Levitating Islands?

[SeeinRed]

http://www.ecoenquirer.com/levitating-islands.htm

Levitating Islands in Bermuda Triangle Observed by Spy Satellite
Islands in the Bermuda Triangle were photographed levitating by as much as 10 miles off the surface of the ocean in this recently-declassified image from a U.S. spy satellite.
(Washington, DC) Unusual images of the Earth have occasionally been uncovered after declassification of hundreds of thousands of spy satellite images by the National Imagery Mapping Agency (NIMA). In one of the more spectaular images, gathered on May 25, 2005, the apparent levitation of at least two Caribbean islands above the surface of the ocean was captured (above).

The islands are located in a large region popularly known as the Bermuda Triangle. The spy satellite imagery clearly shows shadows cast by two of the islands on the ocean surface in such a way that can only be explained if the islands are levitated above the ocean surface, in one case by approximately ten miles.

Officials at the two major satellite spy satellite agencies were contacted for comment on the finding. An unidentified source at the National Security Agency said, "We have no comment on the possible levitation of one or more Caribbean islands". Another manager at NIMA, who also refused to be identified, added "We have no comment on the possible levitation of one or more Caribbean islands".

The date and time that the imagery was gathered by the satellite was checked against local newspaper reports, but no mention of the incident could be found. Upon further investigation, it was ascertained that the final episode of the popular TV show 'American Idol' was airing at the time, which might explain the absense of eye-witness accounts of this unusual event.

[MrCinatit]

If those islands are levitating, then I'm Mickey Mantle.
Those dark "shadows" appear to be bleeding into the oceanic water, if you look at the images closely. I've not seen many shadows which could do that.
Meanwhile, the waves are moving in the same shape as the shadows. Look at the middle island - you can see the white breaker waves perfectly surrounding these "shadows."
Shadows, no. Runoffs or the natural flow of surrounding waters? More likely.

And looking at the other stories around ecoenquirer...uh...yeah. Nuff said.

[Roy Tucker]

Not that it has anything to do with floating islands, but I did see this "shadow" photo recently and thought it was striking...

[HotCorner]

So that's what happened to Oceanic Flight 815 ...

[macro]

Hey, it's the nature version of The Onion.

[Roy Tucker]

Originally Posted by macro

Hey, it's the nature version of The Onion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...052001151.html

How a Global Warming Satirist Breaks the Ice

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 21, 2006; Page D01

Witness the headlines: "Pristine Alaskan Glacier Turns Into Tropical Wasteland." "More Polar Bears Suffering Heat Exhaustion." And "Dolphins Discovered Fleeing Warming Tropical Waters." Global warming warnings intended to give you the shivers.

But upon further clicking and reading, visitors to EcoEnquirer.com might think, hmm: Is the Smithsonian Institution really buying up virgin arctic sea ice on the black market? Did attention-weary penguins actually chase bewildered researchers back onto their ships? And what's this about the EPA mandating a reduction in emissions from . . . volcanoes?

Somewhere in an office about 600 miles southwest of here, former NASA scientist Roy W. Spencer is laughing. The 50-year-old, white-haired PhD dreamed up the spoof site -- sort of the Onion meets the Weather Channel -- because he thinks people are overreacting to the threat of climate change.

Now a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Spencer says human activities have "likely" contributed to climate change, but he argues that "since we do not understand natural climate fluctuations, we don't really know how much, quantitatively, of the present warmth is man-made versus natural."

Spencer describes his Web site as "a spur-of-the moment effort that resulted from the increasing number of news stories that quoted people who blamed global warming for events such as tsunamis and the latest flood, drought or hurricane. . . . Also, I have a somewhat twisted sense of humor, and the Web site gives me an additional creative outlet." His other creative outlet: He's lead guitarist in a contemporary Christian rock band at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Huntsville. (His environmentalist-mocking alternative lyrics to Supertramp's "Give a Little Bit": "I'll take a little bit, I'll take a little bit of your wealth from you/So give a little bit, oh, give a little more than a dime to me.")

It's all a way of keeping his sanity, Spencer explains.

"Being in the minority is difficult," he says, adding that while he now earns a small amount of money writing for TCS Daily, a Web site funded in part by ExxonMobil, "I have always said, if you want to make money in this business, the skeptics' side is not the side you want to work on."

His Web site has maintained a relatively low profile. Spencer was on two nationally syndicated AM talk radio shows in early March, leading to 150,000 page views that month, but things have trailed off; EcoEnquirer got about 43,000 page views the first three weeks of this month.

So it's just a fun thing. Well, mostly. "I was surprised at the number of people that thought the EcoEnquirer stories were real."

Oops.

Signs of the Times, a leftist Web forum, mistakenly published the article from EcoEnquirer on March 6 about dolphins fleeing the warming tropics. (The "news" item includes this quote from a Dr. Fisherman: "If you had hot water poured on you, you would flee, wouldn't you?") Signs of the Times issued an editorial two days later calling Spencer's Web site "a waste of cyberspace."

Spencer's serious academic work has sparked controversy. While at NASA -- between 1984 and 2001 -- he and University of Alabama at Huntsville professor John Christy pioneered satellite monitoring that indicated the Earth was warming more slowly than surface temperature readings would indicate. In 1991 the two researchers won NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for that work, but this month a government study concluded there was no statistical difference between the two climate records.

Spencer acknowledged that other satellite experts have found two errors in how he and Christy processed their data. Christy, who has known Spencer for nearly two decades, called his colleague "one of those traditional weather nerds" who get excited every time there's a big storm.

Naturally, Spencer is less than popular with scientists who believe that industrialized nations need to take swift action to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

"It tends to cloud the issue by playing media attention to the uncertainties," said Drew Shindell, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. "In fact, we know a lot more about this issue than a lot of things we take action on."

But EcoEnquirer.com has its fans, too. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee counsel John Shanahan, whose boss, James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), has called global warming "a hoax," likes Spencer for his research as well as his wit.

"It wasn't until I first saw his Web site that I realized that he's an amazingly funny guy," says Shanahan. "It's refreshing to see a scientist keep his sense of humor in a highly polarized debate."

[Falls City Beer]

It's like the floating islands in Gulliver's Travels. Which is a marvelous book by the way. Just re-read for the first time since grad school. Such a beautiful and sad story.