That Long-Lost Mayan City a Teen Found Isn’t Lost … or a City

[HuckleB]

http://www.wired.com/2016/05/long-lost-mayan-city-teen-found-isnt-lost-city/

"HOW CAN YOU resist a headline like “Quebec teen may have discovered long lost Mayan city”? Alas, the story going viral today is too good to be true, according to archaeological experts. The supposed lost pyramid? More likely an abandoned field.

This much is true: William Gadoury, now 15, won a contest to present his theory that Maya cities were correlated with constellations at a conference a few years ago. He happened to be next to a booth of the Canadian Space Agency, where scientists took notice and decided to help the kid out. So Canada turned its RADARSAT-2, a satellite that usually tracks sea ice and shipping in Canada, to a remote corner of Mexico—right where Goudry’s constellation theory predicted a city would be. Lo and behold, those images seemed to show manmade structures.

Satellite imagery can be a powerful tool for studying the ancient world. “Space archaeologists” like Sarah Parcak want to use readily available data like this to lower the barriers to entry in science, and a teenager finding a long-lost city would be a pretty stunning proof of concept. But that isn’t what the images show.

The square in the CSA’s satellite images is probably an abandoned field, and another spot may be a small dry lake or clearing in the jungle, says archaeologist Ivan Šprajc. Gizmodo, in its updated story, has noted the same about the square structure.

..."

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In a world of click-bait, one has to wait a couple of days, at least, to assess for the validity of any story, it seems.

Patience.

[Blue_Tires]

1. Yeah, the 48-72 hour rule should pretty much be standard now...

[LanternWaste]

2. Yeah... it seems horrible to speculate on a discussion board.

"one has to wait a couple of days, at least, to assess for the validity of any story, it seems..."


Yeah... it seems horrible to speculate on a discussion board. The consequences of which are merely benign, if not legion.

[HuckleB]

4. LOL!

Unfortunately, as you well know, it's much harder to correct false beliefs than to create them.

Nice try. It does make me wonder even more, though.

Hmmmmmmm.

[LanternWaste]

5. I'm sure your desire to speculate is rational, objective and measurable.

"It does make me wonder even more, though..."

I'm sure your desire to speculate is rational, objective and measurable; otherwise it would seem you're guilty of what you indict others for.

[Orrex]

7. He's probably feeling stressed because of all those conspiracies.

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[HuckleB]

9. +1,000,000 ... 000

[HuckleB]

8. Ah, so you don't like speculation now?

I thought you said it was harmless. Hmm.

[Orrex]

3. A Mayan is a terrible thing to waste.

k/r

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Ba Dump Dump.

[packman]

11. Oh, that's terrible

I haven't trusted a Mayan since the world didn't end in 2012

[Nye Bevan]

10. He's still a smart, inquisitive kid,

doing stuff like this instead of Snapchatting and Instagramming all day. Every successful scientist has run into several dead ends and failed theories, but if you don't get off your ass and try, like this kid has, you won't get anywhere. More power to him and I'm sure he will have future success.

[HuckleB]

12. Probably.

Still, I'm tired of click-bait lazy journalism.

[Egnever]

13. Isn't this article click bait?

I mean someone said "it probably isn't"

Isn't exactly conclusive.

[HuckleB]

14. If you want it to be!

It can be for you.

Or you could refrain from click bait "gotcha" attempts, and try to discuss things on a level that aims at understanding.