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Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#191

Post by Youden »

DavidPeiffer wrote: post #92
Paul-ish wrote: post #11

How expensive would a solid piece of metal that size be?

For just that weight of metal...not too expensive. To get it formed into that shape, potentially very expensive. It looks like aluminum. Someone posted 23.5" x 23.5" x ~144" as the dimensions. This comes out to be 46 cubic feet, and would weigh about 7,700 lbs. A floor of the price would be ~40 cents/lb scrap price, or ~$3,100. Ballpark 80-120 cents/lb might be a more realistic price if it were straightforward to man…

> Any machining, metal forming, etc. would require specialized large equipmen, and would quickly drive the cost up, potentially an order of magnitude higher than material costs.

It seems unlikely that there are serious tolerances to be kept here, couldn't this just be cast messily using a sand/clay mould and then cleaned up with portable power tools?

That way you don't need any special equipment and you can use whatever Aluminium you can get your hands on. Hell, you can even recycle Aluminium cans.

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#192

Post by bregma »

lultimouomo wrote: post #61
MrSourz wrote: post #41

A reddit user [1] found its location [2] and another figured out it was installed sometime during 2015-2016 based on when the satellite imagery changed. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/k01dc3/mysterious_m... [2] https://goo.gl/maps/2xdrTqcnguX3ky8AA

This guy really is something: > I looked at rock type (Sandstone), color (red and white - no black streaks like found on higher cliffs in Utah), shape (more rounded indicating a more exposed area and erosion), the texture of the canyon floor (flat rock vs sloped indicating higher up in a watershed with infrequent water), and the larger cliff/mesa in the upper background of one of the photos. I took all that and lined…

Zoom.

Enhance.

There it is.

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#194

Post by 908087 »

MrSourz wrote: post #41

A reddit user [1] found its location [2] and another figured out it was installed sometime during 2015-2016 based on when the satellite imagery changed. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/k01dc3/mysterious_m... [2] https://goo.gl/maps/2xdrTqcnguX3ky8AA

Anyone want to take bets on the number of days until we see the first "died in the desert trying to take a selfie with the metal monolith" story?

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#195

Post by dimitrios1 »

bgravinz wrote: post #173
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, it was people like this that once fingered the wrong person for the Boston Marathon bombing. It's all well and good as long as we remember not to put too much stock in it when it really matters.

Once an entire government worth of people led the US into war that cost millions of lives over fake reports of nukes. It would be interesting to compare the damage caused by open, crowd-sourced investigative efforts against the damage caused of closed "authoritative" investigative efforts.

Ha, if only they had the guts to be so specific! They just hid behind the blanket statement of "WMD"s and deflected any questions of specifics. Could have been nerve gas, could have been a biological agent. Everyone played their role (media and government) in deflecting attention away from the core issue that we were being bullshitted.

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#196

Post by hprotagonist »

h2odragon wrote: post #96
hprotagonist wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not. Solid metal objects at that scale have not been a feature of human history for particularly long, they probably don't have a name that's normally used in an archaeological context.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_pillar_of_Delhi

that’s super cool!

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#198

Post by julienchastang »

wojtczyk wrote: post #94

The artist’s name is probably on the bottom face of the piece. :)

I seriously hope this piece of artwork, as it is clearly intended to be, is preserved. Utah already has a tradition in land art with Robert Smithson's, Spiral Jetty [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Jetty

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#199

Post by blueblisters »

monktastic1 wrote: post #91
chrisseaton wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"no matter what planet you're from ", not what planet you're doing it on .

It still works, doesn't it? How would they know the laws on this planet?

Ignorantia juris non excusat [1]

[1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#200

Post by ACow_Adonis »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #133
wpasc wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to love the internet sometimes. Someone who works construction (as he stated) can develop a fun investigatory hobby just via the internet. The he can sign his work with a silly name like bear__f##ker (which I'm guessing is a reference to the movie super troopers).

On the other hand, it was people like this that once fingered the wrong person for the Boston Marathon bombing. It's all well and good as long as we remember not to put too much stock in it when it really matters.

As an analyst, something in me twitches involuntarily at your response. By people like this you mean redditors doing internet sleuthing?

But redditors doing internet sleuthing could be anyone; from detectives, to judges, to professional analysts, to trolls, to pr firms, to fraudsters and framers.

The evidence they use can be anything from high quality to low/ fraudulent.

And then we have the fact that the alternative official systems also have incentives/disincentives and also get things wrong: imagine writing about police or courts "they once fingered the wrong person for crime X, so don't put too much stock in it when it really matters".

if the Wikipedia article is anything to go by, the Boston bombing case was a bunch of internet people reacting on a rumour of similarity to descriptors/ images released by the authorities.

whereas in this case, a smart fellow follows a systematic and logical system to come to a reasonable conclusion.

I'd rather tell people to learn to judge evidence and the analytical thought that goes into making the conclusions.

Of course, we mustn't entirely discount the possibility that all this is just some PR stunt and this guy is in on it :p But either way, I'd say the better message is to learn to be skeptical, think analytically, and judge things on the quality of the evidence and the thought process used to come to the conclusion.

/soapbox

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