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Area 51 Satellite Images
JCallery writes: "CNN has a story about recent photographs of Area 51 that were shot by a satellite launched by a private company (Aerial Images Inc.) and the Russian Space Agency. They are of great quality, showing everything from buses and hangars to an aircraft covered with a tarp. See the images for yourself!" (UFO conspiracy buffs may also want to check this BBC story sent in by Rafael.)
Ralph and Potsie would be Taco and Hemos, Chachi would be played by Roblimo and Cowboy Neal as Big Al!
There is no substance whatsoever to the absurd rumor that Area 51 and its operations were abandoned and were relocated elsewhere, such as to the Green River missile complex in Utah. This rumor originated in a poorly-researched article that first appeared in the June 1997 issue of Popular Mechanics. No doubt the article was greatly "appreciated" by Nellis Air Force Base, particularly by those at the "remote operating base" at Groom Lake, Nevada. The folks at Nellis AFB probably rolled on floor laughing over the article, which was riddled with factual errors. The Popular Mechanics piece also must have brought much delight to then-Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall. It can only be hoped that this type of misinformed article did not successfully curtail the public's interest in and rightful scrutiny of Area 51, particularly in regards to those issues relative to the alleged infractions of environmental statutes at the site. The article, written by Jim Wilson, science editor of Popular Mechanics, inferred that the Air Force had abandoned top-secret testing at its once most secret test site. Then Wilson came to the hasty conclusion that "we know why and we know where they moved to (i.e., Utah)." Nothing is farther from the truth than this overly generalized inference. Jim Wilson, despite his probable sincerity and good intentions, obviously missed the big picture. To begin with, he obviously took a wrong turn on "Groom Lake dirt road" and went to a location that had very little to do with Area 51. It was obvious from the photo that what he did was go south on the "Mail Box dirt road" from Highway 375, crossed the "Groom Lake dirt road" and went south until he encountered an old, poorly maintained wind fence. Wilson apparently believed that he had arrived at the back gate of Area 51, when in reality he had arrived at the northeastern boundary of Range 61. Based on what he saw there, Wilson decided that nothing was happening at Area 51, rashly stating that "the 'cammo dudes' are no longer patrolling the perimeter of Area 51" and further stating that "what we found was a securely locked wind fence that appears to have been undisturbed for months." Wilson commented that even though he had arrived at the back door to Area 51, there was "no guard post". Yet there never was a guard post at that location, ever! He also stated in the article that the "warning signs flanking the gate aren't very threatening either." Perhaps he didn't realize that there never existed any "threatening" warning signs at that location except for a sign that says "NO TRESPASSING: Nellis Bombing Range." The location Wilson was at is not Area 51 -- it is merely the northeastern boundary of Range 61. From this, Wilson drew the stunning conclusion that Area 51 has been shut down! I suggest next time that he go to the right location, towards the real Guard Shack area (west all the way on Groom Lake Road) where he may really encounter the "cammo dudes," white Jeep Cherokees and perhaps a Blackhawk chopper or two to welcome him, if he dare stray into the Guard Shack area. He would also see "threatening" warning signs along the dirt road that clearly state: "LETHAL FORCE WILL BE USED." In fact, according to several reliable sources, the intensity of the activity at Groom Lake has not decreased at all. There may be more going on now at Groom Lake than ever before. In October of 1997, I observed the Groom Lake facility from high atop Tikaboo Peak and verified with my own eyes that the facility is definitely still in operation there. A couple of new water tanks seem to have been added recently behind the big hangar area. Also, upon comparison with a high-resolution panoramic photo that I acquired (allegedly taken several months after the closure of both the Freedom Ridge and White Sides), I have no doubt that there is new construction underway, particularly along the southwest slope next to Groom Lake. (I had observed the Groom Lake facility a number of times before from both the White Sides hill and the Freedom Ridge before those hills became off-limits to the public). Also, at 7:30 on the night before I climbed Tikaboo Peak in October 1997, I happened to be standing with my companions at the exact spot where Jim Wilson had stood at the northeastern boundary of Range 61. As we were looking in the direction of Groom Lake, we were startled by a sudden illumination of the sky towards Groom Lake and witnessed three or four reddish balls of light that appeared and then disappeared momentarily, after which the sky over that area returned to total darkness. I am unable to speculate what those reddish balls of light were -- they were definitely different from the military aircraft flares that I had seen many times near Area 51 -- but this unexplained aerial activity continued intermittently, occurring about three times during the next twenty minutes or so. Without question, there was activity of some kind that night at Groom Lake, in stark contrast to Wilson's misinformed allegation that nothing is going on at Area 51 and that nothing was going on when he was standing at the northeastern boundary of Range 61, looking towards the Groom Mountains. Wilson probably just dropped by during a slow week. And regardless, we must bear in mind that Area 51's most sensitive programs are allegedly conducted below ground level. Primarily because of the Popular Mechanics article, the whole world seems to have gotten the impression that there is nothing going on at Area 51, and that everything had moved to the Green River Missile Launch "complex" in Utah. One of the erroneous facts that Wilson mentioned in his article was that there was an "officially named Area 6413" in Utah. There is no "officially name Area 6413" in Utah. What he obviously meant to say was Restricted Air Space 6413 in Utah. However, it is my understanding that to this date, anyone who wants to visit can get a good, close look at the Green River Missile Launch "complex" -- unlike Area 51, where the military continues its attempts to annex more land in order to push back the "NO TRESPASSING" boundary. For that reason, I highly doubt that there is anything top-secret going on at RAS 6413. The new "non-lethal" weapons