Very Stupid Hoaxer Fakes Columbia Tape

How DUMB can you get???
www.sltrib.com...

Call About a Columbia Tape Being Found in Texas Was a Hoax





By Johnny Johnson
Cox News Service

NACOGDOCHES, Texas -- An anonymous call to a small East Texas newspaper, which raised the hopes of both the space program and families of the Columbia crew, has turned out to be a cruel hoax.
Earlier this week, the Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches received a recorded message on its anonymous call-in comment and news tip line from what sounded like a middle-aged woman claiming to have intimate knowledge of an audio recording of the last communication from the space shuttle Columbia.
The "Sound-Off" message was as follows:
"Could you please give me the shuttle discovery number that I'm supposed to call if I find something? I found a mini-cassette -- (potentially sensitive information has been deleted here) -- and I think this needs to go back to NASA. I need the number please."
NASA officials, who believed the caller was credible, attempted to make contact through the newspaper with a story that said they would be interested in talking to the person on a "no-questions-asked" basis.
Early Friday morning, they found out that their attempt had been both successful and disappointing, according to Sarah Murray, with the Columbia Recovery Office.
"The woman called in and proceeded to apologize right away," Murray said. "She said that she did not have the tape, and that she was sorry, and that it was a horrible thing to do."

You gotta wonder about some people. You really do.

She will very lucky if she doesnt go to jail.

Yeah ya do got to wonder about some people.

I'm wondering if she is scared of NASA.
Think if you had listened to perhaps information NASA does not want the public to hear or know.
I not sure I would call NASA if I found something because of fear you could end up in a cell block somewhere in say Guantonomo.

Who knows?
NASA seem to think it was credible.

After hearing the message, Smith said he believed the call to be authentic and that NASA was extremely interested in talking to this person and getting that tape back.

"Our judgment is that this female is credible," he said.

One of the credibility indicators was the fact that all seven astronauts were equipped with personal
mini-cassette recorders for taking notes, according to Smith.

Curious to how some East Texas country girl knew that they had personal recorders?
I personally think the story she said about why she made the call is BS.

Lot of (Anti Gov folks) & private militias in East, Texas (all of Texas) could have persuaded or told her of the consequences she might have if she turned it in
I bet she will get a visit here very soon.

NASA's "no-questions-asked"

Yeah right!
That is a load of bull caca.

Here is the link to the original thread I started.
ATS Thread

[Edited on 15-6-2003 by MiStErBeLLaTrIx]

Well... in the first place, the heat of reentry disintegrated and charred almost everything. And she says she found an INTACT and playable "personal recorder" and mini casette tape?

I'm sure NASA said "yeah, right" but had to get their mitts on it so that no hoaxer (like she was) started another round of lies. And the wrong way is to start yelling, "HEY! IT'S A FAKE!!! THAT IDIOT IS TRYING TO SELL THE THING FOR A LOT OF MONEY!!" Best way to do it is be cool and say, "yes, we'd love to see it. Let's see what you got."

I'd bet that greed was her first motive. Sell the "tape" to one of the conspiracy shows (like Art Bell) and get lots of money and live high on the hog on her lies.

Well,
I have a friend who has a friend who works for nasa(and, yes, they're real, and this isn't an urban legend) who sent him photos of Columbia crash debris. A LOT of it is in near perfect condition. There are computer cases, clothes, even documents and pieces of paper... that came to earth in a totally undamaged condition. Sure, you could charge, I'm clearly lying to you.. well, NO. Some of the computer cases had INTACT laptop computers in them. And when I say INTACT, the things looked like you could go to Best Buy and resell them.. hell, even the cables that were attached to them were undamaged.

And, no, I doubt this guy took the time to forge 25-30 photos for my enjoyment.

So, the idea that a tape recorder could make it to earth is NOT absurd. Thinking that it's absurd just demonstrates the mentality that cost Columbia in the first place (surely foam can't damage a shuttle, right?). In our rush to mock others, or put down their ideas as silly, we often forget to look at the facts: the FACT is that some computers made it to earth in one piece, so why not a recorder?

Also, Why would a woman say that she had a tape if she didn't, then proceed to confess while still an anonymous person?

And, as for her selling her story to 'conspiracy' radio shows, this is a 'conspiracy' website.

Like I said, I think she faked it to see if she could get money and then had an attack of conscience. She's stupid and greedy -- but the only conspiracy here (as everyone agrees) is her greed that wanted to decieve people so that they'd give her money.

Yo Byrd man, You do know they found half a torso around Houston Texas.
I would think if they can find a half a human torso ( & other body parts),
a tape inside a mini recorder could survive reentry as well.

And since they say it is a hoax.
What was the deleted portion?

I found a mini-cassette -- (potentially sensitive information has been deleted here) -- and I think this needs to go back to NASA.

