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Monolith Appears In Seattle

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tue Jan 02, 2001 05:33 PM
from the well-that-explains-it dept.
It's funny. Laugh.
LordXarph writes: "AP reports that on new year's day 2001, a 6 foot tall monolith has appeared in seattle. If Monolith Software weren't based in Seattle, I would be worried." Anyone have pictures of this thing? It makes me want to hum Particle Man by They Might Be Giants. Oh wait- Wrong song.Update: 01/03 04:39 AM by H :Check out the picture that a number of people sent in.
+ -
story
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  • My God! (Score:3)

    by sharkey (16670) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @12:35PM (#536337)
    ......It's full of stars!

    --
  • 6 feet with a dumb look ? Must be Bill Gates...

  • Link to picture (Score:5)

    by Relim (120308) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @12:38PM (#536344)
    Here's a picture of the monolith in the Seattle Times [nwsource.com].
  • The link [nwsource.com] again. Click that for the picture.

  • There's only one because... (Score:4)

    by Akardam (186995) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @12:39PM (#536346)
    ... it's the first year of the new Millenium.

    Next year there'll be two, the next, three, the next, four, and so on.

    By the end of the Millenium, we'll have Monoliths across America, and God will reach down and start the biggest domino effect in the history of the world!

  • Re:Here's a picture (Score:4)

    by sulli (195030) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @12:39PM (#536347) Journal
    Well, here's an actual picture:

    Actual Picture [nwsource.com]

  • CmdrTaco should have known that the dimensions would have to be 1x4x9 - how hard is it to remember 1^2 x 2^2 x 3^2 if you've seen the movie?

  • Here's a link that works. Monolith Story with picture [nwsource.com]

    Not as impressive as I had hoped.

  • Proportions (Score:3)

    by Bazman (4849) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @12:42PM (#536355) Journal
    But does it have the 1x4x9 proportions?

    Baz

  • And another... (Score:4)

    by Booker (6173) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @12:47PM (#536362) Homepage
    is here [yahoo.com]

    ---

  • and did anybody look inside?

    You know what's inside...

    It's full of stars!

  • SpeakEasy Cafe & the Monolith (Score:5)

    by LionKimbro (200000) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @12:50PM (#536368) Homepage

    I suspect that the folk behind the SpeakEasy cafe are behind this;

    I walked by the cafe with my girlfriend on New Years [wanting to visit the staff], and they noted that they were closed for New Years Eve and New Years. It said, "Come see us at the Monolith Party!", or something like that.

    They're crazy, interesting, and rich enough to pull off something like this. I'd say: Quite possibly (likely?) it was them..!

  • And would the proportions include the section embedded in the soil? Better uproot the whole thing to get the real answer.
  • It is a shame, however, that the aliens chose English units... not that I'm Canadian or anything...
  • The "theme song from 2001" is "Also Sprach Zarathustra", by Richard Strauss.

    Sigh.
  • They have an entire park of them. Meadowdale Playfields has 16 statues in it. I don't know if this is the same place the 2001 monolith is located, but.. A story [nwsource.com] about the park can be found here. I think it's pretty cool. If I was the mayor / town council of anywhere, I would have done something like this - except a little more permanent, with nice material. Hey - kudos to the person/thing/ that did this one! ( has anyone touched it yet?)

  • NINE feet tall... not SIX. (Score:5)

    by Speare (84249) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @12:54PM (#536377) Homepage

    That's one short man in the photo if it's only six feet tall.

    Didn't see whether the other axes were FOUR feet by ONE foot, but it looks plausible.

    (In Clarke and Kubrick's films, as well as Clarke's books, the monoliths' measurements were in the ratio of 1 : 4 : 9, the squares of the first three positive integers, presumably as a sign that the creator was aware of the universality of mathematics as a way of communicating between evolved species.)

  • Arthur C. Clarke has a full schedule his novel's titular year. He'll rake in enough cash this year to buy a whole closet full of surongs.

    The new commercial for Ford:

    The David Bowman look-alike floats up to the monolith in his pod. SFX: breathing.

    "My God ... it's full of cars."

