NIgel, after a brief google, appears to be in Marketing.

With science like that - he would not be welcome at UMSF.

What I really can't understand is this. Why would you see that image, with the rover tracks leading right back toward our primordial primate...and NOT think "Oh - it must have been closer - I wonder if it took any pictures" I can't imagine anyone being inquiring enough to see the image in the first place, but not inquiring enough to look for closer, better pictures (which, as I've demonstrated, exist all the way to a full frame pancam image)

I just can't understand it.

HA!!! Well done, sir!

On the positive side, even the comments on the original article were disbelieving/disgusted (fav: "is this a joke?") There's hope for humanity yet.

The Sun isn't renowned for its factual reporting - ("Charlene, from Essex", can't STILL be 21 after all these years! ;-) ) - but what makes this even more baffling, and annoying, is that The Sun's actual "space reporter" is a very good journalist, and when he covers a story - usually on a double-page pullout spread... thingy... - it's always very well illustrated, is factually correct and free of a lot of the gee-whizz stuff written in other papers. I correspond with him on Twitter and I reckon he'll be both embarrassed by and furious about this. Well done Doug on the de-bunking. I'm going to write to the paper too.

Disclaimer: no, I don't actually buy the Sun; it's read by several people where I work, and whenever there's one of the aforementioned double page spreads in it I retrieve it from the recycling bins - they're very good to keep spare in my bag for when I give an Outreach talk, and want to give someone in the audience who's been especially keen some pictures to take home.

The science team called that rock "Skull", which was targeted on sol 78 with a 13-color pancam image (sequence ap2577.04a.pancam_skull_L234567Rall). There was also a mini-TES raster of Skull that sol (sequence ap3203.00a.geo_skull_3x9x20).

There was a fantastic looking alien "skull" shaped rock in one image from Spirit. I did have it saved on my PC when it was first downlinked - but that was quite a few years ago now, and i've lost it from reformatting my PC. It was either on the journey to Bonneville Crater or shortly after leaving on the plains and well before reaching the Columbia Hills.

A full 10 minute takedown
http://bit.ly/9cC06o

Doug, are you sure you didn't hire Oliver Postgate for 9:50 onwards

I had to re-record the last two slides, and the fan heater in my shedoffice had turned on inbetween the two sections

but that voiceover for that section - if ever they want to remake Noggin the Nog you'd be a natural

Some guy (the guy you mentioned in the video) has already posted a comment. Apparently he doesn't understand that the rovers can move, changing the viewpoint of the same object.

And those related videos are just....


Anyway, I liked it, especially the ending.

And that's why I usually don't leave comments turned on. Just.. WOW. So much desire to be uninformed.

Did anyone else see the Martian Gorilla feature on BBC2's The Bubble last night?

At least Clive Anderson spotted the tracks and asked the question "Why didn't they take a picture right up next to the Gorilla"

They did Clive. They did

A little more Gorilla Takedown - using terrain wedges from near the 'Gorilla' to reconstruct the view from the Sol 87 position.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFGV2ktc-r4

Astonishingly, the guy who posted the Aug 2008 video is still denying I've explained it. I am doubtful my second video will convince him.

For those wondering about the 3D wedges - it was a technique presented here a while ago by MaxSt
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=2456
On a pair of VST's from the PDS.

It's a real pity we don't have anything to convert PFB files - as they are merged terrain wedges for an entire site ( I think )

ANyhoo - that 3D movie convinced the guy who made the first Monkey Movie that he's wrong - read the comments!

A victory, for common sense, and data.

Boy is the Sun behind the times, the 'rilla must have been discussed in the yellow forum 6 years ago.

Occum's Razor [Occam or Ockham] should be taught more in school. If kids learn nothing else in their science classes, they should at least remember that. Sure, it isn't always correct, but it works in enough circumstances such as this, that it will prevent a lot of headaches and stupidity. If you have an image FULL of rocks, I mean the surface seems to have more rocks than soil visible, you'd have to have more evidence (extraordinary evidence if you will) than "it kinda looks like a gorilla" to say that a rock is a gorilla.

Great work Doug on the debunking. Very thorough. I'm sure Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy would love that!

