Did contractors pave imperfection into Apple's parking-lot paradise? A controversial photo showing a misspelled traffic warning sent one employee out on the asphalt to disprove yesterday's report of a chip in Steve Jobs's flawless facade.

The photo you have on your site is fake. I just took these photos.

Please update your article to indicate that Apple's subcontractors know how to spell 'bump' when Steve Jobs is on leave.

Look closely at the photo he sent in, though. Why is the area around the "U" discolored? Could it be evidence that contractors hastily fixed the error (or obscure Star Trek joke? Or is this a Photoshop? You can see the pixels, after all).

Update: Mystery solved! We're calling this one: yesterday's photo was real and Apple quickly made the fix. A neutral and very trusted source just went by the parking lot to investigate. His assessment: "Yeah, this was obviously scraped clean very recently and repainted. Can you see the outline of the old lettering? Sorry about the crappy iPhone photo. Nice coverup, Apple." He sends photographic evidence:

Even more update: Another tipster caught Apple contractors in the act of resurfacing the misspelled "BMUP" sign: