1928 Time Traveler Caught On Film?
Many of you have submitted a story about Irish filmmaker George Clarke, who claims to have found a person using a cellphone in the "unused footage" section of the DVD The Circus, a Charlie Chaplin movie filmed in 1928. To me the bigger mystery is how someone who appears to be the offspring of Ram-Man and The Penguin got into a movie in the first place, especially if they were talking to a little metal box on set. Watch the video and decide for yourself.
Who was she talking to? (considering the lack of cell-phone towers)
Ugh.
And uh, what network was this cell phone connecting to? Because you know there's a series of cell towers and satellites that need to be in place for cell phones to work and I don't recall anyone having the foresight to erect such towers in 1928.
This is such utter drivel. The person in the picture could be scratching his/her head or shielding their ear from a breeze with something (my grandmother does similar things when the wind is strong and she wears a shawl). I don't see a black object, I see two of the fingers around what would be the 'top' of the phone which is uncharacteristically how people hold cell phones. I don't see any shock or expression on the face as they turn it just seems like Clarke is projecting what he wants on the viewer. It could just be a schizophrenic wandering around who is used to shielding their face and mouth when they can't control what they are saying.
It's ridiculous that time traveling is even suggested, let alone continually reinforced by George Clarke.
My work here is dung.
I wonder what network the were using in 1928? Marconi Wireless? (snicker)
Seriously, this has been in the media for days now. It's almost certainly someone using an old-style hearing aid.
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
Obviously it's not clear what kind of aid it is, specifically, but it looks like an old ear trumpet.
Like this thing.
On their best day, Slashdot readers would think of cell phone towers. I don't think there are any days this rabble would be intelligent enough to realize that any species or members of humanity from a time traveling society wouldn't need towers for their communication devices. Or would have very rapid means of deploying them from relatively small devices.
Slashdot reminds me of ignorant atheists who attack creationism on the same logical level that creationists attack atheism on.
It is an early carbonic (electric) hearing aid.
If arbitrary time travel is possible (which I personally highly doubt), by the time our technology advances to that level cell phones will be considered as ancient as the telegraph is today.
Grandma Titor was likely using one of these:
http://www.hearingaidmuseum.com/gallery/Carbon/WesternElectric/info/westelect34a.htm
It still doesn't explain why the person she's conversing with is INVISIBLE!!!
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
There is no clear device in the hand. It looks like they're talking to someone in front of them or themselves while holding their hat.
Nuh-uh: "Time traveler w/ cell phone" is the simplest explanation.
This was released in 1924:
http://hearing.siemens.com/sg/10-about-us/01-our-history/milestones.jsp?year=1924
Seems like it could easily be that.
-Valiss
Clear not an actual cell phone, but a tachyon communication device that allowed her to communicate with her native time frame. Duh.
They had to have Schizophrenics back in the 20s, didn't they? Maybe she was just talking to herself and cupping her hands over her ears in an attempt to block out the voices?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Don't worry!!! She will get hit by a car and Kirk cant save her or else the Nazis will take over.
Watashi wa chikyubutsurigakusha desu.
The "cell phone" theory is a golden example of people projecting their own limited conception of the world onto something they don't recognize. Someone 40 years ago probably would've imagined that they saw someone singing along to a transistor radio. Someone from 120 years ago would've thought they saw someone listening to a seashell and chewing gum. If she's really holding something (IMO the video isn't clear enough to be sure), it's almost certainly a contemporary hearing aid.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
How do you know? Maybe without his involvement the Depression would've played out differently. Maybe he set events in motion that changed the outcome of WWII so that the Allies would win. Could've changed anything or everything; it's not like any of us would "remember" how it was "supposed to be".
Actually, if he was so open about using anachronistic technology that he got caught on film on a movie set, I'd say he did a pretty piss poor job with the whole 'leaving no trace' thing.
Do have any idea what the per-minute fees are for time travel voice plans? And let's not talk about the data rates. The person on the film is clearly connecting via a local Wifi hotspot.
Completely unimpressive. can't tell if it's a phone or not.
Although, the blue police call box that the person walked in to was interesting. Seemed bigger on the inside than on the outside....
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
It looks to be an old lady, so its entirely possible that what he is seeing is something like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ardent_hearing_aid.JPG which is part of this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkney_Wireless_Museum also seen here http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display.aspx?id=6713
Seriously, that would mean that time travel is so close that cell phones won't change considerably. The chance of that is even smaller than that for time travel per se.
We are pattern-matching machines. We see and interpret in practically the same thought. We are used to people using cell phones like that, so that is what we think we see.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
This is genius. I've never heard of this guy, George Clarke, but now by mentioning his work at the beginning of the video, he's got a great viral marketing campaign!
Of course he doesn't believe a word of it, but he managed to get word to spread of his silly little video, and thus free advertising for his work. Pure genius!
It reminds me of an occurrence one night while I was working as a hospital security officer on nights. A man came in breathless to our office, and asked to speak to Sergeant D* (I don't recall the full last name). We told him he didn't work with us. The man said that the Sergeant was supposed to be there, he was running from the CIA, and had to speak to him. We responded that Sergeant didn't exist. The man then bolted and ran away from us. It kind of shook my world, and I can't stop thinking... did I just ensure the destruction of mankind, by running this guy off?
Who was she talking to? (considering the lack of cell-phone towers)
Ugh.
Not that I believe in this, but if you were time-traveling to the past to be an extra in a Charlie Chaplin movie (which is a plausible thing for any film buff), it's perfectly reasonable that such a person would whip out their cell phones just to be filmed pretending to talk on it. They could then point it out to their friends once they return to their time.
Not only that, but his disguise was a woman!
Nope. It's clearly an iphone 4G. See how s/he is holding it!!
