tolas

I prefer to work with source images , not color composites, but the first releases from the Mars Express HRSC were in color. They had a color camera, and by Odin's Beard they were going to show it off ! You can't blame them for that. Compared to what had been seen before, the resolution was so much better that few had any complaints. They were the same bilious orange tint that NASA had apparently declared the Official Color of Mars, but any simple color correction tool in any graphics program seemed to tone it down to a pretty believable balance. In any case, I was a bit more concerned about the possible effect of the mixing of images to produce the "3D" perspectives. It is a testament to how well the process works that the more interesting details, aka tolas effects, are not lost after all. There is some loss of resolution, but I think that might be due more to the tweaked color than the mixing algorithm. Seemingly in response to requests, the esa added B&W images to the release packages almost immediately- but sadly, the 3D images are never offered in any format but color. Of course, I am probably the only person who thinks that is sad. Let us investigate this tolas business a little...

From MGS image M0806854, at high resolution. It is much more interesting from a little farther away...



See the (blue) face,center left? Facing left, looking down.	These frames are at different resolutions, resized to match.	Watch the eye. Boo!

Click HERE to see a bigger version of the sequence.

Misdirection. The purpose of disinformation is misdirection. Unfortunately, those who made the commitment to hide the truth of History managed to also misdirect themselves. That is one of the consequences of secrecy- with no objective second opinions available, mistakes can be made and persist unchallenged, caught up and carried by the momentum of the narrow view.

These displays are seldom easy to see, at first. This is partly a result of the simple fact that the mechanism of a static image morphing like that is unfamiliar to you. Since the tolas were intended to be seen in passing , there was motion involved , so it is slightly remarkable that we can see them at all. Once you get accustomed to these, however, they cease being distracting and "phenomenal", and you begin to appreciate the stories. The animation below might be evidence that the NASA people never even understood that much, because the most interesting feature is cut off at the left edge of the frame, as if they didn't know it was there at all. I have this lingering suspicion that all those years, they were photographing what they thought were "conventional" murals and bas relief sculpture, and wondering what the heck was going on. Without understanding the integrating aspect of how the multiple overlays of images relate, it really would all seem totally insane, and/or multidimensional. That suspicion is my operational view here, because I haven't found any clear evidence to the contrary, but of course the question is still open.


From MGS image AB108505	This one is harder to see, but a lot busier.	You need to click on those thumbnails to see the larger sets- try to view them in something other than a browser.

Look for the guy leaning in from the left, making faces.	Something is happening in the background (top of frame)

which might involve a robot.	A smiling bearded man is on the right, and a wolf with a red nose. Huh.

I'm not going to give up on you, so don't give up on yourself.... the first step is to recognize that something is in fact happening. Watch this little animation as many times as you can stand. The girl on the left with the Angelina Jolie lips closes her eyes for the (anticipated) kiss, Top left corner of the section below.

M1800577 section
	Here's the section I built the animation from. This really is a pretty cool image, for several reasons. As you can see, there is quite a lot of stuff going on, but we don't get much clue as to the context, because there is obviously more to this diorama than is included in-frame. The photo was taken at an angle, too, which tells us that it is not always necessary to view these from a straight-on perspective. That bit of data surprised me. Though this workfile includes an unnecessary piece of the area below the tolas , that just shows you that I don't know exactly what is there when I start either. And I am sure some people out there are delighted to see another example of Mayan ground texture. For the truly dedicated explorers, click HERE, for an almost full resolution version of the upper area. You might want just to download it for separate viewing, because it's a pretty big file, and you can't zoom it in your browser window anyway. Don't bother trying to zoom the picture at left- making a thumbnail "freezes" the image. But in this case, it also makes the players much easier to spot. If you do investigate the large version, you can observe another tolas curiosity. It is not a "rule", just an effect on this one, but it provides a clue about the structure of a tolas. I noticed when I reduced the image that she close her eyes twice, at a zoom setting of 1 : 9, and at 1 : 7 , those same numbers regardless of the image size. I would have predicted changing the image size would affect that, but apparently not.