Posted on 09/12/2005 12:10:14 AM PDT by spycatcher
Today is September 11.
Michelle Malkin and other bloggers are buzzing about the proposed Flight 93 memorial, which bears a striking resemblance to an Islamic crescent. Zombie produces an animated image consisting of the memorial (rotated so the arms of the crescent point to the right) overlapped with the crescent of the Tunisian flag. The juxtaposition is nearly perfect.
Zombie also links to this image credited to "Etaoin Shrdlu". What you're seeing is an azimuthal equidistant projection of the globe centered on the Flight 93 crash site. On such a projection, the concentric circles represent a fixed distance from the center, and the angle of a straight line from the center to any point represents the azimuth between the two points. Etaoin's image shows that a line perpendicular to the endpoints of the crescent (that is, the direction the crescent faces) appears to pass very close to Mecca. Mecca sits near Saudi Arabia's western coast with the Red Sea, and as Etaoin's image shows, the crescent points right at it.
But I've always been one to go for cold calculations over pretty pictures, so I set to find out if indeed the crescent points towards Mecca. Here's what I came up with:
According to this site, the latitude/longitude coordinates of Mecca are 21.4234, 39.8262 and the coordinates of the Flight 93 crash site are 40.052, -78.8963. Using the calculator from this site, I determined that the azimuth between the two points is 124.80°.
Next I went to the Flight 93 National Memorial website and found the biggest overhead view of the memorial I could find with north oriented up. I measured the distance from tip-to-tip of the crescent and came up with 64px east-west and 90px north-south. The arctangent of 64/90 is the angle between north and a line drawn between the tips, which works out to 35.42°. Adding 90° to this angle gives the direction the crescent faces as 125.42°.
Conclusion: the crescent points towards Mecca with an error of 0.62°, or 0.17%. If you take a circle and divide its circumference into 580 equal arcs, the angle subtended by one of those arcs is the error. (Bear in mind that any error in my figures could change this value; the figure most open to interpretation is the distance in pixels between the tips of the crescent.)
I don't know if the architect deliberately made his design look like an Islamic crescent, or if it's coincidental. I don't know if the architect deliberately made his crescent point almost directly towards Mecca, or if it's coincidental. What I do know is that a memorial in the shape of a swastika would never be permitted, whether the resemblance was intentional or a coincidence. Nor would a memorial resembling a Confederate battle flag.
The strong resemblance of this memorial to an Islamic symbol, whether intentional or accidental, is grossly insensitive to those of us who find it offensive. The commission needs to go back to the drawing board.
I respect your reticence.
However, I don't think this is a phony controversy in terms of the design and its multiple similarities to Islamic features.
It may be a "phony controversy" in the sense that the designer's protestations of innocence are false.
The design must be approved by the Director of the National Park Service, and The Secretary of the Interior.
Here are their addresses (snail mail always carries more weight than e-mail or phone calls)
Fran Mainella, Director
National Park Service
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20240-0001
Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240
Gale_Norton@ios.doi.gov
185 posted on 09/12/2005 2:48:49 PM EDT by Dawsonville_Doc (Moving to NC as fast as I can...)
Just found this:
Belmont Club Blog
Monday, September 12, 2005
The Flight 93 Memorial
The design of the Flight 93 memorial is being criticized for resembling a Red Islamic Crescent. Michelle Malkin, Real Clear Politics and Little Green Footballs point out the uncanny similarity. One poster at the FreeRepublic claimed that the "Crescent of Embrace", the principal visual feature consisting of a semicircle of red maple trees enfolding a central space, was oriented toward Mecca.
According to this site, the latitude/longitude coordinates of Mecca are 21.4234, 39.8262 and the coordinates of the Flight 93 crash site are 40.052, -78.8963. Using the calculator from this site, I determined that the azimuth between the two points is 124.80°.
Next I went to the Flight 93 National Memorial website and found the biggest overhead view of the memorial I could find with north oriented up. I measured the distance from tip-to-tip of the crescent and came up with 64px east-west and 90px north-south. The arctangent of 64/90 is the angle between north and a line drawn between the tips, which works out to 35.42°. Adding 90° to this angle gives the direction the crescent faces as 125.42°. Conclusion: the crescent points towards Mecca with an error of 0.62°, or 0.17%.
I had my doubts, so I decided to check things for myself. The Flight 93 Memorial Site has a downloadable PDF map of the winning design, which I duly downloaded. The legend at the bottom of the map specifies it is oriented North, whether true or magnetic is not stipulated. (Magnetic declination is between 6 and 9 degrees W.) Drawing a line connecting the tips of the crescent and drawing a perpendicular, you can see which which way it "opens". Using a protractor, I found the crescent opens between 230 and 240 (southwest) degrees, or taking the reciprocal, between 50 and 60 (northeast). You are invited to do this yourselves and verify the result.
Next I wanted to know if the coordinates given by the FreeRepublic poster really pointed to the Flight 93 crash site and Mecca. The best way to do this is to convert the decimal lat/long coordinates into DMS using a calculator provided by the FCC. The results are given below, but you can do it yourself.
