10/6/2002: Great Wall jumper

Late to post an image for today? I had this one slated in, in fact lsd4all had suggested it as well, and then NBN went and posted it to Quality Images. Well what am I going to do now? Other things all day, until finally I figured that this hadda be it anyway, and that it became my duty to get more information.

From these sources:

This was the first time this has ever been attempted. Mr Wang Jiaxiong, ex-30-year-old, cycled down an 80 meter long runway, made it up and over the wall, but somehow lost control mid-jump and missed a safety net. He landed skull first and apparently there are some falls that even a helmet won't save.

I figure they should put his name in the record book anyway. He made it over, it shouldn't matter how he landed.

Actually this image is slightly different from NBN's shot. It's like a moment later. Interesting.

WHY do people keep insisting that the Great Wall of China is visible from space? That article states it's the "only man-made structure visible from space" - uh, bullshit. It's no fucking bigger than a goddamned interstate highway - so how is it that the GWOC is visible from space and a highway isn't? Huh? What a bunch of fucking bunk.

You have shattered my lifelong dream of seeing the great wall from space.

I hope you're proud of yourself. Bastard.

A government conspiracy, perhaps?

Originally posted by sycamore
A government conspiracy, perhaps?

There's *lots* of man-made structures visible with synthetic aperture radar....which is where the above image came from.

There's also boatloads of satellite-based optical photography and imaging that show highways and buildings....including, for example, the Great Pyramid at Giza. Terraserver is loaded with it.

I suspect that the Great Wall was the *first* man-made object seen from space <b>by a naked-eye human observer</b>. In my own experience things that cast shadows are a *lot* more promient from aloft than flat stuff like highways.

Besides, what about the bonfire from the Captain Morgan commercials? :-)

True enough Mags. Dave, what exactly did you mean? Viewable with the naked eye?

I like GlobeXplorer for cool satellite pics, but it doesn't seem to be working right now.

Ja. http://www.snopes.com/science/greatwal.htm

you know... i stopped visiting this board after a particularly scathing rant from one of the members about the whole can-of-worms we call israel (which i interpreted as the kind of harsh anti-sesamism i dont really like to deal with let alone witness)... but i still read the cellar regularly. so, though i imagine its already all over fark, i bring a (TASTELESS!!!!!!!!) link back on this topic - http://www.tribemagazine.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20900 ...enjoy, or write to your congressman about moral decay, your choice ;)

I originally saw that and thought maybe he was against Big Bird or Oscar the Grouch.