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Egyptian Pyramid Rover Finds... Another Door
JoeRobe writes "In what appears to be more evidence that ancient Egyptian architects had a sense of humor, MSNBC is reporting
that the pyramid rover has determined what was behind the door at the end of a mysterious shaft alluded to earlier - another door."
Am I the only one who fears that the door, currently very hard to get to because it is at the end of a long narrow passage, might soon be the door, extremely hard to get to because it is at the end of a long narrow passage with a broken robot jammed in it.
How is this different from a story posted two days ago?
How can it be live when the webpage says:
The National Geographic Channel special Pyramids Live: Secret Chambers Revealed airs in the United States on Fox Television on Monday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
The only way I know to air a show at 8pm Eastern and Pacific is to have it recorded! So now, is it live? Or is it recorded?
This was tried several years ago. The robot they used did not have a fiber optic camera, and was unable to see past the door, however, it did have a laser on it, and they shined the laser through the cracks in the sides of the door and were unable to see the dot, so there is some evidence that there is a large room behind the door.
The new robot has a fiber optic camera, and some kind of device which will allow it to see through up to 3 feet of rock.
One thing that kind of pisses me off about the whole egyptology thing, is that the egyptian government is pretty strict on who they let come and do work like this over there. If they don't agree with some of your views on the history of the pyramids, good luck getting a permit to do anything there. The history of the pyramids is very sketchy, and how the traditional egyptologists think their theories are 100% correct is very arrogant.
You gotta love America, "Tonight we break in to ancient burial sites LIVE!" Will it have musical performances? What about cheesy hosts who do mummy jokes every 5 mins.?
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Pretty crafty letting a robot take the blame. I can hear the stories years from now...
"And the next morning, the robot failed to come out of its tent. When they went in to check, they found the robot frozen in horror, its monitor displaying The Blue Screen of Death!"
If someone's planning on making a DivX of this, I'd really love to see it.
(I'm in Japan and don't these channels.)
I feel a bit guilty for asking, so feel free to leave in the commercials - I'll watch them as my penance.
Cheers,
Jim
(jim at mmdc dot net)
-- My Weblog.
I watch Shaft exploring programs almost every night, just need to get the right cable channels.
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a brutal anal raping at airport security
The BEST place to get info about the shafts and the history is:
http://www.cheops.org/
It is a site constructed by Rudolph Gattenbrink and contains all of his findings in a very public way... AutoCAD drawings of how each block was cut to form the shaft, etc...
Zahi Hawass (The director of the Giza site) loves to take credit for anything and everything.. I true ego-maniac... I would love to see Rudolph Gattenbrink get the credit he deserves...
There is a petition located at:
http://www.dailygrail.com/petition/
yes this is off topic, and yes I will get modded down as such.
man, if I had cable, I'd LOVE to give you a divx of it. hell, I'd even mail you a copy of the cd. Why?
Because it's frickin fair use!
If you can't watch a show, it is within your FAIR USE to have someone to record it at a later time.
My parents would always do that for me when I'd miss saturday moring cartoons to go to my sanchin ryu classes. that was fair use... that's the DEFINITION of fair use.
So why is this different? because it's Divx? because he asked on an open forum? if that's the case, would it be illegal to ask your bowling buddies if they could tape a show for you?
he said he'd be willing to watch the commercials, which he probably wouldn't anyways if he was watching it live(channel surf, bathroom, etc).
This is the kinda shit that makes me sick. that someone automatically thought it was in bad taste because he was excersizing his fair use rights.
To the parent poster, as I said, I don't have cable either. If someone does score you a divx of it, let me know.I doubt they'll ever release this bad boy to dvd.
as for the moderators who are gonna mod me as flamebait or a troll, blow me. I have promise you I have more karma than you have mod points(unless it's an ed.).
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Let's hope they don't find an empty Coke bottle, too.
There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead. -V. Marchetti, CIA
Al Capone's vault!
Rudolph Gantenbrink and his team discovered the door some years ago. Zahi responded by rushing them out of the country and making sure that they wouldn't be able to come back.
For years Zahi Hawass has claimed that there is "nothing" to see up the shafts, that there is no "door". Now, he's gone 180 degrees and claims there IS a door. The whole thing is a circus, and Zahi Hawass wants to be ringmaster. He also wants to lay claim to whatever is behind that door--they've completely locked Gantenbrink out of this whole procedure, hijacking what is rightfully his "claim".
I'm sure he would be able to find out what lies behind the vaults of Al TutCapone..
My favorite parts:
1) Here we are in the top chamber of the pyramid. Here's all the graffiti of people here before (some in professional typeface, only thing not on the wall were Golden Arches), but here are some red marks of historical significance.
2) (After we see it's just another wall). "This is a very important discovery, and I am very pleased with what we found".
I think they could hear the TVs in America click off from Egypt!!
a hieroglyph that roughly translates to "Ha-Ha"
you can trade it for what's behind door #2
or have $500 in cash!
(crowd)
Trade it! Keep it! Take the cash!
From the looks of the all the diagrams showing the location of the so called "hidden" chamber,
why don't they just carefully excavate into it from the outside, instead of going to all the touble of sending these robots in etc...
One thing is for sure though, the discovery of the second door allivates fears that the Egyptian goverment had already opened the outer door and explored the secret chamber.
It seems obvious to me what this shaft is. It leads directly into the Queen's chamber so it must be a laundry shoot. Unfortunately, Khufu's dirty Sun God Underoo's must have been stolen 1000's of years ago.
Egyptian Engineer 1: "Hey Ahumhuphet!" /see/ these things!"
Egyptian Engineer 2: "Yo!"
Egyptian Engineer 1: "Check it out, I designed this really long, small passage that leads to a door, then it goes on, and leads to another door!"
Egyptian Engineer 2: "Why?"
Egyptian Engineer 1: "...dunno... thought it would be cool"
Egyptian Engineer 2: "Man, this is like your idea to draw aliens on hieroglyphs! Its not like anyone is ever going to
Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
Wasn't this the howlingly un-funny sunday cartoon?
you should read everything on the internet as if it had "but I'm probably talking out of my ass" appended to it.
There are much more skillful ways to present that troll. Go back, read some more comic books, and try again.
Another article, this time from the BBC
... and I only watched the last 5 minutes or so . . .
Robot proceeds forward through hole in door . . .
Excited Host Lady: Describe what's happening now for us!
Expert: The robot is proceeding forward through the hole in the door.
Excited Host Lady: Oooooo! Those look like hieroglyphics! Writing on the wall!
Expert: Cracks. Those are cracks.
They might find more information about the ancient race of skeleton people.
OddManIn: A Game of guns and game theory.
...a trapped Lara Croft beats desperately on the heavy stone slab as Osiris advances on her!
So can someone explain to me why they didn't open the door? I mean seriously. If there is a big secret that nobody knows wouldn't you want to find out immediately? How can you possibly resist opening the door? What kind of idiot finds a new door and doesn't open it? I mean isn't that what video games teach us, open every door as soon as you find it!
And don't they have sonar? They should use it to "see" what is behind the door. Whether it's an empty room or a treasure hoarde with a curse I doubt anything bad can come of opening a door. That is I don't believe in the supernatural. I'm sure the archaelogists don't either.
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Go and patch your Linux boxes. The "Slapper Worm" is continuing to spread.
If you haven't heard of it before, the "Slapper Worm" exploits a vulnerability in OpenSSL on Linux boxes running Apache web servers.
Patch your damn box!
What's Behind Door #2?
