I'm here because of my "dead" uncle.

What a dramatic letter from your 'uncle'!

And, please explain what exact relation he is to you, i.e is he your mum's brother?
This is going somewhere, I promise!

Good story OP.

Just FYI, you can clearly read your address and name, as well as your uncle's and his wife.

Obviously you scratched it out so people couldn't see it but it's as clear as day. Anyone care to backcheck his uncle's name???

Anyways, I thought everything that NASA did was on the books and any "top secret expirement" would be done under the guise of a front company, and away from government oversight.

2 cents

reply to post by Wookiep


I was wondering the same thing ?? curious ..

1. You have to save the file through photoshop for the exif data to be tagged. Want to "prove" it wasn't in photoshop, re-download the pictures and post those, not ones you put through photoshop.

2. The letter is all wrong. I count multiple elementary design mistakes that any first year English student or graphic designer (the type of person who would be formatting this letter) can tell you are huge no-nos.

-There are, for no reason, three different changes in the type of font.
-Sincerely is larger than the rest of the text.
-The grammar and paragraph structure is atrocious. It sounds like it was written by someone attempting to sound official when they probably struggle to pass 9th grade English.
-Lacks a basic grasp of technical and business writing.
-Letterheads do not change that drastically within a one month period. Put the known real letterhead in a window side by side with this one from the OP. The differences in design stand out like a sore thumb.
-Not to mention the fact that I believe the font used in the date on the OP's letter is a font that was not in existence before 2007.
-Last name would be used with a title (Mr.).
-Never... I mean NEVER, is a semi-colon used like that.
-They would not contact a nephew. This letter would be sent only to his wife or next of kin.

Oh, and clever... You make the fake document, printed it, then scanned it off so that the new picture's exif data looked legit. Nice. At least you are learning a few skills with this exercise.

Originally posted by GeechQuestInfo
Good story OP.

Just FYI, you can clearly read your address and name, as well as your uncle's and his wife.

Obviously you scratched it out so people couldn't see it but it's as clear as day. Anyone care to backcheck his uncle's name???

Anyways, I thought everything that NASA did was on the books and any "top secret expirement" would be done under the guise of a front company, and away from government oversight.

2 cents

I wanted to research from that angle, and having found some interesting connections to Redstone Arsenal while digging into this a little (which is not only near me, but I know some long-time engineers in the Space program there that I could put some questions to) but even expanding my screen size didn't help these old eyes make out the name(s). Care to help me, Geech and I'll start digging?

Originally posted by glitch88
1. You have to save the file through photoshop for the exif data to be tagged. Want to "prove" it wasn't in photoshop, re-download the pictures and post those, not ones you put through photoshop.

I'm no expert, maybe you can help me with this... I understand that the photo was ran through photoshop... but would the exif data say this: (scroll right)



Creator tool - "Adobe Photoshop" if it were just *viewed* in photoshop? Help me out here, I'm learning.

reply to post by Wookiep


I'm not too sure what you are asking but I will attempt an answer:

It says photoshop under "creator tool" because the image was at some point saved with the program.

Is that what you were confused about?

Oh, wait I get what you are asking, and the answer is no. I could take a photo, open it in photoshop, close the program without saving, and the exif data would not have that tag. It has to actually be save within the program.

reply to post by glitch88


yes, thanks! I am more confused now how to add the scroll bars to my image. :p

Edit: nevermind, found out!

Not that I believe any of this...

Nobody has bothered to really dig on his relationship with the Uncle...you find it strange that his Uncle would e-mail him, or that he would recieve a letter. HOWEVER...what if his Uncle were his guardian? And suppose he was no longer living in the same home as his Aunt/Uncle at the time of the incident...


...personally, I don't buy it msyelf (nothing to do with the relationship to the Uncle, though...was just my Uncle's Best Man myself...). But what rubbed me the wrong way with the NASA letter was "Dear Daniel"...are you and Mr. Griffin old chums? Usually such a formal letter would be addressed "Dear Mr. Smith"...first names are used for personal letters, not formal notifications of a death in the family. Secondly, if your Uncle were really hiding out from NASA, and once worked for NASA, I would assume he would be smart enough not to send proof of his continued existance around the internet. Anybody who thinks the internet is secure is fooling themselves...easiest way to get caught for him IMO, and as such a foolish action to take. Especially since, if this is all true, he would be potentially putting you in a lot of danger.

