From Mike, Linda, and Ed:
Floris Kaayk: ‘Birdman’ Video A Hoax, ‘Jarno Smeets’ Not Real
by Natalie Wolchover, Life’s Little Mysteries Staff Writer
Huffington Post
March 22, 2012
A Dutch man named Jarno Smeets became an Internet sensation this week after posting a video on YouTube in which he appears to fly like a bird.
In the video, he straps on a contraption that supposedly syncs the motion of his flapping arms to that of a huge pair of wings made of kite fabric, allowing him to flap the wings and take off into the air.
Except not.
As reported yesterday by Life’s Little Mysteries, CGI experts quickly found flaws in the footage of Smeets taking flight that revealed the video clip had been tampered with. Internet marketing experts suggested the video may have been a viral ad campaign “” for Nintendo Wii, perhaps, as Smeets claimed to have used Wii controllers to operate his wings. By the end of the day, doubt surrounding the video had soundly overtaken belief in the amazing new invention it seemed to show in action.
And now, the jig is up.
Continue reading “Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird, it’s a Plane, it’s a… Hoax! [English and Dutch]”