News from the Future!
I know I should have shut up and shut down for the day blog-wise and brain-wise by now, but seeing the same sort of thing twice in a row was too good. Just like that show Early Edition*, news sources have been running stories and ads while the outcome of the referenced events have yet to be determined.
Xinhua, China’s official news agency, posted an article to the web about the successful launch of their space mission before the actual launch had taken place:
The Shenzhou 7 mission, which will feature China’s first-ever spacewalk, is set to launch Thursday from Jiuquan in northwestern China between 9:07 a.m. EDT and 10:27 p.m. EDT.
The [article], dated two days from now on Sept. 27, vividly described the rocket in flight, complete with a sharply detailed dialogue between the three astronauts.
And The Wall Street Journal’s web site was “running” a McCain Wins Debate banner ad this morning**. That’s pretty impressive since at that point, he was still trying to squirm out of appearing. However that could be why he didn’t care about showing up–his magical Time Masheen told him he was going to win. Why show up for a foregone conclusion? Could make for a great political slogans:
- John McCain–He’s already President… in the future!
- McCain–Vote for me if you want to live
- Master of Time, Space & the Economy–Vote McCain
If anything to boost his ratings, he should travel ahead and pick up a copy of his death certificate just to show that he doesn’t bite it in the next 4 to 8 years.
Slightly less amusing was when Bloomberg accidentally ran the obituary of Steve Jobs… well ahead of schedule, I’d say.
* Perhaps, also like the tv show, these events are being shown to us ahead of time so that we have an opportunity to change things for the better.
** Given the dubious nature of the screenshot, I am extremely skeptical of this one… but it’s still fun to dish about!
Like you, I’m not sure whether to be skeptical of the McCain image or not. I saw it reported on a different site and on the Huffington Post but couldn’t find it in the location it was originally supposed to have appeared (in the post I read, they said it was on the McCain Campaign web site). I still like the implication that it makes the McCain campaign people look even more incompetent than they have already shown themselves to be though.
That is a funny language gaffe. Apparently, the writer/translator doesn’t know the difference between simple past and the future tense in English. Perhaps China’s involved in temporal work too, and they can no longer keep their verb tenses straight.
Definitely should be in Engrish Funny.