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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 01/09/2009 : 11:46:11 [Permalink]
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Again, I remain unimpressed. It's Faux News owner Rupert Murdoch's bloody Sun, OffC! That's a tabloid with no real interest in anything but tall tales, homophobia, cheesecake, ultra-nationalism and sales. The popularity of The Sun has nothing to do with the veracity of its contents, no matter how many times anyone mentions that it's "Britain's favourite newspaper." That's a fallacy known as "argument from popularity." (In fact, the popularity of The Sun probably results in large measure from its regular use of fascinating lies.)
It's possible that captive big cats have been released into the wild in England, but the evidence is lacking.
Note the "expert" comment, followed by a tabloid "journalist's" interpretation:| It's impossible to say what it was whether it was a puma, a lynx or what. Rangers found no deer devoured suggesting the mysterious animals were living off rabbits. |
Now, let's parse a little of this:
A "deputy surveyor" (not a zoologist) starts by admitting he doesn't know what he saw.
He could have left it there, but he then provides two possibilities for what it was he didn't identify: A puma and a lynx. (Why not add a house cat and a dog?)
A lynx is a quite smallish cat, by the way, many not much larger than a big house tabby. (The Canada Lynx, one of which I once saw wild in Washington State, is fairly large, though much smaller than a puma.)
The "journalist" then asserts that no deer were devoured, and that therefore the hypothetical big cats must be eating rabbits, therefore skipping over the minor matter of the very existence of the cats. (Note also that this tends to rule out pumas, which would eat deer.)
Actually, no rabbit-eating is put into evidence, instead this conclusion is drawn from negative evidence (lack of dead deer), combined with the pre-assumption that the cats are out there.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 01/09/2009 12:50:40 |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2009 : 15:13:22 [Permalink]
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| I read The Sun (Britains favourite newspaper) quite often and I don't find it to be homophobic or ultra nationalist at all. Maybe you are thinking of the Daily Mail? |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2009 : 15:26:44 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by On fire for Christ
I read The Sun (Britains favourite newspaper) quite often and I don't find it to be homophobic or ultra nationalist at all. Maybe you are thinking of the Daily Mail?
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I'm no fan of the Daily Mail, either. But I was referring to The Sun. Did you read the Wiki article? The part about The Sun's Elton John homophobia? Its phony coverage of the Hillsborough disaster? It's regular use of disparaging terms like "frogs", "krauts" and "hun"? You surely are aware of the "Page 3 Girls," right?
I just think you are setting this tabloid up as an "authority," and that it way, way fails to deserve the honor. It's aim is to use sensationalism to entertain, and thus to profit.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 01/09/2009 15:27:31 |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2009 : 16:15:20 [Permalink]
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page 3 is a long standing British tradition I see no problem with it.
Also words like Huns and frogs are acceptable to the general British public, I certainly wouldn't class it as 'ultra-nationalistic' to poke fun at our traditional enemies from time to time. I'm not up to speed on the whole Elton John thing, was this a recent thing? because strong homophobia in the press is certinaly not acceptable to the British public today. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2009 : 17:04:19 [Permalink]
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Well, good luck with those ancient British traditions like Page 3 Girls, OffC. (Who needs the Monarchy or the Magna Carta, when he has those?) I happen to like Page 3, too, but those ladies say nothing about The Sun's reliability on scientific matters.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2009 : 17:31:29 [Permalink]
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| the monarchy and magna carter don't really have much relevance to most of The Sun's readers I suspect. Although if you're into the royal family the Daily Mail is bound to have some article about how asylum seekers killed Princess Diana or some such nonsense. |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2009 : 15:27:42 [Permalink]
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The standard British rail gauge is 5 feet, 8.5 inches (1,435 mm) between inner sides of the rails. My very rough estimate is that the black cat in the video is about one third that in length, from nose to base of tail. That would be pretty much the same as an adult Felis catus in size. In addition, visual cues like its quickness of stepping further make me think of it as a normal domestic cat. It also seems to be walking along the upper bearing surface of the train rail, something I doubt a cougar-sized cat could manage.
But I am admittedly not a professional photoanalyst.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2009 : 15:54:10 [Permalink]
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| if you look at the still of the video before you click play, it's clearly more than 1/3. Over 3/4 would be more accurate. |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2009 : 16:41:16 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Ricky
From the BBC article:
| "Knowing the width of the rail tracks in Chris's video is 4ft 8.5in, the animal photographed by him is clearly in excess of 4ft and as such is certainly not a domestic cat. |
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I'm not sure how they can say the animal in the film is "clearly in excess of 4ft." It doesn't look to me like that cat would span the distance between the tracks, unless you count its tail fully extended. Still, I will say it looks largish for house cat.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2009 : 16:46:52 [Permalink]
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If only the 4:02 had come through on time there would be some physical evidence to examine. But it looks like British rail screwed up again.  |
Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2009 : 18:09:09 [Permalink]
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Can't get the video to work for me -- stupid computer!
Anyhow, some breeds of domestic cat can get quite large, notably the Maine coon cat, among others. These are known to exceed some 40 inches in length and, while I don't feel like looking it up tonight, I've read that the Guinness record is something like 47 inches, including tail. That's a pretty big moggie and provides an alternate explanation. Let us not go off the deep end of this thing too soon.
I simply don't accept that a "black panther," which is actually a melanistic leopard, is gamboling about in the British Isles. It is possible that a captive specimen escaped from somewhere, but it seems to me that such an event would be all over the media, Also, I've read of no big cat attacks on livestock or humans.
The story just ain't floatin', and I remain skeptical.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2009 : 19:49:02 [Permalink]
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Here's a screen cap from the video, filthy, just to give you an idea. It's pretty grainy.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2009 : 21:18:42 [Permalink]
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This is perhaps ridiculously over-researched, but please humor me, as I'm having fun.
It turns out that on Scottish railroads north of Glasgow, eighty "ten chain markers" are placed to the mile. (See 26.13 at the above link, after the fold.) Helensburgh, Argyll (the place of the black cat sighting) is north of Glasgow.
The post across the rail tracks from the viewer, on the left side of the cat on both images below, looks to me to be such a ten chain marker. Ten chain markers appear to be one yard tall, as my source says (see the fifth Q&A) its images are to the scale of one pixel per one centimeter, and the image of the ten chain marker is 61 pixels tall (35.83 inches).
Image capture with drawing of a ten chain marker inserted next to the real one.
Copy of yard-long ten chain marker rotated to show cat's length.
My conclusions:
The pussycat, aside from its tail, seems to be less than a yard to one meter in length.
I cannot believe the witness thought this was a big panther or the like. He would have had all sorts of visual cues and familiarity with the distances and scale of the scene which would have made it even more obvious to him than to us that this was merely a domestic cat. He probably just wanted the publicity. Or maybe the cat did.
[Edit: Somewhat reduced my estimate of length, added snarky remarks about the witness.]
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 07/31/2009 21:54:27 |
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UK's "Demon of Dartmoor" confirmed, ID'ed
