Message posted by werD on May 17, 2008 at 17:13:03 PST:
I think we can solve this one pretty easily. I don't have photoshop available to me right now, but the aircraft appears to be mirrored down the center exactly, in terms of pixels. It should be easy to test this theory... Anyone who does have photoshop or GIMP available: copy the image, paste it over itself, flip vertical, and switch the layer mode for the flipped copy to difference. Play around until you get the aircraft lined up on both layers. Any deviations between the two halves of the aircraft will show up. If it's all black (or close to it), it's a hoax. Even without this for-sure test, the image looks inauthentic to me. Unless, of course, the observer managed to snap a picture in which the plane is exactly in-line with the pixel grid on his/her camera, the image doesn't make sense. There should at least be some noticeable shading differences on the aircraft if it was digitally straightened, but there are none. And besides, who has a digital camera that is that low resolution these days? Where are the full-rez images? Hypothesis 1: Photographer is at the same angle as the sun to the aircraft, and managed to shoot an image that is so symmetrical that the pixels look like they're mirrored when you zoom way in on the aircraft. Hypothesis 2: Someone got bored and decided to see what some existing plane looked like when rotated a few degrees and mirrored on itself, thought it looked cool, decided to pull a fast one. Which one is more likely? Judge for yourself. PS. I miss having more time to read/post! I'm in New Orleans for the year helping rebuild communities that katrina pulverized. Come august I should be a bit more connected.
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