1) Anna Nicole Smith's Dietician
2) Steve Case's New Office
3) Kernel 2.6.0
4) A Stash of PS2 Network Adapters
5) CowbotNeal's Playroom
They spent the entire time telling how LIVE everything was, but the during the commerical time-outs the preview for the next segment hinted to what was next. Either someone had some really good forshadowing or it was all BS.
I'm not drunk, I just have a speech impediment. And a stomach virus. And an inner ear infection.
By the way the show went...It seems that Fox / the discovery channel would love to have another live show like this to boost ratings. Although the archaeologist might have a heart attack if he has to wait for some cheesy ancient egypt reenactment segment before everything he does.
its called an anteroom. The next one surely leads to treasure!
I can't believe I watched this. I knew it was going to be the worst 2hours of television I've ever seen, but still I was sucked in.
How come they didn't take the camera rover out and put the one with the drill in there to drill a hole through the new found door?
I thought they had xrayed the door already, did they know that the new door was there?
How many doors and how many specials will it take to reach the secret chamber?
Who was that British-accent babe commentator? Did any other guys here want to drive their rover up her secret chamber?
--
Does anyone remember
have written a better "Simpsons" episode.
Homer the Narrator: After two hours of the robot crawling through the tunning and drilling a tiny hole through the door we finally are about to reveal the pyramid's most treasured secret
Homer the Narrator: D'OH!.
... what's behind the *other* door?
ANOTHER DOOR! AND ANOTHER!! AND ANOTHER AND ANOTHER AND ANOTHER!!!!
I'm sure of it.
We've finally discovered the hole in the universe that will revolutionize our perception of reality: behind every opened door is another door!
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
But our princess is in another castle.
Let's get drunk and delete production data!
You have seen "The Mummy" one time too often.
This show bugged me because they dole out hard information so sparingly. Who cares whether Ms and Mr Brit announcer are short of breath. Why make us wait so long to see the CGI tour of the pyramids?
If this thing wasn't broadcast live, if they had cut back on the breathless chatter from the announcers, the informational part of this broadcast could have fit in half an hour.
Having such a well concealed room at the end of a completely impassable tunnel which in turn is blocked by two huge stone doors screams: "DO NOT ENTER! DANGER!" to anyone who's not blinded by the belief in our science.
Actually, richly stocked and securely guarded tombs meant to the ancient egyptians that their eternal spirits would continue to enjoy a luxurious existence even after death. The only threat present to ancient graverobbers was the potential of pulling their own arms off (Bender style) while trying to move those slabs without heavy machinery.
Why can't we just leave things as they are?
<technologyrant>Blah blah blah</technologyrant>
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"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."--William Blake
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Here in Britain, National Geographic are showing the 'live' exploration time-shifted to peak viewing hours tonight.
:-)
I just heard a huge dramatic trailer for the show on my radio, which started just after the newsman announced "...huge disappointment, there was nothing to see."
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
It's another door.
Somewhere from the great beyond some dead Pharoh is laughing his ass off.
Here's the story on the BBC
After watching the show last night, why do I suddenly think of Yosimite Sam opening door after door, while Bugs nails up new doors on the other end?
-Ed
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WHY DON'T THEY JUST BREAK OPEN THE SECOND DOOR!!!
Don't tell me it's going to take another year before they decide to drill the second hole.
Why did they take so much time in the first place?
Yuioup
Well, That tunnel will take another turn after the door... but once you get into the chamber, you will find the warp shuttle that I'm going to go back in time and have built into the top of the pyramid.
Yes, I'm Crazy!!!!!
Now, I want my warp shuttle back so I can go put it there in the first place. Now, where were those slingshot calcs... ya know the ones about going around the sun at warp... to do a time warp.
I'm Sorry, I had to make this story geek related somehow.
(I'll stop myself from explaining my plan to use a webcam, my Pentium running Linux, 20 10-foot USB extension cords, and a wind-up NunZilla to explore the corridor...)
Carousel is a lie!
It'd be much better to have the scientists pulverize some potential load-bearing walls instead of just working their way in through cooridors that are already in place. It's just a pyramid after all - who cares if we destroy it in the process of revealing its secrets. There's plenty more after we're through with this one!
Why bother.
The Stargate!
That extra door is just a plaster mockup the technicians from Cheyenne Mountain left behind.
It's just an old abandoned set from the TV show "Get Smart".
Should keep them busy for a while, anyway.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
for those who watched the original "LIVE" special where they originally found the first door, is what happened to the piece of wood laying in front of the door?
from lots of reading concerning Dr. Hawass zealoutus "egyptians did it all by themselves, etc....", it seems this piece of wood could be the end-all of the discussion(what is the carbon dating of the wood?), but then again, they never made *1* mention of it last night.
as mentioned in a previous post, Dr. Hawass does want to be the one-and-only person with any say-so regarding anything to do with ancient Egypt...even when he refuses to believe scientific fact.
the history of the world
My favorite "startling revelation" in the program had to be the bit where the "discovered" that in order to feed the huge workforce, they simply took the way they did things around the house and did them on a much larger scale.
I figure sixth graders could have come up with everything they said. Sad really.
more likely.
Obviously they took the wrong path. Grab the fire flower, jump over the drawbridge and dodge the two fireballs, hit the two Goombas, and go down the first pipe, don't go around it. If you miss the pipe and go up the shaft you just hit a dead end and you pretty much won't have time to go back.
A winner is you!
Its a gateway to hell!
Don't you people know anything?! Let's be ready, unlike everyone else in all the movies. have a high yield nuke on standby 'just in case' and plenty of marines ready to chopper in and kick their asses doom style. Wait a minute... is this all a part of iD software's marketing plan for doom 3... ?
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Here are more beer pots... They must of contained beer...
And, look at the fingerprints... Surely Eygptians built this... My question is, wouldn't they have done their best to make sure flat surfaces were just that, flat, and free of fingerprints, because I would think fingerprints would make the thing look ugly.
Next point which really got to me was the fact that NO SLAVES were used and that it was a labor of love... That's such BULLSHIT. The evidence presented allows one to conclude several facts.
1) There was good food... Meats, fish, probably fruit. BUT was there enough for all? This I doubt. The better food was either a reward for the most productive teams OR for the skilled workers.
2) There were dorms... But only for about 2,000... This would mean an estimated 23,000 had to sleep elsewhere... Again leading to a conclusion of two or three possible workforces.
3) "Advanced" medical surgery was available... BUT for who? The skilled workers or the slave mules?
My conclusions...
1) There were slaves, used as mules to get the stones into near position.
2) Skilled workers positioned blocks accurately, these would receive the medical treatment and better accomodations.
3) Managers... All factories have them, why wouldn't the "advanced" Eygptians... Of course managers and overseers would be taken care of.
Better food was used for feeding the skilled and managers, and used as a reward for top performing slaves...
Tournament Management Online &
I knew it, its all a cheap tv marketing scam. They put 2 doors there so they get to do another live show.
:)
Host: so, what is behind door number 2, is it?
a) A Mummy
b) My Mummy
or c) The Mummy's Rachel Weisz!
find out after the break!
yes, thats right, The Mummy star Rachel Weisz has been planted into the chamber just so she can pop out, and they get to have some sort of celeb to boost ratings (they blew the back wall off in secret - its television, thats what they do. And yes, she is thin enough to fit down that passage
Also planned is a little skit at the end to market coca-cola where a mummy chases them off the stage and accidently gets unwrapped to reveal a giant can... so exciting
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
The Egyptians had it right... using the pyramids to secretly and safely store all their MP3 collections.
They had done several run-through tasks previous, like the drilling thing so they knew the step was there. So all they had to do was say "coming up: a step!"
Ground-penetrating radar?
They'll find Micheal Jackson buried behind his house in his liquid nitrogen tank...
they find a priceless gold sarcophagus of unimaginable scientific value - how the f*ck do they intend to get it out?
