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	<title>Comments on: Fort McMurray (Alberta) Mystery</title>
	<atom:link href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/</link>
	<description>I am an astronomer, writer, and skeptic. I likes reality the way it is, and I aims to keep it that way. My real name is Phil Plait, and I run the Bad Astronomy blog.</description>
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		<title>By: Lurchgs</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/comment-page-1/#comment-52595</link>
		<dc:creator>Lurchgs</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:38:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/#comment-52595</guid>
		<description>you are all wrong.  It&#039;s the home temple to the Sacred Church of The Whimsical [AMC] Pacer.

Established in 1945 (Years before the Pacer saw production) at the center of Canada&#039;s first crop circle, the church has seen its membership grow from the original founding 3 to a militarily stunning 15 in 1978.

After predictions that the Pacer would take over the world and transport everybody to some mythical place called &quot;Dedroid, eh&quot; membership in the church has fallen off dramatically, to the point where it now boasts only 1 member - one Frank Frankson, grandson of the first Pope of the Pacer.

Much of this would be filed under &quot;Christianity and other Nonsense&quot;, were it not for the crop circle containing their church.  Apparently, in an effort to distance itself from what it considers &quot;a raving bunch of loonies&quot;, the crop circle has extended a pseudopod to the west, intending to move closer to the One True Religion: &quot;Mopar&quot;, or its younger sister &quot;Cessna&quot;.  Or, maybe it&#039;s simply moving west in order to consume the inhabitants of the completely unsuspecting town.

If this is the case, the townsfolk are very lucky that a ley line passes between them and the crop circle - you can see from the pictures that the pseudopod moving west has encountered the barrier and is now searching for a way around it.

Of course, this is taking some time, since A) the crop circle - like Weeping Angels - can&#039;t move when it&#039;s being observed, and, B) everybody knows that the larger a creature is, the slower it moves.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>you are all wrong.  It&#8217;s the home temple to the Sacred Church of The Whimsical [AMC] Pacer.</p>
<p>Established in 1945 (Years before the Pacer saw production) at the center of Canada&#8217;s first crop circle, the church has seen its membership grow from the original founding 3 to a militarily stunning 15 in 1978.</p>
<p>After predictions that the Pacer would take over the world and transport everybody to some mythical place called &#8220;Dedroid, eh&#8221; membership in the church has fallen off dramatically, to the point where it now boasts only 1 member &#8211; one Frank Frankson, grandson of the first Pope of the Pacer.</p>
<p>Much of this would be filed under &#8220;Christianity and other Nonsense&#8221;, were it not for the crop circle containing their church.  Apparently, in an effort to distance itself from what it considers &#8220;a raving bunch of loonies&#8221;, the crop circle has extended a pseudopod to the west, intending to move closer to the One True Religion: &#8220;Mopar&#8221;, or its younger sister &#8220;Cessna&#8221;.  Or, maybe it&#8217;s simply moving west in order to consume the inhabitants of the completely unsuspecting town.</p>
<p>If this is the case, the townsfolk are very lucky that a ley line passes between them and the crop circle &#8211; you can see from the pictures that the pseudopod moving west has encountered the barrier and is now searching for a way around it.</p>
<p>Of course, this is taking some time, since A) the crop circle &#8211; like Weeping Angels &#8211; can&#8217;t move when it&#8217;s being observed, and, B) everybody knows that the larger a creature is, the slower it moves.</p>
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		<title>By: scotth</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/comment-page-1/#comment-52594</link>
		<dc:creator>scotth</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:32:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/#comment-52594</guid>
		<description>Another VOR vote.

Here is a much clearer google map (satellite view) of the one on the South of the Dallas/Ft Worth airport.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;time=&amp;date=&amp;ttype=&amp;q=dfw+airport&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=32.869094,-97.040171&amp;spn=0.002336,0.003237&amp;t=k&amp;z=19&amp;om=1</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Another VOR vote.</p>
<p>Here is a much clearer google map (satellite view) of the one on the South of the Dallas/Ft Worth airport.</p>
<p><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;time=&amp;date=&amp;ttype=&amp;q=dfw+airport&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=32.869094,-97.040171&amp;spn=0.002336,0.003237&amp;t=k&amp;z=19&amp;om=1" rel="nofollow">http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;time=&amp;date=&amp;ttype=&amp;q=dfw+airport&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=32.869094,-97.040171&amp;spn=0.002336,0.003237&amp;t=k&amp;z=19&amp;om=1</a></p>
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		<title>By: Allen Thomson</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/comment-page-1/#comment-52593</link>
		<dc:creator>Allen Thomson</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:54:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/#comment-52593</guid>
		<description>I found these navaids to be very handy when I was doing a miniproject a couple of months ago to see how accurate the geographical coordinates shown in Google Earth are. They are quite visible, have a point symmetry, and have accurately surveyed coordinates listed in publications on the Web.

