From: prl@csis.dit.csiro.au (Peter Lamb)
Subject: Re: Elaphants CAN'T gallop, ddamn it!!! Nor mammoths!!!
Organization: CSIRO Division of Information Technology
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 23:54:43 GMT

news@fedfil.UUCP (news) writes:

>In article <712176600.10135@zooid.guild.org*, gecko@zooid.guild.org (GECKO) writes:
> 
>*  Famous Mr. Ted writes: 
>  
>* >(griping at Sue and dancing around issue deleted) 
>* > 
>* >That was the whole point.  I have at least one picture of a big mammoth, 
>* >galloping. 
>*  
>*       A photograph?  Of a mammoth?  I don't believe it! 
>*  
>*       MAMMOTHS CANNOT SMEGGING GALLOP YOU PINHEAD! 
>*       Baby elephants ought to be light enough to gallop, but they can't 
>*       do it either because they aren't designed for that sort of 
>*       activity.  DO YOU UN-DER-STAND?  I wonder...  ;-) 
>  
>* >Again, this cannot happen in our world at present. 
>  
>*       Yet again, it has NEVER happened.  Mammoths never galloped. 
>*                                 - GECKO 

>This is about the 20'th challenge I've seen on this one, and I figure a
>response is entirely justified.

>I intend to put this image out shortly on t.o as a uuencoded .gif image.

The photo does exist. Of course it's not a photo of a mammoth. Ted posted
it when we were going through all this Holden Number nonsense last year.

The photo is of a neolithic(?) figurine of a mammoth, published in a Russian
journal of prehistoric art. Ted was good enough to post the reference to
the photo last year, but I didn't keep it. Please post the reference
when you post the photo, Ted.

The figurine depicts the mammoth with its hind legs stretched out,
together, at the back, as in a gallop. The problem is, that at the same
time, its forelegs are pointing straight down. If the mammoth were
actually to try to gallop like that (attenuated gravity or not, and
assuming it had the joints to be able to gallop), the next thing it
would be doing when it landed would be making a very close examination
of the flora of the tundra as it slid across the landscape on its
face.

Another small detail in the picture that Ted neglects to mention as he
tries to convince us that prehistoric art is photorealism is that the
figurine is covered with a cross-hatched pattern.

Mammoths galloped to the same extent that they were cross-hatched.

>Sue Bishop should understand the following.  If you return this image to
>me email, as an attempt at getting my sysadm pissed off, I will email you
>a copy of the entire King James bible, all 4.7 MB worth.  We'll see whose
>sysadm gets pissed off first.

If Ted sends a .gif file, rather than a .pcx file as he did last time,
its size will not be all that great, especially not compared with the
epistles he's been posting of late. The picture quality last time
was pretty dismal, too. Are you posting ths same bitmap as last time Ted?
If possible, send a gray-scale or at least a dithered bitmap, and not
just a thresholded image like the last one.

And please stop making childish threats.

>-- 
>Ted Holden
>HTE

Peter Lamb (prl@csis.dit.csiro.au)

PS: I haven't seen you post a single objection to my or Andrew MacRae's
    posts about Rose's theory of grapefruit tectonics. I assume your
    silence signifies assent?
-- 
Peter Lamb (prl@csis.dit.csiro.au)
Newsgroups: talk.origins