Fun with Pareidolia

[semillama]

My wife brought to my attention an absolutely hilarious website, albeit unintentionally so.

Behold! Ancient Canal Builders in America!

http://www.ancientcanalbuilders.com/index.html

"Canal Complexes in America .................. This site is a review of some empirical evidence that will forever change the history of pre-diluvial America, shifting our paradigm from what we think we know about America to a whole new standard of 'Truth' about pre-historic civilizations on the North American continent.

Ancient Cities on our Coasts .... ...... .... .There are hundreds of miles of coastline, from Maine to Florida, continuing across the Gulf States including Texas and parts of Mexico, that are covered with vestiges and remnants of a very sophisticated, enormously large water borne culture or civilization that existed BEFORE current sea level rose an average of 12 to 25 feet, or more.
Sophisticated Geo Engineers: The evidence you are about to see, shows nearly every swampy piece of marsh land on most of the Eastern US Coast and Gulf of Mexico, to have been 'worked' and 'inhabited' by a very large, very sophisticated population of canal builders during some remote pre-flood period."

Apparently, the construction of modern canals is impossible, so everything has to date to before the end of the last ice age!

[realisticphish]

1. there appears

to be a mysterious network of mostly-deteriorated canal-like structures spanning from Lake Erie to the Ohio River...

[mr blur]

2. Ah, Pareidolia -

[Lisa0825]

3. Did I miss it???

When I go there, none of the links are clickable, and this is the only message:

"Canal Complexes in America .......

This site is being re-vamped in light of recent information that has demonstrated conclusively that Atlantic and Northeast Canal systems are actually turn of the century 'Mosquito' control and 'swamp drainage' systems.

The large degraded canals in Louisiana and Florida, as well as underwater anomalies are under review.

Thank you for your interest."

[realisticphish]

4. if this was real

then kudos to the cranks for correcting themselves

[charlie]

5. They'll be correcting themselves out of business

Nearly the whole site, hundreds of pages, documents the canals in Atlantic coast states, Florida, and Louisiana. The remainder from Texas and Mississippi aren't more than a handful.

http://www.google.com/search?num=20&q=site:www.ancientcanalbuilders.com

[charlie]

8. Color me whomperjawed

Kudos ARE in order. Here's a public admission they were wrong:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ancient_waterways_society/message/1943?threaded=1&var=1&l=1&p=11

And an affiliated blog was also shuttered:

http://www.google.com/search?num=20&q=site:ancientcanals.blogspot.com

I can't recall ever seeing cranks cede to evidence that their whole endeavor was bunk. Good on them.

[charlie]

6. Google cached their FAQ page

It's a lot of speculation about Sumerians in North America, continent-wide flood(s) (maybe global - Noah), "industrial" mechanical barges, and a possible explanation for the Oak Island "buried treasure" mystery.

LINK

[semillama]

7. Funny story about that

I may be indirectly responsible for that.

My wife found it because she has a woo friend on facebook who posted the link. She showed it to me and then replied with my opinions on it. The dude who runs the site sent her a weird facebook message out of the blue accusing her of not looking at the facts, and then the next day the site changed. I might guess that my spreading it around a bit for some well-deserved critique probably got back to him somehow.