Complex Numbers

Lame.

Some hacker got into the Phoenix Mars Lander website:

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/P/PHOENIX_MARS_HACKER?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HO...

...Spokeswoman Sara Hammond says a mission update posted Friday was replaced with a hacker's signature and a link redirecting visitors to an overseas Web site...

Now, for those of you who have been living under a rock, the Phoenix Mars Lander is studying the Martian north polar region:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080526.html

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080527.html

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080530.html

(That last one is especially cool, imaging the lander as it descended.)

Now, here's the thing. If I were a hacker, and I was inclined to change the Phoenix Mars Lander website, I'd make it look as realistic as possible while describing the entire alien society found at Mars' north polar region.

That way, a lot of people would see it before the owner took it down. The owner would then post something like, "A hacker has changed the website, and it's down for maintenance." It would later return showing a calm, dead Martian north pole. And then the people who saw it would be like, "They lie! It clearly showed evidence of Martians! What is NASA hiding and why?" And they would go through the rest of their life convinced that it wasn't a hacker, but real, live Martians, and the "evidence" of the "conspiracy" would drive them stark, raving, loony.

Which, of course, pretty much describes anyone who still thinks there's a civilization on Mars.

I mean, Barsoom.