Bunch of rocks (and one numbskull) in the news

[Foolmewunz]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/British-Archaeoastronomer-To-Prove-Claims-About-Worlds-Largest-Rock-Formations-Found-In-Peru/Article/200812115171902?f=rss

Yep, I can see a big white unicorn eating a corn dog!

Any UKians heard of this before? Apparently this is Face on Mars comes home. Looking at the pictures and realizing that they're satellite imagery, you could probably find anything you want in fly-over pics of the Andes.
(But taking a cue from the Face on Mars dude, he's not telling anyone the coordinates... likely because he knows Phil Plait will get another satellite to fly by in different lighting conditions and come up with totally different images.)


ETA: Oh, really funny... The headline is that he's prepared to prove it. That would seem rather simple. Get down there and find evidence of man-made chisel marks and such. But no... he's got permission from the Peruvian government to do a closer fly-by and of course isn't telling us where. Do I hear "Geraldo - Giant Rocks" TV special in our future. He's looking for suckers to invest, I'm betting.

[lionking]

Google Earth has a lot to answer for.

[The Atheist]

I saw a cloud that looked like an elephant once.

People live in the clouds and make pretty shapes for us to look at.

[Foolmewunz]

What gets me, although it shouldn't knowing what the fabled MSM puts on the air, is that in this week's or month's news, they cover some idiotic claim like this as news.

Mumbai, Thailand, BoE reducing prime rate to lowest in 50+ years, the economy, twenty-five major retailers probably going out of business in Q1, some black fellow elected president,.... and they report on some feeb who sees barely discernible shapes in pictures of the Andes!

I saw this over lunch on television here. It shouldn't get me as angry as it does, but there were a couple of twits oohing and aahing over the pics. All I could say was, "It's a rock, stupid!" I nearly got into a fight, but I brandished my forkful of fish and chips and drove them off.

[Cuddles]

Do "Deformed Rabbit", it's my favourite.

[Soapy Sam]

Hogwash recipe.
Take 2 tectonic plates. Push one under the other.
Add rivers and stir.
Smoke Marijuana while observing results.

[Spektator]

Do "Deformed Rabbit", it's my favourite.
You made my day. Pterry deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature for that line alone.

[Foolmewunz]

Hogwash recipe.
Take 2 tectonic plates. Push one under the other.
Add rivers and stir.
Smoke Marijuana while observing results.

Which reminds me..... While trying to find this story on the web to post it here I ran across another, actually interesting one. Did anyone see the bit about the 2600 year old stash they found in the Gobi? Seems that they'd segregated the male/female plants so they only left the potent stuff and buried the guy with his weed for the afterlife.

I knew there was a reason I was in China.

[Big Les]

This would be Mr William J. Veall, currently going by "Bill". This is his "project";

http://www.imagecare.co.uk/nascodex/

[Big Les]

More here;

http://cibercentre.cat/SacredLamb/Home.html

Lamb my arse.

[Foolmewunz]

Wow!

Thanks (I think.... I'm now dizzy....), Big Les. Wonderful pseudo-scientific garbage. I gather from all of that that he's been at this a while. So I reckon he's going to get his 15 minutes.

[Steelmage]

Okay, I do not see anything that they say is there on the mountain that they say is there.

[jhunter1163]

Which reminds me..... While trying to find this story on the web to post it here I ran across another, actually interesting one. Did anyone see the bit about the 2600 year old stash they found in the Gobi? Seems that they'd segregated the male/female plants so they only left the potent stuff and buried the guy with his weed for the afterlife.

I knew there was a reason I was in China.

This was many centuries before the invention of Doritos. What did they do when they got the munchies?

[screensnot]

Wow that is amazing. But, I wonder why he didn't mention the formations 12km NE of the two faces. The ones that looked like Donald Trump, G. W. Bush, and Simon Cowell having a circle jerk.

[Foolmewunz]

This was many centuries before the invention of Doritos. What did they do when they got the munchies?

Fried won tons, grasshopper. You have many miles to go before your journey is complete, apparently.

