General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Amelia Earhart and the problem with History Channel documentaries [View all]jberryhill
(62,444 posts)While the FBI has done a bang-up job with fingerprints, they've used some sketchy "fiber analysis" and "handwriting analysis" techniques before. Even some of their bullet comparisons don't hold up well.
To recognize a face, you don't take a photograph and see how well it lines up with the face you want it to be. You compare it to a huge database of faces, and then see if the one you want it to match fits better than anything else. Otherwise you are just forcing an answer and comparing the characteristics that match - and this from a photograph blown up way down to the grain in the print made with unknown equipment.
Was this guy going to get paid, and be on the documentary, if he said, "Nah, you can't tell from this photo". Did they go to other experts who told them that?
It's like the Egyptology expert touted by the Mormons as having "confirmed" Joseph Smith's translations of "Reformed Egyptian" at a time when the significance of the Rosetta Stone itself was not widely known.