programs at Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah interest me much more than the Green River Missile Launch complex. We should keep a closer watch on these "non-lethal" programs as well as the new "bacteriological warfare programs" going on at Dugway, instead of wasting time chasing windmills at the Green River complex. It is worth noting that Wilson's Popular Mechanics stands in drastic contrast with the more substantial article that coincidentally appeared one month prior, in the May 1997 issue of Popular Science. The article makes several mentions of Area 51, the inference being that there was still plenty going on at Groom Lake. According to reports from the Monitoring Times and other publications, some of the ongoing programs at Area 51 include a new series of B-2 bomber by Northrop/Grumman at S-2, possible newer versions of Darkstar (Tier 3 -- UAV) by Lockheed at S-4 and Tier 2+ and Tier 3+ UAVs at S-9 by Teledyne Ryan Aero. Furthermore, following the Popular Mechanics article in June 1997, I was informed that some new components of new, small-scale VOTL produced by Lockheed had just been transferred to Groom from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. There is no doubt that new generations of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs -- remote controlled surveillance platforms, some of which may be oval shaped, etc.) are being tested at Groom Lake. New "skins" for a new generation of stealth programs are being tested as well, as noted by the May 1997 issue of Popular Science. A new generation of "electrochromic panels" are probably being tested at the facility as well. A move towards "daytime" stealth capability (such as through the use of special sensors for transmission of image reflections of the background environment on the lower as well as upper bodies of the aircraft) may also be in the works at Area 51. I would not be surprised at all if they were working on even more exotic weapons programs, such as limited tri-dimensional holographic image maximization that could be integrated with the "electrochromic panels" and used not merely to reflect background environment on the aircraft to bring about "transparency effect," but to bring about some distorted image size of the aircraft as well. All this, in addition to several new black, triangular aircraft (such as the alleged TR-3A Black Manta) that they may be working on, underscores the point that while there may indeed be some new programs going on in Utah and elsewhere, the allegations that Area 51 "moved" to Utah are totally unfounded. by Norio Hayakawa ParaScope Correspondent GroomWatch@aol.com
If you remember back when Microsoft first unleashed TerraServer on the world, they made a big thing about how it was the largest online database (subject to a considerable amount of debate, see this old Slashdot article), and how well-suited NT was to handle it. Shortly after the site went live and melted down, MS upgraded the system to handle the hammering it got from the initial Slashdot effect. Either the /. effect has gotten worse, MS took some hardware away, or NT bit rot has set in.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
You wouldn't really need maps for that, processing power maybe. Consider a satelliet using radar to scan the area beneath it, if it detects something that is at 20,000ft while everything immediately around it is at 1,500ft you can safely assume that that is either a plane or a (_very_ tall thin tower).
I photographed it out the window of a Delta Airlines Boeing 757 at 38,000 feet on a flight from Atlanta to San Jose. The flight went to the north of the base.
At 7.5 miles in altitude, you can see the base from unrestricted airspace. Look for a round dry lakebed with a straight line (runway) across the southern third of it. There is also a shorter parallel runway that doesn't go onto the lakebed. It's north of Las Vegas and east of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains. It helps to have some practice spotting runways from the air - ask any private pilot for help with that.
Back in 1997, I was able to see the base (but didn't have film in my camera) from the south on an American Airlines 757 from San Jose to Dallas around 39,000 feet. I saw sunlight glint/sparkle off the windows of buildings south of the lakebed indicating a small city's worth of a base there. (Couldn't see the buildings themselves but reflected sunlight can give away stuff like that.) So I know it can be seen from both the north and the south from unrestricted airspace.
Personally, I'm not interested in the conspiracy theory stuff. But as an aviation enthusiast, I'd be curious to find out some day what airplane needs/needed a 4-mile-long runway. Was it just the SR-71 or were there more? :-)
Of course the real area 51 is in Colorado near ....$#@#$ NO CARRIER
First off, there's some difference between http://www.terraserver.com/ and http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ -- The general look and feel of the sites, as well as significant chunks of their functionality (and no, I don't know which was there "first"). I believe the two sites share the same dataset in many cases, whether by nature of those data being available to both parties or by way of cooperation between the two.
Results of a traceroute and destination ip's are different as well. Not to mention the fact that the http://www.terraserver.com/ site isn't responding all that well, while the http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ site is.
http://www.terraserver.com/ doesn't like people using their images. They've invested a bit of money into getting the pics up there, and they are interested in keeping a closer hold on things. Last time I visited their site, there was a bit of java (iirc, it desired full permissions as well) that prevented many things such as printing and saving of the images. http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ does things a little nicer in that most of their imagery is a series of images fused together in a table.
So, http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ is responding, but no guarantees as to the existence of the data in question.
While you're waiting for terraserver to start responding again, perhaps you're wondering what the weather's like out at beautiful Groom Lake today, you can check http://www.accuweather.com/a dcbin/alien_index?nav=home for the full 5-day forecast.
Is there a site that will return coordinates when you give it street addresses? This site brought the question out, but I'm also interested in getting a GPS and would like to be able to just put addresses in as coordinates.
LetterJ
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
Well of course there isn't anything secret to be seen....
