100-Foot 'Borneo Monster' Said Photographed

[n2doc]

The snake-like monster of Borneo in an allegedly real photograph of the river Baleh. The creature is said to be 100 feet long. Look at the apparent sizes of the trees and make your own geometrical judgment. The photographer is unknown.


The snake-like Borneo monster, though rarely seen or photographed, looks pretty accessible in this scene said to be near a remote village. The photographer is unknown.

By Benjamin Radford, LiveScience's Bad Science Columnist
posted: 19 February 2009 01:55 pm ET


Two recently released photographs of a huge snake-like creature allegedly taken in Borneo are causing locals to wonder if a local legend may have come alive.

But are the pictures real?

One photo, of a serpentine shape in the Baleh river, was said to be taken from a helicopter by a member of a disaster team monitoring flood conditions. Locals suggest that the animal may be a creature of folklore called Nabau, a dragon-like, shape-shifting sea serpent. Others aren't convinced.

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/090219-borneo-monster.html

[Blue_Tires]

1. ...in my pants?

:silly: :evilgrin:

[n2doc]

4. ...in your dreams!

:D :crazy: :spank:

[ozu]

2. I saw this movie

It was basically a giant penis chasing Jennifer Lopez around the jungle.

[slackmaster]

3. Giant salamander

Or teh Missing Link.

[jpak]

5. I want to believe

:tinfoilhat:

[CoffeeCat]

6. You think that's frightening, look at this monster...

It's rumored that this creature--starts illegal wars, wrecks world economies and destroys democracy--leaving
a wake of destruction so profound that it takes years to recover from the horror.

Ladies and gentlemen, keep your hands away from his cage.

[Belial]

7. umm...Well.. maybe that is what got the WMD's?

[vanderBeth]

8. Nessie!

:tinfoilhat:

[alfredo]

9. The second image looks really suspicious.

They don't float on top of the water. They sink when not swimming.

[Myrina]

10. The top pic looks photoshopped ...

... and the 2nd one looks like one of those 'floating buoy' things they sometimes put in rivers etc to break current and also contain garbage.


:shrug:

[QueenOfCalifornia]

11. As you alluded to:

Suspicious photos

One of the first red flags to go up when considering any extraordinary photograph offered as evidence (of UFOs, Bigfoot, or lake monsters, for example) is an image submitted anonymously. The photographs were taken by an unnamed "member of a disaster team," at an unknown location and date.

Two photos were released; one was taken from a helicopter, the second one wasn't, suggesting that the creature was sighted on two separate occasions. That raises the question as to why there are only two photos; one might expect that a person seeing such an extraordinary creature might snap more than one picture each time.

There's also the interesting composition of the photos: The snake-like creature seems to be posing full-length for the camera. In the aerial photo, it is nicely centered in the middle of the river, and in the other photo it is just high enough above the rooftops in the foreground to see its full length.

Of course it's possible the photographer just got lucky, capturing the giant snake at its most photogenic both times, but that raises another question: If the huge beast spends its time in such high-visibility areas, why is this the first time it's been reported or photographed?

Furthermore, the reported size of the creature cannot be correct. The original estimate given was that the creature was 100 feet long, though the scale of the photos suggest it must be far larger.

Then there's the question of whether the photo was even taken at the Baleh river, since most photographs of its waters show it to be a cloudy river, not the clear, dark blue water seen in the aerial photo. If the photo was actually taken by a disaster team member checking on flooded regions, the flooding runoff would increase the suspended particulates in the water (silt, debris, etc.), creating even cloudier water than usual.

Of course, all these troubling questions vanish if the photographs are simply faked.

They totally look fake to me. The one taken from a helicopter looks really suspicious.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. Oh hell, that's just a photo of Barbra Bush

checking out some of her Paraguay holdings. Seeing if she can find enough peasants to eat.

[tanyev]

13. I won't believe it until some guy shows up with a body in his freezer.