[shadron]

OK, just for grins I did a little analysis on the pics on Bro. Veall's images on his web page. On the first page he shows "altar" with the supposed writing on it; for those who are blind to his imagination, he shows another image on a "more..." page. The two are obviously extracted from the same image (first of all, no maps service is going to update some forgotten crag in the Andes very often, and for he second, all the snow patterns are identical). Now, Veall states at the bottom of the page that the images have been "lightly retouched to enhance definition for transmission over the Internet". Indeed. Unfortunately, the point of this all is in that "definition".

After rotating one image and then resizing it downward to match the other in resolution, here are the two images side by side:

12433

The one on the left is the enhanced image on the second page. The enhancements include:
- touch up on the "letters" on the stone (apparently done in snow on the altar), particularly the first and third characters, but including all.
- all the surroundings except the altar are grayed out.
- the color on the altar is played up, particularly the green, which is only hinted at in the right image.
- the pic is stretched in the vertical direction about 12%, giving more room for the letters to be better depicted.

Now, NASA photo users enhance some of NASA's astronomical photographs (over and above the fact that many are false color images anyway) for more spectacular results in public consumption, but that's not really an attempt to deceive. This does appear to be. Why am I not surprised?

Shame on him for trying to con a poor country like Peru, anxious to get some tourist attention. Shame on them for believing him, if they bite.

[shadron]

This was many centuries before the invention of Doritos. What did they do when they got the munchies?

Fried won tons, grasshopper. You have many miles to go before your journey is complete, apparently.

More likely fried grasshoppers, Won Ton, at least at a lower altitude. Though, you can't discount the Japanese connections there.

[Wowbagger]

It's just like the song says...

"Paredolia stikes deep..."

[Big Les]

Shadron - you mind if I incorporate your analysis into my blog post? It's rather splendid.

[shadron]

Have at it. PM or post the URL to your blog please. If you need an original of the image, just PM me.

[Confuseling]

When even Sky News doesn't take you very seriously it's time to nestle back into the warm embrace of obscurity.

[biomorph]

Of course there's always that hidden mystic message, :D

http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/17048493aa15e406f3.jpg (http://forums.randi.org/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=14496)


Answers on a postcard please......:p

[Big Les]

I love that! And thanks Shadron.

[The Atheist]

Of course there's always that hidden mystic message, :D

How did you manage to circle the hand but miss the bleeding foot on the other side????!!11OmfG!1l;M!l

You've found Jesus' tomb.

[biomorph]

Missed that! LOL

Damn bigfoot gets everywhere

[Foolmewunz]

More likely fried grasshoppers, Won Ton, at least at a lower altitude. Though, you can't discount the Japanese connections there.

Ha! I thought of appending that to my post. Funny thing is, fried grasshoppers (more accurately crickets) are a snack at Chez Foolmewunz... my significant other eats them all the time when having beer. She refers to them (now, after I coined the expression) as "gecko food".

[sophia8]

Looking at that 'sacred lamb' picture, all I see is a polar bear screwing a dolphin. (Honest)




(I am NOT drunk)

[CORed]

A lamb, and an oryx. I'm pretty sure neither of those animals were anywhere near the Andes in 4000 BC. Of course, I'm sure that just proves that it was global civilization (probably from Atlantis) that carved the "sculptures". At least the face on Mars actually looked like a face with the right lighting conditions.

Wow! That looks like a lamb if you squint and cross your eyes. It's a sculpture!

[Autolite]

Well, if you tilt your head to the right and squint your eyes a bit, it kinda looks like Annette Funicello on a bad hair day...

[JoeTheJuggler]

Which reminds me..... While trying to find this story on the web to post it here I ran across another, actually interesting one. Did anyone see the bit about the 2600 year old stash they found in the Gobi? Seems that they'd segregated the male/female plants so they only left the potent stuff and buried the guy with his weed for the afterlife.

I knew there was a reason I was in China.

Yes, I believe that find dated to the Chong Dynasty.

When they got to the tomb door, they heard a voice inside saying, "Dave's not here, man!"

[Rrose Selavy]

Do "Deformed Rabbit", it's my favourite.

I see giant pink rabbit on Earth...
http://googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=934&c=&f=q&hl=en&t=k&om=1&ll=44.244284,7.769748&spn=0.002233,0.00655

[JcR]

Should I be paying more attention to my pet rock
after seeing this ?

Yes I have a pet rock... Keeps me lonely to.