...err...wording/grammar of the letter does not scream "Rocket Scientist" in my view, although scientists are not usually known for such skills. A NASA big-wig, however, would have someone paid to make him seem as intelligent as possible...the letter seems like it was "cleaned up", but not by someone who majored in University English..

...not going to touch on the pics. Either they are old NASA pics from the first moon landing( ), or they are fake..incidentally, whether or not you faked them, admitting you even have Photoshop does not help your credibility...people with that program tend to get into the habit of tinkering...followed by a gruelling post-secondary experience that fails to land you a decent job, regardless of how skilled you are with said program...er...where was I?...oh, yes..

To sum up: this whole thing doesn't ring true, in my humble opinion. Good read, though...certainly grabbed my attention.


GtkP

reply to post by glitch88


Ahhh ok, I figured that... soooo this exif data is suggesting the OP saved the photo in photoshop. Gotcha. Not sure why the OP would decide to do that.

Hi OP.....nice intriguing thread and very sad to here about the proposed accident within Nasa.
I am airing at hoax, maybe at your expense, due to the letter you revealed to us and how it opens.........."Dear Daniel" The author of the aforementioned letter knows you personally....................... plain and simple.
An official letter informing of loss would begin........"Dear Mr.D.Blogs....It is with deepest regret blah blah blah" words to that effect.
So I'm afraid if you are genuine, then you are being duped by someone you know personally....e.g Uncle in question.......Friend.....or other.

Please hide "your" information more carefully




also the images on the first page have the most poorly rendered lens flares i've ever come across. Looks like lens flares from the late 90s. Should have added a film grain to the image and maybe slightly blurred objects far away such as the planet/moon on the left or objects close up on the ground.

Either way Welcome to ATS.

Originally posted by Sportbominable
My first thought is that I don't believe you. Can you even send email from outer space?

In agreement to the email from outer space comment, I mean if he's in an alien world, I doubt he would have access to similar technology as our own, or for that matter, the alien technology there available to him would be most likely incompatible with our "modern" technology... or our latest update of windows at least.

reply to post by StealthKix


[personal information removed]

reply to post by StealthKix


You beat me to it except mines a little different

[personal information removed]

Originally posted by Wookiep
reply to post by glitch88

 

Ahhh ok, I figured that... soooo this exif data is suggesting the OP saved the photo in photoshop. Gotcha.

Not sure why the OP would decide to do that.

Well the OP did address that and said he opened them in photoshop to get a better look at the pics. Is that plausible? I think I can give him that because I open alot of photos in various image editors for such reasons myself.

What I find curious as well, is that the OP made a post and didn't seem to know who Michael D Griffin was and thought that some of us here were saying that Michael D Griffin was a pseudonym of his uncle, which he then edited and deleted the text from. I get confused sometimes too, though, so maybe he had a brainfart is all.

OP continues to seem very sincere & likeable and that just makes it all the more fun and "what If" intriguing. Killer first post no matter what!!

reply to post by Moose318


Props on getting the spouse. I checked the area on google maps does exist.

reply to post by StealthKix


daniel babcuth is what it looks like to me.

img233.imageshack.us...

reply to post by FrodoBaggins


While that looks like a Xerox copy, rather than an original, I sure hope it was a Xerox!

That signature should be worth a small fortune to autograph collectors! If your original is in ink rather than autopenned, that's worth even more. And the subject covers two specialty areas (Space and Whatever the Missing Person Reason Turns Out to Be) so that adds to the value of an original.

en.wikipedia.org...

Tell us you didn't scribble all over an original.

Also, what is "DeltaCOm"? Or even Deltacom?

Are they those secret astronauts that where on a PBS show? The ones that fly around up there for years at a time?

Peter Bebruth = uncle