Blast those Egyptians! They're always one step ahead!
>A bit of history here...Rudolph Gantenbrink
:
>and his team discovered the door some years
>ago. Zahi responded by rushing them out of
>the country and making sure that they
>wouldn't be able to come back.
This is actually a VERY misleading statement. Gantenbrink, by way of Robert Bauval, let the word out on the findings of the 'door', whereas it is standard procedure for *everyone* who is doing research there to go thru the Council of Antiquities FIRST.
That Bauval was associated somehow with it is probably what tipped the balance (for fairness, you can read Bauval's account of the events in Secret Chamber by RB, chapter 9 I believe). The combination of having an "alternative" historian (that means one who cherry picks his 'evidences') together with the the breaking of the rules relating to announcement of discoveries is a big no no for egyptology, simply because these things get out of control, in terms of wild and completely unfounded speculation, REALLY quickly.
Many might not realize this, but there is a huge *industry* revolving around the "mysteries" of ancient egypt, where authors who know very little of (or chose to ignore) the HUGE coherent picture that egyptology is, ignoring montains of evidence supporting it and countless others that go against their own "brilliant" speculation, end up transforming a culture into a "legacy", heavily hinting at mythical places such as Atlantis (a spurious story already of which ONLY plato talks about, and in terms heavily metaphorical), and often sliping into concepts like "noble or higher race" and the like.
The world of "alternative egyptology" is fascinating at first glance, but is roten from the inside, trust me on this.
Another point is that the "door" hardly is a door, as it is located in a shaft that is 8x8 inches, unless someone has a book to write about little beings using this shaft as a corridor for their daily affairs (I suspect this would easily be linked to our alledged martian legacy in a sleight of hand). The two "handles" could be many things, but even if they are handle, that doesn't make the thing a door, it just makes it a plug, with handles.
The third thing i'd like to mention is the latent hatred of that "alternative research" community toward people like Zahi Hawass, who has, despite these people crave to dig everywhere, been dedicated to protecting and researching the Giza site for many decades. Granted Zahi has a big mouth, granted he doesn't know how to talk to journalists, but his dedication and honnesty are obvious to anybody who looks into the field (and no, reading Graham Hancock's 'work' does not qualify). Mark Lehner is in a somewhat similar yet different position, since as an ex-Cayce believer, he began his career with the goal of finding things like the "Hall of Records" (his academic training was financed by ARE, the Cayce fundation). Having learned a lot since his debuts, and having grown up, he is now bashed by his old buddies for being honnest. (don't you find it strange for instance that RB's "orion correlation theory" used to 'lock' giza to 10500BC, just as Cayce 'predicted' ? Thorough examination shows there is no such lock to such an epoch to be found, and the OCT has now been reduced to a "astetically pleasing representation" that lacks any form of precision, and hence any predictive power, rendering 10.5kBC completely and utterly arbitrary)
The way I see it, "alternadoxy" is jumping to the gun on this, let's just wait and see what they find, if they indeed find anything, because whatever is or isn't there, it'll be one hell of a special.
The alledged hijacking of Rudolf Gantenbrink's work is a straw man, Gantenbrink is refered to in all the papers you will find in academia relating to the exploration of the shafts. The nature of research dictates that one researcher follows another on a site, research is not for personal glory, it's about uncovering the truth. That Gantenbrink isn't always mentioned in the press is not the big deal that "alternadoxy" makes of it, after all, Dyxon isn't either and probed the shafts many decades before Gantenbrink (in his probings, he did find that the southern queen's chamber shaft seemed to be blocked at the height we know of today as the location of the plug). Also Gantenbrink has been associated with this special, if only in providing his experience to the i-robot team.
As for "why so long?", well the pyramids aren't going anywhere, these things always take time, specifically because we do NOT want to rush in. I think the REAL question to ask is
Why NOW ?
Well, think about it, it'll probably boost egyptian tourism by solving a mini-mystery. That tourism took a big blow after 9/11.
Now THAT qualifies as very good reason to be doing this now rather than later.
I'm somewhat curious about the camera they used.
;)
Doctors have neat little arthoscopic cameras that would work much better in a situation like this. They use cameras that are _designed_ to squeeze into small places and go around corners and whatnot. It's high-tech. I didn't see that here. I saw, effectively, a stick with an immobile eye on it. My reception may have been a little off, so can somebody tell me if there was any looking around to be done?
also, the hole required for an arthoscopic camera is something like 2mm, not 3/4 of an inch like the hole I believe was drilled.
And wtf didn't they drill the second door for? You're telling me they can build a robot but they can't go to home depot for the long bits before hand?
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike, and all blocked by really heavy stone doors.
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Now we'll have to wait a year for the sequel: Door: The Return.
He opens the tomb, instantly concludes that it is a 4,500 year old bones.. Where's your evidence?
The guy also said he wants to protect the pyramid, so they only drill a small whole in, rather then knock the door down. But with the coffin, they open it, breaking seals and everything.
Zahi Hawass is a political historian... He believes that the "ancient" Eygptians were great, did it all themselves... Personally I await them discovering a German engineer who planned the thing, the aliens that helped lift blocks, and the Stargate eventually.
Seriously, look at the modern Eygptians and their ancestors... Nothing has changed in 4,500... If anything their society has progressed backwards thanks to their religion... So please save this superior Eygptian culture bullshit...
They couldn't have built them! Because they couldn't build them NOW (without Western technologies).
Zahi Hawass! Shut the hell up!
Tournament Management Online &
...did they find Geraldo Rivera
MMMmmmmmm....erotic cakes!!! Homer J. Simpson - Treehouse of Horror VI
It is so damn irritating to hear so called "scientists" ooh and ahh over some discovery they made. And better yet when they say "see ancient egyptians weren't a bunch of slaves and they were smart." Big deal! If the scientist was so smart, he would have all the answers already. They only thing it really tells me is living scientists automatically assume ancient peoples are stupid or some how less intelligent. Get over your damn self and stop grandstanding. Geez. I don't consider PR gimics hardcore scientific research.
/ rant
On fox, I don't remember his name - but the reporter they had for the tomb/icing-on-the-cake "We will most likely find something one way or another so watch this" seemed like quite the prick. He kept interrupting Hawass - For a few minutes there, i wanted him to lift the cover on that sarcophagus, throw him in, and seal it back up. Then I figured that poor 4,500 year old dude in there would have to remain in eternity with some ignorant westerners white ass decomposing on top of him. Just didn't seem right. But there is a newfound room in the pyramid we could stuff him in. ;)
You know, what could be behind the second door? a dead wall. Perhaps the ancient Egyptians made a mistake when they made the shaft. Or, perhaps it was done on purpose due to the fact the "Queens chamber" was never used or was supposed to be a dummy. For all I know, this might be the oldest wild goose chase in the word =)
Everyone wants a Tux in their life.
Osama bin Laden? Jimmy Hoffa? Jim Morrison? Marilyn Monroe? Chandra Levy? Deep Throat? Elvis?
Always keep a sapphire in your mind
They are going to find the outside of the pyramid.
I suspect that these shafts were so they could measure how far from the center the "queens" chamber was. They also may have had been useful for venting the CO from the lights they used.
I suspect that the larger pyramids were built in such a way that there would always by a pyramid when the king kicked the bucket. This would me adding layers over the existing one. If you start with a small one, the lowerest chamber would have be under part of the oldest structure in the early days. Latter the "queens" chamber was would have been the mid point and later the "kings" chamber would have been center point as more layers were put on the outside. If you go with that theory and figure in the likely times of death of a king vs relative power of the king and his ability to build large projects there is a strong correlation.
