Only because this surfaced this morning......

[Friend Weller]

.....camels in the clouds? 

https://share.google/dzGI81gHtHfvNnZN0

(Source:  NewsNation)

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

.....camels in the clouds? 
https://share.google/dzGI81gHtHfvNnZN0
(Source:  NewsNation)

Pareidolia happens.

The visionaries seem to be pretty thoroughly ignorant of TIGHAR's expeditions to Niku.

<sigh>

[Denise Kelsey]

A little off-subject, but...  This article of course mentions PIPA and needing permits to visit Niku, but I've always wondered - would anyone REALLY know if someone were to visit and go digging around? If I were sailing my boat (imaginary at the time of this writing) around the world and wanted to make a stopoff, how would anyone know? The place is uninhabited. Unless Kiribati is monitoring satellite imagery, it seems like a really determined individual could go sleuthing undetected. Of course, as Ric has many times pointed out, actually getting ON the island may be another matter...

Thoughts?

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

Unless Kiribati is monitoring satellite imagery, it seems like a really determined individual could go sleuthing undetected. 

That is absolutely true.

Roger Kelly and I interviewed a policeman who had once been assigned to patrol the islands.

There were often signs of intrusion.

During Niku III in 2001, the island was visited by a tuna boat. The first aerial tour of the island was done from that boat's helicopter. Later expeditions used kites and early drones, I believe, to get some high-resolution photography of the sites that interested TIGHAR at that time.

I think another passing boat stopped to investigate a red patch of some kind that they had read about on the website. They said that there was nothing there, which was verified by the next TIGHAR expedition.

I can think of two good reasons to get permits and behave well on the island:

1. If anything is found, ownership will have been determined in advance and the findings can be publicized without fear of retribution from Kirimati.

2. If the expedition needs to call for help because of an emergency, the government will not be upset about the group being there in the first place.