"Unknown force changing cloud's shape" - form the front page of Reddit

As you say it is an old video and explanation - however in this "information age" such things keep getting rediscovered anew by people who haven' seen them before and shouted from the rooftops.

Perhaps in 10-15 years this sort of behavior might be no longer acceptable - but until then all that can be done is point out to people that it isn't new, and why didn't they do a bit of research before posting it.
 
One thing I'm trying to do is make it as easy as possible for people to find an explanation for the regurgitated things like this. But I'm sure I discussed this here, but now I can't find it....

Consensus was that it was like intra-cloud lighting (or some kind of electrical discharge) changing the orientation ice crystals, so sunlight reflected off them differently. [Edit: just like it says in the linked article]
 
Reddit has a culture of posting TIL (Today I Learned) things, which are simply interesting old articles. It's old info, but new to them. Sometimes they go viral.

http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/

That's why a good pre-emptive debunking can work very well. Things like the "engine ended up behind the car" start out small, but they can explode suddenly.
 
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