Come and solve an argument

Dexter Sinister

Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
10,168
539
113
Regina, SK
Insufficient data to solve it so far. The US-Canada border is straight for hundreds of miles only along the 49th parallel from Manitoba to British Columbia. There's a stretch of about 150 miles between Quebec and Vermont that's straight, but the first post in that link specified "hundreds of miles," which disqualifies that location. Or perhaps the poster was a little inaccurate? It does look more like the terrain between Quebec and Vermont than it does anything in western Canada. It's clearly not Manitoba or Saskatchewan, there's no terrain along the 49th parallel in those provinces that looks like that, so it'd have to be Alberta or British Columbia. But it doesn't look like the mountains I've seen while flying between Calgary and Vancouver either, they're much more angular and pointy.

Other factors: it'd be very unusual for a plane to precisely follow either the 49th parallel or the Quebec-Vermont border for a long time, those paths don't join any major airports. The only reason to do so would be to fly in the jetstream, so it'd have to be an east-bound flight, but the jetstream is rarely straight for hundreds of miles either. Nature doesn't usually operate in straight lines, only people do.

My first thought was that the picture's a Photoshopped fake. I saved it and had a close look at it, and there are places where the line doesn't seem to quite follow the terrain. Besides, for the line to appear that wide from 35,000 feet, it'd have to be many miles wide on the ground, and as far as I know we don't clear vegetation along the border like that, or paint the landscape to mark it. Double besides, the line is white, suggesting snow fills it, but there'd have to be a lot more snow elsewhere in the image to justify that belief. I think it's a fake.

Or a giant slug trail. What, you've never heard of the giant mountain slugs in British Columbia? Whole towns have been engulfed...
 
T

Ten Packs

Council Member
Nov 21, 2004
1,505
5
38
Kamloops BC
Oh, for Heaven's Sakes, people!

As:
1. a British Columbian
2. One who worked as a welder's helper on 30" pipeline, for a short time in the 70's
3. One who spent most of 1979 flying all over BC, on assignment by my employer.
4. Worked for the largest Oil Company in the country for 27 years, the last 13 years at a Distribution facility, supplied by Pipeline from Edmonton.


I can POSITIVELY tell you it is one of several very common sights out West, and probably in Quebec and so on as well:
1. Right-of-way for high-tension Hydro-electric cross-provincial lines.*
2. Right-of-way for underground oil or natural gas lines.*
3. The Canada/USA border, as suggested earlier.

*All of which require substantial cut-back, both for access during construction, access for maintenance and emergencies, and aerial monitoring (they have airborne electronic instruments that can check for problems and weaknesses in the pipeline, even underground).

I have seen all kinds of these, flying around BC. And YES, they go in straight lines for MILES, regardless of all but the worst of terrain. I remember carrying the ground-cable for a boom-welder on a big cat, and its radiator was sometimes 15 feet behind me -
and ten feet ABOVE! (GULP!)

In fact, if you look closely near the left edge of the pic, you can see two instances of shadows on the down-hill slope in the "slash-trail", as they are called.

Believe me - you can take this to the bank!




[edited for additional thoughts; and bad typing caused by a combination of Friday night and vodka]
 
T

Ten Packs

Council Member
Nov 21, 2004
1,505
5
38
Kamloops BC
Oh, for Heaven's Sakes, people!

As:
1. a British Columbian
2. One who worked as a welder's helper on 30" pipeline, for a short time in the 70's
3. One who spent most of 1979 flying all over BC, on assignment by my employer.
4. Worked for the largest Oil Company in the country for 27 years, the last 13 years at a Distribution facility, supplied by Pipeline from Edmonton.


I can POSITIVELY tell you it is one of several very common sights out West, and probably in Quebec and so on as well:
1. Right-of-way for high-tension Hydro-electric cross-provincial lines.*
2. Right-of-way for underground oil or natural gas lines.*
3. The Canada/USA border, as suggested earlier.

