The Loch Ness Monster Hoax

[ThermalRunaway]

Did anyone else see the really interesting documentary which channel 5 (UK) showed earlier this evening? It was quite a lengthy documentary about a team of engineers who create life-like "movie monsters" for a living. The team of engineers decided to do a personal project, the aim of which was to create a life-like subermsable loch ness monster and test it out in the real loch ness lake during peak season to see if they could convince tourists that they were seeing the real loch ness monster!

The documentary was really interesting, it took you through the building of the monster from scratch, the problems that they experienced (there were many) and eventually they showed the end experiment where they convinced a boat-load of sight seeing tourists that the loch ness monster was swimming nearby! The robotics involved were fairly simple, the team were able to control a pneumatic jaw (open and close) and they were also able to move the neck from side to side, giving the impression that the monster was looking around. Using a custom made base (which the monster was mounted on) and a team of divers they were able to give a real life-like impression which included swimming around, moving around and even diving! The end result was quite eery. I don't blame the tourists for believing the hoax as it really did look real.

I don't know whether anyone else saw the programme but it really was quite interesting.

Brian

 

[Someone Electro]

To bad i didnt see it.(We dont even have a chanel caled chanal 5 anyway)

The building must of ben prety interesting to see.

 

[Joel Rainville]

I don't blame the tourists for believing the hoax as it really did look real.

I have been to Loch Ness about 4 years ago, and I can understand that. For a tourist, especially from abroad, discovering Western Europe for the first time maybe, the first sight of Loch Ness is a bit of a surreal experience.

In fact, at first, nothing. It's just a loch. But before you got to Inverness, you probably tasted haggis for the first time, you've seen thousands of kilts, several women you fear could beat you at arm wrestling and you've probably got a few scotches down the drain, or at least a few extra-cold Guinness. I mean, you're already in a special mood, a strange environment. A tourist environment, but still. It works.

When you get on the loch, the old captain with the impossible accent controls the show. He looks around like he's preoccupied, describes the environment a little, shows you a few ruins, but remains mostly silent for the whole cruise. Always looking afar with a severe look. After 15-30 minutes of this, you're starting to wonder if you're very excited or bored to death.

That's when anything dark on the lake becomes suspect, and that's when you're most likely to believe in (or maybe hope for?) a Nessy appearance. It just takes someone else in the boat to point in a direction, and boom! Everyone's interest and excitement rises, even those who don't believe in the story at all.

The old captain then smiles and relaxes. Job well done...



So if you're gonna put something that actually looks like a monster in that lake, you're obviously gonna get instant excitement and 2 cardiac arrests on every tourist boat in the area!

 

[mechie]

Strange Creatures

I have been on holiday to Loch Ness loads of times but never seen Nessie :cry:

I used to live in the top left-hand corner of Wales and think I once saw Idris (but it could have been Olwen - hard to tell from a distance) :wink:

I missed the program but being Channel 5 they are bound to repeat it soon.

 

[Klaus]

Re: Strange Creatures

I have been on holiday to Loch Ness loads of times but never seen Nessie :cry:

I used to live in the top left-hand corner of Wales and think I once saw Idris (but it could have been Olwen - hard to tell from a distance) :wink:

I had heard about 'nessie', this tale is well known. But of "Idris or Olwen",
I never heard of. Now, thanks to google, I found Idris most likely to be a mountain and about Olwen you can read here:https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cft/cft16.htm
Is this right?

 

[mechie]

Idris

http://www.smallfilms.co.uk/ivor/people.htm#Idris

Sorry ... feeling a bit cynical ... :wink:

 

[atferrari]

Leprechauns as well...

Been at Dublin, more than 30 years ago. In nightime, (we were watching the city from a hill in the vicinity) the lady with me started to talk about the leprechauns explaining that when they pass nearby, "trees stop talking".

Few minutes later, the tree in front of us, "stopped" :shock: and, just in case, I suggested returning to downtown.

It was not a tourist show. In most of cases when you want to see things, you do see things. UFO seekers are a proof.

Two days later she left a small leprechaun as a souvenir. Some months later, in hands of my fiance, the poor leprechaun didn't last too long. Perhaps thrown overboard.

Or just through the window.

 

[tansis]

The grandson of famous oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau believes the best way to learn about sharks is to become one.

**broken link removed**


Hands up who remembers Dave lister aboard the mining ship "Red Dwarf" and his robotic goldfish... (ok these are slighty bigger lol)
https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4313266.stm

 

[roboticmisinfo]

Why would a pre-historic animal still be alive? It's ridiculous. No dinosaur would have lived to be 65,000,000 years old. To actually go to Loch Ness in search of "Nessie" you've got to be a nutter. It's like saying there's a Pterodactyl on your roof. It's just not going to happen. Just in case anyone didn't know, the Cretaceous period is over. :lol: :lol:

 

[tansis]

A 65 million year old fish is of course most unlikely..

However living descendants can be found on occasion and creatures such as sharks , horse-shoe crabs and so on, all have ancestors in the fossil records.

In 1938 fishermen caught a never-before-seen fish in Indonesian waters near the Comoro Islands. The 58-kilogram fish was caught at the depth of 75 meters. The incredible discovery instantly became a sensation in the zoological world. Scientists concluded the fish was a coelacanth - the last species of which became extinct millions of years ago. It is generally believed that a coelacanth was the first fish that appeared on land and started the evolution of Amphibians.

Another sensation took place in June of 1998, when another coelacanth was found not far from the Indonesian coast. Diver Pieter Venter found three coelacanths at the depth of 104 meters in October of 2000. Several months later he managed to film three coelacanths at the depth of 115 meters. The whole scientific world started talking about the third generation of the prehistoric fish. Some scientists believe it was the fourth discovery, though. They say two coelacanths were caught in 1995-1996. A member of Venter's team died during one of his dives. Another diver died in 1998 when he was chasing after a coelacanth.