[QUOTE=Scubaqueen]
the hell IS a flying spaghetti monster? :dubious:
[/QUOTE]
An airborne beast comprised mainly of pasta and perhaps a tomato-based sauce, if you’re lucky.
[QUOTE=Scubaqueen]
the hell IS a flying spaghetti monster? :dubious:
[/QUOTE]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Touched_by_His_Noodly_Appendage.jpg
[QUOTE=Anastasaeon]
An airborne beast comprised mainly of pasta and perhaps a tomato-based sauce, if you’re lucky.
[/QUOTE]
I saw one a few years ago. If I only had a camera with me…
Believe me please?
[QUOTE=Terrifel]
Why the hell would a ghost need to use a handrail?
[/QUOTE]
If he didn’t hold onto the railing, he’d fall straight down through the stairs, of course.
Duh.
[QUOTE=indian]
Is this a ghost ??
picture from "The Sun " U.K ..
what do dopers think ??
[/QUOTE]
Looks to me like the photo was taken on a sound-stage in Huntsville, Alabama.
It’s not a ghost. Somebody farted, maybe.
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya]
Are you referring to the other 'nauts who were on the moon too (and thus are asserting that nobody has really seen a ghost firsthand whereas at least some people witnessed other dudes walking around on the moon)?
Because everyone else has only seen TV of people walking on the moon. Leci n’est pas une pipe and all that. And even at that, more people can claim to have seen video of ghosts than video of mooncruisin’. So I’ve run rings around you logically.
ETA: QED: Oh, so you know everything that exists in the world do you? Got yerself a list do you? Or would you assert that I do not in fact have a Christmas cactus on my desk because you’ve never seen it?
And I did see a documentary about a talking carnivorous plant from outer space. So there.
(Is it Friday yet…I’d much rather do this over a few pints of Guinness)
[/QUOTE]
You are full of shit. Your Christmas cactus does not exist.
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
For the same reason it shouldn’t be a flying spaghetti monster, a unicorn or a talking carnivorous plant from outer space: these things do not exist in the real world.
[/QUOTE]
Likewise, as Antoine Lavoisier proved, a stone cannot fall from the sky because there ARE no stones in the sky.
:rolleyes: times a million.
Would QED’s fallacy count as circular logic or begging the question, I wonder?
A very silly argument used by people who can’t spell “sceptical.”
As for the picture, where is the ghost even supposed to be? Are we talking about the bright patch on the left side, or what? It doesn’t even look human shaped.
I vote for not a ghost. I can’t even see why anyone would look at that and say “that’s a ghost”
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal]
Can you point us to an example of a real ghost photo for comparison purposes?
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Szlater]
I think you can sort of do that trick with a digital camera by doing a long exposure in low light. You then have your “ghost” step into frame, hit them with a flash and then step out.
[/QUOTE]
Yep. And it doesn’t even have to be done on purpose. Our young Ansel Adams could have shot a snap of someone walking up the stairs (I’m guessing a woman in a white dress …and where would you find one of * those * at a wedding?). Flash goes off, illuminating the nearer hand/cuff in particular. But if the camera were set on manual, or just decided it hadn’t gotten enough light for a satisfactory exposure, it might keep the shutter open for quite a bit longer. Person walking up the stairs now becomes a hopeless white blur while the non-moving part of the scene becomes reasonably exposed with only a small amount of motion blur. (Because the motion blur is minimal, I’m guessing the camera was braced on the stair rail for the duration of the shot.)
Apropos of approximately nothing, here’s a snapshot of the same staircase (I believe) from below. No ghost.
[QUOTE=Finagle]
Yep. And it doesn’t even have to be done on purpose. Our young Ansel Adams could have shot a snap of someone walking up the stairs (I’m guessing a woman in a white dress …and where would you find one of * those * at a wedding?). Flash goes off, illuminating the nearer hand/cuff in particular.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think there’s even a flash. It looks to me like a 1/4 - 1/2 second exposure of someone jumping down the stairs with one hand on the bannister to steady themselves. Or maybe dashing up them. I’d guess the kid tried to snap a fast-moving friend on the stairs, but the flash hadn’t re-charged from his previous shot a moment before.
