My quotemark key got a workout today...
- Attracted to psi? New insights into the links between ESP and geomagnetic activity.
- UFO enthusiasts call on Obama to release X-Files, and make Phil Plait go all cranky-pants.
- The inner space of outer space.
- Look up at the right time and you might see a tool bag floating across the sky.
- Space shuttle Endeavour - sans tool bag - touches down safely.
- Was a 'UFO' spotted during space shuttle maneuvers at space station? Or not?
- 'Wood' found on Mars?
- Did lack of comet impacts help life evolve? Or did a comet impact help life evolve?
- Did global warming literally cook the Neanderthals? Mmmm, neanderthalicious....
- Religulous - Mike Huckabee interviews Bill Maher About Religion.
- When intelligent and natural design collide.
- 150 whales die after stranding themselves on a Tasmanian beach.
- Peak population: when will population growth stop, why, and how?
- Meet the woman who remembers everything.
- Not that she'll be needing them, but blueberries apparently reverse memory loss. Soon, your doctor will be prescribing that you smoke a bowl and then eat a big blueberry pie...finally, medical science comes good!
- Museum recordings provide haunting evidence?
- Metallic objects found near area of supposed UFO crash in Needles, California.
- Monster curse threat after Nessie snub.
- Seeing 'little people': understanding the strange phenomenon of Lilliputian hallucinations. (h/t Mind Hacks).
Thanks Ross.
Quote of the Day:
Cultin: So Mulder, what do you think? Does this look like the work of little green men?
Mulder: Grey.
Cultin: Excuse me?
Mulder: Grey. You said green men. The Reticulan skin tone is actually grey. They're notorious for their extraction of terrestrial human livers. Due to iron depletion in the Reticulan galaxy.
Cultin: You can't be serious?
Mulder: Do you have any idea what liver and onions go for in Reticula?
The X-Files
"wood" on Mars
This one needs more investigation!
Whilst most anomalies are seen in single photographs, or are very indistinct etc., this lump of timber is present in at least 8 images released by NASA.
Agreed in one shot it could be the edge of a rock outcrop, but other images seem to show it clearly as a large lump of timber.
Most strange...
Nostra
Very interesting
Wood can become fossilized, of course.
Even if this turns out to be a rock, it deserves further study.
In these series of photographs, you can see a bright spot which first appears in the upper right of the picture, but as the camera rotates it moves to the left.
Is that the rover's landing site?
PS: Don't worry, I'm not in danger of acquiring Hoagland's syndrome just yet. But these images are definitely thought-provoking. Plus, Arthur C. Clarke also believed there was some sort of vegetation activity in Mars. The man had his own telescope to see what he claimed were 'seasonal patterns'.
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
Martian Barbeque?
They must be doing something with all that beef from the cattle mutilations! Alas, no sign of empty 40s in the photo.
At minimum, this is an anomalous piece of rock. You would think it would be worth a go see.
You would think... and you would be wrong!
With the enormous success NASA has obtained with its robotic exploration program on Mars, I sincerely hope that in further missions they come up with some sort of public voting poll to decide which features to explore on the terrain—obviously, after the primary goals of the mission have been completed, as it is the case of the current two rovers, who managed to function way over the wildest expectations of the mission controllers.
Wouldn't that be nice? That people all over the world—or just in America, since it's being payed with their taxes—could vote on which feature to study further, taking in consideration the logical pros & cons of any given choice?
Or maybe we'll just have to wait for the private-sector missions on the Moon to adopt that sort of exploration approach.
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
The plank is a rock, says NASA
Patricia Philips says the plank is nothing but a very interesting-looking rock:
...Since the image appears to have caused a bit of excitement across the internet recently, I decided to contact Dr. Jim Bell from Cornell University, who is also the lead scientist for the Panoramic cameras on the rovers. Bell was surprised to hear from me about the image, but happy to offer some insight....
"What you're seeing is a piece of flat, platy, layered sulfur-rich outcrop rock like we've seen almost everywhere the Opportunity rover has been in Meridiani Planum[emphasis mine]," said Bell. "Sometimes, like in this case, those flat, platy rocks have been tilted or dislodged, this one probably from the forces associated with the huge impact crater that formed nearby."
The usual argument of "NASA wouldn't hide such an amazing find because it would bring big $$$ to space exploration" is used. I'm sure the Grailers can figure some arguments to refute that claim; for my part, I can only point that, if those plank-like rocks are so common, why haven't I seen similar pictures on National Geographic or Space.com? I'm not saying I disbelieve NASA, I'm just pointing out that in this particular case the official explanation comes as a delayed reaction from the rumors spreading through the Web about this image, so in this particular case the Agency has not done a very good job educating the public.
