The President's Bulge

Salon.com has an interesting story today about a NASA scientist who took some time to examine the President's "bulge."


Here is the most important part of the report:

Dr. Robert M. Nelson...[is] a senior research scientist for NASA and for Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and an international authority on image analysis.

For the past week, while at home, using his own computers, and off the clock at Caltech and NASA, Nelson has been analyzing images of the president's back during the debates. A professional physicist and photo analyst for more than 30 years, he speaks earnestly and thoughtfully about his subject. "I am willing to stake my scientific reputation to the statement that Bush was wearing something under his jacket during the debate," he says. "This is not about a bad suit. And there's no way the bulge can be described as a wrinkled shirt."

Nelson stresses that he's not certain what lies beneath the president's jacket. He offers, though, "that it could be some type of electronic device -- it's consistent with the appearance of an electronic device worn in that manner." The image of lines coursing up and down the president's back, Nelson adds, is "consistent with a wire or a tube."

Nelson used software and methods that space scientists typically use to sharpen and accent dark images received from outer space.

Bruce Hapke, professor emeritus of planetary science in the department of geology and planetary science at the University of Pittsburgh, reviewed the Bush images employed by Nelson, whom he calls "a very highly respected scientist in his field." Hapke says Nelson's process of analyzing the images are the "exact same methods we use to analyze images taken by spacecraft of planetary surfaces. It does not introduce any artifacts into the picture in any way."

Both Nelson and Hapke observe that the bulge clearly isn't a wrinkle in a suit or shirt -- and that it is consistent with an electronic device of some type.

They note the obvious: some sort of tube or wire snakes up from the bulge to the President's right shoulder.

"The truth is out there." (Fade to X-Files theme).