April

[blackdragon]

OK! So it's not lakes!

It could be the backbone of the last guy that stole my Cheetos!

Ivan

[benos]

TDean,

That was brilliant - going for the old splash page. But too bad there was nothing there.

But I'm glad you did though. Cause I was hoping at least one person would see it after I went to all the trouble to preserve it after the last site overhaul.

Okay... Since we're closing in on the end of the month... The pic was taken on my recent birthday. (I know that wasn't any help but I thought it was fun to say it.) Maybe you savvy members can pull at least the location out of the darkness.

[TDean]

It's the same image if I do a little brightness correction....

Behind the dark blobs I think I see something "man made". Some sort of geometric shape....it almost looks like a chair.

Could the location be Casey's?

There's something else at the lower portion of the pic...like a building?

I should probably hit the bottle of El Jimador before I take any more stabs..

Edited April 25, 2006 by TDean

[tightloop]

It is something on the wall at BE;'s place...maybe abstract art, or bubbles in a lava lamp...man, this is giving me a headache...

[Putty]

Glass serving dishes with some condiments in 3 of them on a glass table. Oi veh, did I get my master class geussing card?

[Sixgun]

It looks like a decorative "picture" from a multipanel door. The picture was taken from the inside, looking out toward a patio. The picture itself looks made out of alabaster, with maybe a marble/granite inlay.

That's my guess.

Ray

[shred]

FWIW, there's nothing in http://brianenos.com/images/host that helps either..

[EricW]

The door to the mens room at PF Changs.

[blackdragon]

Ivan

[BBoyd]

whats left of Jimmy Hoffa, found on a sidewalk at the foot of the Empire State Bldg in NYC.

[benos]

FWIW, there's nothing in http://brianenos.com/images/host that helps either..

Thanks Roy. Especially not any more...

I should probably hit the bottle of El Jimador before I take any more stabs..

Definitely. The El Jimador that is.

Glass serving dishes with some condiments in 3 of them on a glass table. Oi veh, did I get my master class geussing card?

Definitely. As long as you're up for sandbagging in Master Class.

[AikiDale]

Obviously this is a bloody footprint left by Rhino as he was leaving, revealed by luminol and a black light.

[CenTexSlim]

Obviously this is a bloody footprint left by Rhino as he was leaving, revealed by luminol and a black light.

Too much CSI Dale?

[AikiDale]

Obviously this is a bloody footprint left by Rhino as he was leaving, revealed by luminol and a black light.

Too much CSI Dale?

It's my girl friends favorite show.

[tightloop]

I like Emily Procter....go to www.gagreport.com for a glimpse of what is under the crime fighter's cloak...

[CodeSlinger]

Howdy!

New to the site, pretty new to competitive shooting, trying to learn as much as possible...(always). So far one of the biggest things I've learned is Efficiency...trying to get the most results out of any effort expended. In that vein, I'll use my first post as a stab at winning a bookful of wisdom!

First instinct: It is Zen! At that moment, the pupil was enlightened.

Heh...Worth a shot.

Sticking with the Zen theme, we have been asked to describe the Truth of the image. Remember the water vase. Isan recognized that the Truth of a water jug is dependant on it's position... i.e., it can't be defined as a "container of water" if it's on its side. He demonstrated that by tipping over the vase. He then realized that an object is only "defined" within the frame of reference of its observer, and demonstrated this by removing the observer...leaving the room.

So I applied that lesson to this month's challenge. I realized that the image is only a temporary configuration of electrons located in a volatile RAM chip, displayed by the video card and interpreted by my eyes. So I turned off the computer and took a walk.

Of course, at that point, I couldn't post about it here. Rats. Too Zen for my own good.

That line of logic was still useful though. It reminds me to question all assumptions, and concentrate only on Knowledge. What do I Know about this image?

Minimalist/Literalist answer: It is a .jpg!

True, but lame.

What else do I Know? I Know it has been Photoshop-enhanced, so some non-zero percentage of the image is "false", or not representative of the image's "Truth". But what percentage of the image is false? I am a software engineer, so I immediately test the logical extremes, the "special cases." All I know is that the lower limit is > 0, so there is no hard lower limit to test. The upper limit, however, is a hard 100%. Could it be that 100% of the mystery image is Photoshop fabricated? Sure, why not?

Logical Boundary Test response: It could be a purely abstract digital creation!

Certainly possible, but what would be the point? Just for the entertainment value of reading people's interpretations? A modern Rorschach test? Unlikely.

Besides, Mr Enos' followup on 4/25 specifically states "the pic was taken".

Ahh well, logical shortcuts being exhausted, I suppose I have to take a real shot at identifying the image.

One of Mr Enos' comments caught my attention:

Maybe you savvy members can pull at least the location out of the darkness.

Out of the darkness? Hmm, is there some useful information inside the black spots? So I tweaked the levels in Photoshop, and no such luck. Granted, it isn't all pure black, but the color variation that remains is easily attributable to artifacts of the jpeg compression. It appears now that the black spots were placed there, to cover up more specific details. So what's the deal with the bright blue edges on the spots? Close examination shows that the blue edges are consistent, very very consistent. I also know that this type of halo effect is an easy effect in Photoshop, so I write them off as mere distraction.