One theory that keeps showing up is the match to Orions belt of the tops of the pyramids. Why look for a hard solution when the SW corners all line up quite nicely. It would take some very careful analysis to determine if the they were used as
exhaust vents and the current experiments may ruin any chances for that work.
Many people make lots of assumptions about the pyramids from the three big ones at Giza. There are at least 90 others and many of them have many things in common but conflict with many of the new age concepts.
a vending machine.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1) You have got to learn that if you want to find out ANYTHING from a FOX special (or any FOX news broadcast) you don't watch it until the LAST 5 minutes. Honestly, I didn't even turn it on until the last 20 and I saw both the opening of the coffin and the camera going into the shaft.
:-)
2) About the British-accent babe... ooooooh yeah.
Karma: NaN
Screw this "careful drilling" shit. Next time, send in a battlebot and knock the damned door down. While it's climbing up the shaft, stick a Fox executive under the "pulverizer" just to pass the time.
I can see that camera being used in other industries already! Think of how many industries could use it, expecially movie making! What it would be to have the deep view, of your favorite actress and see here having that "cleansing" sensation at the same time.
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
That is simply amazing - You can calculate the position of the stars, Build a massive pyramid from the ground up with preplanned tunnels, Amputate arms, invent beer, yet nobody ever saw a log rolling a hill and thought "Gee, that could be useful!"
Dr Hawass bash the lost civilization folks? Rather harshly too. It was almost...well...too harsh. Like he was being defensive or something. I don't know, maybe that's just his personality
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This entire thing was an exercise in what I would hesitate even to dignify as psuedo science. Egyptology is not science in the first place; not any more than astrology is. But this was even shy of real egyptology.
The entire show consisted of outright lies and wild speculation presented as fact. For example, the statement that 'the people who lived here could not have been slaves because they were 50% male rather than a majority.' Huh? How does that make the slightest bit of sense? The Egyptians took slaves of any gender. I do not happen to think that most of the pyramid labor was slave, but that was hardly a supporting arguement.
The director of anitquities made quite a show of concern for good science and taking proper care of the sites explored. But in the end, he essentially attacked that tomb with a chisel and a crowbar for no apparant reason. All he had to do was place a hydraulic jack under each corner and lift. But he damaged the sarcophagus to look like Indiana Jones and was shocked to find... a skeleton! Inside a grave- imagine! He pretended to read a 'curse' on the side of a tomb, despite the fact that he was tracing the characters in the wrong direction (across 2 seperate lines) and the fact that no inscription resembling a curse has ever been found on an Egyptian tomb. Ever. It was a myth invented before the Rosetta stone was found.
It would have been nice if they had mentioned the fact that not a single set of human remains has ever been found in an Egyptian pyramid. The theory that these were built as literal tombs is yet unproven.
Perhaps they might have incorporated the opinions of geologists, climatologists and other actual scientists in the course of this 'documentary.' But that surely would have ruffled the feathers of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, which apparantly exists for the purpose of justifying conclusions that were reached 100 years ago by untrained, British treasure seekers.
I also took issue with the computerized recreations of the building of the pyramids. National Geographic completely ignored the fact that 4,000 years ago that area was a very temperate climate. No desert, no sand. A lush, green paradise that looked nothing like it does today. This fact was completely ignored throughout all the reenactments- even those that were clearly staged in the US with caucasian actors. Why go to all that trouble of staging a desert unless you really just don't know a damn thing about ancient Egypt?
The truely embarrasing element of all this is that National Geographic was responsible. I expect better from them. This wasn't even pop science- just a big, fake exercise in tomb raiding and lies for the entertainment value. Cancel my membership, please.
go here for an in-depth look at the work preformed by the man who really discovered the door.
There is no spork.
...see Indiana Jones more often !
Next time, I am sure they could use a little more fire power. They are currently recruiting from the ranks of recently disenfranchised battle bot designers. A scaled down version of this seems to be in serious consideration.
... kind of like today.
This space for rent.
She's BBC News Commentator Laura Greene.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
the world's first advent calendar.
Remember: don't open that last door before the 24th.
Alex
Heisenberg may have been here
I saw this was on last night and instantly thought -- "I bet it's another Geraldo's vault". Glad to see I didn't miss much...
The fact that it was on Fox was another big tip...
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
ex BBC weathercaster
No! It's the loo!
Best Slashdot Co
This is proof that the Egyptians understood recursion. Clearly, they must have been influenced by alien visitors.
----------
perl -e 'print(pack("H*","646176652e7761676e657240676d616
Isn't he the king of live tomb excavating adventures? One bust, two busts, how many busts can we handle? Seriously, archealogy really isn't made for live TV. Save the hype for when something is *found*, not *expected*.
6)A lady
7)A tiger
Best Slashdot Co
"This show bugged me because they dole out hard information so sparingly."
Watch TV much? Fox is the *master* of this technique! The whole point is to keep you excited so you see the commercials, period.
"Why make us wait so long to see the CGI tour of the pyramids?"
Do you really not get it? The advertisers believe that a significant number of people will buy a certain product (car?) after seeing it advertised on the show repeatedly. What bothers me is I think they're right.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
That a great discovery was made in 120 minutes by planning exactly where to go? Aren't most discoveries made after some poor slob (and many poorer grad students/serfs alongside) spends 5 years digging in the sand?
LETS DECOMPOSE & ENJOY ASSEMBLING
Can't wait till they open the second door and catch an alien in the bath, woah the galatic consequences...
It looks to me that Jupiter9 is interested to the second Laura. :)
(Btw, that nationalgeographic.com page has black text on black background - looks like optimized for some "other" browser).
hany
its been 'proven' that the pyramids were standing before the egyptians were in the area. i dont remember which special show it was on :) so all this millions of slaves moving really big stones they carved into blocks and stacked them into a pyramid while still planning out amazing passages within while eating imaginary food while getting whipped is bs!
the reason why egypt is so protective of the pyramids is because they like to be in history books as the tyrants who killed thousands of slaves to build a stupid rock house.
it still is amazing there are no glyphs of how they built the rock stacks...
I'll take what's behind door number 2!
Trying is the first step towards failure.
The show was live in the US last night, but is only airing tonight on european NGC.
Now I guess there won't be a lot of people watching the show.
A Long time.
Why couldn't that guy look at the camera when he was talking?
I'm quite dissappointed in National Geographic for allowing the whole, "let's keep'em guessing for a whole two hours" and all they find is another frickin' piece of rock. yippee!
Sure wish i had those two hours back,
mike
> Because they strongly suspected piercing the door would be a disappointment?
Because they could only sell enough ads for one special?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Eventually, that little robot is going to open a door, peek through - and go skittering down a shaft, camera rolling all the way, home viewers, scientists, and long dead pharoahs all alike laughing their asses off.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
One thing that bothers me in all this, how did they make that tunnel if it was so small. it would have been pretty much impossible to make it while the stones were in place and even if the stones were not placed yet, it would have been difficult to get the holes aligned and when you come to think about the size of one stone itself, it would have still been hard to get through it.
"I bet I'll get blamed for this." --Mayor Quimby
What do you think of the robot's findings?
- They're more significant than I expected.
- They're a disappointment.
- They're about what I expected.
- None of the above.
Hmm... I wonder who would vote for #1 there.
And of course the poll sucks since it's missing vital choices:
- Since CowboyNeal already got the loot, who cares?
- I'm blind and deaf, you insensitive clod.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This one reads: "Do not open til doomsday"
Well, I'm actually glad that I didn't watch it. And how do they know that there is a secret chamber there? Did they use some sort of radar? My guess is that this is just a simple ventalation, looking at the angle and length of the tunnel. :)
But we all know that the holy grail of archealogy is to find somthing ancient that changes the way we look at the world
I'm not sure you can describe an 8"x8"x3" piece of rock as a "huge stone door"...