:)
:)
The US will know the flight paths of the satellites and will therefore know when it's safe to wheel out their latest test 'planes or whatever. Most of the big governments monitor the flights of satellites by radar as a matter of course these days. They restrict 'planes because they can fly over at any time (although I'm sure the Area 51 radar would pick them up....
There are, of course, no little green men as there never were any UFO landings and if there had been, we've all seen the X-files.... they are little grey men
heh
Troc
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
Haven't you been paying attention. You can't hear the black helicopters. They use special alien technology and are silent.
Isn't Terraserver running on Microsoft "technology"? Wasn't it (falsely) advertised by them as the biggest database on the Web? (falsely, as IBM's patent server was bigger anyway).
Perhaps this will help...
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)
- Jeff
...or standard Microsoft technology?
The real problem with these fools who rant about captured UFOs & aliens is that they have *no* clue, are clue hostile, and wouldn't buy a clue if you *gave* 'em a roll of quarters.
Most know zilch about science and technology, and would probably tell you that microcomputers and microwaves were gotten from UFOs.
The *real* proof that we've never found one is that there have been *no* utterly unlooked-for breakthroughs in the last 50 years, technologically speaking; that we can trace the science for *everything*.
Of course, the other proof is that, when Congress looked into the Blue Book, they couldn't find any memos, and, as some Congresscritter put it, can you imagine *any* gov't agency working for 50 years with no memos? To which I'd add, can you imagine *this* gov't, which leaks secrets like a sieve, keeping this a secret for 50 years?
mark
/. effect? Or a vast conspiracy?
This government thing is HUGE...it goes all the way to the president!!!
Well, that confirms it.
There is no "Area 51".
Sure, to the un-indoctrinated, it MAY appear that Terraserver is slashdotted, but those of us 'in the know' know better.
Be afraid. Be VERY afraid...
(no, wait, wrong movie)
Secretary: "Hey Jabber, there's an Agent Smith here to see you.."
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
That would make sense if the development of the F-22 wasn't public knowledge for an incredibly long time. Apparently you weren't paying attention back when the military issued a proposal request for the initial ATF (Advanced Tactical Fighter), and then when they debated over choosing between the YF-22 and YF-23 prototypes, for which specs were available to the public in the 80's (excluding the insides of the weapon bay doors, which to my knowledge are still classified).
Of course that makes the F-22 no less cool, it just makes Congress stupid for pulling the funding on the ATF project so that we now have no measureable quantity of F-22's to show for all the research.
By the same logic that lets bootleggers videotape movies in the theater, bring up whatever image you want, let them stick whatever copyprotection on it they want, and just snapshot the whole damn screen. In X there are a number of programs to do this, in Windows press PrintScreen and paste into a graphics editor. Then proceed to use it for personal use only, of course.
When will they learn?
The Terraserver website doesn't respond. Slashdotted already? FBI raid? Attacks by UFOs?
Down here in Tucson, we have a wonderful little thing called "The Graveyard". The local Air Force base (Davis-Monthan AFB) carries out a strange task....Portions of the base are used as a gigantic graveyard for decomissioned aircraft, and other aircraft destroyed due to arms-control treaties.
There is a gigantic guillotine-like device which basically chops up aircraft out there -- bombers, fighter planes, etc. What happens is, periodically, some planes are chopped up, and then left out in the desert for a few days so that Russian spy satellites can photograph it. The Russians are basically doing the same thing on their end..chopping up planes and leaving them out in the open so our spy satellites can confirm that they are keeping up their end of the bargain.
There are places you can drive outside of Tucson, public roads that run near the perimeter of the graveyard -- 747's with their heads cut off as far as the eye can see, literally hundreds of mothballed F-14s and F-15 Strike Eagles, lots of bizzare stuff. Its all cordoned off with barbwire and periodically patrolled by military police with teams of guard dogs.
You can have a look at a portion of the aircraft graveyard right here.
The truth is always much, much stranger than fiction.
Bowie J. Poag
Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://metalab.unc.edu/propaganda)
Bowie J. Poag
Did anybody else notice the 18 wheeler with the FOX logo screened on the top? This leads me to believe one of two things. First, this is actually just the set of the new X-Files movie. Or second, the US govenment has employed FOX to do their coverup footage. In fact, if you look closely, you can almost see a disected alient being wheeled on a strecher from the FOX trailer into that big building labled "TOP SECRET, NO CAMERA CREWS"
For those who may not know, this is a brilliant parody of the geekish 307 Ale by Tom Smith, the world's fastest Filker. Filk can be described as parody songs in the same sense that coding can be descibed as hitting keys. It's a subculture often found in the wee hours at SF conventions.
Here's the original lyrics, and I recommend his album wholeheartedly to any /.er:
307 Ale, by Tom Smith
There's many drinks you'll drink, me lads, on every world that's new.
There's Saurian Brandy, Cranapple Schnapps, and a good old Tullamore Don't.
There's Busch and Beck and Bud and Bock and others dark and pale,
But I think you'll find the finest kind is Three-Oh-Seven Ale.
(chorus)
Three-Oh-Seven Ale, me lads, Three-Oh-Seven Ale,
The finest drink that any bar has ever had for sale,
It'll lay your whole damn world to waste, it'll make you fit and hale,
There's nothing that you'll ever taste like Three-Oh-Seven Ale, me lads,
Three-Oh-Seven Ale.