Of course, aside from the Rorschach Effect, one major thing that feeds this sort of nonsense is the general lack of awareness of science, period, to say nothing (in this & other cases) of the actual conditions on Mars. What was the hapless 'rilla supposed to be breathing, eating or drinking?

I couldn't find Occam's Razor this morning so I hired a dermatologist to suspend a chair on ropes between two step ladders and pluck my whiskers out one at a time with tweezers.

OMG! A giant "Old Man" has been seen in these photographs taken on Earth!

Could this mean that....oh...
....nevermind

Old Man

The second Space Gorilla takedown was epic. I thought it really demonstrated the power of 3D graphics to simply illustrate a point beyond dispute. My only suggestion for 'next time' would be to 'tease' the 3D end result a little earlier on, maybe in the opening titles.

That link again: Doug's Space Gorilla Takedown - The Second.

Is anyone else having visions of Doug in some horrible intergalactic Cage Match with the creature from TOS's "A Private Little War"
Click to view attachment

Yep - that's why I said it.

That second video gives new meaning to the term... 'Gorilla Warfare'!
(ducks)

The primates are onmy side, I had a word with them when I spent a day with some Lemurs last year. When they come to power - I'm sorted

I for one welcome our new Lemur overlords.

Those wacky rovers are at it again...

-----------------------------
Latest News

Mars Reconnaissance Rover
HiRISE Release #12
March 8, 2010: The 12th Mars Reconnaissance Rover (MRO) release has occurred.
The data may be accessed via the online data volumes and the Atlas.
-----------------------------

(Planetary Data System website, http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/)

Of course it will be fixed soon...

Phil

This is the best bit of it all. Can you say acronym fail?

It was only a matter of time...

Best / Worst. Typo. Ever.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skepchick/4445007033/sizes/o

Oops!!

There are no words.

Awesome, Stu. Did you submit that to fail blog?

I didn't spot it, it's been "doing the rounds" on t'internet all day, helped on its way initially by none other than the LRC's greatest champion, Prof Brian Cox

"Swordfight"?

Makes sense, for replicating events of the Big Bang.
In any case, if it lasts longer than four hours, they better call a doctor.

Then there's this:

Search on for Death Star that throws out deadly comets

It's the BBC again!

'First image' of star's eclipse captured by scientists informatively tells me that the dimming of Epsilon Aurigae was first observed by German astrologer Johann Fritsch...



I've lodged a complaint.

Andy

I, too, have done so. Nothing short of embarrassing.

This is a screenshot from the most recent episode of The Sky at Night - can anyone spot the rather 'large' error?

Click to view attachment

Are you sure you weren't watching Red Dwarf instead?

Phil

I noticed it as well. It's more like an Earth-Jupiter ratio than an Earth-Sun ratio.

I noticed that too, surely that's the Earth-Jupiter ratio.

Or perhaps that's a comparison between Earth & Sol with Earth far closer to the observer

Yes, and here's an un-retouched photo showing a size comparison between the Eiffel Tower and a human being.
Click to view attachment

These cows are small....those ones are FAR away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25N-4zrk390

Video blocked in USA.

Pity. Anyway - it's two priests in a caravan, one trying to explain to the other that whilst the toy cow on the table, and the real cows outside might look the same size....it's because these cows are small, and those cows are far away. It's from Father Ted - legendary channel 4 comedy here in the UK.

This is available in USA. I don't know if it's the whole thing. 25 seconds of funny!

I didn't want to start a new topic just for this, but it's still too good to pass up:

http://www.whitevinyldesign.com/solarbeat/

Funnily enough, I've thought of this exact idea before, but of course I had no idea how to implement it.

And yeah, I realize the numbering might encourage a certain 'debate' but I seem to recall that being an improper subject on UMSF.... great idea nonetheless!

It's just a collection of orbiting objects. no debate there.

a pic is ....
Click to view attachment

I stand corrected. I guess there is a debate to be had.

What about that?
All those objects are identified by name only, none are identified by type or classification of object.
The only thing claimed that they have in common is that they all are orbiting the sun.
Click to view attachment

ADMIN: And I think we should leave this one right there. Thanks..