    Voice Over: "That's right! We're clearing out the over-stock for the 2002's!"

    full story [ridiculopathy.com]

    Ridiculopaths R us [ridiculopathy.com]

  • Didn't they find the monolith in 1999 on the moon (i assume before the moon was blown out of earth's orbit by that massive nuclear waste explosion) in the movie? apparently, someone was just too lazy to pay attention to details. I mean come on, we've know how to get stuff to the moon since the late sixties. nobody puts in any effort these days.

    ^. .^
    ( @ )

    Soylent Foods, Inc.
  • Of course it's not impressive - it was taken by some lowly newspaper photographer. Fortunately, I found a picture from a better angle taken by a pro, right here [palantir.net]. See the difference a professional photographer can make?

  • Seattle has one of the most progressive government programs I've ever heard: they decree that 1% of the annual budget must be spent on public art. Statues, murals, sculptures of all sorts, everywhere you go. It's really pretty cool to have real art that's not hidden away. (Even if one or two particular pieces don't tickle your fancy.)

  • It's not the feet, it's the ratio between the measurements. It could be 1 : 4 : 9 cubits or zoinkles or leagues, it doesn't matter. Those measurements would show to some other race that the makers knew MATH.
  • I can't be the real deal if its proportional dimensions aren't perfect squares(1x4x9). Anyone actually take the measurements of the thing?

    Seriously, this is pretty cool move on who ever did this(especially if it was God or ET). They obviously like A Clarke's work.
  • On January 24 Datacloud will introduce JANNA. And you'll see why 2001 won't be like '2001'.
  • Denny Sargent couldn't resist humming the theme to ''2001: A Space Odyssey,'' when he walked up to touch the imposing object, which stands on a grassy knoll in Magnuson Park like the movie's enigmatic extraterrestrial guardian.


    I wish people would realize that it's not JUST the "theme from 2001," it's a piece of music called "Also Sprach Zarathrusta" by Richard Strauss.

  • The actual creators of the Seattle Monolith... (Score:5)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2001, @01:29PM (#536410)

    ...are at http://www.isupportthemonolith.org/. No joke. These really are the people. ;-)

    This project has been ongoing for months in the Seattle area. On New Year's Eve, a parade/protest/whatever was organized from Capitol Hill in Seattle (the "Bohemian" Neighborhood) up and down its main street and then into downtown Seattle. The parade was in support of the monolith that was going to be emplaced at an unknown location. We were supposed to have a wooden faux monolith with us but the cops confiscated it. The real monolith was put into place while this was going on.

  • hey thats not a monolith! (Score:5)

    by Cookie Monster (1482) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @01:35PM (#536413) Homepage
    It's just an unfinished Domino peice.
    (or it will be soon after a geek gets
    their hands on some black n white paint)

    It's only a matter of time :)

    Other tricks to do... glue a monkey toy to the top, make it output funny noises randomly, etc.

  • Do Canadians use different prime numbers than the rest of the world? They're weirder than I thought.

    1,4, and 9 are prime where you are? damn, that is weird.

  • Jan 12 is HAL's birthday!

    PS: None of the monoliths in the movie were 1:4:9 because they didn't look right on camera.

    Pope

    Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
  • All these worlds are yours -- except Seattle. Attempt no landings there.

  • Prepare for the end! (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2001, @01:44PM (#536426)
    The end of high prices!

    Seriously, does this remind anyone of a Simpsons episode? ;)

  • Well, I just walked down with my trusty tape measure (can see the hill from my office building) and the official size:

    1.0ft x 4.0ft x 8.5+ft

    My ruler goes to 1/16 inches and it was accurate to that level---don't have micrometers to examine further. It was buried slightly at an angle, so I couldn't determine the height.

    It's oriented N/S, but with the sun at its current height there's at least one "sunrise over monolith" place to stand.

    I would have dug it up to determine the height, but there was a crowd there, mostly dog-walkers. I got involved with a conversation with Fido and Rex about the trival 12th-dimensional spacetime rotation required to unify...oh, that's right, you haven't touched it yet.

  • Personally I think the Monkees theme song ("Hey-Hey We're the Monkees") would have been a much better fit for the opening sequence...
  • --Cost of steel and welding supplies: $1,245.
    --Cost of labour on New Years Eve: $724
    --Cost of having an entire city gape blankly at a hunk of steel, without a bone in sight: priceless.

  • Oh brother. Next thing they'll probably try to tell us that the shuttle docking music was actually written about a river or something.

