It doesn’t take much to make yourself look like a fool, but in the case of The UK’s Sun and Daily Mail newspapers, they have to be feeling quite idiotic right about now. Perhaps not, as these tabloids have a history of running fabulous stories about celebrities, politicians, and the supernatural as a matter of daily business.
John Ware, a 47-year old builder, sent the newspapers a photo he had taken with his iPhone that allegedly showed a ghostly little boy dressed in turn-of-the-20th-century clothing, balefully looking at the photographer. You can see the little boy at the right side of the photo, standing in the foreground. The papers dutifully ran the story, with the Sun’s example shown at the top of this post.
There’s only one problem: as Macenstein pointed out, the same little boy haunts the US$0.99 iPhone app Ghost Capture. That’s right — it’s apparent that Mr. Ware snapped a shot of a demolition site with the app, and then submitted the photo. Our guess is that Ware was having a little fun with the papers, and that the “Got a story? We pay £££.” tag line you see at the top of the page might have provided some motivation.
Har!
It occurs to me that – in the same vein as the Ghost Capture app – someone might produce apps that expand upon the Virgin Mary in a cheese sandwich, e.g., making a guest appearance on the Bill O’Reilly show, endorsing one of the teabagger rallies, floating in supportive fashion over some Sunday morning TV collection plate.
Because of course, its logical to have a black/white ghost appear in a color photo.
The sooner all newspapers die the better.
Hello?? Has no one ever seen the Weekly World News or National Enquirer?
I guess you can’t fault the papers for trying whatever they can think of to keep their sinking ship afloat. It’s kind of cute in a way.
🙂
Of course, there are no ghosts from the 70’s with bell bottoms, they are always Victorian or older (credit goes to “Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe” for pointing out this idiotic anomaly).
I had friend say that he took pictures like this. It’s irrational and creepy. In cases of real pictures like this, they are just seeing patterns that aren’t there like your average Virgin Mary apparition.
I had no idea there was an app to fake this. Reminds me of the photos of the face of Satan in smoke meme that Weekly World News used to do.
I do not believe supernatural activity happens in modern times.
Toast Seen in a Painting of Jesus!
http://tinyurl.com/ygjgzqt
Vampire Boy said, this is obviously phony.
Looks like the application works as advertised!
Its a Murdoch “NewsCorp” paper. Worship it.
#6: Benjamin
“I do not believe supernatural activity happens in modern times.”
Implying that you DO believe that supernatural activity happened in ancient times. So, in your opinion, what changed? – and when? – and why?
#11 I only believe in supernatural activity that was documented in the Bible. I’ve seen no evidence of anything supernatural happening in modern times.
#12: Benjamin
“I only believe in supernatural activity that was documented in the Bible”.
Why only that? And how do you know that the activity described was supernatural, rather than illusionary or inaccurately described or misunderstood?
#11 Benjamin: There’s no proof that the “supernatural activity” written in the Bible or any other religious book actually happened. Just because a story says Buddha moved himself to a higher plane doesn’t mean he did that. Same thing with the “miracles” in the Bible or Koran or whatever.
I’ve never understood how ghosts can pass through walls when the ground always manages to stop them, dead. And where do they get their ghostly apparel with brand names?
RBG