...wearing a skin-tight topless leather jumpsuit, with cutaway buttocks and transparent crotch panel.
I don't really understand the wave of "backseat experts" at Slashdot. People study things like the Egyptians their whole lives. It's widely accepted that slavery wasn't used to build the pyramids, it was social engineering on a massive scale. There was employment when the citizens had nothing else to do (during the Nile season of innundation.) Come to /. and read posts like this or the article a few days ago about comptuer voting systems with Michael saying.... "Welllll actually you are wrong, despite this being your area of expertise, if you make it open source it's guaranteed to be perfect." People have studied these things for years. Come here and write some a comment. If it get's modded +5, suddenly you become an expert.
Random is the New Order.
Indiana Jones style or somethink
Interested in the Colorado Lottery or Powerball games?
check out http://colotto.com
Actually, it leads to a chamber like in Being Jon Malkovich but they didn't know because they just send a robot in.
Not so funny. Seeing how programmers today love sneaking in easter eggs into programs that no-one could possibly see, I wouldn't be surprised at all if this were true....
Let me know when they find a StarGate...
This thread was bitchslapped by the editors. Fucking homersexuals.
Funny stuff
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
A great philosopher once said : "We're all interested in the future, that's where we'll all live one day."
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Most of it is at the the Brooklyn Museum. One could say the Met's possession of Cleopatra's Needle (from Karnak) and Temple of Dendur ("gift" to US after hefty "donation" for Aswan Dam) are pretty impressive but most of the good pieces are over in Brooklyn.
They're gonna find the stargate
:p
*nods sagely*
Hell
According to some 'egyptologists', it's a good possibility.
Outdoor scenes -- 'LIVE in the upper right-hand corner, switched from daylight to night?
This turned out to be the most painful two hours spent in front of a television set in my recent memory..
The whole show was hopelessly drawn out and built upon conjecture.. There were two particulars that irked me: An entire string of assumptions built on the unsupported conclusion of two extremely narrow rooms being used as living quarters. And an exclamation from the humble Dr. Hawass in regard to putting to rest the accusations of 'stupid idiots' who support the theory of an even more ancient civilization: Seemingly based solely only on the opening of a sarcophagus! "Look, I found bones, you are all stooopid morons, ha ha ha, I therefore conclude that my country is the greatest in the world and these pyramids were built out of love, not by slave labour - my ego explodes with delight!!!"
Never again will I watch another program like this, having decided less than half way in that these were going to be two hours taken out of my life that I'll never get back I regretfully watched to the end as string after string of conjecture was assembled to create a fairy tale narrated by sweaty, ignorant and obscure personalities.. It was also made painfully evident that Zahi Hawass is an egotistical bufoon with butter fingers; did anyone else catch the totally uncalled for damaging to the top of the sarcophagus before he began to pry it open?
Who are these shows aimed at, seriously? Saving the true discoveries for the last five minutes of the program seems insulting; wouldn't one at the very least be interested in speculation as to what these discoveries meant, therefore warranting at least fifteen minutes at the end of the show going through the possibilities? I must admit that I was personally insulted; it's not often that I put aside that much time for television in my busy day - of course I knew it was going to be fluffy - but I didn't count on getting burned that badly.
Just Maybe.. its an airlock for space rats?
What were the utility of the two sealed copper handles we saw on the first door? The two copper handles were well centered on the door as viewed from within the shaft. They're clearly not for pulling since they were seen from under. Why a seals since there is another door behind? Maybe the copper handles and the seals were supposed to be seen from the other way around... leading to the Queen's chamber.
:-)
The builders put a great deal of effort on these shafts. They were not added a posteriori, as an after thought. They were part of the original design. But, as far as I remember, no other (previous or later) pyramids present these features (correct me if I am wrong). So if these shafts were necessary for the Egyptian mythology, why are they only in Khufu? If they were not important for the mythology, why putting such an effort on their construction? Maybe there were "sects" within the egyptian mythology - and Khufu's builders were not following the mainstream beliefs. Consider that Khufu's is the only 'suspended' burial chamber discovered; all others were dug below the ground or placed at ground level, with the rest of the pyramid built above them.
There are scientific evidences that there are more hidden chambers within the great pyramid. A team of japanese egyptologists conclude (in this report): For instance, the electromagnetic wave radar exploration system is capable of exploring the internal space and of detecting any foreign material within the stone structure by the abnormal reflections from inside the stonework using radar. Appling this method, fruitful results have so far been obtained, including some unusual radar reactions, which suggest the existence of some inner space at the locations as the north side of the Queen's Chamber within the pyramid, and the south side of the Great Pyramid and the north side of the Great Sphinx. I remember reading that the Japanese team estimated that over 3% of the pyramid is free space. A french team estimated the empty space being around 10%. I am trying to locate the references of these numbers - if you have hints... Anyway, this is a lot more that what we currently discovered.
for now...
That was funny.
According to Zahi, I learned a few new things:
1. Not a single slave helped build the pyramids.
2. Using a crowbar to chip into a 4000 year old sarcophogas is just fine, rather than using more delicate means (did you see the huge chunk of the lid flake off as he got a little too excited?).
3. Zahi thinks the rest of the world with theories opposed to his "kind and loving egyptians built the pyramids" are idiots because of a thumbprint on the sarcophogas lid. (!?)
4. Zahi's bone specialist confirms: no slaves here, we have 50% men and 50% women in our findings (as if slavery was something only men had to endure).
5. Robots aren't as snazzy as portrayed in the movies. Most movie robots would have been at least able to MacGuyver their way through the second door.
I'm wondering if the "grappling hook" they found could have been attached to the "handles" of the "door" originally. Attach a rope to it and they may have been planning to pull the "door" out after putting the mummy in. If it broke loose from the door, I don't think they would have been able to do anything about it except cover the hole up and pretend it never happened.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Send a hedgehog barreling through the tunnel.
Another door?
Okay.
Fine.
I'll say it.
*sigh*
What's behind door number 2, Johnny?
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Just like a scene from the movie "What's Up, Tigerlily?" by Woody Allen. "Oh no, another door!"
Maybe they could send in a hobbi to listen at the door.. or prod it with a ten foot pole? tone
tone
I rarely find video featuring small shafts entertaining.
You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever.
The NGS TV division has sold its soul to the popular media. It started sometime around that 1980s polar bear special where they coated a cage in seal oil and then put someone inside for the polar bear to ferociously "attack." They're hardly above the level of on-the-cheap Discovery Channel documentaries any more; heck, they're basically doing a re-run of the Geraldo Rivera vault thing, as everyone here seems to recognize.
If Nova had run a special on this same topic, I'd have been making time to see it. Fox's version just makes me wince. Their "news" is uninformed advocacy, even when they don't have a "Sensational Mystery" to uncover. Ack. For science, Nova's the standard. For nature, Nature is easily the best show on. The American Experience is amazingly good for history or biography. NGS doesn't rate any more, they're just cranking out empty filler like this. Too sad.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
My money is on that the body of Jimmy Hoffa lays beyond that second door.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear to be bright. Until you hear them speak.
Actually, they opened the second door in the filming of another special already.
Here is an image of the items removed from behind the second door: new Cheops artifacts
-- Terry
I didn't even watch this year. Last time I watched them opening an "unexplored" area on live TV I think I was the only person in the world who noticed there were already friggin lights in there when they opened the door so the cameras could see. Then they walk in & he just HAPPENS to dig in the right spot to dig up old pottery (and the dirt seemed a different color like it was dumped on top of the pottery). They're nothing but rating boosters & money makers. bah.