*All of which require substantial cut-back, both for access during construction, access for maintenance and emergencies, and aerial monitoring (they have airborne electronic instruments that can check for problems and weaknesses in the pipeline, even underground).

I have seen all kinds of these, flying around BC. And YES, they go in straight lines for MILES, regardless of all but the worst of terrain. I remember carrying the ground-cable for a boom-welder on a big cat, and its radiator was sometimes 15 feet behind me -
and ten feet ABOVE! (GULP!)

In fact, if you look closely near the left edge of the pic, you can see two instances of shadows on the down-hill slope in the "slash-trail", as they are called.

Believe me - you can take this to the bank!




[edited for additional thoughts; and bad typing caused by a combination of Friday night and vodka]
 
T

Ten Packs

Council Member
Nov 21, 2004
1,505
5
38
Kamloops BC
Oh, for Heaven's Sakes, people!

As:
1. a British Columbian
2. One who worked as a welder's helper on 30" pipeline, for a short time in the 70's
3. One who spent most of 1979 flying all over BC, on assignment by my employer.
4. Worked for the largest Oil Company in the country for 27 years, the last 13 years at a Distribution facility, supplied by Pipeline from Edmonton.


I can POSITIVELY tell you it is one of several very common sights out West, and probably in Quebec and so on as well:
1. Right-of-way for high-tension Hydro-electric cross-provincial lines.*
2. Right-of-way for underground oil or natural gas lines.*
3. The Canada/USA border, as suggested earlier.

*All of which require substantial cut-back, both for access during construction, access for maintenance and emergencies, and aerial monitoring (they have airborne electronic instruments that can check for problems and weaknesses in the pipeline, even underground).

I have seen all kinds of these, flying around BC. And YES, they go in straight lines for MILES, regardless of all but the worst of terrain. I remember carrying the ground-cable for a boom-welder on a big cat, and its radiator was sometimes 15 feet behind me -
and ten feet ABOVE! (GULP!)

In fact, if you look closely near the left edge of the pic, you can see two instances of shadows on the down-hill slope in the "slash-trail", as they are called.

Believe me - you can take this to the bank!




[edited for additional thoughts; and bad typing caused by a combination of Friday night and vodka]
 
T

Ten Packs

Council Member
Nov 21, 2004
1,505
5
38
Kamloops BC
say aardvark? I was obviously able to ACCESS your site to see the pic, and afterward I thought for the Heck of it I would register, which I did..... but NOW I am denied access!


message:
You do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
You do not have permission to access the page that you were trying to. Are you trying to edit someone else's post or trying to access administrative features? Check that you are allowed to perform this action in the Forum Rules.
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
Logged in user: Ten Packs [logout]
Click to expand...




Is there a waiting time, or a confirmation I need to get emailed to me?

(registered with the same name as here)
 
T

Ten Packs

Council Member
Nov 21, 2004
1,505
5
38
Kamloops BC
say aardvark? I was obviously able to ACCESS your site to see the pic, and afterward I thought for the Heck of it I would register, which I did..... but NOW I am denied access!


message:
You do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
You do not have permission to access the page that you were trying to. Are you trying to edit someone else's post or trying to access administrative features? Check that you are allowed to perform this action in the Forum Rules.
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
Logged in user: Ten Packs [logout]
Click to expand...




Is there a waiting time, or a confirmation I need to get emailed to me?

(registered with the same name as here)
 
T

Ten Packs

Council Member
Nov 21, 2004
1,505
5
38
Kamloops BC
say aardvark? I was obviously able to ACCESS your site to see the pic, and afterward I thought for the Heck of it I would register, which I did..... but NOW I am denied access!


message:
You do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
You do not have permission to access the page that you were trying to. Are you trying to edit someone else's post or trying to access administrative features? Check that you are allowed to perform this action in the Forum Rules.
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
Logged in user: Ten Packs [logout]
Click to expand...




Is there a waiting time, or a confirmation I need to get emailed to me?

(registered with the same name as here)
 
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