Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Mayan Cities and the Cosmos
#1
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/travel/world/central-america/boy-15-discovers-longlost-ancient-mayan-city-using-constellations-and-google-earth/news-story/b04d69a50712f5aa045b2123d052aee5
Reply
#2
Dude, it is the Telegraph - a Murdoch rag aimed at semi-literates who are still pissed that there aren't any titty photos on page 3 anymore. The story is nonsense; the alignment of the stars today is completely different to the time when these cities were founded. It is a wonderful example of lateral thinking but it isn't rational science. Once again we have media outlets jumping the gun before verifying the story. The so-called "city" in that photo is more likely an old cornfield.
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
Reply
#3
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/canadian-teen-william-gadourys-discovery-of-mayan-city-debunked-as-junk-science-20160511-gosa26.html
5 comments so far
·         Someone's salty...

Commenter
mmm

Date and time
May 11, 2016, 3:15PM

·         Right...so there is a huge deserted corn field out in the middle of a jungle, miles and miles from any current township? Examining the map, there is another large rectangular structure just to the south of it. Another cornfield perhaps?

Sounds like sour grapes to me!

Commenter
Zeb

Location
Australia

Date and time
May 11, 2016, 3:38PM

·         Perhaps it isn't easy to get to the location, but why don't they fly in a team to start "digging" to see what it actually is? If it's a city, surely there will be remnants that would verify it?

Commenter
AussieinHK

Date and time
May 11, 2016, 4:01PM

·         So wouldn't you just take a short helicopter ride there to check out if the claim has any weigh to it rather than shoot others down?

Commenter
Andrew

Date and time
May 11, 2016, 4:30PM

·         Good work William. I believe you may be on to something. Don't let the grumpy sleep deprived scientists deter you. We need more young people like you.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/canadian-teen-william-gadourys-discovery-of-mayan-city-debunked-as-junk-science-20160511-gosa26.html#ixzz48MNmlJWq
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook
Reply
#4
Maybe you should read the actual article and not the comments

But David Stuart, an archeologist who is also famous for his Mayan discoveries as a teenager, described the discovery as "false".
"The whole thing is a mess - a terrible example of junk science hitting the internet in free-fall," said Dr Stuart who is the David and Linda Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin.
"The ancient Maya didn't plot their ancient cities according to constellations. Seeing such patterns is a Rorschach process, since sites are everywhere, and so are stars.
The square feature that was found on Google Earth is indeed man-made, but it's an old fallow cornfield, or milpa," he said.
Dr Stuart avoided blaming William, saying he was "clearly smart and enthusiastic about archaeology and the Maya", and had talent worth nurturing.
Instead he criticised so-called experts who had publicised his discovery.
"What steams me most here is the irresponsibility of 'experts' who sought the media exposure," he said on his Facebook page.


It is great that this kid is enthusiastic about archaeology and that he came up with a neat testable hypothesis. It doesn't matter whether it turns out to be wrong. What matters is the irresponsible reporting about it. There is no discovery of an ancient city. All we currently have is a satellite photo of what appears to be a man-made structure. The people who went running to the media should have waited till an investigation determined what the structure is.
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
Reply
#5
Dan wrote:
Maybe you should read the actual article and not the comments
 
Maybe you should ask me first if I have read the article before making your assumptions. That would be the smart thing to do.
 
Dan wrote:
The people who went running to the media should have waited till an investigation determined what the structure is.
 
And you are correct. And that is what Dr. Stuart should have done before shooting his mouth of. You criticise the Daily Telegraph for doing exactly what the Sydney Morning Herald did. You are priceless.
 
 
Reply
#6
He didn't go running to the media. He tried to ignore it completely until his office started getting flooded with phone calls.
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
Reply
#7
Dan wrote:
He didn't go running to the media. He tried to ignore it completely until his office started getting flooded with phone calls.
 
The outcome is the same. He started shooting his mouth off without verifying the veracity of the claim. Both papers are guilty of presumption, not as you made out, just the Daily Telegraph, which shows your bias.
Reply
#8
Discovery wrote about too but well discovery is a case per se
-----------------
Gelu I.
www.terradacica.ro
www.porolissumsalaj.ro
Reply
#9
Let's step back a bit. This lad notices that there seems to be some correlation between the siting of Mayan cities and the position of the constellations in Mayan times (pace Dan Howard's post #2). He also notices that, while he can link certain cities with certain stars, there is one star that does not appear to have an associated city. Applying the same sort of calculation as applies to the other cities, he locates a site which, on any interpretation, indicates some sort of human activity, be it a city or a cornfield. Even the much-maligned Daily Telegraph (which, if Dan Howard's assessment of it is correct, seems to be a very different type of publication from the newspaper of the same name here in the UK) begins its report by saying that this 'discovery' has not received universal acceptance and quotes Dr Stuart as saying that it is 'false'.

What Dr Stuart should have done, perhaps, is acknowledge that the lad's findings are interesting, record his own scepticism but go on to say that certainty either way is impossible until the site has been properly investigated. That would have been more professional. However, let's be charitable. The tone of his comments perhaps indicates that this may have been the umpteenth similar enquiry that he had received that day and that he finally blew his top. This, of course, is the response that would be reported, rather than the more measured replies that he may have given to earlier enquirers. Anyway, until someone goes to the site and sticks a spade in the ground, we are unlikely to know who is right.
Michael King Macdona

And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
Reply
#10
The Telegraph is Australia's Daily Mail.
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
Reply
#11
It sounds more like The Sun - Page 3 and all that!
Michael King Macdona

And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
Reply
#12
Imagine a cross between the Daily Mail and the Sun.

[Image: syd-fl729ue1mgdfbjyi3l2_t460.jpg]
[Image: 4872546-1x1-940x940.jpg]
[Image: image-20150723-22811-vn65hr.png]
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
Reply
#13
Blimey! It looks worse than both!
Michael King Macdona

And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
Reply
#14
Good thread on this at the International Skeptics Forum.

There is a fair bit of 'noise' as there always is on that forum but it settles down and there is some good and well reasoned stuff in there from people with experience in the field.

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/for...p?t=306832#
Andy Ross

"The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there's no difference"
Reply


Forum Jump: