--- Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 10:24:29 -0800 To: Dave Farber <daveat_private>, Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> From: Jim Warren <jwarrenat_private> Subject: Autodesk's founder reports gross errors by Limbaugh, CNN, Snopes Cc: cnn.feedbackat_private, "Cross Fire" <crossfireat_private>, Wolf Blitzer Reports <WBlitzer.Reportsat_private>, "Rush Limbaugh" <rushat_private>, postmasterat_private [If you know John, you know him to be a most ardent stickler for facts. Here, John is not reporting hearsay; he's reporting about what's happened on his own server, and images he provides thereon. --jim] At 12:34 AM +0100 3/29/03, John Walker wrote: Subject: Sniping at Snopes.com >Almost everybody's experienced the phenomenon of encountering >a description in news media of something they know from >first-hand experience and discovering discrepancies that >make them wonder about all the stories they *can't* independently >verify. > >The last couple of weeks or so have been interesting at >Fourmilab. First of all, some idiot took an image off >Earth and Moon Viewer (a *flat map* image, mind you, >*not* a synthetic view from above) and circulated it as >the "last image taken from Columbia". This was picked up >by that noted spaceflight authority Rush Limbaugh, and >rattled around the Net for a while until it was promptly >identified as what it was; Limbaugh removed it from his >Web site within 24 hours. > >But of course, once the worms are out of the can, it's notoriously >difficult to get them back in, especially in this brave New >Media world. So, the image has kept popping up and being batted >down regularly ever since. > >All was more or less serene with Earth and Moon Viewer until the >war started. Apparently, some bottom-feeders got the idea >they could watch the bombs fall and tanks roll across Iraq by >repeatedly viewing Earth Viewer images which, of course, are >actually generated from a static database assembled from satellite >imagery dating from 1995-1996. It didn't help that CNN started >broadcasting zooms into Baghdad from Keyhole's "earthviewer.com" >site; if somebody types "earthviewer" into Google, Keyhole >comes up number one, but guess who's number three? > >Anyway, the hit rate on www.fourmilab.ch, which had been hovering >around 500,000 per day for the last two years suddenly blew the top >off, resulting in four of the last ten days registering more than >a million hits. When this wave first broke over the server, it was >not pretty--CPU load, which normally runs about 2-3 on this 4 CPU >Sun E3500, was running about 290 and all 256 Apache server processes were >blocked waiting for rendered images, causing response time to drop >into the minute range...which causes more re-clicks, more hits, more >image rendering requests, greater load, longer delays...ugly. > >I've restricted the maximum rendered image size, added a big ugly >red disclaimer to the results to remind folks they're looking at a >static image, and limited the number of requests from a given site. >This, for the moment, has brought things under control and made >million hit days survivable. If it takes off again from *this* level, >I think I'll just bag it and hide out in an armed compound in Switzerland. >Damn...already did that! > >But let's get back to the bogus "Columbia" image. Just after I'd >finished implementing the first round of "war emergency" fixes to >Earth Viewer, what should happen but that image, and its provenance, >popped up as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2003-03-24: > > http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030324.html > >Well, of course, that launched another wave of hits, and another round >of countermeasures. NASA correctly identified the image, credited the >source, and provided appropriate links. I can't complain and, if Earth >Viewer didn't have its back to the wall with war hits, I'd actually be >rather flattered. > >Then I happened to visit the: > > http://www.snopes.com/ > >urban legend site, and what should be the number 4 top search, but the >very same "Sunset from space" picture! The hits just keep on coming. > >I've visited the Snopes site several times over the last few years, >generally from links in mail and news discussions and, while there's >nothing explicitly bogus about the site, there's something about the >tone which I've found consistently off-putting. It's reminiscent of >the too-smug, overly-glib style of the Skeptical Inquirer which caused me >to let my subscription lapse in the early 80's and, perhaps, set in motion my >long migration from CSICOP to Psi-perp. > >The Snopes analysis of the "Columbia picture": > > http://www.snopes.com/photos/sunset.asp > >is typical of this. Unlike NASA, they did not identify the source >(although it had been identified on newsgroups long before Snopes >posted this article), and the Snopes commentary itself contains two >or three factual errors, depending on how you read it, and misses three >of the most obvious things which identify the picture as not >taken from Columbia. Here is a copy of the comments I sent to >Snopes: > > * * * > >The image you show on the "Sunset from Space" page: > > http://www.snopes.com/photos/sunset.asp > >was generated by the Earth and Moon Viewer on my Web site: > > http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/ > >You can almost precisely reproduce the image shown on your page >with the following (very long--it may need to be unwrapped) >URL: > >http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth?imgsize=320&img=learth.evif&opt=-z&lat=36&ns=North&lon=6&ew=West&alt=72&date=1&utc=2003-04-12+19:00 > >The image shown on your page looks like it was originally >generated with a larger image size, then scaled to the 320x320 >pixel size shown on your page, accounting for the blurring >which is particularly evident in the lights on the night side >of the terminator. > >There are several factual inaccuracies in your discussion of this image: > >"...this image can't have been both 'taken by the crew on board >the Columbia' and 'taken via satellite.'" > Okay, this is a quibble, but as Columbia was, during its > mission, an Earth satellite, the two statements are not, in > fact, contradictory. > >"Although this images does accurately depict the landforms >described..." > Incorrect. This picture is a rectangular excerpt from a > map image in a cylindrical projection. There is no > viewpoint in orbit around the Earth from which the Earth > would look like this. The distortion toward the poles is > especially apparent in the shape of Iceland and the eastern > part of Greenland toward the top. You can see the entire > rectangular projection map with the URL: > >http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth/action?opt=-p&date=1&utc=2003-04-12+19:00 > > Further, the field of view is ridiculously too wide to be > seen from the altitude at which shuttles fly. The Columbia > STS-107 mission flew at an altitude of about 150 nautical > miles, or 278 kilometres. A horizon to horizon view from that > altitude centred at the centre of the rectangular image you > show may be viewed with: > >http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth?imgsize=320&img=learth.evif&opt=-l&lat=36&ns=North&lon=6&ew=West&alt=278&date=1&utc=2003-04-12+19:00 > >"...the positioning of lighted cities to the right of the >day-night terminator line..." > Well, subject to the comments above, the lights may be in > the correct positions for the *projection*, but the *shape of > the terminator* is dead wrong for a picture which purports to > have been taken around the start of February. Note that in the > images above, I specified a date around mid-April when the > terminator looks like the one in the image you show. In fact, > an image generated with the same parameters except using the > illumination for February 1 appears as the following URL > displays: > >http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth?imgsize=320&img=learth.evif&opt=-z&lat=36&ns=North&lon=6&ew=West&alt=72&date=1&utc=2003-02-01+17:20 > > Think about it--in northern hemisphere winter, the north > pole is in constant darkness--hence the picture you show could > not possibly represent a date during the last flight of > Columbia. > > Finally, the cloudless day and night Earth image database > used to create this rendering by the Earth and Moon Viewer on > my site is © 1996 The Living Earth® Inc., All Rights Reserved. > I am not affiliated with The Living Earth; they grant my site > permission to use their database to prepare free rendered > images in return for identifying the data source and providing > back-links. Images created from their database by Earth and > Moon Viewer should be re-used only with permission from The > Living Earth (http://livingearth.com/), and with identification > and a back link. The Living Earth routinely grants this > permission for non-commercial use of their images. > > Note that when this image appeared as the NASA Astronomy > Picture of the Day for 2003-03-24: > > http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030324.html > > it was identified correctly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH evening reception in New York City at 7 pm, April 1, 2003 at CFP: http://www.politechbot.com/events/cfp2003/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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