Sunday, June 05, 2005

Mystery road metal baffles Japan

"'It's eerie,' the Asahi newspaper said Saturday. 'Why are such objects, so many of them, all over the country? If they had been intentionally installed, it's a serious crime.'"
Posted by Mac at 10:56 PM

8 comments:

TheUltimateCyn said...

That's just weird... and no pictures, I would have loved to see what they looked like. I wonder what they are? Any opinions?
I hardly can imagine an ET use for that sort of thing... but, truth is stranger than fiction.

8:28 AM
W.M. Bear said...

Urban myth.

11:18 AM
TheUltimateCyn said...

so, it's not true?

11:43 AM
W.M. Bear said...

I'm guessing. Usually, when you see a story like this without real supporting evidence (no pictures, for example) you can be fairly sure it's probably an urban myth. Urban myths do sometimes get reported as fact in respectable papers (and Web sites) when reporters don't bother to really check them out. There's an interesting book about UMs called "The Choking Doberman" (forget the author offhand but an Amazon search will turn it up).

1:07 PM
TheUltimateCyn said...

I hate urban myths...

2:16 PM
_harinesumi_ said...

Pictures here:

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200506040189.html

and here:

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&id;=339212

There was a video fragment broadcasted on major TV news channel here in Russia, so I suppose this is not a myth. Pieces on video looked like the one on asahi page.

7:08 PM
W.M. Bear said...

harinesumi -- Thanks for the interesting links. I read the stories and looked at the pix. But honestly, I have to say, I'm not terribly impressed. For one thing, the metal pieces in the two pictures look completely different, suggesting different causes. (One is heavily rusted, suggesting it's been there a long time.) For another, I think part of my problem is with the number 19,000. Who counted them? How has this been verified? By labeling this an "urban myth," I wasn't meaning to suggest that there are NO metal pieces, which would be absurd. I'm sure I could find similar pieces along any stretch of guardrailed highway in the U.S. Also, who verified the stories of the (not one but three) boys on bikes getting cut?. Injury and mutilation are factors often associated with urban myths, as is repetition and multiplication. Plus, just because an official makes a pronouncement about something does not necessarily mean it is true. I am still taking a "wait and see" and "show me" attitude.

9:42 PM
Mac said...

I may not agree with WMB on the Intelligent Design issue, but I tend to agree with him here. It almost seems like a form of hysteria.

10:07 PM