What does the shape of the black spots tell me? I can see several of the previous guesses... I see the circus bear balancing on a ball (it's even compressed under his weight). I will admit to searching the internet for images of Scooby Doo to make sure the spots on his back don't look like these. They don't. I don't get anywhere useful.

So let's see if we can get more from the other visual element: the background. First, I'll look at the blue version.

Playing with the levels, I see a distinct border, 3 pixels wide, around the edge of the pic. Is this border "True", or Photoshopped? Looking closely, I see that the borders are perfect. Straight up and down, straight across, perfect to the pixel. Too perfect to have been part of the picture, it has to have been Photoshopped. I discard this along with the blue glowing edges.

The blue background is rich with texture and color variation. I don't think I can trust the colors, but where have I seen that much visual texture before?

My best couple guesses here were mentioned by other posters as well. First was that it looks like carpeting. The color levels in the blue image start to resemble a soft light source, somewhere out of frame to the upper right. Moonlight through a window on the carpet? That could easily make the black spots shadows, either of something in the window, on the window, or outside the window. In an abstract way, I almost see a bansai tree in the negative space left between the spots. Seems kind of appropriate, but too abstract to be the Truth.

My second guess is that I've seen similar depth of visual texture in deep polished granite countertops. Is this a shot of a shadow on a countertop? Or something spilled on a countertop? Meh. Just doesn't feel right.

So then we get a new image: "Mystery in Browns". It has been posted as a hint, since the month is drawing to a close. From this, I think it's safe to say that the differences between this image and "Mystery in Blues" must have been performed with the intent of returning the image closer to its Truth. This validates some of my earlier conclusions. The glowing bright blue edges on the spots are gone, as is the perfect image border.

The color scheme is the most dramatic difference. It is now clear that some of the biggest color differences in the Blue background, the greens and purples, are just an exaggeration of the more subtle coloring differences in the browns. There is still texture, but not at all as dramatic. Woodgrain perhaps?

Or is it...Skin?? Looks like it to me. Is there hair here? Possibly, but it's short. Maybe recently shaved, with a few day's growth? Like at the nape of a neck shortly after a haircut? Or maybe a thigh if you aren't quite the hairy bastard that I am?

If the background is an area of skin, then what would be under the black spots? What interesting details would you find on skin? The first two that come to mind are a tattoo, or an injury.

The tattoo idea isn't bad, and since we know from Mr Enos's comment that this pic was taken on his birthday, it could be a new birthday present tattoo. Unfortunately, Bigbadaboom already guessed at a tattoo, twice, and Mr Enos later said that nobody was even close.

Ooooh, wait. We also know that, on his birthday, there was Tequila. Now I even have motive! Could it be that this is a picture of a Tequila-induced Mystery Injury? You know, the kind you wake up with, and wonder how the hell that happened? And Mr Enos can't identify it, so he's asking here to see if anyone else can identify it for him??

I like it. That's my final answer.

Ok, that was long winded, but if nothing else, was worth it just for the mental exercise. This sport is about solving problems, is it not?

[Chris Keen]

It is .... and I like your style (interpreted: thought process) WELCOME TO THE FORUM, and to practical shooting.

Alot of effort was expended by you, and the rest of us, and with this being the last day of the month of April ......................

I DONT CARE IF I WON ... I JUST WANNA KNOW WHAT THE PIC IS !!!

Release us of the bonds of mystery, would you Brian ?

[benos]

First - Thanks everyone!

Of course you probably all realize that I purposefully made it too abstract to guess. I didn't want anyone to guess - it was much more fun reading the guesses than it would have been to read an answer.

So let's get to it. My favorite/best laugh/creative/April winner is Johns:

"Director Steven Lisberger's controversial 1982 decision to cut the now infamous "Galactic boom run" scene out of the movie Tron left many Great Outdoor Games fans truly disappointed."

... the Tron guy's head is hilarious.

And yes, CodeSlinger, you were onto something:

Maybe you savvy members can pull at least the location out of the darkness.

... I was wondering if a little photoshoping might reveal the general location that this image should certainly reveal:

But the fun part was that although photoshoping might reveal the location of the mystery image, it would not tell you anything about the pattern, which was intentionally camouflaged, itself. I was hoping that if someone could isolate the location, then some fun jokes might follow about the pattern in the image. But alas it was not to be.

So now that we've got the winner out of the way... I'll post the final pic that will reveal all, tomorrow!

Thanks again!

[Loves2Shoot]

I hope that is your nogin and not some other round hairy part of your body you shave.

[BritinUSA]

It looks like a blood stain, or a melanoma...

[tightloop]

It is a wine stain in the form of a teddy bear...

[Putty]

Some freaks birthmark.......Damien like

[CodeSlinger]

LOL is that a Happy Birthday Hickey???

[shred]

Dark side of the moon?

[carinab]

It is a bruise that happens to coincidentally be in the shape of japanese stenographer kanji which translated says "F$^@*)$(@!!! I hit my $*#@&@% head." Said bruise occured after a significant amount of tequila was consumed and the drinker performed an egret stealth manuver intending to stupify and amaze his audience. However, the manuver went awry and instead he took out a door frame (with his noggin) and then promptly began vacuuming a small, half dollar sized, bit of carpeting while passed out on the floor.