#moonmelon

[jacobtheloofah]

what's the blue watermelon about?

rather than explain ill just show, this was an interaction on tumblr many many many years ago:

this went on for a while longer with people adding on other photoshopped watermelon pics riffing on this but yeah, good ol' moonmelon

[tangibletechnomancy]

This a Moonmelon , scientifically knows as asidus. This fruit grows in some parts of Japan , and it's known for it's weird blue color. What you probably don't know about this fruit, is that it can switch flavors after you eat it. Everything sour will taste sweet, and everything salty will taste bitter, and it gives water a strong orange-like taste. This fruit is Very expensive. It costs about ￥16000 JPY (which is about 200 dollars). Keep reading for more fun facts about this incredible fruit!

This iteration of Moonmelon is the first chunk of my latest as-of-yet-untitled WIP.

What I'm doing is taking various infamous hoaxes, from the internet age and long before, and creating new "proof" of them with AI to compile for a "magazine." The purpose is to encourage nuanced thinking about how technology and disinformation relate.

For those inclined to be overly trusting of every application of new technology, this is a reminder that it can also make it all that much easier to lie. It still takes time and skill - it took me about 3 hours of attempts to get images this passable, and that's while leaving in enough wonk to illustrate some things to look out for after that first glance - but it's easier now, and attainable with different skills, than ever before, and it will only continue to get easier. This is not a threat, it is not a promise, it's just an inevitable side effect of the fact that technology marches on. Technology makes it more and more important to remember to practice healthy skepticism! If it sounds too good, bad, or just plain bizarre to be true, remember that it likely is! Check more into it, instead of simply accepting everything you read!

And for those inclined to look at that new ease of lying and fear we're entering a new age of disinformation that will render truth meaningless, this is a reminder that we don't need new technology to lie. We don't need AI to create hoaxes. We already have Photoshop, and before that we had airbrushes and double-exposures, and before that we had little girls with paper cutouts of fairies, and before that we had people lying in writing and painting fantastic creatures that didn't exist but they swore they saw. We've had parts from different animals taxidermied together and passed off as mythical beings for centuries. People have been lying since the dawn of time. Even so, life goes on - because although the minority of people who develop any given skill that uses it to make hoaxes has existed for as long as humanity has, they are still a minority. The bottleneck for disinformation has never been the technology; it's always been people's desire and willingness to lie. Forgetting this, in fact, may make you more inclined to believe disinformation, rather than less - just because you've proven a photo wasn't AI-generated, doesn't mean you've proven it is what it says it is!

Created with Simple Stable

[fucked-up-online-shopping]

This shop is legitimately trying to sell one of tumblrs most infamous memes as a real, actual product. 

source

[golariontoday]

Citywide Moonmelon food fight https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Moonmelon_festival Carpendeners wheel cartloads of moonmelons into the street for a 5-day citywide food fight during the hottest days of summer. The Consul Marshal makes his headquarters in the winning neighborhood.

[songuapodiablo-blog]

•m o o n m e l o n •

[bitchatar]

You wouldn't believe how many people on my Facebook believe in this moon melon nonsense