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
It's rock
Have you seen the original photo, RPJ? It's definitely rock. There are other 'plates' of rock jutting from the ground with edges exactly like this 'plank of wood'. Seen on it's own, it looks like a plank of wood, but the original photo mskes it clear. Which is why most sites spruiking it as wood only show the cropped version, and not the large original!
Here's the original Mars Rover photo. Immediately to the right of the 'plank' you can see a rock plate with a similar edge. And at 2 o'clock to the plank, center picture, are other similar rock plate edges.
I believe there's more to Mars than NASA (or is that Nasa? :-P) is telling us, but this 'plank of wood' is just rock.
Now if you want to see something really exciting on Mars (other than the ice), have a look at these Martian forests, trees and shrubs! Even if they just turn out to be patterns formed in the sand from gas, NASA should be all over this. But they're ignoring it.
Help I'm a rock...
Blurry photos and observations brought us canals criss-crossing the Martian surface bringing the dwindling Martian water to its inhabitants.
Of course when telescopes improved the canals faded away.
Then a few close up but still blurry photos later a face now to behold.
A few higher resolution photos later and the face became...not a face but a natural outcrop.
Now there is a log on Mars - not a clear shot but it looks like a log. Forget about everything else about Mars that would make this impossible because look there, it looks like a log!
People want to dream, they want a neighbour that reassures them they are not alone.
But that doesn't make it true. ;)
Cheers
My guess is
It is a piece of wood, taken in a Bolivian desert or the secret location in Arizona where the rovers are located.
Just kidding...
Not sure why this image is causing a stir at this moment. This "wood plank" pic has been roving the net for 3 years. Here's a website full of them Mars and Moon anomalies.
Exactly right!
That website you linked is very entertaining...but IMHO not as much as this one...
"To Boldly Go Where Only Dumbheads Would Believe"
Was that too strong or rude...? Nah! :)
Just between you an me (and the internet) NASA gave up using sound stages and plaster models for their hoaxes years ago its all CGI now...don't tell anyone. (wink wink nudge nudge say no more)
Don't even get me started with the pyramids...
Cheers
Right
But it makes an interesting subject of investigation. Why didn't NASA bother to get a close-up of the plank-like rock? Why didn't it send the rover to investigate it, since it was so relatively close to it?
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
Beats me RPJ
I'm not the chief investigator, so I'm not privy of any inside info. I agree it should have been checked very up-close and personal. If I'd have received this pic, my reaction would be like "whoah, WTF is that thingy, full speed ahead skipper, gotta see this". Perhaps the investigators had a lot more other pics from different angles that made it irrelevant, who knows :)
full speed
Full speed ahead for one of these things is something like 180 meters per hour. Meters, not Kilometers. Usually they go about 1/5 of that speed, apparently.
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It is not how fast you go
it is when you get there.
"wood" (it's a rock!) on mars.
A series of navigational images also show the 'woodrock', and are perhaps better than the 'composite' for studying this item. See: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/a...
Yes, there are many strange images from Mars if you care to look for them, with the images being clear and sharp, unlike the various images of the Face. You just have to find them
Nostra
What about the bright spot?
I'd seen the original images. I haven't still read an explanation for the bright spot you can see at the upper right part of the image you linked. Is it a rock made of a white material?
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
I know, I know, Call on me Mr Hoagland...
"On Sol 061 you can see quite a few circular anomalies right next to the tracks of the rover! OMG!!!"
"Get Richard Hoagland on the line another NASA cover-up!"
"Oh wait a minute...I see now, those circles were made by the rovers air bags when it landed and bounced a few times..."
"Ok, but what about the bright white rock in Sol 115 then? Get Richard Hoag... What? Oh that's part of the lander? The heat shield"?
"The wood...look at the wood then..."
:)
Cheers
Ah, the heat shield...
So it is the heat shield what causes the bright spot in those photos. Thanks for clearing that up thiz_ho :-)
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
You are welcome amigo!
I couldn't resist having some fun with the explanation. :)
These days mention anything even remotely odd about Mars and >VOOM< NASA conspiracy, aliens and everything but what is really is! ;)
Cheers
The Cranky-pants Bad Astronomer
I want some piece of predictive evidence — a map of an alien world that can eventually be verified, or an alien-given advance in physics that can later be verified with the LHC or some other cutting-edge technology
I suppose evidences like the famous 'star map' that was supposedly seen by Betty Hill during her famous abduction experience, or the knowledge the African tribe of the Dogon had of the orbit of Sirius B—long before it was discovered by Western Astronomers— is not worth of merit for Phil.
I'm not saying those two are conclusive evidence, but that they are compelling enough to keep investigating.
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
Abacus
I want ... an alien-given advance in physics that can later be verified with the LHC or some other cutting-edge technology.
Huh? The Bad Astronomer wants advanced alien physics verified with the LHC? Excuse me while I go verify the Intel chip inside my computer with an abacus...