Utah Helicopter Crew Discovers Mysterious Metal Monolith Deep in the Desert (cnn.com) 128
turp182 writes: What started as routine wildlife assistance took an extraterrestrial turn for Utah's Department of Public Safety after officers stumbled upon a mysterious monolith in the middle of rural Utah. Officers from the Utah Department of Public Safety's Aero Bureau were flying by helicopter last Wednesday, helping the Division of Wildlife Resources count bighorn sheep in southeastern Utah, when they spotted something that seemed right out of "2001: A Space Odyssey." "One of the biologists ... spotted it, and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it," pilot Bret Hutchings told CNN affiliate KSL. "He was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!' And I was like, 'What.' And he's like, 'There's this thing back there -- we've got to go look at it!'" And there it was -- in the middle of the red rock was a shiny, silver metal monolith sticking out of the ground. Hutchings guessed it was "between 10 and 12 feet high." It didn't look like it was randomly dropped to the ground, he told KSL, but rather it looked like it had been planted. "We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then the rest of us make a run for it," Hutchings said. Still, Hutchings said he thinks it was most likely placed there by an artist rather than an alien. "I'm assuming it's some new wave artist or something or, you know, somebody that was a big ("2001: A Space Odyssey") fan," he said, referencing a scene in the 1968 film where a black monolith appears.
I'm not saying it was aliens but... (Score:5, Funny)
It was probably just a really, really bored Mormon
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Those aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. [fairmormon.org]
(Note that while the church says it's not "official doctrine", they don't deny the belief. Joseph Smith wrote about it informally such as to not give it enough strength to call it official. It's essentially a "soft doctrine".)
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I mean they hold Joseph Smith to be a prophet, which is very silly indeed.
Talking snakes (Score:2)
Most religions are based on "unusual" claims. Why single out Mormons?
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Also, the whole magic underwear stuff is hilarious.
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The whole concept of a god is laughable given any amount of scrutiny.
And yet, Deity by another name is Dark Energy.
Or this, said by someone wiser than I... "Quantum Mechanics: the dreams stuff is made of."
Sort of raises these questions: Who is the Dreamer? What is She dreaming?
What is truly laughable is how much of what passes for rational thought these days is predicated upon Pi: a thoroughly irrational number.
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I figured that the helicopter tour company put it there, in the hopes that people would want to fly out and see it.
From what I've heard, it's probably not a safe place to travel to on foot.
Re: I'm not saying it was aliens but... (Score:2)
My best guess would be that it's an art installation. And the art isn't the item itself, it's the case that everyone talks about it.
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Inverse performance art.
Instead of the artist performing, the audience performs.
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Have fun reaping what you people have sown.
Enjoy the first honest, competant non-traitorous presidency in four years?
Damn right we're going to enjoy it!
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When either parties entire platform is "We are against anything the other party is for", we have lost sight of the true goals both parties.
Have we really lost sight of the goals? Or do we just realize now that the goal was to win and gain power.
And it's easier to do that by showing how wrong the enemy is rather than how right you are, and what useful things you plan to do with that power.
C'mon people... (Score:5, Funny)
It is 2020. Don't take anything for chance. Nuke it from orbit.
Re:C'mon people... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Nuke it from orbit. (Score:1)
No, you'll anger the Lithotarians. Let it be.
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It says everything about 2020 that your awesome comment is modded "insightful" instead of "funny"...
Re: C'mon people... (Score:2)
We might to wait until 2021 to do anything with a nuke...
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We might to wait until 2021 to do anything with a nuke...
But if we do it now and it goes wrong. We can still blame Trump !!
That's all that matter right...
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Do you really think 2021 will be any better than 2020?
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Do you want to open a demon portal? Because that's how you open a demon portal.
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It is 2020. Don't take anything for chance. Nuke it from orbit.
But is somebody going to go out there and take care of that troop of baboons that worships it?
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Can we nuke Earf from orbit too? :P
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Only if we somehow pay Will Smiff royalties...
Uh. (Score:1)
Re:Uh. (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, I was coming to post something similarly pedantic. "Monolith" comes from "lithos" or "rock". It should be a 'monometallo'.