It started out at M.I.T. one lazy summer day,
When a couple of the frat-boy techies started in to play,
They'd caught up on their schedule with a couple hours to kill,
So they fitted up the cyclotron and made themselves a still.
(chorus)
They added choice ingredients to brew a little brew,
But they didn't know the wires were crossed in Chamber Number Two.
A tiny bit of space got folded, things were looking queer --
They turned the spout and then came out the world's first Hyper-Beer.
(chorus)
It bubbled and it burbled and it glowed a fizzly green,
And what it did to test equipment, frankly, was obscene.
It took awhile to find a vial it wouldn't burst to flame,
Then they measured out its potency, and that's how it was named.
(slower)
There's many drinks you'll drink, me lads, but this one beats them all:
One hundred fifty-three and one-half percent alcohol,
A beer, brewed in a tesseract, that'll shoot you through the roof --
And if you don't believe me, I've got lots and lots of proof.
(final chorus)
Three-Oh-Seven Ale, me lads, Three-Oh-Seven Ale,
The finest drink that any bar has ever had for sale,
It'll lay your whole damn world to waste, it'll make you fit and hale,
It sticks to your mouth like library paste,
With a stronger kick than toxic waste,
There's nothing that you'll ever taste
Like Three-Oh-Seven Ale!
-- Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Odd. It was created by Microsoft to demonstrate the capabilities of SQL Server 6.5, and when it went live three years ago, it was under the microsoft umbrella. I wonder when/if they sold it.
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
Has nobody noticed that terraserver is owned and operated by Microsoft?
Sounds to me that this is a case of "Show our business practices to the world and we'll show yours!"
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
I know someone works for the company that hosts terraserver, and they're currently filtering out all requests to the area 51 images. Why? Probably the slashdot effect. Along with the image requests, the box managed to greatly increase in portscan activity when the article was posted on slashdot, and from what I understand, there's only one guy who has to handle all this increase in traffic and security.
I wonder if increased port-scanning is a problem with most slashdotted sites. It seems to me an undesireable side-effect of being linked to on slashdot.
Readers of Alan Moore's (and Dave Gibbon's :) Watchmen know all about the smiley face on Mars.
"It's overkill, of course. But you can never have too much overkill." - Anonymous Slashdot Coward
Just think, if the page is /.ed, then perhaps the nation's supply of black helicopters is also... Only so many people to spy on... (I think I hear one now.)
Perhaps it's just me, but is anyone else finding that terraserver.com isn't accepting connections ATM???
Conspiracy theorists of the world unite! You have nothing to lose except your psuedonyms!
> At least they all still have the Mars Face...
:/
Well, unfortunately that has been disproven.
However, they recently found a smiley face on mars.
Sheesh..it's amazing how we look so far into things.
~Steve
--
"<r-xr-xr-x> Just try to edit me" -- www.ircnews.com
This AP Wire News story stupidly reports that the "Area 51 site is not responding". I'm not sure when it became news that a website is slow, but it sure seems kinda ironic that one news organization (AP) is reporting on the effect created by another news organization (Slashdot).
Area 51 is still used for test flights, but as I understand it, all of the really interesting stuff (in terms of the latest and greatest prototype planes) is now elsewhere (including Denver, where high-altitude tests take place).
;-)
But, still. As a former sysadmin for IKS (a gimp-like programmers library from the late 80s) I can still appreciate good sattelite images. I still chuckle at the story someone told of showing off the project's demo where a de-classified image of a plane was enhanced to the point that you could make out the numbers on the wing. They were showing this at a trade show, and some air-force type comes by and his jaw hits the floor. Apparently he was the one who de-classified the image
Soon thereafter they went back to using some playmate from the 70s....
I've been told printscreen is disabled in Windows when the plugin runs... any window capture (like L-View or many others) will work just fine...
Another proposed remedy was to run VMWare and gimp capture it.
Whatever works 8^)
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
I first came to TerraServer a few years ago and was disappointed. Not by the images, by the lousy server. I wasn't at all surprised when the area51 images didn't load today.
I'm tired of bashing Microsoft. Their just too damn big to dismiss everything produced with a MS seal. Microsoft has some teams of very smart people are producing brilliant products and despite the DOJ case, actually innovating.
Too bad the TerraServer support crew isn't one of those teams.
Of course the Slashdot effect with a CNN chaser is going to be a lot for anyone to handle, but I bet the server will still be having trouble next week and next month and on and on.
It's really a shame, TerraServer is a great idea and something I'd spend days with, if frustration didn't constantly chase me away.
joe maller
The link has an .asp at the end.. it's NT ;).
---The proceeding comments were not paid for by the following advertisers.
It doesn't, terraserver.com is owned by Aerial Images. Who provided some of the stuff for terraserver.microsoft.com they aren't the same however.
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Sorry, can't mirror it unless someone wants to pay for each image.. seeing the 2 meter shots was very interesting I must say, but nothing more than a base (come on people, what exactly were we expecting here anyway? Operating on Aliens in the wide open space? Flying UFO's around?) The US knew the Russian satellite was there, suprised they didn't do something stupid like draw a big 'X' in the ground.. oh wait.. they did..
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This stuff has been bouncing all night, long before /. posted it. try the "CNN effect" or the "Dan Rather" effect, or the "Yahoo effect".
