PF PHOTO CONTEST - What Is That? (7/12-7/18)

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a photo contest where participants are encouraged to submit images of unfamiliar or unusual objects that evoke the question "What is that?" The scope includes sharing personal photographs and discussing the nature of the objects depicted.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant mentions a "Big Pringle Thing" encountered at the University of Michigan, describing it as strange and noting its function as a mechanical room.
  • Another participant shares a photo of a "rock" found in their garden, speculating it might be fused glass due to its curved striations and layered appearance.
  • A different participant suggests that the "rock" could be a result of a campfire, questioning how it could have been formed so cleanly.
  • Another comment references the occurrence of melted glass in New Mexico, attributing it to local activities.
  • Some participants express uncertainty about the origins and nature of the objects they are discussing, particularly regarding the fused glass hypothesis.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express various hypotheses about the nature of the objects, particularly the "rock" found in the garden, with no consensus reached on its origin or composition. Multiple competing views regarding the explanation of the objects remain present.

Contextual Notes

There are unresolved assumptions about the conditions under which the glass-like materials were formed, and the discussion includes speculative reasoning without definitive conclusions.

ZapperZ
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What Is That?

This week, your photos must be on something that is unfamiliar or unusual. It should tend to evoke a response of "What is that?" from a viewer. Any unfamiliar or unusual object qualifies.

Note however that pictures of familiar objects but taken either at an unusual angle or situation, or at extreme close-up, do not qualify

Zz.

Contest Rules:

1. Any digital photo or digitally-scanned photo relevant to the theme will be accepted within the contest period. In case there's a gray area, or you're not sure if the picture is suitable, check with me first.

2. Please resize your digital photo to no more than 650 x 490 or 490 x 650 pixels. You may also crop your picture if you wish. You are also allowed to adjust the brightness and contrast of your picture but these should not dramatically alter the look of the picture. But other than those, any form of picture editing or modification is not allowed. This is a photo contest, not a picture editing/special effect contest. You may add a watermark or your name/nickname to the photo for identification purposes.

3. Upload your photos to any of the photo servers such as imageshack or photobucket. Then post it the relevant contest thread and link your picture using the img command. PM me if you do not know how.

4. Only ONE picture per member per contest. Once a picture is posted, it cannot be changed other than a total withdrawl by that member from that week's photo contest. Exceptions will be made for modification to comply with the rules, such as resizing.

5. At the end of the contest period, I will open a poll and every PF member can vote for the picture they like best.

6. Note that in case we have a large number of entries, I will do the polling in more than one thread. If that's the case, you can vote in each of the polling threads. The photos will be assigned in the polling threads in the order they were submitted.

7. These pictures must be something that you took, not something taken off someone else's photo albums or taken by someone else. I have no way of checking if you did this, so we'll go by the honor system.

8. You can use a picture only once. Once it is used in a contest, it cannot be reused in another contest.

9. Please post only pictures meant for submission in this thread.

Zz.
 
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8251da27.jpg
 
musical.jpg


Something older then I am.
 
Okay, I'll give this one a try.
whatisit.jpg


My friends at University of Michigan call it the "Big Pringle Thing." This was included in the directions of how to find the building we had a symposium in, and until I saw it, I had NO IDEA what they meant by a big Pringle thing. As soon as you see it, it becomes quite obvious. I had to take some photos of it, because it was so strange looking. I think it houses the mechanical room/equipment for the building right behind it in the photo.
 
Used to belong to my dad.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jparvey/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/whatisit2.jpg
 
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I found this "rock" while weeding my vegetable garden this afternoon. I don't think it's really a rock because of the curved striations in it. I'm assuming that it is fused glass because it has clear and amber layers, though I am at a loss to explain how a mix of glasses got hot enough to fuse so cleanly as this and then get fractured and ultimately end up in my garden. Very odd.
whatisit.jpg
 
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img1869xb7.jpg


Zz.
 
288271580.jpg


Baking soda crystals on red glass. The area is actually smaller than a postage stamp...
 

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ZapperZ said:
img1869xb7.jpg


Zz.

How did I know you were going to use the giant Bean as your entry photo? :biggrin:
 
  • #10
turbo-1 said:
I found this "rock" while weeding my vegetable garden this afternoon. I don't think it's really a rock because of the curved striations in it. I'm assuming that it is fused glass because it has clear and amber layers, though I am at a loss to explain how a mix of glasses got hot enough to fuse so cleanly as this and then get fractured and ultimately end up in my garden. Very odd.
whatisit.jpg

Campfire, brown and clear glass...my best guess
 
  • #11
binzing said:
Campfire, brown and clear glass...my best guess
It would have to be an awfully hot campfire in a reducing atmosphere to produce such a clean, uncontaminated lump of glass. You're probably right, though. Nobody up here (where wood is king!) would burn coal, which might have allowed the production of some glass slag like this.
 
  • #12
Hey, I see melted glass all the time in new mexico where the hicks shoot and burn everything up in the hills
 
  • #13
People tend to wonder what the heck this thing is...

Whatsit.jpg
 
  • #14
You have less than 2 days left to submit a photo for this contest.

Zz.
 
  • #15
acoto.jpg


Never used it personally :wink:
 
  • #16
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/3180/3153scrappollenbywhitepgv7.jpg

Old point and shoot camera= lots of noise
 
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