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the_ignored
SFN Addict
2562 Posts |
 Posted - 02/22/2009 : 18:55:21
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From the Telegraph.
But it is not clear whether the photograph is genuine, or a clever piece of photo-editing. Some suggested the 'snake' was in fact a log or a speed boat and others complained the colour of the river in the photo was too dark.
The most common theory is that the photo has been manipulated on a computer.
The image has even stumped the New Straits Times newspaper in Kuala Lumpur, which suggested readers decide for themselves. |
Better hope it's a fake: If not that bastard's 100 feet long. More than double the size of that prehistoric snake that was found earlier.
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>From: enuffenuff@fastmail.fm
(excerpt follows):
> I'm looking to teach these two bastards a lesson they'll never forget.
> Personal visit by mates of mine. No violence, just a wee little chat.
>
> **** has also committed more crimes than you can count with his
> incitement of hatred against a religion. That law came in about 2007
> much to ****'s ignorance. That is fact and his writing will become well
> know as well as him becoming a publicly known icon of hatred.
>
> Good luck with that fuckwit. And Reynold, fucking run, and don't stop.
> Disappear would be best as it was you who dared to attack me on my
> illness knowing nothing of the cause. You disgust me and you are top of
> the list boy. Again, no violence. Just regular reminders of who's there
> and visits to see you are behaving. Nothing scary in reality. But I'd
> still disappear if I was you.
What brought that on? this. Original posting here.
Another example of this guy's lunacy here. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2009 : 19:20:19 [Permalink]
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I say  |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2009 : 20:30:52 [Permalink]
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| I agree, it seems unlikely. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2009 : 22:48:06 [Permalink]
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It's the Serpent from the Garden! Fire up the creo-choppers, Operation Bible Strike is setting out to bring the leviathan back and prove the Darwinists wrong.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 02/23/2009 : 02:49:41 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Randy
I say
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 , sez I.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2009 : 04:44:27 [Permalink]
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My opinion is that the hoax is mainly in the claims of it being a gigantic snake. Though the "snake" in the photo could be a Photoshop creation, there are other, non-giant-snake explanations.
That photo looks a lot like a motor boat and its wake weaving along some river. From earlier reading, I noticed that skeptics familiar with the particular river had mentioned that it's normally quite brown with mud. The photo given is supposed to be by an unnamed (!) photog in a helicopter. The helicopter was supposedly flying through the area doing flood relief work. In flooding conditions, a normally brown river would certainly not look so dark and clear.
The total lack of provenance for the photo is enough by itself to reject the photo as meaningless, and accompanying claims as likely fraud.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/23/2009 04:46:49 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 02/23/2009 : 05:51:21 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
My opinion is that the hoax is mainly in the claims of it being a gigantic snake. Though the "snake" in the photo could be a Photoshop creation, there are other, non-giant-snake explanations.
That photo looks a lot like a motor boat and its wake weaving along some river. From earlier reading, I noticed that skeptics familiar with the particular river had mentioned that it's normally quite brown with mud. The photo given is supposed to be by an unnamed (!) photog in a helicopter. The helicopter was supposedly flying through the area doing flood relief work. In flooding conditions, a normally brown river would certainly not look so dark and clear.
The total lack of provenance for the photo is enough by itself to reject the photo as meaningless, and accompanying claims as likely fraud.
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Eh, every few years or so, somebody comes up with a 'giant snake' photo. Being one who keeps track such things, I've seen a fair number of them, dating clear back to the '50s. I must say though, that this is one of the better specimens and my bullshit detector, which goes off automatically for giant snakes, approves of it. Bullshit with a little class -- very rare.
I'm pretty sure that it is mostly done with an actual snake; something like a juvenile boa or of one of the rat snakes to get the head shape right. From there, it is just a matter of wiping the colors and patterns, and fuzzing it up a bit, rendering the animal unidentifiable. Then jigger around the perspective, make the claims, and get a faux 15 minutes of fame -- to the amused disgust of the entire herpetological community.