(The answer is that Google Earth usually agrees with the listed values to within ten meters in North America and Europe, with the occasional exception. Elsewhere it can be hundreds of meters off, I&#039;d guess due to the use of different datums (data?).)</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I found these navaids to be very handy when I was doing a miniproject a couple of months ago to see how accurate the geographical coordinates shown in Google Earth are. They are quite visible, have a point symmetry, and have accurately surveyed coordinates listed in publications on the Web.</p>
<p>(The answer is that Google Earth usually agrees with the listed values to within ten meters in North America and Europe, with the occasional exception. Elsewhere it can be hundreds of meters off, I&#8217;d guess due to the use of different datums (data?).)</p>
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		<title>By: JB of Brisbane</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/comment-page-1/#comment-52586</link>
		<dc:creator>JB of Brisbane</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:12:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/#comment-52586</guid>
		<description>I was going to say it was a VOR as well (or a TACAN, the military version), but half a dozen people beat me to it. There is a very similar installation at a place callled Laravale, located southwest of Beaudesert in southeast Queensland, Australia. This VOR is located very close to the Mount Lindesay Highway, for anybody driving south from Beaudesert, and is used mainly by aircraft arriving and departing BNE. Go ahead and GoogleMap Beaudesert, then follow the road south(west) to Laravale.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I was going to say it was a VOR as well (or a TACAN, the military version), but half a dozen people beat me to it. There is a very similar installation at a place callled Laravale, located southwest of Beaudesert in southeast Queensland, Australia. This VOR is located very close to the Mount Lindesay Highway, for anybody driving south from Beaudesert, and is used mainly by aircraft arriving and departing BNE. Go ahead and GoogleMap Beaudesert, then follow the road south(west) to Laravale.</p>
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		<title>By: Ray M</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/comment-page-1/#comment-52585</link>
		<dc:creator>Ray M</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:32:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/#comment-52585</guid>
		<description>Aircraft navigation aid??  Rubbish!  If you locate it using the Microsoft map server, and then zoom out a bit, the real answer is obvious: it&#039;s a giant Goldfish cracker!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Aircraft navigation aid??  Rubbish!  If you locate it using the Microsoft map server, and then zoom out a bit, the real answer is obvious: it&#8217;s a giant Goldfish cracker!</p>
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		<title>By: DTdNav</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/comment-page-1/#comment-52592</link>
		<dc:creator>DTdNav</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:03:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/#comment-52592</guid>
		<description>@ LarrySDonald

This structure is indeed the Fort McMurray VOR/DME.  It sits 2.8 nautical miles almost due east of the runway.  The approach plates linked to by Yossarian correspond with the Google image nicely.  I&#039;m not sure what type of search you did, but many times a navaid used for an airport is not included in the airway route structure and won&#039;t show up on those searches.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>@ LarrySDonald</p>
<p>This structure is indeed the Fort McMurray VOR/DME.  It sits 2.8 nautical miles almost due east of the runway.  The approach plates linked to by Yossarian correspond with the Google image nicely.  I&#8217;m not sure what type of search you did, but many times a navaid used for an airport is not included in the airway route structure and won&#8217;t show up on those searches.</p>
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		<title>By: DTdNav</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/10/23/fort-mcmurray-alberta-mystery/comment-page-1/#comment-52591</link>
		<dc:creator>DTdNav</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:51:37 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>Wow! Something I actually know a bit about.

You are all partially correct.  The structure is actually a combination of two different types of navigational aids (navaids).  It is a VOR/DME.  The VOR is used to determine aircraft bearing from the station and the DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) is used to tell distance from the station. These stations actually receive signals from aircraft and then transmit the aircrafts&#039; radial (bearing from station) and distance from station in nautical miles.  This is a very common type of naviad combo used in Canada.  In the U.S. the most common type of navaid combo is the VORTAC.  Which is a combo of the VOR and the TACAN (Tactical Aid to Navigation).  All these naviad combos allow aircraft to determine their aproximate position (within 1 or 2 NM depending on distance from the station) with reference to only that one station.

OK, probably way more than anyone wanted to know about this.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Wow! Something I actually know a bit about.</p>
<p>You are all partially correct.  The structure is actually a combination of two different types of navigational aids (navaids).  It is a VOR/DME.  The VOR is used to determine aircraft bearing from the station and the DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) is used to tell distance from the station. These stations actually receive signals from aircraft and then transmit the aircrafts&#8217; radial (bearing from station) and distance from station in nautical miles.  This is a very common type of naviad combo used in Canada.  In the U.S. the most common type of navaid combo is the VORTAC.  Which is a combo of the VOR and the TACAN (Tactical Aid to Navigation).  All these naviad combos allow aircraft to determine their aproximate position (within 1 or 2 NM depending on distance from the station) with reference to only that one station.</p>
<p>OK, probably way more than anyone wanted to know about this.</p>
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