Actually, I believe it's the "Microsoft NT effect"
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Microsoft has nothing to do with these pics, they happen to host some older free stuff of Aerial Images, but not the current ones, and don't have any say so or knowledge of what is on www.terraserver.com
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meatloop:~>host area51.gov
area51.gov does not exist (Authoritative answer)
God Fucking Damnit
Big X? Hell I'm suprised they didn't put up a big sign that said "Hi mom!" Duty on a base in the middle of the desert can't be all that entertaining. Or maybe the next passover will reveal some joker has put out a sign saying "Aliens land on left runway" or something.
As for the whole Area 51 UFO thing... come on. My favorite video to debunk of the place is a picture of three or four lights in the sky do some really impressive moves. The person who filmed it said "It has to be using alien technology to protect the pilots from G-force and make moves like that." Why? Why can't they be remotely piloted drones? And the moves were something a vectored thrust engine could do (even seen one fly backwards). Why in the world would you put lights on a top secret aircraft that you're trying to hide? It is restriced airspace. No one to run into.
Knew a guy who used to work at one of the air bases near Area 51 as a civilian security guard in the mid 80's. Said he was sitting in his truck one night way out in the middle of no where when a really big bat went screaming by... chased by a F-15. He was seeing what would eventually become the F-117 fighter. The Air Force didn't admit that it existed for another five years. A conspiracy is generally cracked open by this kind of thing. The government can't even hide a presidential blow job. How in the world would they hide something like a alien spaceship that would require many people to work on? (well as usually I've wondered off the topic I was replying to *shrug*)
I remember hearing somewhere that this facility was no longer being used for the nefarious purposes (fun stuff like the F117, test flights of stolen MiGs, new radar systems, alien cryogenic storage) that earned the place its reputation.
There were even rumors that it was shut down because the level of radiation there was too intense.
The functions of the Groom Lake facility were supposedly moved to secret bases in places like Utah and Colorado.
Anybody heard anything? Or am I just watching the Discovery Channel waaaaaaaaay to much?
"I'm an old-fashioned type of guy. I worship the Sun and Moon as gods. And fear them."
That server is being pounded into submission, either by /.ers or the US Military. The pictures cannot be viewed.
Can someone mirror these pictures? And maybe use Photoshop to magnify the aliens working on the aircraft?
This post encoded with ROT26. If you can read it, you've violated the DMCA. Handcuffs please, sergeant.
Do those satellites have sufficient resolution to locate any of the internet-famous, CAMO-DUDES?
Mom, I want to be a kamo-dood when I grow up!
Sorry, junior. You're the wrong species. When we get back to our planet, talk to your father.
This post encoded with ROT26. If you can read it, you've violated the DMCA. Handcuffs please, sergeant.
...they mentioned the site on NPR this morning, as well. I actually was going to go there before I saw that /. had the same story. Oh well. ;-)
The Divine Creatrix in a Mortal Shell that stays Crunchy in Milk
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
it's telling to see that Mircosoft's showcase site for server reliability and scalability can be brought down by being /.ed
It's not so much the cost of the USGS imaging data -- anyone can buy it; Aerial isn't the only one buying it. It's the size of the data and the amount of processing necessary to convert it into a nice, juicy, high resolution image of alien road-kill at Area51.
M$ just did this as a show piece to paint NT and MS SQL Server in the best light. Now you see what it looks like when you don't have 10,000 MS engineers tweaking the thing. (The Aerial server was setup by a non-MCSE, albeit good, NT admin. And as I recall him bitching, it was a pain in the ass to setup.)
My problem is the requirement to use that damned plug-in. The javascript is supposed to send back a plain (gif) image if there is no supported plugin, but it doesn't work. Idiots.
Here are a few older satellite images of area 51.
http://www.nauticom.net/users/ata/satellite.jpg http://www.nauticom.net/users/ata/satellite1.jpg http://www.nauticom.net/users/ata/satellite2.jpg
If its too good to be true its probly GPL
Full Reuters story
--
The shareholder is always right.
I've heard Alaska.. Think about it..
-Ellis of Geeknews.com
The plane is designed to absorb (and not reflect) radar and IR, but the jet wash leaves a rather noticeable air disturbance in the plane's wake, and can be detected this way.
-jerdenn
I'd have to believe that Area 51 is a cover-up. I mean think about it. It has always attracted the most attention and the Air Force refuses to ever say anything about it other than it exists. I'd have to belive that the "secret" tests the government is doing is somewhere else, somewhere we don't suspect.
Two wrongs don't make a right, three lefts do!
I remember reading some time ago about area 51 putting out rubber inflatable decoy planes. Apparantly these planes were so realistic that they could be deployed to draw enemy fire to non strategic locations. I don't think they use them anymore since I would imagine that with contemporary satellite technology you would be able to tell the difference between a real plane and an inflatable.
I know it's been said before, but the thing about aliens is, well, they're alien. The thing with such predictions like the Drake equation is that they are biased to towards Earth-type life ie. planet based. If on the other hand you can assume that life is possible in any number of alternative configurations, with the only real criterion being a minimum level of complexity, then you allow for life to exist in all kinds of bizarre forms.
I can't remember the name, but one of the short stories in Stephen Baxter's book Vacuum Diagrams is about a life form that arises out of mathematical logic trees creating using quantum effects - truly strange and well worth a read if you're into hard SF.