We’re talking kids at a wedding in a castle here. Bet they were tearing around. Bet if you saw the whole set of pictures, you’d spot the “ghost” all over the place!
[QUOTE=Peter Morris]
As for the picture, where is the ghost even supposed to be? Are we talking about the bright patch on the left side, or what? It doesn’t even look human shaped.
[/QUOTE]
Ignore the vague bright patch, and look at the stair banister: there’s a clearly delineated “ghostly” human hand with fingers, on the railing.
Oh, yeah, I see what you mean. But it’s hardly clearly delineated, though. It’s too small to see clearly.
[QUOTE=Terrifel]
Why the hell would a ghost need to use a handrail?
[/QUOTE]
Maybe that’s how it got to be a ghost. By NOT using the handrail.
[QUOTE=matt]
I don’t think there’s even a flash. It looks to me like a 1/4 - 1/2 second exposure of someone jumping down the stairs with one hand on the bannister to steady themselves. Or maybe dashing up them. I’d guess the kid tried to snap a fast-moving friend on the stairs, but the flash hadn’t re-charged from his previous shot a moment before.
We’re talking kids at a wedding in a castle here. Bet they were tearing around. Bet if you saw the whole set of pictures, you’d spot the “ghost” all over the place!
[/QUOTE]
Exactly - notice how the only bit that is clearly defined and not blurred is the hand on the railing, which is precisely the part that would be stationary for a large part of the exposure. Imagine running down the stairs - you reach forward, put your hand on the rail, and hold it in one position for a length of time until you have run further at which point you reach forward again - so while your body would be blurred, your hand would be much clearer on the exposure.
Additionally, isn’t “Teen snaps eerie ghost” the shittiest headline ever?
[QUOTE=fachverwirrt]
Apropos of approximately nothing, here’s a snapshot of the same staircase (I believe) from below. No ghost.
[/QUOTE]
What, are you blind?! There are at least three spirit orbs visible up there!
These are obviously the spirits of your ancestors hovering over you. Small, globular ancestors.
Speaking of which: What’s up with your exaggeratedly overcautious stair-climbing spectral forebear? Do weak ankles run in your family? Okay, you get credit for having an ancestral castle with a photogenic family ghost; but serious demerits since your undead relative is such a conspicuous puss.
"Avenge me, scion o’ Clan Davidson! Mah sperrit canna rest easy in mah grave until… Hoots mon! Mah gammy ectoplasmic legs canna safely navigate yon stairwell! Saints preserve me from fracturing mah incorporeal hipbone!"
My favourite “freaky” photo that wasn’t was this shot that made into onto the “Astronomy Picture of the Day” site. A meteorite hitting a lamppost?
Or maybe a bee flying past the camera… 
(More here: http://www.cloudbait.com/science/darwin.html )
[QUOTE=Terrifel]
What, are you blind?! There are at least three spirit orbs visible up there! These are obviously the spirits of your ancestors hovering over you. Small, globular ancestors.
Speaking of which: What’s up with your exaggeratedly overcautious stair-climbing spectral forebear? Do weak ankles run in your family? Okay, you get credit for having an ancestral castle with a photogenic family ghost; but serious demerits since your undead relative is such a conspicuous puss.
"Avenge me, scion o’ Clan Davidson! Mah sperrit canna rest easy in mah grave until… Hoots mon! Mah gammy ectoplasmic legs canna safely navigate yon stairwell! Saints preserve me from fracturing mah incorporeal hipbone!"
[/QUOTE]
How to put this…
Clan Davidson is … not impressive. Hell, Tulloch isn’t even a recognized sept of Davidson, yet Tulloch castle is the clan seat: it’s not even their castle (family history has it that the Tulloch branch of the family came from Davidson of Tulloch, rather than from the actual Tullochs, who are members of the Ross clan).
What can I say? My ancestors were apparently wimps. But wimps in kilts, damn it!
I thought the whole idea of ghosts is that you can’t photograph them, see them in mirrors, etc. Like in “Beetlejuice.”