current selection | avalanches’ frontier psychiatrist video
feelin’ | stuffed
the ny times ran an article today on the oregon vortex…an area in southern oregon where weird incidents occur that defy the laws of physics. its said to be a “confluence of magnetic fields” that distorts reality inside its sphere of influence. i remember a long time ago watching ripley’s believe it or not on tv about (what im assuming is) the oregon vortex…and they gave demonstrations of water running up an incline, people weighing more at certain spots, etc. supposedly inside the vortex sphere, gravity is distorted (because of the aforementioned magnetic field distortions), your perceptions are warped, and you can appear taller or shorter depending on where you stand. im actually one to believe in such things, not b/c i think its some kind of cursed land, but because our mind and body are so susceptible to subtle influences from the environment. things like feeling someones presence, (sometimes) getting headaches near radio towers, and ordering things from the dollar menu just because its a dollar. so im actually going to speculate that while things such as the weight gain (not mass, mind you) and water running uphill can be real, the actual perceived height differences, etc are probably due to our eyes being affected by the same magnetic fields. the article also goes on to mention other similar places, like the bermuda triangle, gravity hill, spook hill, and my fridge in college.
check out the oregon vortex website too…they have interesting “test” photos of the vortex’s influence. in the photos, the difference is really apparent, but i was miffed that they didnt align their feet along the same plane. so i took the photos and modified them…
1 > two guys standing in the backyard of the “house of mystery”
2 > they then switch sides. notice difference increased
3 > composite with their heights from the first image overlaid next to their current “heights.” the red denotes the discrepancy between what their height differences are supposed to be, and what they are.
images c/o oregon vortex
dude…it’s just an optical illusion! The key in this one is to realize that the people are not standing equal distances away from the camera. The guy in the light colored shorts is taller than the guy in the dark shorts. The spot on the left is farther from the camera than the spot on the right. This is disguised by the house and trees. Thus when they switch places, the taller guy becomes extra tall, and the shorter guy extra short. Here’s more info on a similar trick:
http://www.sandlotscience.com/MysterySpots/MysterySpots.htm
i thought id step back look at it from a skeptics point of view…which is the pragmatic thing to do. im sure theres no way a person can be phyiscally resized jus by magnetic fields…even tho the picture diagrams would suggest so. i was actually more interested in the fact that perceptions could be so easily distorted in the oregon vortex. theres alot of other stuff that happens too at the site…like unaccounted electromagnetic hotspots, temperature fluctuations, etc.
and the site u sent is definitely very skeptical…but thats appreciated. whether the landscape was inclined or not…the thing is that you cant tell. compasses dont work there and the electromagnetic readings in the area are crazy. so even if the inclines were only perceptual inclines…the fact that you cant gauge it electronically is whats interesting.
one of the facts that even skeptics cant disprove is that the area is really fucked up.
Ok, that’s it! We’re going! See you there, say Sunday.
-g
mebbe you should try biking there. thatd be a riot.
“watch out for that tree! wait…now its over there! shit, it grew 10 feet!”
wanted to mention this too…i remember watching this show once a long time ago that talked about a similar place in the south somewhere. except it didnt distort ur perceptions so much as increase ur weight tenfold. there was apparently an unexplained gravity well anomaly that was so strong that it was pulling a house on top of it into the swamp it was over. u couldnt move very well while in the area…and the house hadnt sunk yet, so if u stood inside, you could actually measure ur weight increase.
Even the board they step on which is made by parallel beams grows narrower on the shrinking end. This place is real. I’ve seen striking images and with the same distance from the camera…just type on google.com oregon vortex+photos and see what shows up
its in my top 5 places i want to go before i die…next to loch ness, the bermuda triangle, and a real barber.
It’s all true! I’ve been there. Three times in fact. None of it’s a hoax, I’ve done it myself. Oregon Vortex rules!!!!!!
Dont you think if it was real there would be much more actual scientific data/research on it other then some guy named Lister who died 50 years ago.