.
MegaBots wants to make the mecha of science fiction a reality, and then fight them in arena combat.

Robot sports could replace boxing, other dangerous human sports

It’s football season and this year a lot of conversation has been devoted to how dangerous the game is for players.
Chief among the worries for players is getting chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is a degenerative brain disease found in people who have suffered repeated blows to the head. CTE is most commonly found in athletes playing football, boxing and other contact sports.
The dangers of these sports could lead to the rise of digital and robotic sports, methinks.
Already, competitive video game play, known as e-sports, is a big deal, watched by millions worldwide online and drawing thousands for arena-held tournaments.
There also are robot fighting competitions, such as BattleBots and an upcoming giant gladiator robot match. Previously robot fighting was only in science fiction movies like “Real Steel” and “AI: Artificial Intelligence.”
Plus, there is a new robotic racecar circuit, robotic soccer and sumo matches, and aerial drone racing.
I’ll look at these emerging sports more closely in my next article.
The next generation of youngsters might be more interested in playing digital or robotic sports and less interested in dangerous sports like football, boxing, MMA and racecar driving. And their parents are likely to support them.
Just look at some of the negative news in recent months.

Are you ready for some CTE? 

In August, Ed Cunningham, a former NFL player, resigned as a college football analyst for ESPN and ABC in the prime of his broadcasting career because of his growing discomfort with the damage being inflicted on the players he was watching each week.
He said he no longer wanted to be a cheerleader for the sport. (See articles by the New York Times and the Daily Mail.)
Earlier this year, Bo Jackson, an All-Star in baseball and a Pro Bowler in football, confessed that he regrets having played football.
“If I knew back then what I know now, I would have never played football. Never,” Jackson told USA Today. “I wish I had known about all of those head injuries, but no one knew that. And the people that did know that, they wouldn’t tell anybody.”
At his Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement last month, retired Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis addressed the long-term health effects of playing football, especially CTE.
“I can’t lie, we’re all scared,” Davis said. “We’re all concerned, because we don’t know what the future holds.” (See articles by USA Today and Sporting News.)
Dr. Bennet Omalu, a doctor who discovered the link between CTE brain disease and the NFL, said that letting children play football should be considered child abuse. (See article by the Daily Mail.)

MMA is DOA for some

Many people like boxing and mixed martial arts, but they’re deadly sports.
Last October, Scottish boxer Mike Towell died after suffering severe bleeding and swelling to his brain during a televised fight. (See article by Fox News.)
In June, former UFC heavyweight Tim Hague died after suffering a knockout loss during a boxing match in Canada. (See articles by MMA Mania, the Daily Star and the New York Post.)
In July, amateur MMA fighter Donshay White died after a bout in Louisville, Ky. (See article by MMA Maxim.)
Also in July, amateur MMA fighter Rondel Clark died three days after he was knocked out during a fight in Massachusetts. (See article by the New York Post.)
Will athletes, fans and government regulators continue to support these blood sports? Probably.
But maybe attention will shift to other sports, perhaps emerging geek sports.
More on that in my next post.

Photo: Poster from the 2011 sci-fi movie “Real Steel” starring Hugh Jackman.

Lies, damn lies and clickbait

Fake news continues to find a home with online content promoters like Taboola and Revcontent. These services need to be held accountable by the websites that use them.
Here are some recent examples of the types of stories they and their ilk are peddling.

A Taboola-sponsored article titled “China’s new jet is straight out of a sci-fi movie” used a detailed model of a Vic Viper spacecraft from the Gradius Series of video games by Konami. The model was assembled and photographed by blogger RoboRay. (See article by Kotaku.)

Another Taboola article titled “30 Amish facts that’ll make your skin crawl” used a photo of a model (Sophie Letyago) wearing Amish-inspired clothing. (See description of the photo on DeviantArt.)

A Taboola article titled “15 Walmart shoppers captured these photos” didn’t use a Walmart picture, but a “plandid” (planned candid) photo of smoking hot Swedish Instagram model Anna Nystrom from August 2015.

This next type of clickbait keeps popping up.
An article titled “Shocking images of the Titanic taken by a passenger’s camera” used a still from James Cameron’s 1997 movie “Titanic.” Also, Jack and Rose are fictional characters, people!

Another common clickbait tactic is promoting an article on dead celebrities using the photo of a live celebrity to exploit the curiosity gap.
Revcontent implied that actress Julia Stiles is dead by using her picture with a story titled “She died but no one said a word, here’s why.”
Another recent clickbait article implied that actor-director Clint Eastwood had died.

And finally, here’s a blast from the past.
A recent clickbait post titled “15 chilling photos you will not find in history books” uses a photo of attractive young lady in a revealing dress. This photo is neither historic nor chilling, unless you’re horrified by side boob.
I first wrote about use of this photo in May 2016.

Lying clickbait: Photoshop fakes and optical illusions

Those crazy clickbait con artists are at it again. They’re trying to pass off Photoshopped pictures as the real deal and optical illusions as something they’re not.
Here are the latest examples.

A Taboola-sponsored article titled “Look closely: 24 photos that will make your palms sweaty” used a photo of a snorkeler with a great white shark behind her. It’s a Photoshop fake. The original photo has no shark.

Another Taboola article titled “The deadliest snakes ever found on the planet” used a badly Photoshopped picture of an elephant being killed by a giant boa constrictor. The original photo was from a Huffington Post article about veterinarians treating animals in Africa.

Yet another Taboola article titled “20+ mysterious photos that cannot be explained” includes a picture that can be easily explained. It’s a Photoshopped phony purporting to show the skeleton of a giant human being excavated by archeologists. The original photo is a human skeleton available as a stock image from AFP and Getty Images. (See article by French blog La Verite Perdue, or The Lost Truth.)

An article by Revcontent carried the headline “17 incredible pictures taken just a second before disaster” used a photo of a woman clinging to a cliff and kissing her boyfriend. As I’ve noted previously, this is an optical illusion. The woman is safe, only a few feet above the ground, on a rock in a Brazilian park called Pedra do Telegrafo.

And finally, Taboola (yeah, those guys again) ran a similarly themed article titled “20+ photos taken right before the disaster strike.” That grammar. Ouch. Anyway it featured a woman on the beach looking at a wave that appears ready to swamp her. The photo taken in 2012 on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii. The giant winter swells break just off shore and dissipate before reaching the beachgoers. (See articles by JustMyPhoto, Lanikai Bath and Body, and Izismile.)