Conspiracy theorists on social media who believe in the possibility of travelling through space and time have had a field day with an old photograph dating to WWII. The black-and-white pic depicts a man dressed in a lightly colored trench with his hand reaching out to his head in a manner appearing to resemble someone chatting on a cell phone, they insisted.
Hailing from the family archive of Kristján Hoffman, an Icelander, the photograph was shared on a Facebook group page called Gamlar ljósmyndir ("Old Photographs"). The scene captured in the shot is of Allied troops deployed in Iceland's capital, Reykjavík, during the Second World War.
Kristján Hoffman captioned his post, saying that the guy featured in the middle of the picture appeared to be "leaning" and looked as if he was speaking using a cell phone." The fact that the mysterious character in the pic is conspicuously not wearing army fatigues and is holding his hand in close proximity to his ear was zoomed-in on by a multitude of ‘time travel exists’ fanatics.
“He’s ...standing alone and wearing a different headdress than the others and a scarf and acting like we would do today,” Hoffmann had commented in his post, according to media reports.
Putting a damper on the unbridled enthusiasm of ‘time travel’ proponents, some social media users offered up more ‘plausible’ explanations, speculating that the fellow was just scratching his ear or checking the time on his watch. He may also have been holding up a radio to his ear, added others.
Time travel has long been in the realm of science fiction movies, with people eagerly grabbing at every oppotunity that appears to prove it is possible to get a sneak peek of the future or go back to the past.
Like in the case of the WWII-dated proto, art fans were recently poring over Ferdinand George Waldmüller's painting, entitled 'The Expected One'. They claimed that the woman featured in the 150-year-old canvass strolling against the backdrop of idyllic countryside was gazing at an smartphone in her hands. However, more sober-minded folks pointed out that the woman was more likely reading a prayer book.
An ancient Greek tombstone also fueled the fantasies of conspiracy fanatics. A marble relief, sculpted in 100BC, the Grave Naiskos Of An Enthroned Woman With An Attendant, on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California, was seen as showing a woman “using a laptop.” But, again, the other, more “realistic” explanation for the object that the slave girl is holding out to her mistress in the sculpture is a thin folding box.
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