One of the earliest I recall seeing was a B&W effort that actually wasn't all that bad, considering the state of the art at the time. It was touted as being a python aerial-photoed on a mountain top in darkest Africa (where else?). In reality, it was a fairly large black rat snake, Elaphe obsoleta, from a mountain in darkest Tennessee, and there was no airplane involved. The guy, stifling laughter, 'fessed up a couple of weeks after his hoax was published. 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2009 : 09:16:03 [Permalink]
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I think it looks like a boat with an outboard motor.
The snake body is the bubbles in the wake from the propeller/exhaust/cooling.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
 Posted - 02/23/2009 : 12:24:57 [Permalink]
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OH! But what about This?!?!?! AHHHHHH!
And wha-wha-wha-what about THIS?!?!?! AHHHHHH!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2009 : 13:00:48 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
I think it looks like a boat with an outboard motor.
The snake body is the bubbles in the wake from the propeller/exhaust/cooling.
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No, it's a swimming snake. it's wake is consistant with one.
This is one of the Nerodia sp. of water snakes, probably a northern -- sipidon. It isn't moving as fast an the fabled one (that one's in panic mode), but it's a good example.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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| Edited by - filthy on 02/23/2009 13:05:09 |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2009 : 13:40:27 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
No, it's a swimming snake. it's wake is consistant with one. |
Is it? Compare the two photos again. In the one you posted, there is a distinct wake on either side of the head, which is barely out of the water.
Now check this one out. The first wake is several meters behind the head, which means a sizable portion of the snake's head and neck would have to be lifted above the water. Is that consistent with how most snakes swim?
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 02/23/2009 13:44:26 |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2009 : 14:06:53 [Permalink]
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Years ago in Arizona I was dating a nice Native American girl...[Chippewa]starts drifting off into day-dreaming then snaps out of it[/Chippewa]...we were out in the toolies looking for a nice calm pond in which to float around in a rubber raft. When we got there, before we had the opportunity to launch the raft, we saw a big timber rattler swimming along. Probably undulating under the surface but what we saw was just two parts of this big menacing snake in the deep water. It swam with the head in the air just above the waterline and the rattle tip on the other end just out of the water, the rest of the body underneath and hardly a wake. We lost interest in going in the water.
I should have remembered an even earlier occasion when Corky (her name) and I were hiking along a stream near Oak Creek Canyon when we heard a rattler nearby. Being a brave Brave I jumped in the shallow stream and continued to hike in the water (but in a very manly and virile way of course.) She remained on the trail since the snake was not in her path and just laughed and said "You know they can swim don't you?" |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2009 : 16:36:06 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
Originally posted by filthy
No, it's a swimming snake. it's wake is consistant with one. |
Is it? Compare the two photos again. In the one you posted, there is a distinct wake on either side of the head, which is barely out of the water.
Now check this one out. The first wake is several meters behind the head, which means a sizable portion of the snake's head and neck would have to be lifted above the water. Is that consistent with how most snakes swim?
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Yes, all but fully aquatic species swim with the head above the surface except when frightened. Then it's duck & go. The art-work example is fairly consistent with this. It had a little more neck out than my example -- a couple of inches, probably (I rather doubt that it was much longer than the aprox-4-footer-maybe-less I put up). The one I put up is of a water snake just loafing along, probably looking for a low-hanging branch to bask on.
I like water snakes. They have such vile dispositions.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2009 : 16:45:06 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
Yes, all but fully aquatic species swim with the head above the surface except when frightened. Then it's duck & go. The art-work example is fairly consistent with this. |
Cool. Thanks for the info, filthy.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2009 : 17:34:00 [Permalink]
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I take it the foliage is supposed to be tree cover. If so, the snake then appears to be several hundreds of feet in length!
I did a search on this at Snopes, but to no avail. They only had this link posted on their 'Daily Snopes' page along with other wacky-do stories. |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Big-@$$ snake photo?
