"Square on Tubes Mean Something for Consumer"

Verdict : 

Possible time of origin : March, 2013

Circulation platforms : Email, Facebook

Circulation geography : Worldwide

Original Message Version Under Analysis:

Pay attention when buying toothpaste, at the bottom of the toothpaste tube there is a color bar. And do you only know the original meaning of the color bar!
Try to choose green and blue, there are four kinds:
Green: natural;Blue : Natural + Medicine;Red : Natural + Chemical composition;Black : pure chemical.
please share to all......

Analysis by Merofact Awareness Team: This supposedly helpful message is actually based on fiction and not fact. The colored rectangles on or next to the crimp of soft toothpaste tubes are meant for processing machines to read and not of interest for the consumers. These colored rectangles are often used in the process of automated industrial packaging and quality control. They are often referred as "eye mark" or "color mark" and they aid in "Machine Vision" (MV). Wikipedia entry says "Machine vision (MV) is the technology and methods used to provide imaging-based automatic inspection and analysis for such applications as automatic inspection, process control, and robot guidance in industry." Invariably the process involves capturing a image, which is read and analyzed by an customized software system, that directs a robotic system to perform a desired job according the reading received. So these marks can be used either to direct the machine to seal the tube at or next to the Color Mark or can be used for quality control purposes, eg. to orient the filled and sealed tube properly for further inspection, reading of registration and labels etc. The used colors and sizes of this eye mark depends on the camera (sensor) and software being used in the packaging process, which vary widely. At the end these marks remains on the tube as a secondary effect of the packaging and quality control processes but doesn't tell consumer anything about the tube content. If you really want to know what are the contents of the toothpaste you are about to buy/use, just have a look at the list of ingredients printed somewhere else on the tube. Watch the following short video to see how colors read by camera can be used to direct machines to sort them separately. A similar yet more complex proprietary process happen with toothpaste tubes we regularly use.

"Earth Will Experience 6 Days of Total Darkness ..."

Verdict :

Possible time of origin : 24.10.2014

Circulation platforms : Web, Twitter, Facebook

Circulation geography : Worldwide
Original Message Version Under Analysis:

NASA has confirmed that the Earth will experience 6 days of almost complete darkness and will happen from the dates Tuesday the 16 – Monday the 22 in December. The world will remain, during these three days, without sunlight due to a solar storm, which will cause dust and space debris to become plentiful and thus, block 90% sunlight.

This is the head of NASA Charles Bolden who made the announcement and asked everyone to remain calm. This will be the product of a solar storm, the largest in the last 250 years for a period of 216 hours total. Reporters interviewed a few people to hear what they had to say about the situation with Michael Hearns responding “We gonna be purgin my n*gga, six days of darkness means six days of turnin up fam”.

Despite the six days of darkness soon to come, officials say that the earth will not experience any major problems, since six days of darkness is nowhere near enough to cause major damage to anything. “We will solely rely on artificial light for the six days, which is not a problem at all”, says NASA scientist Earl Godoy. Visit our website daily for more shocking news!

Analysis by Merofact Awareness Team: 

This fake news was first arrived on huzlers.com then spreading virally elsewhere. The About Us section in Huzlers.com reads "Huzlers.com is a combination of real shocking news and satirical entertainment to keep its visitors in a state of disbelief.". International newspapers started reporting the viral spread of this weird news. There is no comment published on NASA website yet, neither we can expect one. This message is not an unique invention, one similar message have also been in circulation starting around August, 2012 claiming 3 days blackout on the Earth. That message purposefully also directed the readers to a fragmented original video showing NASA director Charles Bolden speaking on emergency preparedness (see below). Original context of the video can be found on the NASA website. If you listen carefully knowing the context you'll understand how this message have been misinterpreted to spread rumors.