You could try point them at http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en...03744&t=h&z=18 where jpeg artefacts are clearly visible in the middle of the Ord River downstream from Kununurra.

Jon

To me, it falls into the catgory of 'it looks like X, therefore that's what it is.' However, you can see a flat part on the forward/top side, reflecting the light just like the rest of the rocks in the shot. The dark part is the raisied, back side of the rock, in shadow. Anyway, that's my interpretation.

__________________
You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel

JonClarke - That's exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much.
That should convince my aquaintance and his friends - unless he wants to start believing in a secret underwater civilization living in Australian rivers

Coincidentally, I worked very near to Kununurra in '73/4 when I was an Assistant Surveyor for the Commonwealth Water Resources board, based in Darwin. We spent most of our time in the bush, looking for water all over the Northern Territory. (And drinking vast quantities of beer.)

It's being discussed in this thread. The claim seems to be new (well, I'd never heard it before last night).

Fred

__________________
"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

I remember it. It's old. It was discussed at the time. If not here it was at less rational forums.

__________________
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ...

That's very cool! I am involved with the validation of the baseline geophysical survey for the Ord Stage 2 irrigation scheme.

And no, the crocs definitely weren't constructing a civilisation when I went over that stretch of the river in a boat

Jon

Actually when you look at the "log" in 3d you can see the back side is actually there, fully lit. Once you view it in stereo it becomes painfully obvious that it's just the edge of an upturned rock like the others next to it.



Here's a cross-eye stereogram of it. Cross your eyes till the images overlap. There will be 3 images, the middle one will be 3d.

*nevermind, I thought you were saying the "backside of the rock, in shadow" was the same as the top of the slab. Now I see what you were saying.

Fraser is also discussing it in his blog on UT.

__________________
At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

Likewise the BA (apologies if this link has been posted already).

0110 says that the claim was discussed way back when. If so, it certainly did not make as much noise then as it is doing now.

Fred

__________________
"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

For instance in Mars Rover Blog Forum, AKA Mars Forum, (the "Open Mars Forum" -- a place that doesn't ask or expect much of its members): A Piece OF Lumber (May 20, 2005)

It was claimed to be wood by the assembled irrationalistas, and, as ever, they failed to provide a convincing argument that it was anything but a rock, and it died the quiet death it deserved.

Now, it has escaped and become a free-range meme, infecting the naive and replicating at will.

===

Edit: Adding some keywords for searchers (because of the BillyG article below).

People who wind up at the (formerly) recommended Hale Crater video may have have been drawn by this descriptive text and these keywords. Now, they might be drawn here. If so, I hope they consider reading the whole topic Crater Hale Revisited.

Also:

And...

Here's a little more for the more discerning searcher:

Keywords: skeptical, skeptic, skepticism, critical thinking, debunk, truth, reality, image compression, jpeg, jpg, artifacts, mars express, mars, martian, hale crater, fields, buildings, technology, baloney, bilge, bunk, bunkum, claptrap, flapdoodle, flimflam, hogwash, hokum, hooey, hot air, humbug, humbuggery, malarkey, poppycock, tommyrot, tripe, wrong

__________________
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ...

I used to hang round there until it became painfully obvious that the lunatics were running the asylum!

Maybe it will join up with "Mars as big as the full moon" free-range meme (henceforth to be called FRMs) and make an annual visit.

__________________
At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

Backside, relative to the sun ( or studio ) light. I should have been clearer.

Thanks for the 3d view.

__________________
You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel

You guys just _kill_ me! After I recover from the gales of myrth you provoke lemme just say that you're all correct. All the palaver is well-founded and I'm carrying on in other forums just because I can. Mars had a civilization that constructed massive monuments to her greatly respected thinkers and leaders, just as we have the Lincoln Memorial and the pyramids here on earth. There are more than one of there faces visible; they were left there so we would find them. They're just very, very old and many are eroded.
What does this mean?
IT means that we may very well be alone in the universe (Rare-Earth Theory), but we aren't necessarily the first nor last beings to have been allowed to be here. What do the Hale Crater ESA photos tell you? Why not a logical explanation of life originating in panspermia and martian evolution first, followed by terran innoculation and subsequent evolution second?

No such evidence has been found.


And the relevance is????


The Hale crater images show that there are people out there will can't tell the difference between JPEG artefacts and reality.

There is no evidence as yet for panspermia.

Jon