Well, we can clearly see that it's not an iPhone 4, else holding it with her left hand would kill the signal.
it can't be an iPhone, she's holding it wrong....
1. Go to Vancouver or LA.
2. Find a scene that is being shot in some random TV show.
3. Walk by the scene pretending to use some futuristic device.
4. Repeat this several times with different looking "devices", ie polished pieces of dark coloured plexiglass.
5. Wait 80 years...
6. Laugh my head in a jar off when I get the Slashdot brain download that proof of time travelers exist in old footage of CSI: New York.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
EAR TRUMPET.
http://www.oldsouthbooks.com/images/DSC00481.JPG
You are welcome.
.. pa-ra-bo-la, pa-ra-bo-la, 2 pi R, 2 pi R, where's your latus rectum, where's your latus rectum, 2 pi R
So let's say for the sake of just going through this exercise without debunking the movie or photos, or whatever, and we all accept that this is real.
We now know in the nearby future (as in the far future we will all be using devices smaller then cell phones to communicate),
we will have been able to time travel.
1) we need to start setting up programs and international laws built to supervise and control who can time travel and to what purpose...
going back to get better grades grades so that you could get into harvard instead of a dumb college.....or to avoid that collision which took your legs, or
(fill in your case here) seems to me would cause unimaginable harm to the present time line, creating deviations upon deviations.
2) once a governing body is in place to secure time traveling as a whole....we need to start trying to set up a plan to figure out which disaster we can go ....do not let the fire happen on the platform, and set up
back and help avoid or improve upon....like the gulf BP oil spill, which can be avoided if we
better security polices back then before the spill happened and nip it in the bud.
3) we also need to decide do we allow to go into our future, and thereby again creating special time paradoxes,
where someone brings back the formula for a new type of steel (1000 times cheaper and stronger then regular steel)
or do we block all future time travel all together.
I think we have seen a big lack of time traveling movies lately, because there is a sort of taboo now associated with it, maybe because
the government wants us to not think about that possibility too much....and avoid pondering those cases altogether.
They will push everything for getting space travel, let you build your own rocket in your backyard if you want...(billy bob)
but so far, the last movie I saw where the time travel repercussions were visible was an old movie with edward burns
where they touch something in the past, and contaminate the environment with a future microbe, which changes everything as they know it...
Anyways....funny if this were a joke, but everyone accepted it was real!
You've got to admit that the circumstances of the 9/11 incident were fairly suspicious. A few days prior to the attack they had an evacuation drill in the towers that was out of the ordinary, the attack occurred during a time of day when most of the people who worked in the towers were not in the building, another building that was not struck by a plane collapsed, and the buildings collapsed in a way that was consistent with the way that buildings collapsed during controlled demolitions when there are explosives planted on each floor at key structural points.
I would seriously not be surprised if the Bush family helped the terrorists co-ordinate their attack in order to create a pretense for war that would allow them to tighten the federal government's hold on national security and drive oil prices through the roof.
Totally adds a new dimension to the "can you hear me now" bit.
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
They were making hearing aids years and years before this footage was shot, considering the age of the person I would place my bet on that.
If you look closely at the window in the background, you will see the reflection of a DeLorean parked on the other side of the street.
The DVD conversion certainly is a lossy process... if they could get the original film to look at frame-by-frame, you could certainly see a ton more detail, which might let you clarify if she's holding anything at all.
Contact the studio. It'd be great promo for them!
MadCow.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
You would think people with the technology to travel through time wouldn't even need a phone. Hell, we don't even need to hold a phone to our heads today. A nearly invisible headset will do the job just fine. I suppose it could have been a voice recorder, but again why the need to hold a device to the head?
What it looks to me is like an older woman shielding her eyes from the sun and some guy with a hyperactive imagination. Or a guy with quite a talent at special effects and a good sense for keeping things just subtle enough that people wont be quick to dismiss it. And in either case the guy is likely looking for his 15 minutes of fame and a springboard for his career.
is going to have a cow over this one. Even records of Twonkies are a *big* no-no. People will be wiped out of existence. Verizon will revert back to GTE. Microsoft will have go out of business in the eighties and... H-e-e-e-e-y...
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
And what the woman was saying was "Oh my teesh, hurt sho mush. "
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
So if it was a cell phone, the guy walking in front of her doesn't notice her talking to somebody? This day and age, someone just talking and nobody is there you readily assume that they're on their phone. Back in the 1920s she would have been considered a mad woman talking to spirits.
Yeah, that struck me as well. Where are all the cell towers?
What, you never heard of Universal Roaming? She was calling via the time vortex, obviously...
Bow-ties are cool.
The answer is obvious. Dr. Who used his Sonic Screwdriver to modify the phone so that this previously unknown companion of his could talk to her family back in his own time. The odd appearance of the phone was the result of the Doctor's failed attempt to disguise it...
It's not that he failed, really. It's a perception filter. It psychologically tricks the viewer into overlooking the device... But it has no effect on film cameras, of course.
Bow-ties are cool.
But if this really was a time traveler on a cell phone in 1928, isn't that how it would work out?
What if the footage was of a lady wearing a "I love Joss Whedon" baby doll t-shirt, or a shirt that said "All your base are belong to us!" or t-shirt that said, "I'm a Slashdot Karma Whore!"?
30 to 40 years ago we wouldn't have thought anything about a t-shirt like the above if we saw it in old footage. We'd probably just assume it was some saying or something from back in the day.
If there was a time traveler, there's a span of time where we wouldn't see anything out of place with the footage, but then we pass a point in time where we would recognize that their is something in the footage that is out of place. Then our brains would recognize the t-shirt for what it is and say "How did that get to 1928?"
All I got from that video was "I hope this video goes viral so I can use it to advertise my movies."