Forward or Delete: This Week's Fake Viral Photos
Occasionally, against all odds, you'll see an interesting or even enjoyable picture on the Internet. But is it worth sharing, or just another Photoshop job that belongs in the digital trash heap? Check in here and find out if that viral photo deserves an enthusiastic "forward" or a pitiless "delete."
FORWARD
Auctioned Texas plumber's truck ends up with militants in Syria http://t.co/oc7ZqpgHDw pic.twitter.com/g0SNvtfNSw
— KGW News (@KGWNews) December 18, 2014
Despite being a stump speech-ready example of an American small business, phone-wielding patriots hit Mark-1 Plumbing of Texas City, Texas with constant threats and harassment this week after one of their trucks showed up on Jihad Twitter as an improvised combat vehicle in Syria.
Unfortunately for former owner Mark Oberholtzer, an additional photo from October confirms that the pictured pickup is one his son Jeff sold to a Houston-area auto dealer last year.
الله أكبر التصدي للطيران الحربي باﻷسلحة الثقيلة أثناء تقدم المجاهدين لدحر النظام النصيري #جبهة_أنصار_الدين #حندرات pic.twitter.com/9nV9EYQE4u
— جبهة أنصار الدين (@ansardeenfront) October 10, 2014
However, the company denies that they planned to secretly aid Islamic militants via a series of impossible to anticipate transnational auto sales. "We have nothing to do with terror at all," the younger Oberholtzer told KHOU-TV.
DELETE
A shoe from #Peshawar : The smallest coffins are the heaviest to pull. whatever happened to humanity. :( #RIPChildren pic.twitter.com/fhtjkMfpjR
— SUDHiR (@Sudhir_Anna) December 16, 2014
On Tuesday, Taliban militants attacked a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing over 100 people, many of them students. Soon after, this striking photo of a blood-stained children's shoe raced through social media with the hashtag #Peshawar, becoming one of the most widely shared representations of the massacre.
But as reported by Vocativ, in reality the picture was taken after a Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli shopping mall in 2008. According to Haaretz, at least two children were seriously wounded by the blast.
FORWARD
Marlon Brando before and after getting his make up done to be Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather pic.twitter.com/4dkyUNLg7m
— History In Pictures (@HistoryInPics) December 14, 2014
On the Internet, "historical pictures" are one the most reliable sources of total bullshit, surpassed only by "historical pictures of famous people," but—as improbable as it may seem—this one is real.
Taken from Taschen's The Godfather Family Album, the photo shows Marlon Brando in and out of the makeup designed by special effects artist Dick Smith (himself known as "The Godfather of Makeup"). Brando was just 46 at the time of filming, necessitating the old-man-ening seen above.
DELETE
A diver swims between two tectonic plates in Iceland pic.twitter.com/10n7qolOPG
— Travel Epic (@TravelEpics) December 10, 2014
As increasingly unhinged geologists are compelled to point out each time this picture pops up online, this photo of Iceland's Silfra rift does not show a gap "between two tectonic plates" with the American plate "on the left, and the Eurasian on the right."
From Reddit user purple_people_eaters:
[I]t should be pointed out that tectonics are more of a zonal thing. You can't necessarily say that the rocks on the left belong to the North American plate, while the rocks on the right belong to the Eurasian plate. The geologic processes that are occurring in the area are creating these valleys and canyons, but it is more of a fuzzy divide instead of a sharp clear one that the pictures make it out to be.
Although formed by tectonic drift, the fissure seen above is just one of many faults that can be found in the area, Iceland's Þingvellir National Park.
DELETE
I don't even know what to say about this one other than it's one of the worst fakes I've ever seen. Two years ago, Weird Al posted it on Twitter. This week, it was shared by @OldPicsArchive. A couple months from now you can expect to see it on Facebook. Here's the original. God help us all.