This image was first released in such a corrupted, uncorrected form that the Emperor of night-time radio, Art Bell (host of virtually the only forum for discussion of such things) dubbed it a picture of a �Catbox� (as in litterbox). A few hours after the initial release, after all the mainstream news outlets had enough time to feature it as proof of the non-artificial nature of the �Face�, case closed, a slightly improved but still crummy version was released. This was supposed to show the sincerity and integrity of the folks at NASA , who had been in such a hurry to promptly comply with the wishes of the public that they had rushed out, so sorry, an unprocessed version of the image. The �processing� didn�t help much., except to partially correct the perspective. I have bent my own rules about �adjusting� the images I present you slightly this time, to correct the perspective into a view that is easier to compare with the other �faces�, so there is a little bit of smearing...but it�s still the best you�ll find, I think I didn�t bother to flip it right-to-left to match other images, because it isn�t the Face, anyway. Initially, it fooled me, too, because I hadn�t realized the pictures of the Face were all phonies, and I thought it showed the collapsed towers of a Face that had been �nuked�. I am pleased to be able to correct that impression, in case anyone else had been similarly horrified by what seemed to be there. I am made somewhat suspicious by the memory of postings on the web shortly after the Catbox release claiming exactly that, when no good enhancements existed- it is possible those were disinformation, meant to muddy the waters. Black-Ops Rule #3: �Doing is good. Overdoing is better.�
As you can see, there are several long �things� laying across the short axis of a shield shape, with indications of a textured overlapping frame. If you rotate the image 90E right (don�t hurt your neck), you�ll see what it really is- a bas relief sculpture of some sort, probably a detail taken from some Martian wall. ( A teaser- it might be such a detail from an Atlantean wall. We�ll get to that.) There isn�t much else to say about it.
There is quite a variety of �stuff� in this image, both on top of the main shield-thing and littering the surrounding area. It all looks pretty haphazard, and I can�t get any reliable sense of what size it all might be, but I would guess that this faux face is not very big. It definitely looks like clutter, rather than structures, anyway. Note that the �streaks�are actually some of the screening or wires that intrude into so many images. That, and the Martian look of the miscellaneous pieces of sculpture and whatnot, at least implies that it might be a real Mars image, though not a terribly valuable one from a scientific standpoint.
This is the cleanest of the images that have been offered up as Face candidates. That is the good news. The bad news is, it isn�t the Face. They cleverly framed the shot (or cropped the original?) to only show the upper left side, as if to preserve the mystery of the shadowed side. This was probably intended to annoy researchers enough to distract them from noticing the �smoking gun� of falsehood in this one: the real Face, even on the unenhanced versions of the Viking images, is obviously a �bump�; this one is a �hole�. It is possible to make fairly close feature to feature matches with some detail elements in other images, even (if you look closely) with parts of the cleaned-up 070a13 you just saw. That certainly tells us that there was no accident involved in the composition, because until now, none of you had ever seen the real, clear Face. You were never intended to - but, just in case, they matched up a few spots where something might be indicated by a very rigorous (or carefully contrived) conventional enhancement of a Viking image. Oddly, there are plenty of obviously artificial details visible, like what looks like a small gate or piece of fence sticking up. In this restored view of the corner (it�s a pointlessly big image, so I just did an excerpt), you can see some lattice-work sagging into the hole just �North� of the aforementioned fenceposts. The red and blue coloration (closer to pink, really) of it is very common on Mars, but not apparent on the real Face. This could very well be part of a collapsed cover-dome of the non-sealed type seen at the bottom of MO903640.
Also just barely visible, overlapping the upper edge of the hole, is a big sheet of glass or plastic. Look for its edges. Whatever that transparent material they used so much might be-a Trekkie has suggested to me, tongue half-in-cheek, I think, that it is �transparent aluminum�- it is very transparent, even after who knows how many years of being scoured by Martian dust storms. This might be a remnant of cover material.
There is an alternate hypothesis for this image. It might really be the Face site. But, if that be true, it would have to be the most recent image of all, taken after all of the others, including the �wide angle� shots, which do contain the actual Face. It would mean the Face dome had been somehow �blown away�, and someone had physically visited the site and excavated and carted off all of the buildings, machines (I know, I didn�t mention those. Later.), and rubble, leaving a clean hole with a screen draped over it. While Conspiracy Theory certainly seems to have a place in Mars research, at this point, in this case, I think that is a bit of a stretch. But this does appear to be a real location, not a model - the surrounding ground is covered with wreckage consistent with full-scale building ruins
We just don�t know where it is..Even on Mars, it is not unreasonable to expect to find the same style of construction repeating at a different location...and if much of the �dome work� was a response to sudden disaster striking, then we would expect to see the same techniques used more often than not. Under severe survival pressure to get the job done, even the highest technology would not have the luxury of time for much variation in design.
Malin-X
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