I want my two hours back.
Hey. I'll give you a big pile of gold if you'll make a room that's impossible to get into in this pyramid. Say, up a narrow shaft, behind a couple doors. And throw in a trap that will crush a small robot.
Robot?
It's like a cat, but not holy.
Oh. Ok. Sure. Why not?
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
Let's stop discussing nonsense and go see what's behind that DOOR!!
A decade or so ago some treasure hunter raised a ship safe from a wreck. He managed to ruin an entire case of silver certificates, various documents and other compostables by bringing them to room temperature for a few weeks so as to open them for the cameras. Too bad. They would have been worth more if he had taken care of the artifacts rather than the publicity.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Due to lack of funding, and the need to get through the second door, the next robot is going to be a LEGO cart with TNT strapped to it.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
The egyptians always do things by three...
Who knows what the ancients hid there. A plague, an unknown dangerous entity, horrendously dangerous alien tools or what? I think you've seen The Keep late at night a few too many times.
Inside the small chamber behind the first door I thought I saw a streak running parallel to the shaft on the right side of the chamber. To the right of it, behind the "Fox" logo, I saw something that may have also been some sort of marking. Can anyone say for sure if these were more markings left by the builders?
Also, now that they can't use the machine they used to find the depth of the first door to find the depth of the second door, since it can't push up against the second door with 40 lbs of force, and their drill bit is probably too short to drill through the second door, anyone have any theories on how they might get through that door? (If it is a door at all)
Do you really not get it? The advertisers believe that a significant number of people will buy a certain product (car?) after seeing it advertised on the show repeatedly. What bothers me is I think they're right.
They don't necessarily believe there will be a direct link like that. What most advertisers think is that, when you go to buy a product, you'll be more comfortable buying something you've heard of before. If you go to a store, and see a row of effectively-identical cleaners, you'll buy the one whose name sounds familiar.
It's mostly just a way of "helping" people make a meaningless decision.
If I'm going to buy product type X, I'll look at the choices, eliminate those brands I've had bad experiences with, and make what amounts to a random choice among the rest, assuming research into them says they are effectively identical. If I've heard advertising recently concerning one of the remaining selections, that vague "I've heard of that one before" may tilt me towards selecting it. And most consumer goods, up to and including cars, are effectively identical inside a product category.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is... Oops. Frank, I've got your sig again! Where's mine?
those interested in a very entertaining if not scientifically compelling read on the "true meaning" of the pyramid should check out _The Giza Power Plant_ by Christopher Dunn. He maintains that the pyramid harnessed energy from the earth using harmonic resonance. Yes, sounds quintessential crackpot, but his research is meticulous. On top of that, this latest discovery falls in line with his theory.
-J
(Insert profound saying here)
Actually, we will once and for-all find the earliest source of the Kilroy hieroglyph so famous from the Second World War!
Kilroy was here! And there! And there, too!
But I have still never heard of a compelling scheme of how to move the stones into position. Asuming they were big blocks of rock.
Anyway, many of the later pyramids dissolved into what looks like huge mounds of mud. This makes me think that maybe there may be another explenation-- And then I cam across this. Maybe, just maybe, they were not carved blocks of stone, but rather something like concrete.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
One might call that the other "Slashdot Effect". Although there are subject matter experts who participate, they are routinely drowned in the clamoring of "conventional wisdom" (Slashdot-style). The other recurring themes include: all businesses are bad, and one political party (take your pick) is incredibly evil.
I can see it now, National Geographic presents... "Mysteries of the Pyramids II - Behind the Green Door"... starring Marylin Chambers as "The Mummy"...
Anyone who still believes that every ancient artifact or construction must have been of great religious significance, or due to aliens, or whatever mysterious force, needs to read "Digging the Weans" by Robert Nathan. It's a parody on the archeological mythologies that have developed from the natural human tendency to believe that anything remote in time or distance is automagically beyond human understanding. "Here be dragons."
As to this 8"x8" shaft with two doors... my guess is that it was either an air shaft or a communication shaft (much akin to the speaking tubes used on board large ships, before the advent of modern electronics). Which is just common sense architecture in a project that large. Why go way the hell outside to communicate with your supervisor when you can just shout up the handy tube?? Not to mention that it's kinda hard to work if everyone has breathed all the oxygen out of the air supply already.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Yup, Ally McBeal is descended from this illustrious and ancient race!!
Possibly ginger spice is also, but she is more likely just from another planet.
Did you even look at the video footage? The 8x8 shaft had a "plug" in the end of it, which was 3" thick. They drilled through that plug, inserted an endoscope with a light, and found a _room_ with a door at the end of it, much larger than the 8x8 hole which led up to it. The room appeared to be blank, with only the door at the other end. It was most-certainly not an 8x8 "door" that they found. The hole they drilled is equivalent to drilling a hole in a shoebox from the outside, and looking inside it from that hole.
...now we get to watch another 2 hour special where they discover that the other door leads to a janitorial closet.
The book first juxtaposes our view of the sky with the map of Egypt, positioning the Milky Way over the river Nile. Interesting to see is that the three great pyramids coincide with the three stars in the "belt" in the Orion - remember how the two pyramids are aligned but the third is slightly off? Well, so are the stars in Orion's Belt. Another interesting point is that how so many of the pyramids (you know there are MANY of them) coincide with the stars on the map.
So it seems that the Egyptians positioned the pyramids to represent stars in the night sky.
Now the shafts - If we look at a cross-section of the pyramids at the shafts, they originate at the pharoah's chamber and go out towards the sky. The book goes on to show the studies that suggest that at the time when those pyramids and hence the shafts were constructed, the Orion constellation was at that angle.
If this theory is correct, than it seems the shafts in the pyramids are meant to give way to the soul of the deceased towards the Orion constellation.
The book was titled "The Orion Mystery" and the author is Robert Bauval. Neither this book nor I intend to make any alien connection. Maybe the Egyptians liked the Orion constellation for no good reason. Maybe the shafts in the Great Pyramids point towards the Orion Constellation (whose Belt they represent) and the other shafts in the other pyramids (if they exist) point towards the respective stars they represented in the night sky. In any case, it is the best theory I heard so far regarding the shafts and the reason they were built into the pyramids.
Am I the only one who didn't think that there was another door behind the first "door". To me it seemed like that was the end of that. And why didn't they mount those small cameras that you can easily rotate and move so you can see more than just straight ... maybe there are some artifacts in that otherwise empty looking small chamber ...
Last night I had the impression that a whole bunch of people that died some 4000 years ago (presumably) were laughing their asses off in some afterlife.
Fourty-two!
Click. "Abdul's machine shop. How may I help you?" "Hey Abby how's it going? Hey listen, remember that big-ass boring tool I bought from you? Um, it wasn't the longest one you have, right?"
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
Next time, they'll need a heavy-duty robot company, like RedZone Robotics, Red Whittaker's spinoff from the CMU Field Robotics Center. They've built robots to work on damaged nuclear reactors and to do asbestos removal, and some of their their robots have cut through walls.
(It's a bit sad to look at the CMU Field Robotics Center website today. They're mostly doing NASA work, which is the kiss of death for a robotics project. Very little of what NASA does in robotics ever gets used, let alone flies on a mission. None of it gets built in quantity. The output of a NASA project is usually just a press release.)
Meat would have been rarer than in the modern diet, but there would have plenty of vegetarian foods, beer and bread to keep people going.
Well, that would explain that Bowflex thing I have in my den. Not sure when I ordered it or what it does but....oh wait, TV is on now......
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
I think you're on to something, the pyramids in China and central and south america may be older and are just as impressive. I like the ones from the new world better than the old world myself.