That's why they want every computer to run windows.
First of all I would like to start off by saying that this post is not intended to debate weather or not "close encouters" are actually contact with Extra-terrestrial Biological Entities (EBEs). I am also not accusing those who do not believe that "close encouters" are actually contact with EBEs of being irrational. Many people, even on this forum, act as if those who believe in alien contact with earth are crazy or have no rational basis for thier beliefs. For example if I were to examine the Majestic-12 documents, examine the evidence that supports those documents, examine the evidence that does not support those documents, and then conclude that the Majestic-12 was an actual secret government organisation, many would act as if I were a paranoid schizophrenic. This would not be correct. It is obvious that just because one concludes that the Majestic-12 was an actual organization they are not necessarily a paranoid schizophrenic. Such treatment would be wrong. I am sure some will try to use the lack of UFO evidence in these photos, not as "proof" or "evidence" that UFO/EBE believers are crazy, but as fuel, or an irrational confirmation, to their beliefs (or subconscience prejeduce against UFO/EBE believers). On a somewhat un related topic to what I discussed above, what do these photos mean in the debate against EBE contact with earth? The Answer is absolutely nothing. They are completely irrelevent. Now if they actually contained photos of UFOs or EBEs they would not be irrelevent. Why is this? The argument against EBE contact is likely to be "These photos show nothing out of the ordinary. Area 51 is (looks) just like any other Military base." This is true, however, it is irrelevent. It is irrelevent because the existence of Area 51 has been denied for years. Now that the existence of Area 51 has been declassified it is likely that any secret operations that took place at Area 51 have been discontinued. Before it was declassified they could have "gotten away" with continuing any secret ops. Why? Even though area 51 was under much scrutiny, the scrutinizers [in the public's eye] are paranoid manic depressive scizophrenics with ADHD and multiple personalities. Or is other words the public didn't take such scrutiny seriously because it viewed the scruntinizers as crazy. After all if the government denies it than it cannot possibly be true. Now that Area 51 officially exists, they cannot possibly continue any activities that officially do not exist. Or in other words, it is just any other base. Thank you for listening to my rambling.
That is not accurate. I, as do many, believe that non-biological inteligence is possible and likely. However that is not the issue at hand. The issue is did EBEs contact earth. The possibility for other, more bizzare, forms of life is irrelevent to that issue.
that's a Topo map. It *is* drawn. :-)
unfortunately, they don't have a photo (if you click the buttons on the left side)
Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design
However, with the demise of Area 51, the BIG question is --- what will become of the Ale-i Inn? (I know I'm getting the name wrong.)
It's not tarps! It's hot grits, I tell you! Or maybe they're cloning Natalie Portman...
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger
Aerial Images, at www.terraserver.com, planned to offer a link to the Area 51 pages. Viewing the images is free; downloading them costs $8.95 and up. Kodak will print photographs for $20 to $30.
I want to know how they can prevent me from downloading them. Its called "Printscreen", open up (gimp, ms_paint, kodak imager, whatever) and hit the paste key, and WHAMMO - instant image, downloaded.
~zero
insert clever line here
sig?
What people don't know is that the aliens were all the mice. They left just before the world was blown up to make way for an interstellar highway, that, 5 minutes after its creation was rendered useless by the improbability drive.
In the HHGTTG, the Area51 scientists are listed as "the facist pigs who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes".
with an interesting note that the publisher is looking for a new editor in the conspiricy theory department.
Consequently, an issue of the HHGTTG fell through a quantam wormhole from 1000 years in the future, in which the Area51 scientists are listed as "the facist pigs who were first up against the wall when the revolution came."
~zero
insert clever line here
sig?
Here are some of my oberservations (gleened from my inability to actually view the images thanks to the Slashdot effect):
1. Objects in the images are closer to the ground than the satellite.
2. Some top secret projects are actually conducted indoors.
3. The remaining top secret projects actually are *cleverly* hidden in plain sight (or is that 'plane site'.)
There you have it. Conspiracy perpetuated.
--
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
Yeah, I heard CNN was going to have an interview with the Smoking Man next about why the Terraserver is not responding....
www.apo49.org/area51/area.jpg
And who do you work for?
Salocin.com
Might as well use Terraserver to look at this.
What a waste.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
Last time I visited their site, there was a bit of java (iirc, it desired full permissions as well) that prevented many things such as printing and saving of the images
Well not directly, but there's an easy way around their script. For you windoze users, all you need to do to save their images is to press the "Print Screen" key next to F12 and then open up MSPaint or that Photoshop 5.5 crack you horked on hotline and click File=>Paste. Viola, problem solved!
yeah I just went and looked and I could see Cowboy Neal riding round on a horse and then he looked up and waved at me. Or was it a mirage?
Phear my l33t homepage.
A few weeks ago, my bf and I went out to Area 51 on vacation. We couldn't get very close to it at all, but we _did_ get pictures....of the bus, the guards in a pickup, the signs, the Little A'Le'Inn, etc. Lots of fun. :) Pictures are at http://www.employees.org/~densaer/area51.html.
reverend lola
the titanium sheep
provider of steel wool
In the past, the Groom Lake area has been used to test all the Lockheed Skunk Works aircraft. The U-2, the SR-71, and various stealth aircraft were first flown there. The Skunk Works is still active, so presumably they're building something interesting.
nice link... gracias ~go art bell~
~ride hard.. live free~
Besides even if it wasn't, its a top secret maximum security air force base. I'm sure they are aware of what satellites are flying overhead, etc. Not to mention, the satellite can't see through the hangars, which is where most "top secret" stuff would probably be taking place, right? The exception would be for test flights and they would probably perform those under the cover of night...