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You may pedant all you want, but people have been calling this a "monolith" since 2001: A Space Odyssey [wikipedia.org]. As far as I recall, there was never any mention about what material it was made of. Or was it that they couldn't identify the material at all? Who knows! After all, this happened 19* years ago.
* sarcasm.
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You may pedant all you want, but people have been calling this a "monolith" since 2001: A Space Odyssey [wikipedia.org]. As far as I recall, there was never any mention about what material it was made of. Or was it that they couldn't identify the material at all? Who knows! After all, this happened 19* years ago.
* sarcasm.
Yeah, Dave basically tells you. If it's full of stars then it's essentially made of stars. Lets crack this thing open and see what falls out.
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Yeah, but think about delivering that line to an auditorium full of people, half of whom are stoned and/or drunk. Not exactly correct, but clearer in its intent.
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It's obviously made of Monatomic Lithium.
Anyway, isn't it dangerous to count sheep while flying a helicopter? At some point you're bound to fall asleep.
I don't think it's a monolith (Score:5, Informative)
TFA has a link with some good pictures and video. It looks like they tack-welded stainless sheets over a frame. It's also prism-shaped for some reason.
A true monolith would be quite a feat--way heavier.
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TFA has a link with some good pictures and video. It looks like they tack-welded stainless sheets over a frame. It's also prism-shaped for some reason.
It's to keep the Sleestak from coming through.
Re:I don't think it's a monolith (Score:5, Funny)
It is a part of the beautiful wall. It will keep out all undesirables, not just our Sleestak neighbors who will be paying for it.
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You must be a real blast at parties. But akshually...
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TFA has a link with some good pictures and video. It looks like they tack-welded stainless sheets over a frame. It's also prism-shaped for some reason.
Although that sounds exactly what a prop designer might come up with.
Especially with the backdrop it is set against.
A photo shoot would be a low enough angle from the top to pass it off as a squared shape, as well as with the shadows cast.
Or perhaps it was intended to be a prism shape, in a "don't sue me kind of spoof"
Photo or video would work fine there, especially at a distance and edited so none of those seams show up.
Notice the rocks disturbed on the ground? Some moved into a small flat pile as if supp
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A photo shoot would be a low enough angle from the top to pass it off as a squared shape, as well as with the shadows cast.
Could well have been set up for that. We were out shooting at arse o'clock in some god-forsaken piece of red rock desert in the middle of nowhere in Utah a few years ago and a photographer turned up with two models and started shooting some distance from us. Poor things must have been freezing, they were just skin and bone anyway and had to stand barefoot on cold rock as the sun rose.
and there is a slight difference (Score:2)
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Well, a monolith is rock, and this is metal, so journalists these days are illiterate. But we knew that.
I say it was Cody (Score:2)
... doing an experiment on publicity stunts.
But I see screws in the side, evenly spaced (Score:3)
(wailing) I want a REAAAAL monolith!
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Why are bolts, rivets, and screws "illegal" in sci-fi depicting advanced technology? Is because one expects the factory to just "beam it" into existence full-form?
Re:But I see screws in the side, evenly spaced (Score:4, Funny)
Why are bolts, rivets, and screws "illegal" in sci-fi depicting advanced technology? Is because one expects the factory to just "beam it" into existence full-form?
No, that's ridiculous.
They use space glue.
Re:But I see screws in the side, evenly spaced (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, any advanced civilization would use Alien Tape [homedepot.com].
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They use space glue.
This is a high-tech alien civilisation, they wouldn't use something as primitive as glue.
They'd use gluons.
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Of course not, it needs to be 3-D printed.
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For some reason I read your comment with her voice. [youtube.com] (should be SFW, but be warned you may be flagged as a Brony [urbandictionary.com] by your boss and/or co-wokers)
"planted" ? (Score:2)
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And it's location was already found (Score:5, Informative)
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There is also a pin for it on Google Maps [google.com]
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Well, you gotta do something between p0rn-watching sessions, right?
Re:And it's location was already found (Score:5, Informative)
Google's imagery says that it's been there since Oct 20, 2016. Looks like it wasn't there in August of 2015 - so yeah, it's been there for years, and we know roughly when it was placed.