Place Lat(D) Long(D) Lat(DMS) Long(DMS)
Flight 93 crash 40.052 -78.8963 40° 3' 7.20" 78° 53' 46.68"
Mecca 21.4234 39.8262 21° 25' 24.24" 39° 49' 34.32"
Then next step was to stick these coordinates into Keyhole 2 LT, and both coordinates check out. Keyhole took me to the site with the characteristic two hills and ridge pointing northeast shown in the Flight 93 Memorial winning design. (Keyhole users, tilt the map if you have trouble distinguishing the features.) The coordinates for Mecca likewise go to "Makkah" in Saudi Arabia. Both sets of coordinates seem valid.
I tried to follow the FreeRepublic poster's calculations for bearing but found them obtuse. I could never come up with an azimuth of 124.80 degrees. So I went to two sites to independently calculate the bearing from the Flight 93 crash site to Mecca. You can go to the Marine Great Circle Calculator or WhereAreWe?. Both these sites accept the coordinates of points A and B and calculate the true bearing to get from A to B. Both give a result of 55 degrees true, or its reciprocal 235. I can tell you that my jaw fell open. The bearing given by both Great Circle Calculators corresponded near enough to the measured opening of the Crescent from the PDF map. (The reader should do this for himself).
Now it could have been coincidence. I went to architect Nelson Byrd Woltz's website and examined his portfolio. Many of his previous works emphasize the semicircular or crescent motif. For example, the Westminster Presbyterian Church Memorial Garden, Watercolor Park, Doris Duke Center and North Carolina Arboretum all seem to incorporate this semicircular theme. That brought me right back to the Flight 93 Memorial Site. If you look at the video provided, you'll see that the orientation of the "Crescent of Embrace" is determined, or at least very strongly suggested by the contours of the ground. (The PDF map shows the same thing). The contours run right through the opening of the crescent. Unless you wanted the park visitors to climb up and down contour lines the opening was exactly where it had to be. So the simplest explanation it seems to me, is that the orientation of the Crescent of Embrace is coincidental.
But what a coincidence! Memorials are symbols above all and it may be inappropriate to commemorate Flight 93 with a Red Crescent facing Mecca.
I agree with you. The premiss of this thread is a bit silly. Some people just have too much time on their hands.
thank you.
Not particularly, it simply points east, which is the direction the plane was flying when it crashed. More likely, it's pointing towards Washington DC which was the intended destination.
Either you know that glaringly obvious fact and are playing dumb or you need to take some art and architecture courses and learn more.
however, the theory might be in trouble - if you look closely at the design, you will note that the debris-field walkway is roughly perpendicular to the contour lines, so the "uphill-downhill" quibble seems a bit weak.
it does not point east. it does not point squarely at any of the cardinal or secondary compass points. try again.
Excerpt:
I went to architect Nelson Byrd Woltz's website and examined his portfolio. Many of his previous works emphasize the semicircular or crescent motif. For example, the Westminster Presbyterian Church Memorial Garden, Watercolor Park, Doris Duke Center and North Carolina Arboretum all seem to incorporate this semicircular theme
I looked at the other four finalists -- since, apparently, removed from the commission website -- and as hamfisted as this is, it was the best of the lot.
One of them looked like a smaller, tawdry version of the Stonehenge ruins. One of them looked like a bunch of luggage tags on a fence, because it was, well, a bunch of luggage tags on the damned fence.
While the five finalists were shown to the public, the many other entries were not. That's just the arts community, looking out for the public's best interests, ya know...
The irony is that the enabling legislation says that this is supposed to memorialize the heroism of the heroes of 93. Every single one of the finalists addressed only their deaths.
This one, also, has no words of praise, no recognition for their heroism. Just, "hey, a bunch of people died." Unless it actually is, by design, a memorial not to those that fought for life, but to their murderers.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Earth, of course, is not a sphere, but for this purpose a sphere stands in adequately. We could get started on different spheroids used to provide the datum over the centuries and the continents, but it wouldn't change the numbers materially.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
I don't think this is bad design at all personally. In fact, it's brilliantly creative and subversive. I just don't want a gigantic Muslim shrine for the dead unless a majority of them would have embraced the crescent themselves knowing how they died.
This is something that Cindy Sheehan might do for her son, but it's not something we should do for those that died on Flight 93.
Who in this forum can tell me with a straight face you want your final resting place to be embraced as the star of a red crescent aligned to Mecca with a minaret tower of chimes? Go ahead and stick your neck out cause we all know the people who can make that happen.
I am glad I haven't donated any money to this memorial yet. After watching the movie on Flight 93 last night, I almost did but decided to wait. Thank goodness....no money for that crap of a memorial.
Uh, I think the plane was flying south towards DC, wasn't it?
General Correspondence
By Mail
National Park Service
109 West Main Street, Suite 104
Somerset, PA 15501-2035
By Phone
Superintendent - Flight 93 National Memorial
(814) 443-4557
By Fax
(814)443-2180
If you would like to get notified about the site updates Click here
a conceited one-trick pony, perhaps?
OH!
That's a good one!
Thank you!
the Earth is so close to perfectly spherical that it is simply not worth the effort to attempt to incorporate the mild "belling" of reality.
as you say, it would not significantly affect the data
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