-- A computer without COBOL and Fortran is like a piece of chocolate cake without ketchup and mustard
Acutally, terraserver is hosted by a little company called arial images that has a fleet of planes and satelites that take pictures of stuff. the Microsoft Terraserver just worked out a contract with these terraserver fellas about three or four years ago to put a lot of images on their site to show off their databasing skills. Recently, these arial image people have taken those images off the microsoft terraserver and put it on to their terraserver where there is a _very_ slow plugin that you are forced to use.
is it just me or does it seem like this usgs image was just drawn on a cocktail napkin?
It looks like the Slashdot Geek Compound to me. I always thought CowboyNeal looked a little like an alien (and not a Cuban alien).
kwsNI
Funny, doesn't show up on terraserver.microsoft.com. Maybe terraserver.microsoft.com != terraserver.com.
8 &Y=5157&Z=11&W=2
I just get what looks like an image of a political map with the words "Groom Lake Test Site"
http:// terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=12&T=2&X=75
Henry Fnord
I read the Yahoo news report about this site being hit so many times and it seems that TerraServer thinks they're copping DOS attacks from crackers (they called them hackers.)
They are being hit by hackers, these hackers are using their enginuity to try and get access to the images despite the server supposedly being down.
Having a look at the M$ site, I noticed the links are in exactly the same(almost) format as the real Terraserver links. So I ran the co-ordinates through the M$ query and got the response that the images weren't available at that time.
Supposing that M$ is feeding straight from the same image database, with the same links, this shows that the images have been removed from the web to prevent us "hackers" from accessing them.
You'd think a website administrator might have a bit more savvy on what's going on.
You want me to come up with a *.sig now too!?!
Get the Hell off my planet, you slimy mobster Bush!
Oh right "Happy Face Crater"! That's want the martians WANT you think! I think a better name might be "Sinister Sneer Gultch"! Sheesh... "Happy Face Crater" - that is sooo Area 51! Wake up America!! oh sorry... xasper "I pitty the Foo'" - American Icon Mr. T
Instead of raising your voice, try strengthening your argument.
Well 'terraserver.com/Area51.asp' may not be responding due to unknown forces.. /.? maybe or something even more devilish. But this is interesting with microsoft version of terraserver doesn't have photo images of the groom lake area at all only topo's. http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=15&T= 2&X=94&Y=644&Z=11&W=2 Want more proof.. I think not! Holy black helicopter batman... hang on someone is at my door... ...user logged off...
Instead of raising your voice, try strengthening your argument.
Looks like this is a picture of yer moms a$$. Yeah I have seen this before, and the picture goes even farther north!!! :)
HTTP Error 403 403.9 Access Forbidden: Too many users are connected This error can be caused if the Web server is busy and cannot process your request due to heavy traffic. Please try to connect again later. Please contact the Web server's administrator if the problem persists.
bravo, but who is the slashdot fonz?
The Unfettered Mind: Takuan Sôhô - ISBN: 0-87011-851-X
My contact details
henry [ w i r e t r a p . n e t ]
i'd go for tux, if only 'cos he's got the black jacket already..
The Unfettered Mind: Takuan Sôhô - ISBN: 0-87011-851-X
My contact details
henry [ w i r e t r a p . n e t ]
doesn't seem to be working, hmm.. the NSA is getting quicker..
The Unfettered Mind: Takuan Sôhô - ISBN: 0-87011-851-X
My contact details
henry [ w i r e t r a p . n e t ]
It looks like the Slashdot Geek Compound to me...
Hang on! That gave me an idea!
Hey, Commander Taco, Hemos, Cowboy Neal...any Slashdot admin reading this! What are the co-ordinates of the Geek Compound? I'd like to have a look at it!
Of course, if you'd rather not divulge that information due to privacy concerns, that's fine, too, I suppose...
No you got it wrong. It's the Aquatoids. Me and .... ooops shouldn't have said that now I have to kill all /.ers.
Spencer Dodge destroyed the secret base on mars. We launched from Area 51. In that secret
"....But not at you o' holiest of gods
with the wraithfullness and the vengeance
and the blood rain and the
hey hey hey it hurts me."
Prof. Frink
Everybody knows they moved all the high security alien research to the black mesa facility. I know this great guy Gordon who works there.
... and then the thing with the .....
"Prof Frink, Prof Frink.. He'll make you laugh, he'll make you think. He likes to run
person"
Exactly what I thinking!
Yes, consipricy theroists (and people who can spell :) ) may make it what they will, but not every site can stand the Slashdot effect. Especially if its running on Microsoft software.
Has anyone actually considered that Area51 is just a 'front' and all the alien stuff is happening somewhere else. Maybe even somewhere in Redmond.... Hmm. It's a theroy :)
Richy C.
--
What di you expect ?
/. effect more like the Sectoid effect
Everyone knows the real conspiracy, is that Area 51 is a secret X-Com base dedicated to alien research
These sectoids are far too clever too be caught by the mere trickery of a satellite images...
Scully: Not really Mulder. This sort of thing has been known to happen before.
