The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: August 7, 2011

Official News page 8


REAL LIFE NEWS: CAN YOU GET A TAN FROM YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN?

by Hazed

Speaking of hoaxes, a website which promised users they could get a lovely tan from their computer screens has been revealed as a hoax - but with a supposedly worthy cause behind it.

The page said that users could download software which would enable screens to convert the light system in monitors to produce UV rays, thus providing a "Tan-tastic" year-round appearance.

Well, anyone that knows the smallest bit about science would have realized something was a bit dodgy, but it attracted almost 200,000 people who loved the idea.

But when they signed up, instead of being given this magical software, they were confronted with some alarming facts and figures about the dangers of skin cancer. The website was organized by the skin cancer charity Skcin (what a clunky name!) to help raise awareness about the dangers of sun beds, and skin cancer generally.

The problem with this is that anybody who fell for the hoax is not going to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, so probably won't be deterred by the scary facts: after all, people keep on smoking despite being told in big bold letters how dangerous it is.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/health/newsid_7874000/7874798.stm


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