Amelia Earhart-New Photo Evidence and Documentary on The History Channel

The plot thickens again!

Wait, no it doesn't...

 

Indeed, but the History Channel must be laughing all the way to the bank (given the publicity and the hype)!

 

Facial recognition is actually very reliable - state licensing entities (including where you live) now use it to uncover fraudulent license and ID card issuances. HOWEVER - its just a tool to 'flag' a photo so that it can be verified by a human. That system works extremely well. Whether the photo is old or new is of little consequence. All thats needed is a decent image of the persons face or head. As far as caucasian and skin color, that means little. Just like other broad racial classifications like Mongoloid Negroid etc. individual pigmentation of all races can run very light to very dark. My good friends spouse happens to be Marshallese. Her face is caucasoid but she has dark skin and long black wavy hair. Yet some of her immediate family are light. Just genetic variation.

Sometimes the scientific facial cues line up and yet a person can just plain old look at the image and 'know' its not the person alleged. I agree that some of these latest claims ala Robert Johnson and Billy the Kid etc. just don't sit right when I look at them.

 

Yeah, I should not have been so overly dismissive facial recognition as a whole. But it does seem pretty clear that it is not reliable for this particular purpose: examining photos (particularly low-quality photos) of unknown provenance and determining whether they contain historical figures or not. There are too many instances where this type of analysis has failed for it to be considered reliable.

 

I though the images of Noonan and Amelia were a bit too indistinct to say for sure, yet it was still fascinating to see how they could be 'matched' up. At the same time, cautious because the same sort of process can lead to incorrect identifications as well. As it obviously did here.

There was something inside of me that thought an amateur history / military buff is most likely to come out with some crucial tidbit that 'seals' this story, for better or worse. Its often in the minutia. Theres also ever increasing access to online sources that didn't exist - even ten years ago.

 

It may have been discussed, but is there a good objective book on the subject? (I assume there is. I'm just looking for recommendations.)

 

I too would like such a thing, but there are many books, all of which suffer from some sort of lack of big picture knowledge, or latter-day perspective. I mean, there are many interesting books, but none of those that I have read provide anything definitive. Which is why I've been compelled but never convinced of anything. I'll admit to thinking that the recent History Channel doc presented enough slightly compelling bits of evidence to suggest that the overall collective evidence was too much to ignore (as I posted a few days ago), but I've tempered that opinion in light of the more recent evidence from Japanese publication of the photo in question. Then again, I haven't seen the title page nor colophon of that book, if any are available, to verify that the version in question was published prior to 1937. (I'm on it.)

I think this is a case of "read and watch everything you can find" and then make up your mind. Finding a definitive rendering of the old and new facts and opinions hasn't yet been done to my knowledge.

Edit: In any case, it would appear that the photo is likely from well before 1937 (although I never saw the actual publication date of the volume in question; but I'll defer for now). Well, there you go. Buy a bone-sniffing dog and a DNA laboratory if you want to continue to be intrepid in this field.

 

The publication year on the digitization site is listed as 昭和10, meaning Year 10 of Emperor Showa (aka Hirohito). That translates to 1935.

NDL Digital Collections - 海の生命線我が南洋の姿 : 南洋群島写真帖

 

Well, all well and good. I'm not working from original documents, just stating my interpretation.

 

Absolutely true - given the extremely poor quality of that image, it's a case of garbage-in, garbage-out.

I'm reminded of a documentary I saw years ago about the Mona Lisa where it was contended that Mona Lisa's face was actually that of da Vinci himself. They took all kinds of measurements, proportions, golden ratios, facial overlays, paint analysis and a convoluted supporting narratives by 'experts', etc. It stretched credulity beyond all reason. Talk about motivated reasoning.

 

If you want that then you have to watch F Troop.

 

The History Channel here in Canada has pulled the show at the last minute.

Wish they would do the same for other shows of questionable historic value like that 'searching for Hilter' show, 'Ancient Aliens', etc. [ and what I call the 'he-man' shows like 'Alone', 'Ax Men', 'Ice Road Truckers', etc., and above all 'Pawn Stars' -which BTW was aired eight times today].

 

Oh, wow, that's incredible! It makes me wonder if it was pulled out of pure embarrassment. I've looked but I've heard no rebuttal from the folks on the show.

 

Amelia Earhart Documentary Pulled From History Channel Lineups Amid Photo Investigation