What if....

NASA & Gov. located her and told her to call back and say it was a hoax.

[Edited on 16-6-2003 by MiStErBeLLaTrIx]

I'll have to look for those photos (I think I deleted them out of respect). They clearly show intact laptop computers that came down with the other Columbia debris.

Let's take a look at the physics involved here concerning whether a mini-tape could survive.

In the videos, from day 1, it is very discernible what is happening as the shuttle disintegrates. Just as in the Challenger disaster, the shuttle lifting body disintegrates from around the cabin. The cabin can be clearly seen as it emerges from the disintegrating lifting body in pristine condition, unheated and then you watch it heat up itself and debris come from the back side of the cabin. In fact, in the video, it gives you a very odd feeling because as you watch it it seems you are watching the cabin actually "pass" the shuttle's main plasma ball...as if it is traveling faster. What you are really seeing is the lifting body disintegrate backward from the nose (in fact you can still see the nose cone separated from the lifting body traveling just ahead of the point where the crew cabin emerges) and from around the cabin, giving the since that the cabin just passed the shuttle.

Let's review the structure a minute. A titanium cabin, surrounded by an aluminum lifting body, the two of which are integrated by attachment points, and not much more. Just as in the Challenger disaster, as the lifting body disintegrates, the cabin, remaining intact, travels on due its imparted velocity until gravity gets the best of it.

Now let's look at the aerodynamics at the point the cabin emerges. Prior to this point not much trauma has happened to this cabin. At some point during the disintegration of the foreward section of the lifting body (the nose), there was probably enough breach to cause airflow back into the cabin which could have caused a number of scenarios (of course, the oxygen bags probably deployed...but there are just seconds involved so we can't fit too much in there), but as far as physical damage to the cabin, the disintegrating nose of the lifting body is consuming enough energy to protect the cabin from any destructive forces due extremely high air velocity. In addition, up to the point of the cabin emerging, the cabin is protected by the low pressure drag wake of the nose section.

At the point the cabin emerges, it is evident it is NOT heated...go rewatch the video. And you see it start heating up and eventually it cannot be seen due to its own "plasma" shield, if you will. Okay, when the extreme velocity air hits the cabin, odds are most of what was in there got pushed through the back side of the cabin (sudden full frontal impact of probably about Mach 12-15 at that point). So now you have all these pieces/parts (including the crew) being protectively drug along in the low pressure drag wake of the cabin. And you can see this on the video. You can see the lighter pieces of debris, which would not have the momentum required to keep their path, waft OUT of the drag wake and flash disintegrate. (This same phenomena is evident if you follow a 18 wheeler. The truck, traveling at a sufficient speed can actually pull your car along, but if it travels past a piece of paper on the highway, it will kick up the paper and the paper will waft OUT of the truck's wake...the paper doesn't have enough inertia to maintain an even semi-linear travel path behind the truck. This is due to the fact that an object of insufficient mass will be effected by the turbulent eddies within the drag wake and be spit out by them, while an object of sufficient mass will be able to maintain its linear travel with little effect from these eddies.)

So the first point is, YES, just about anything in that cabin could have made it to the ground without disintegrating due to HEAT. Now, let's look at the mini-tape itself. It is my understanding that there was a minitape for EACH crewmember to record their specific comments. I assume they were voice-activated. The question becomes, where were the recording devices, because the tape had to be in a recording device IF it contained last comments of crewmembers, right? So where were the recording devices located? Were they on the crewmember's suit??? Were they somehow attached to the crewmember's seat??? I haven't read anything detailed enough to tell me this. BUT, if they were "attached" either to the seat, or the crewmember themselves, YES, any given tape most definitely could have survived.

And I am having a hard time accepting this woman's "Oh I feel so bad...I don't have it, I never did. It was just a bad joke." Yeah, right. There was something said in that original voice message that got NASA's hopes up enough to do an APB on this lady. You can't tell me some middle-aged woman in BFE Texas knew enough to insert that kind of information in a voice message as "a joke".

Aint buyin' it...and I bet NASA isn't either.

[Edited on 22-6-2003 by Valhall]

I would like to discuss this thread further if you are so inclined.

Yes,
I think that this should be discussed further, too. I have a feeling that it was started preemptively, though, to mock a conspiracy 'theory' before one of us got a hold of it.

So far as those photos I talked about go, I did, it turns out, delete them out of respect. I'll ask my friend at work to resend them so that I can email them to either you or Byrd.

Jim

I would be very interested in seeing them. Thank you for offering.

I am still very interested in seeing the pics you referred to. If you can either post a link, or u2u with an email so that they could be passed thru email, that would be great.

Thank you!

Sorry,
Sometimes I forget what threads I've posted on. I'll put those photos up tomorrow, when I'm at work, as I think that they're still on my computer at work.