  • Re:Proportions (Score:5)

    by squidfood (149212) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @02:08PM (#536444)
    Well, I just walked down with my trusty tape measure (can see the hill from my office building) and the official size:

    1.0ft x 4.0ft x 8.5+ft

    My ruler goes to 1/16 inches and it was accurate to that level---don't have micrometers to examine further. It was buried slightly at an angle, so I couldn't determine the height.

    It's oriented N/S, but with the sun at its current height there's at least one "sunrise over monolith" place to stand.

    I would have dug it up to determine the height, but there was a crowd there, mostly dog-walkers. I got involved with a conversation with Fido and Rex about the trival 12th-dimensional spacetime rotation required to unify...oh, that's right, you haven't touched it yet.

  • One has to wonder...I have yet to see a mpeg of a bunch of geeks in ape suits tossing bones around this thing.

    In a more geeky locale, I bet we would have pics of such an event by now.

    What? No costume shops in Seattle? Or just no geeks?



  • Re:There's only one because... (Score:4)

    by KFury (19522) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @02:28PM (#536462) Homepage
    Actually, monoliths reproduce at a geometric rate.

    Like Starbucks. Sure, it started out with just one in Seattle, but then there's 2, then 4, then 8, and before you know it, they'll be everywhere.

    Kevin Fox

  • SpeakEasy Cafe? Nope. (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2001, @02:33PM (#536463)
    As an employee of Speakeasy, I can safely say that the monolith was not a promotion item, nor is Speakeasy affiliated with the monolith or its appearance. A number of us did attend a certain parade/public revelry/gathering that was to have a wooden monolith replica burnt in effigy at its culmination. Hence the sign.

  • Re:NINE feet tall... not SIX. (Score:3)

    by fm6 (162816) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @02:35PM (#536465) Homepage Journal
    Been a while since I read the book, but I seem to recall something about it being necessary for the sides to have that ratio, and that anybody who understood how the monolith worked would see this. Of course, we puny humans are incapable of such insight....

    __________________

  • The funny thing is, the original wasn't really supposed to put the apes on the road to technological civilization. What they saw was just the screensaver; they read their own message in to it.

    --
  • it's a piece of music called "Also Sprach Zarathrusta" by Richard Strauss.

    Actually, that's "..Zarathustra" and not "...Zarathrusta". :)

  • A followup: just finished re-orienting the rotated tape-measure, and the true dimensions are 1.0 x 4.0 x 9.0 x 16.0 x 25.0 x 36.0 x 49.0 x whups gotta run, i just figured out my tax return...

  • Re:Correction... (Score:3)

    by jafac (1449) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @03:21PM (#536491) Homepage
    heh, Also Sprach Zarathrusta sounds like the name of a highbrow porno flick.

  • Why feet? (Score:5)

    by xant (99438) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @03:29PM (#536494) Homepage
    Wouldn't an advanced alien species measures things in meters? Or have they not converted over yet, either?
    --
  • (In Clarke and Kubrick's films, as well as Clarke's books, the monoliths' measurements were in the ratio of 1 : 4 : 9, the squares of the first three positive integers, presumably as a sign that the creator was aware of the universality of mathematics as a way of communicating between evolved species.)
    Then again, wouldn't an evolved species use metric?

  • public access supports the monolith (Score:3)

    by lucidvein (18628) on Tuesday January 02 2001, @05:12PM (#536552) Homepage
    I read this comment [slashdot.org] earlier today and thought for sure it would get moderated above zero...

    The important information...
    www.isupportthemonolith.org/ [isupportthemonolith.org]


    Anyway, Deface the Nation [10things.com], a public access news show which lampoons the media has been promoting this since the anniversary of WTO/N30. Great show if you're in the area. The soundman for their DTN was driving around with a mock monolith on his car until the police stopped him and then tried to confiscate his hammer.

    We need a bit more humor in this city again. It's getting a little too serious. So cheers to all involved.

  • Re:Me = Dumbass (Score:3)

    by LionKimbro (200000) on Wednesday January 03 2001, @05:45AM (#536600) Homepage

    Somehow, I don't think you've ever met the SpeakEasy crew...

    I find it rather laughable to believe that this is "scheming marketeers"...

    The SpeakEasy staff are the most environmentally (both social and ecological environments) conscious people I have ever met.

    Their cafe is an incredible place.

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