> East
You open this door, and there is a long passageway to another door. A NASTY DWARF THROWS AN AXE AT YOU!
> OPEN DOOR
You open the door, and there is a black sceptre and a bird cage on the floor. "XYZZY" is written on the door.
> XYZZY
You are in a well house.....
[Connection closed by foreign host]
"There was nothing in Al Capone's Vault,
But it wasn't Geraldo's fault...D'OH!"
I mod down anyone who uses M$ in their posts. I like to live on the edge.
they find the remains of jimmy hoffa, Rasterman, and the you can call me ray guy
Male Host: We are about to open the sarcophagus for the first time...yes!!! here we go!! Zahi: Argh!!! I...almost...there!!! ooooooo!!! it's dark!!!! Male Host: YES!! YES!!! Zahi: BONES!!! WE HAVE A SKELETON!!! Male Host: We have just uncovered..(Zahi starts crawling inside the sarcophagus)....errrrr we just have.... Zahi: (Inside the sarcophagus) I shall now be sealed with my ancestors!!.....help me foreigner!!! (starts pulling cover closed) Male Host: Errrr...(whispers: fade out!! fade out!!!) Camera fades.... Credits
What we need here is a minature tunnel boring machine .
Other respondents here have suggested digging through to the hidden chamber from outside. With a minature tunnel boring machine Archeologist could bore through to the mystery chamber without marring the appearance of the pyramids outside or any of the passages.
What? That would cost a mint! Well maybe, but afterwards it could be used to lay cable under the streets of congested city centers. We discussed the pneumatic tubes being recycled into internet conduit a little while ago.
show me the evidence for your statements.
idiot
A nice sized wrecking ball should do the trick.
a fart ventilation tunnel
Thought this was appropriate...the Wheel of Fish scene from the movie UHF.
KUNI: Okay, let's play the game! We start with yesterday's winner... Mrs. Phyllis Weaver. Are you ready, Weaver?
PHYLLIS: I sure am, Kuni!
KUNI: Okay, then you get over here and spin the Wheel of Fish! Go ahead, give it a big spin...
The audience cheers as Phyllis runs onto the stage and gives the wheel a big spin. Kuni and Phyllis ad lib various encouragements to the wheel ("come on, baby!", "do it for mama!", "fishy fishy fishy..."). The wheel comes to a stop pointing to a swordfish.
KUNI: A swordfish! Mm, very tasty! Okay, Weaver, now listen carefully...You can hold on to your swordfish, or you can go for what's in the box that Hiro-san is bringing down the aisle right now! What's it gonna be?
Our blonde presenter has taken the swordfish off the wheel and is holding it out in front of Phyllis. Kuni's assistant comes down the aisle holding a large box on a tray. The studio audience calls out to Phyllis ("Keep the fish!"... "Take the box!"). Phyllis looks back and forth between the fish and the box.
PHYLLIS: I... I'll take the box!
KUNI: Okay, Weaver, you took the box! Let's see what's in it...
Hiro-san lifts up the box and there's absolutely nothing underneath it. KUNI (continuing, smiling broadly) Nothing! There's nothing in the box! Stupid...! You're so stupid...!!
The audience joins in with shouts of "Stupid!"
Another good archaeology parody book to check out is "Motel of the Mysteries" by David Macaulay. It's a good read, about an amateur archaeologist (Howard Carson) who falls into a shaft while exploring the ancient country of Usa in 4022. His discoveries at the "Toot-n-C'mon" motel are classic. =)
~ Leilah
Did anyone else notice anything odd about the "door" they drilled through? Maybe it was my imagination, but I swear on the one they drilled through it looked like the handles were both the same size. Yet I've always noticed whenever a picture of the door is shown that the handle on the right is significantly longer than the one one the left. Doesn't that seem a bit fishy?
You perves are slashdotting NationalGeographic.
I was just there to get directions on how to get away from there.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Am I the only person who thinks that Dr. Zahi Hawass comes off as a egotistical moron, sticking his face in front of a camera at every opportunity and constantly saying the most pointless, baseless, and irrelevant things?
"These are the fingerprints of the workmen who built the pyramids!" No they're not, ya blithering idiot. "Blabble bobble dipsy doodle ka-bibble wah wah wah!" Yeah, sure Dr. Hawass, whatever. Can you just go away and let us examine the damned rock now?
I watched the movie a couple of nights ago on DvD. Highly recommended.
All about me
The Queen's chamber is some way below the King's chamber and was obviously constructed first since the pyramid was built from top to bottom (duh). At one point in the program they mentioned how building spaces higher up in pyramids was a fairly recent accomplishment. Prior to that, spaces higher up were impossible, due to the weight of stone outside such chambers collapsing them.
My theory is that the so called Queen's chamber was a fallback (if you'll excuse the pun), in case the higher, King's chamber, were to collapse during construction. Above the King's chamber are several other spaces which are believed to be load bearing gaps to prevent the pyramid falling in on the King's chamber. It seems likely to me that the engineers could not have been 100% sure that the King's chamber would be structurally sound.
I'm making a guess that that is why the Queen's chamber has these shafts; if the King's chamber had collapsed, then these shafts would have been connected to the outside, however, once it became obvious that the King's chamber was sound, work on the Queen's chamber stopped.
Oooops...
Skipped right to the end, and saw... oooh.. the other door. Yippie.
Come on, you know it's a steam powered pyramid water pump :-)
...If this rover thingymajigbob piled through loads of doors and three miles of corridors, only to end up at a 10ftx12ft chamber full of spare doors. We'd at least know that those ancients knew how to take the pish.
All the way through the show, I kept thinking of the "Mystery of Al Capone's Vault" special that basically destroyed Geraldo Rivera's career as a serious newscaster. Two hours of similar hype as they dug into the basement wall to find ... two old booze bottles.
What is this talk of fingerprint(s) on the sarcophagus? Was this a marking, or an impression? One comment seems to indicate that the print was an impression or something - so what was the sarcophagus made from? Clay? Were such things made from clay? I had always thought they were carved from stone?
But if the sarcophagus was stone, why the print? What if it was a concrete substance, rather than "stone"? You could certainly make a print in that...
There is a theory that the Egyptians had the technology and resources (ie, sand, limestone, something from the Red Sea) to make concrete, and the theory would explain how some of the pyramids (esp the Great Pyramid) and temple structures could have been built, even though they are so large - they were simply "poured" into place. At least, that's the theory...
I am trying to figure out why all the doors on the tunnel - what theory fits this, what the tunnel may have been for (I have seen a site that claims the Great Pyramid was a giant water pump - but that doesn't make much sense since it was built when the area had plenty of water and was fertile), those handles on the doors (why?), among other things...
Finally, I do have to wonder about that robot - that is a TON of money for what should be a relatively simple robot - I can understand that the sides of the tunnel were smooth, and at an angle (ie, needs more than a standard robot wheel drive), but quarter of a mil? Right - time to find the person who pocketed the dough...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
.... and the next logical question is....
"What is behind DOOR NUMBER TWO?!?!?"
Okay, that was bad, but it needed said.
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
I admit I was skeptical going into watching this. However once it started I immediatly had to begin with some scoffing. First off as has been said MANY TIMES, the "Live" TV was sickning at best.
However it got worse. First they went through explaining that the "Pully and Wheel" had not been invented yet. However The specifically show a CGI series where a LARGE DOOR was closed using none other than a series of PULLIES!
They said that Any Likeness, Statue, etc. was believed to House their spirit after death. Yet they presume these small ducts & Tunnels were used to allow their spirit its release into the afterlife.
