Ridiculous Pictures

Look at this tripe in the Telegraph about a "Ghostly figured dressed in Victorian clothes" captured by Google street view. According to the article, the figure, "dressed in long skirt, crisp blouse, bow tie, blue boater hat and scarf appears to be shimmering above the pavement".

Here's my analysis:



I'm intrigued by the statement, "A ghostly figure dressed in Victorian clothes was filmed on Google Street View - before vanishing into thin air". I can't see how you can establish this vanishing act from a still photo, or was that statement simply pulled out of your arse?

An important thing to note is that there is a huge amount of distortion in the picture, probably due to several images being spliced together, all taken from different angles. That's why we see bollards leaning at freaky angles, cut in half, inconsistent shadows etc. I'm guessing the woman appears in one of the images, but not the others. That's why we can't see her feet on the pavement. The photo in which she does appear cuts her off just above the knee. She is not "shimmering above the pavement".

There is further distortion provided by Google blurring. I don't know how anyone can see a blue boater and a bow tie. All I can see is a smudge. As for the "crisp blouse", all you can see is a strip of white. It could be a t-shirt, a sweater, a lycra bathing costume, or a kevlar vest. She does appear to be wearing a jacket that falls below her waist, and a scarf. Where you get the idea of it being Victorian dress is beyond me, but there you go.

Finally, there is further blurring in the foreground. It could be camera-shake, a focus problem, automatic face/number-plate blurring gone wrong, or any number of other things. I suspect it is not ectoplasm.

The Telegraph really ought to know better. This is the second ridiculous photo claim story that has appeared this week. I saw this reportwhich claimed that someone had captured UFO pictures from the 16th floor of a London office building on Monday I think. Here's the picture.



You took that picture through a window didn't you? And those are not UFOs are they? No, they are reflections of the ceiling lights behind you, aren't they, knob-head!

You want another one? OK, here you are...



This is another Google Street View picture, this time from New Jersey, clearly showing "an alien". I have serious doubts about the future of mankind.