"Robert Harris" wrote in message
news:SKCdnTxc8KNVSfbO...@earthlink.com...
Me not understand "geekspeak?" You should know me better than
that, Bob! Anyway, do you honestly believe that the car travelled
at an exact, constant 12 mph before instantaneously decelerating
to a constant 8 mph? I hope not. Alvarez didn't either, but then
he understood the more complex reality underlying those neat lines.
What you see is a linear extrapolation of a more complex set of
calculations based on a set of Alvarez' measurements. That's why
he weasel-words the exact length and position of the deceleration
("decelerated suddenly for ABOUT 0.5 sec (10 frames), centered
at ABOUT frame 299"). Neither quantity is set in stone. Only a fool
would take it so specifically.
>>> And in fact, the reason he lifted his foot from the gas was that he
>>> too was startled by the 285 shot. That's why he testified that the
>>> second and third shots were fired, "simultaneously, one right after
>>> the other".
>>
>> Not according to Alvarez: "I was bothered for some time by the weaker
>> set of pulses lasting a shorter time, that show in Fig. 3, from
>> frames 290 through 298. They don't look like the ones that seemed
>> clearly associated with bullets".
>
>Look at his chart:
>
>
http://jfkhistory.com/alvarezchart.jpg
>
>The 290 blips are certainly as intense as the earlier ones, which we know
>today, were false positives.
>
>Notice also that the 290 blip contains a small peak to the left and then a
>larger peak to the right, just as the one at 318 did and unlike the two
>earlier ones.
>
>Alvarez was a genius, but sadly, he was also a nutter.
>
>His measurements were flawless, his *opinions* - not so great.
You've picked a bad time to accuse Alvarez of being a liar,
don't you think?
Now, I've been around a lot of scientists in my time. Even
spent a month as a friend's field assistant. If you were to
walk up to a gaggle of scientists and say, "hey, that guy's
numbers are totally, like, flawless," they would think one
of three things:
1) you are an idiot
2) "that guy" is a fraud (don't be that guy!)
3) numbers one and two combined
Measurements are messy in the real world. That's why
junior G-man scientists and engineers spend a lot of
time at university taking classes in prob-n'-stat.
But since you brought it up, look at this chart, helpfully
prepared by our friends at the HSCA (you have to unbreak
the link):
http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/
reportvols/vol6/html/HSCA_Vol6_0016b.htm
It has an unbroken version of Alvarez's graph for Morgan
Freeman-approved Easy Reading. It also has two other
panning error graphs placed back to back on the same
line, both using a unique technique. Now, If I assume
that JFK and JBC were both hit by the same bullet in the
early 220's, I should expect to see Zapruder react to
any corresponding gunshot sound in the latter 220's.
Curiously enough, there just happens to be a significant
event right about frame 227 in all three graphs, with
the Zapruder graph peaking positive at the same time as
the Hartman and Scott graphs register their peaks. If
that were the case, then I'd also expect to see the same
alignment of peaks a few frames after 313....which is
exactly what the graphs show. So, were there a frame
285 shot, I'd expect to see the same thing happen. But
that's not quite what we see. It's not as sharp or as
high amplitude as the peaks that occur at the other two
instants. The Alvrarez jounce is also a bit out of phase
of it's Hartmann and and Scott counterparts, unlike
the other two events. It just doesn't quite fit in.