Mulder: Exactly. You remember the Ken Starr report when it was released to the Internet? No one could get at it. I believe this was a test-run, an experiment if you will, incase anything did get released on the internet that would jepordize the conspircy!
Scully: Oh really Mulder. It's a known fact that sites brought to sudden popularity by mainstream media are suddenly besieged by hits from people that are...
Mulder: It's called "The Slashdot Effect"..
Scully: Yeah.. Whatever.. But, you can't seriously belive this is some sort of coverup?
Mulder: Does it not seem odd that not moments after going online noone can access the site? Doesn't it also seem strange that terraserver.com and terraserver.microsoft.com are so closely related? A company sponsored by the richest company in the world doesn't have the means to keep it's servers online? There are countries that can have networks that can transmit at 20 terrabits per second, and companies have tested fiber optics that can relay trillions of bits of data over 100s of kilometers in a second and with all of this technology no one can get to one simple web page?! Why do you think that is?!
Scully: Because millons of teenagers spend all day online downloading porn, MP3s and pirated software.. ?
Mulder: No.. It's much more than anyone has ever suspected. A massive consipracy involving the American goverment and major companies around the world have devised a system of manipulating datastreams to completly jam information on the internet that may uncover the truth!
Scully: And who's behind it? Huh? Bill Gates?
Mulder: Of course! That's it! Why else would the a man with billions of dollars still not be able to get a decent haircut? Wait here Scully! I've got to go!
Scully: Mulder! Mulder, wait! Where are you going Mulder.....???
http://www.fas.org/irp/overhead/groom.htm This site apparently is doing a side by side comparison of the photos of area 51 from the USGS, Aerial Images and soon IKONOS. I got the link from ZDNET: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2551 676,00.html?chkpt=zdhpnews01
ASCII tastes bad dude.
Binary it is then.
You'll have better luck if you link directly to a specific image (at least I did). Try this instead: http://www.te rraserver.com/image.asp?S=11&T=100&X=361&Y=56&Z=13 79&W=2
You've got it all wrong - you see, it is this massive cavern *larger* than the actual planet down there. That's where the Homesick aliens and Mice run this joint. It's all done through quantum string theory effects, really. Homesick Aliens, Paranoid Androids,Revolutions, electioneering - it's all starting to come together now...
/.ers in their natural states. It's starting to have the makings of a good CD - Oh wait, it already is a cd...
/. story - look it up. Should that fail - try old CNN shtuff. I'm too lazy to fish for the link. So I suck.
Witness
Remind anyone of the (much lower scale) interest in the sattelite imagery that got published online by those anti-Nuke groups? I thought all those Sattelite photos of the worlds (US, Russia, and Rogue States) Nuclear Missile test areas and launch facilities/silos were more interesting than an empty and abandoned (Or so they want us to believe?) military base. Old
-Elrys has no sig and doesn't care.
I, as well as many others, remember reading about the "New Area 51" in Popular Science. It had been reported that it was abandoned and all activity there had been halted.
I can't access the TerraServer site, it is bogged down, maybe not, I would not be surprised at all if the Gov. had the pictures of the Top Secret Highly Classified Code-Word Code Blue Code Red Uknown Confidential Super Street Fighter II Platinum Turbo Championship Edition Alpha base taken down. Seems all a little too odd to me.
Does it give a date when the pictures were taken? As I said, I had read all activity at the Nevada site had been halted...
Weird.
"spare the lachrymosity when the fulminations have inveighed"
-madd
Yes its true. We have all found out Area 51 is acutally not housing UFO's. They are hiding. you ready? they are hiding tarps These tarps are wanted by serveral different countries and they US is simply helping out. They acutalyl have the knowlegde of serveral thousand other tarps of the same species. These tarps may the link to out past and to our future.God save the tarps.
Anybody notice that in the previous article on space warfare, most of the images were provided coutesy of Microsoft and now Microsoft is one of the major players bringing us these pics? Hmmmm.....
There are other pictures that have been taken resently of area 51 and i swear there are goats in the picture. you can barely see them but man they are big for goats. they got the furry bottom which is visible from the pictures. and if you look closely you can hear the BBAAAAHHHH! WWWWOOOOOOOIE
Candy is Dandy but Liquor is Quicker Goats for me in 2's and 3's WOOOOOOOOOOOOOIE
Aha. Notice how we see absolutely nothing suspicious in these images. Not one iota of evidence for aliens, top secret underground research labs, nothing.
See how much EFFORT they will expend to cover up the truth SO WELL that there is ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE! Proof!
Ahem. Sorry. We now return you to your normal programming.
Sean Remove zebras from e-mail address to reply.
Talk of consipracy theory and aliens distracts attention away from real concerns presented by the operation of area 51 which is a black budget military facility meaning its operations are accountable and known only to The Pentagon and the President. Unlike the CIA or NSA which have Congressional oversite committies (and still manage to be global thugs), the US military can do whatever it likes at Area 51, this includes illegal activities, most noteably the disposal of highly toxic & illegal substances. Check out http://www.cnn.com/US/9711/06/area .51/index.html for background info...
I am the same person who posted the above. It should have been moderated much higher, but the moderators are probably scared to do so. Check out: http://web.wtez.net/dw55082
Artificial Intelligence = "Eye in the Sky" = One Dollar Bill = "The Force" = The "Martin Luther" King "God"