Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
In one of the crappiest excuses for science writing I have seen in quite awhile, ABC news guy Nick Watt, peddles some propaganda for Semir Osmanagic.
Don't believe me? Here is an example:
So who claims these are pyramids? Bosnia's very own "raider of the lost ark," Semir Osmanagic.
From there the article deteriorates into a pathetic recital of many previously debunked points. We get claims about the perfect geometry of the pyramid, about the three pyramids being aligned to form a perfect equilateral triangle and manmade blocks that form the pyramid. Running through the entire article is the portrayal of Osmanagic as the swashbuckling, rebel archaeologist in the mold of Indiana Jones. In a two page article very little space is devoted to critics of the pryamid - and there are many. Instead we get treated to off the wall claims like:
"We will have very exciting archaeological winter in front of us," he said.What does he think he will find at the end of the tunnel that leads to the center of the valley?
"It's kind of a secret," he said. "But I think that's probably one of the keys to the mystery of the Bosnian pyramids."
This has got to be the worst piece of dreck passed off as science reporting that I have seen in quite a while. One of the more telling points to the article:
Tourists are flocking to buy trinkets, to eat pyramid pizza and pyramid cake, and stay at the local hotel, re-named the Pyramid of the Sun."Last year here, we had 20,000 tourists in the whole summer," Davor Pekic, owner of the Pyramid of the Sun, said through a translator. "This year, we had that many tourists on one day."
So, apparently in the future archaeological interpretation will be decided by the number of tourists rather than the archaeological record.
Added Later: See, the article was sooo bad I forgot to provide a link. You can find it here...
Also, Carl Feagans has an excellent slapdown of the Nightline piece here
As does Chris at Northstate Science.
Comments
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: coturnix | October 29, 2006 9:58 PM
Damn! That was quick. I expected you would leave a comment but not two minutes after I posted! ABC News is giving it prominent treatment too. Total dreck, worst piece I have read on the subject...
Posted by: afarensis, FCD | October 29, 2006 10:02 PM
Drat! Scooped again! :)
Bora must have an RSS feed that sends him anything "Bosnia Pyramid" in it!
Posted by: cfeagans | October 30, 2006 2:44 AM
I was just on, posting something, when I noticed this on the grey ticker on the Last-24-Hour page. Sheer luck, no special RSS or magic.
Posted by: coturnix | October 30, 2006 6:55 AM