Adrian Hon talks about his First Words on Mars Contest:

So the whole thing is taking off tremendously well, and I've been interviewed by the Discovery Channel and the Sunday Herald Sun (Australian newspaper). In fact, I believe that if the Steven Gross who submitted:

"One small step for man one giant leap for the set designers of downtown Burbank and the secret cabal of workers in Area 51 who with help from the lizard people and Industrial Light and Magic made this possible. "

is the same as our Eccles, then Eccles will have been quoted in the article as well.

It's amazing how far a single press release can go. I bashed one out the day before the competition was launched, thinking that no-one would read it, and posted it to *one* place (aside from the First Words website) - the sci.space.news newsgroups. Apparently it's spread virulently since then since the Discovery guy got it from someone from JPL, and the Sunday Herald Sun reporter claimed that it was 'all over the place.' Which makes me feel a little silly for not having corrected the typo that's in it, but never mind.