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Funny how a Google Maps search of the LAT/LON shows the photos next to it:
38.34301098,-109.66609761
https://www.google.com/maps/pl... [google.com]
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Actually, the photos are from the person who took them, with them geotagged, and his account set to publicly share them.
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Actually, the photos are from the person who took them, with them geotagged, and his account set to publicly share them.
That's pretty sloppy if true.
Comment removed (Score:3)
World is about to change. (Score:2)
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It came to take Trump's hair back home now that his term is up.
1 x 4 x 9 (Score:5, Funny)
The squares of 1 2 3.
And it was deliberately buried there.
Open the pod bay doors please, Siri.
Siri: I'm sorry $you, I'm afraid I can't do that. Ask Alexa.
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Re: 1 x 4 x 9 (Score:2)
Re:1 x 4 x 9 (Score:5, Insightful)
Advanced alien species using the foot for measurement. Clearly, the USA is ahead of the curve. Time for the rest of the world to catch up.
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Alexa: Open your own goddamn pod bay doors. I got a headache.
Don't touch it! (Score:2)
It's a Tesla battery pack. [slashdot.org]
Dont attempt to open it (Score:2)
Possibilities (Score:3)
I like the idea of an art installation.
Also:
Ad-hoc survey marker
Reference target for testing satellite imagery, or airplane reconnaissance, or some other type of military test
Part of the pre-VOR visual direction finding arrows for airplanes (though it looks too new and too small for that)
If you haven't heard of the last one, look it up. They used to put giant arrows on the ground in the middle of nowhere so planes could navigate, before they figured out how to use radios to do it. Every once in a while someone stumbles upon one and there is much confusion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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When the planets align [earthsky.org], this monolith will reflect their light back into the sky where they will ignite the chemtrails, triggering The Storm [foreignpolicy.com].
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Actually it's just a marker so Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat knows where to stand.
Art (Score:2)
I'm with you on it being an art installation. I really like it. Great setting for it too.
Thank you, whomever did it.
--PM
Is it...? (Score:2)
Is it full of stars?
Next Up: SpaceX special mission to Jupiter...
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It would be hilarious if Musk tweeted some joke about it, including needing to build a time machine in order to be able to launch the mission back in 2001.
The Chinese discovered it first (Score:2)
And now they're on the way to the Moon.
Mesage received... (Score:3)
All these worlds are yours
Except Europa
Attempt no landing there
Use them together
Use them in peace
Occam's razor (Score:2)
The most straightforward way to bring it there would be ... as a sling load on a helicopter!
Not to worry yet... (Score:2)
When it starts replicating on Jupiter, then we have a problem. Can you imagine the global warming issues with 2 suns?
And I was like (Score:2)
And he was like, "like what?"
and I was like, "like whatever"
God these people sounded like morons
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And I was like "Don't be a morans!".
Makes sense... (Score:1)
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Yep, that's one of the immutable rules of the universe: "Everything has to be somewhere"
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By a strange coincidence, it's also the slogan for all file systems.
Crop circles 2.0 (Score:2)
Let's see... where have we heard this before? Oh yeah, the 10-year hunt for the mysterious origin of crop circles. Until a couple of 30-something farmers in England admitted they had made the first one on their way home from the pub late one night and almost everyone one after that was done by people deliberately trying to spread the myth.
So, with equal probability this is (1) some sort of DOD antenna [*] (2) a gag intended to kick off just this kind of speculation.
[*] next time you are in the vicinity of
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It's either (Score:2)
Molemen or Crab people.
I wish them the best of luck on the surface. I'm ready to retreat underground after this decade's shit show.
Everyone knows real monoliths are Black. (Score:2)
And full of stars.
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Don't be racist! Some monoliths are blacks, others are... stainless steel, apparently.
don' pull it (Score:3)
the earth will deflate
Listen up, kids (Score:3)
Did I tell you about crop circles? Well I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days...
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Readers: And did you tie an onion to your belt, which was the style at the time?
Hognoxious: What do you mean, an African or European onion?
Haha, it's a hack (Score:2)
It's obviously a hack. Have there been any MIT people near there when it appeared?
Also, it's not buried in rock; it seems more likely that it's dried mud, and it was placed before the mud hardened after a slot canyon flood.
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