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HKN Dinner, November 2, 2004

HKN Dinner, November 2, 2004. Crop-Circles, Skepticism, and Snow-Sculpting. Carlo Séquin, EECS, CS Division. From “CONTACT” Meeting NASA Ames Campus, Palo Alto, 2003. A sign from extra-terrestrial intelligence ??. The Face on Mars. Picture taken by Viking Orbiter in 1976.

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HKN Dinner, November 2, 2004

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  1. HKN Dinner, November 2, 2004 Crop-Circles,Skepticism, andSnow-Sculpting Carlo Séquin, EECS, CS Division

  2. From “CONTACT” MeetingNASA Ames Campus, Palo Alto, 2003 A sign from extra-terrestrial intelligence ??

  3. The Face on Mars • Picture taken by Viking Orbiter in 1976

  4. Face on Mars Close-up • High-res. photo, Global Surveyor, 4/8/2001

  5. How Do We Make Sense of the Unknown? Different people have • different mental frameworks, belief systems • and/or use them with different priorities to come up with possible “explanations”.

  6. My Attempt at Classification Created by: Intelligence Nature Meaningfulmessage, or object Artistic, or playfulartifact Randomone-timeoccurrence Systematic, repeatableprocess

  7. Self-Test I will display some intriguing(?) pictures: Check yourself, how you interpret them... Possible Answers, with respective probabilities: Artistic, or playfulartifact Randomone-timeoccurrence Meaningfulmessage, or object Systematic, repeatableprocess

  8. Let’s start with another mysterious example...

  9. Nazca, Peru • Are these ancient landing strips ?

  10. More Strange Lines…

  11. Petroglyphs But what does it mean ?

  12. Graffiti

  13. Faces on the Rocks Mt. Rushmore

  14. Panorama from Mars Rover “Opportunity” Miracles of Photoshop ?

  15. StrangeLife Forms

  16. Codex Seraphinianus

  17. Codex Seraphinianus

  18. Clouds in the Sky UFO ?

  19. Fire in the Sky

  20. Volcanic Vent Hole ? Art by Andy Goldsworthy

  21. Andy Goldsworthy – Stone Formations

  22. Andy Goldsworthy– Ice Formations

  23. Antarctica

  24. 2001 ?

  25. Breckenridge CO, January 2004Snowsculpting Championships

  26. “Turning a Snowball Inside-Out” • A model of theMorin Surface = Half-way point of sphere eversion • The challenge is to turn a sphere inside-out: • Surface may pass through itself, • but no ripping, puncturing, creasing allowed,e.g., this is not an acceptable solution: PINCH

  27. Sphere Eversion Process • But there are more contorted paths that can achieve the desired goal. • Bernard Morin figured out one such path. • Charles Pugh made models from chicken wire. • Nelson Max made a first computer simulation.

  28. Gridded Models for Transparency 3D-Print from Zcorp SLIDE virtual model

  29. Shape Adaption for Snow Sculpture Restructured Morin surface to fit block size: (10’ x 10’ x 12’)

  30. The Final Model

  31. Day1

  32. Day2

  33. Day3

  34. Day 4

  35. Day4

  36. Day5 Honorable Mention: “Most AmbitiousDesign”

  37. “Paradigm Shift” (British Columbia)

  38. “Year of the Dragon” USA - Tennessee

  39. “Winter Oasis” (Canada – Ontario)

  40. All this effort for a short-lived artifact ? The joy of creating something of your own design … The pride of astounding people ... Why Do People Do Such Things ??

  41. Crop Circles

  42. Crop Circles

  43. Milk Hill Crop Circles

  44. Milk-Hill Design Analysis 409 Circles Milk Hill crop formation is exactly the same design as the interior of the Raelian Symbol which Raelians have been wearing publicly since 1990. http://bcornet.homestead.com/files/MilkHill/milkhill.htm

  45. Crop Circle Construction Probably not of extraterrestrial origin ! 26 person-hours of crop squashing, http://www.geocities.com/pduchesne3/

  46. What Is the Message ? Prof. Velvel Kahan, early 1980’s: • Why are you giving this talk ? • Who is the audience you are trying to reach ? • What is the message you want to get across ? ( “If you don’t have answers to these questions,you may as well forget giving your talk !” )

  47. Message #1 Don’t blindly believe everything you see or hear - even if it comes from an authoritative source such as the President of the most powerful nation in the world … • Use common sense • Check the facts • Look for other explanations • Apply “KISS” principle

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