Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 515 posts

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#221

Post by hinkley »

c22 wrote: post #71

Does anyone remember the monolith that showed up in Seattle in 2001? It moved around a bit, including to a swampy island in the middle of green lake. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Monolith

I recall that. At the time I knew someone who claimed to be in contact with the perpetrators, and I had heard that the city made an arrangement for a permanent installation of that piece.

I think I can infer from the wiki page that this either fell through, or my friend was making stuff up, because it appears to be at a metalworking shop.

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#222

Post by cool-RR »

gibolt wrote: post #24
teucris wrote: post #9

> "It is illegal to install structures or art without authorisation on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you're from," the department said.

How would they know the laws of federally managed public lands on other planets?

A creature that has highly advanced intelligence but no understanding of the concept of defending one's territory is unlikely.

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#223

Post by lima »

cantrevealname wrote: post #184
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

> installed 2015-2016 based on satellite imagery Unless the artist practiced very good OpSec or was so disciplined that he never checked for satellite imagery of his monument, someone with the right credentials -- like the government with a subpeona or a Google insider -- could identify the artist based on his IP address. Murderers have been identified and convicted by looking up a unique map coordinate on Google Map…

Google is very unlikely to keep logs for so long.

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#225

Post by rtkwe »

Youden wrote: post #191
DavidPeiffer wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 whate…

It would be hard to maintain a flat surface that large manually, doable but tough.

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#227

Post by Cactus2018 »

rowanG077 wrote: post #217
cantrevealname wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> installed 2015-2016 based on satellite imagery Unless the artist practiced very good OpSec or was so disciplined that he never checked for satellite imagery of his monument, someone with the right credentials -- like the government with a subpeona or a Google insider -- could identify the artist based on his IP address. Murderers have been identified and convicted by looking up a unique map coordinate on Google Map…

You can be convicted for looking at a map where the only thing was tracked is your ip? This is all kinds of insane. No wonder the US incarcerates so many innocent people.

2001 Expedia map

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/11/us/internet-used-to-find-...

> The federal complaint says ... the newspaper received a letter that said ''nice sob story,'' with a computer-generated map showing an intersection in West Alton in St. Charles County, along with a handwritten X.

> ... searchers found human skeletal remains within 50 yards of the location shown by the map's X, about 300 yards from where the decomposed bodies of Ms. Wilson and another victim, Verona Thompson, had been found.

> A search by Illinois State Police of Internet mapping companies led to an exact match between features on a map sent to the Post-Dispatch and one found on Expedia.com.

> On June 3, the Microsoft Corporation, which tracks access to that Web site, showed the F.B.I. that only someone with the Internet Provider address 65.227.106.78 visited the Expedia.com site and searched the West Alton area within days of the map's mailing to the Post-Dispatch. The user name of that IP address was ''MSN/maurytravis.''

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#228

Post by iso1631 »

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

Went to that google map link. They had a popup advert

"Discover food deliveries nearby"

Fairly sure that's going to be a tough challenge at that location!

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#229

Post by laverya »

csunbird wrote: post #212
laverya wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is remarkably unclear. Did someone just toss a Trump hat into the air after pulling down the flag? Was the stream stopped before morning returned, and so the only shots are in the dark? Is it an important set of questions? No. But still a better ending than the "oh yeah they stole the flag, now here's a shot of the flag flying during the day again".

No, I remember the footage, they actually put a MAGA hat and a MAGA shirt on the pole and it was on live stream. Edit: The footage is on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rbA3ouyPw

That is a much better ending, thank you! Not entirely sure why it wasn't included in the article's video. (Also really not sure what the idea behind using a shirt as a flag was)

And of course there's a couple of Internet Historian videos: https://youtu.be/_p4h3jwJob0 (warning - very /pol/, exactly as should be expected)

Re: Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

#230

Post by artificialLimbs »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #214
bgravinz wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think it’s amusing that the takeaway from this episode is “the intelligence agencies screwed up” and not “the intelligence agencies found no evidence, and then were directly pressured by their political masters to construct evidence to justify a desired military outcome.”

If the people at the agency had integrity, they would have immediately brought these concerns up the chain or public.
Post reply on HN