Back to the Pully & Wheel problem, I am almost 100% certain that in the past they have uncovered Hyrogliphics that showed the stones being "rolled" by placing round logs at the front and "pulling it" over them replacing the front "Wheel" with the rear one as it was passed.
To Slave or Not To Slave!
Once again almost POSITIVE that many Hyrogliphics have been uncovered showing the guards beating the slaves. Also Slavery is always looked upon now as an EVIL! Many times in past people CHOSE to become a "Bond Servant" dedicating their life to serving another person with that person promising to provide and care for the servant.
Now the Blathering Idiot Dr. Zahi...The dude looked like he Jizzed on himself after seeing what? ANOTHER Blackage!
Razzious Domini
I could be a GREAT KARMA WHORE if I could just shed the few morals I have left.
When they knock down the second door they will find the names of the builders in heiroglyphics.
The shaft, my friends, is the world's oldest easter egg.
They way they were hyping that show, I wouldn't have been satisfied with anything less than a bunch of mummies doing the monster mash.
Am I the only one who has seen this show before???
The whole show was like a flash back and I know I have seen it before. What is going on??? Some sort of time warp around my room???
I know that I know that I know that I already seen this show and knew the ending. 2 or 3 years ago it was on TV. It was a re-edited re-run.
Apparently these days, the average roto-rooter truck carries a video camera snake that can go 100+ feet down a pipe and peek at whatever's down there.
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
I think I saw Heraldo do this when he was looking for Al Capones lost vault.
Robots aren't as snazzy as portrayed in the movies.
I really have a hard time believing that thing cost $250k (or rather, that anyone would have *paid* $250k for it).
First of all, I have, quite seriously, built smaller robots out of *Legos* that could have managed that climb. And they wouldn't have needed a ramp to get over a 2" curb. Hell, I suspect most remote control cars could probably have managed it, with some slight mods.
Second, why did it carry its "brain", as they called it, directly behind it? It had to drag a video and power cable behind it anyway! Even assuming it needed any internal intelligence (for traction, perhaps?), since they basically piloted it by remote control, all the CPU power could have stayed at the *other* end of the wire.
And third, can someone explain to me why drilling a hole in a stone could have *any* chance of compromising the "safety" of the pyramid? At worst they would have cracked a very small stone block. Considering that earlier "archaeologists" used *DYNAMITE* in their work, one small cracked stone would certainly not have brought the entire pyramid crashing down.
Zahi thinks the rest of the world with theories opposed to his "kind and loving egyptians built the pyramids" are idiots because of a thumbprint on the sarcophogas lid
No kidding, eh? Did anyone else get the impression that Hawass only hates those with "alternative" theories on the pyramids in favor of his own *equally* out-there ideas? Built with love? Gimme a break! Even if the workers didn't count as slaves (which didn't mean the same thing back then as it does to us now), they certainly saw such construction as nothing more than a sweet government job, something to do during the flood season when they couldn't grow anything.
I also loved the obvious bias against Gantenbrink. The show actually claimed that only their "new" robot managed to get past the "step" in the tunnel! And, while using a ramp might have made an *excellent* solution from the point of view of simplicity, Gantenbrink solved it with a better robot. Hell, they even claimed that *Hawass* "found" the outlet of the upper tunnels, of which the Northern outlet had never gone missing, and *Gantenbrink* discovered the outlet to the Southern tunnel in his 1992 survey.
Biased, "overcooked", Factually incorrect, "bad" archaology little better than what they accuse their forerunners of, and a somewhat dissapointing "climax". Overall, the show sucked. They could have condensed the entire "interesting" part of the show into 15 minutes (and in fact, they did... the *last* 15 minutes).
Stupid FUCKTARD!!!!!
Keep posts ON-TOPIC or GO LICK YOUR OWN BUNGHOLE!!!
How does it feel to be one of the few LIVING ABORTIONS?
They couldn't find anyone named Lara Croft, I take it?
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
Some things never change!
You saw a previous show in the same 'series' with the same archeologist and same host. They also opened a sarcopogus on the previous show and showed video from the (lower-tech) robot that originally scoped out the shaft. That mostly involved a different site.
- I am made of meat.
...they also spelled "sarcophagus" correctly...
oops...
- I am made of meat.
...it's Robot Fightin' Time!
;)
National Geo and FOX can pick up Battlebots and save a SHITLoad of dosh on the price of robots!
And maybe they can cut Carmen Electra into small pieces and shove her into the shaft once they find the fifth door and give up.
- I am made of meat.
MSNBC has a video clip of the other side of the door, whichever door you prefer....
Here is the link
To fill time they showed a clip, filmed earlier, of Hawiss checking up on an image in one of the earlier pyramids. This one had a warren of underground passages beneath it. It had been closed for decades because it was dangerous. Hawiss kept saying how dangerous it was -- because of the possibility of falling rock...
Okay buddy, they why aren't you wearing a hard hat?
Yes, it was interesting to look around. But it would have been more interesting with less of the Gee-whiz and phony human interest BS.
Man, they got it all wrong. It's not a tomb. It's a powerplant.
http://www.gizapower.com
Seriously. The shit makes sense. It's all just too perfect to be a tomb.
Mark
-Mark
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
Won't those guys be surprised when they open the next door and discover 100,000 tons of sand pouring out of the hole... :)
It was a rock wall that was thin enough to drill through. The second door isn't a door either. It's a rock wall too. But we don't know how thick it is.
That makes sense...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I dunno for sure, but I think it's where they kept their weed....
It's clear what the small shafts are for. You launch a guided missile down them, then steer them into the MatCen switch, shutting off construction of more virus-infected drones.
Sorry, I just finished Descent 3, and suddenly find myself wanting to fly a Pyro-GL through the Great Pyramid's shaftwork.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Oh, you are so right. I am glad we have an expert like you to clear it up for us and dispel the centuries of belief and general knowledge of the whole world, with a fact supported by no evidence that only you and a very few of your chosen Albigensian underlings have been able to widely accept.
It is obvious what is behind door number two...
The contents of Al Capone's Vault...
Look up, look around, use a mirror. This is not a big problem, but yet we saw nothing of the "handles", WHY NOT? Send it back in with a mirror pointing up, retract it and send it back in at another angle, rinse, repete.
1 Year, $250K and these guys didn't use a flexable camera like they use to spy under doors all the time in "drug" busts?
How about this one, we know there has been some digging ABOVE this "door" lately, they broke through, plundered all the cool stuff they found and crammed a big stone in front of the "door" so you have to spend the next 20 years trying to see into a room that has been picked clean.
It's 50 feet from the outside, why not remove the stones from the outside and see what is there, if nothing, put them all back.
show me the evidence for your statements
This is the last comment I expected to be questioned on! It's not like I'm proposing any sort of revolutionary new idea of egyptian burial customs; it's common knowledge among those with any knowledge at all that burials were seen as transitions for the journey to the afterlife. They'd even entomb some with boats, to help them on their journey. Some mummified their cats.
If you must have evidence, try this yahoo news story.
Or, just try this google search.
And stop asking people for sources on obvious subjects. It just makes you look stupid.
$8.95/mo web hosting
My God, Zork built in stone!
Yes, I did notice this. I'm suprised nobody else did. In one part of the show, there's a prerecorded bit with the robot approaching the "door" with it's sonar attachment. The right "handle" is long. They then cut to something else, and then back to the video of the robot inching closer to the door (still with the sonar attachment) and the "handle" is short.
Theory: The robot broke the "handle" while applying pressure to the "door" with the sonar attachment.
From the previous expedition, the other "handle" appears to once have been longer, but also broke off at one point. The broken off piece is visible in one of the pictures here.
It's too bad they did not explain what happened. I prefer TV that doesn't insult my intelligence.