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Tuesday, May 26, 2020

5/22/20 Report - Treasure Con Job. Melborne Find. Treasure Coast Beaches. Cloud Problem Solving.


Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.



You might remember the above photo from earlier in the year. It recently surfaced again along with new revelations.  An article in TampaBay.com begins as follows.

In October 2018, Tampa-based treasure-hunting company Seafarer Exploration announced it had hired “Dr. Michael Torres," a brilliant “wounded war veteran receiving a Purple Heart with Oak Cluster” to do just that – help them find treasure with tech.

In January 2019, Torres made the front page of Florida Today and appeared on FOX35 Orlando wearing an Indiana Jones-esque hat and announcing he’d discovered an ancient Peruvian burial mask washed up on Melbourne Beach.

It was all fake, Kyle Kennedy, CEO of Seafarer Exploration told the Tampa Bay Times. “This guy can spout this stuff off like no tomorrow," he said. “Absolutely none of it was true, but unless you’re an engineer, you’d never know that." ...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.


Maybe you remember when I posted about Torres' reported find back in January.   I first posted the story on January 12 as it appeared in the media. In my post, I mentioned that it didn't seem to me to "stick together."  I had my doubts.  Then I found an article in Ancient Origins, which I referred to in my 1/27 post.  That article pointed out some of the contradictions in Torres' claims.  And in my 12/5/19 post, I published a first-hand report from one of this blog's readers, Jason J., who was a diver for Seafarer Corp.  

As previously published in this blog, Jason gave the following account.

Hi,I am a diver for Seafarer Exploration Corp and have been working with them for almost a decade.I lent Torres one of my grandfather's uncleaned cobs for research on a project he is working on for seafarer.I am also the person responsible for x Ray testing of the funerary head piece he “found”near our site.I also said at the time I tested the head piece, and it shouldn’t be made public until further proof was made of its real origin!Again I was suspect that it too wasn’t a beach find!The picture I sent you is my cob that was “found”on Melbourne Beach near where the head piece was found.Torres had another one of our divers out metal detecting with him and the poor guy was the one who “found” the coin!!Im almost certain Torres instructed him where to hunt and voila the coin was found.Those uncleaned cobs I have came from the Cabin Wreck and as we all know and can see from the pic I sent the cob that was just found isn’t a beach find!..I do not know torres’ motive other than 15 minutes of fame and possibly driving up our stock long enough to make a move on it.I definitely want to make it known Seafarer had nothing to do with Torres and his finds.
Sincerely, 
Jason J.

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Walton Rocks Thursday Near Low Tide.

There were a lot of people getting some healthy Florida sun yesterday.  It  looked more like a weekend afternoon.

There was some surfing too.  Some nicely formed slow waves were hitting the beach.  The water had been up fairly high at high tide.  There were some shells along the shoreline.

Surfers Thursday.

John Brooks Beach Thursday Near Low Tide.

I saw no erosion on these beaches.  Not much wind yesterday either.

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One thing I often talk about is pattern recognition.  It is an important skill that applies to almost any field of endeavor.  Whether you are talking about coin distribution patterns or virus infections, pattern recognition is a important skill, and the process is very much the same no matter what subject you are talking about. 

… Patterns are powerful. They set up expectations, make connections, and inspire burning questions. They can be events that regularly repeat themselves, trends in which events rise or fall over a prolonged period, relationships that create new connections, or they can emerge from seeing the larger picture. They can be outliers, events that fall outside the norm or newly defined patterns called fractals. Together, pattern recognition can lead to new discoveries, breakthrough ideas, and innovative concepts.

Pattern recognition was key to the survival of our Neanderthal ancestors, allowing them to identify poisonous plants, distinguish predator from prey, and interpret celestial events. Today, pattern recognition plays new, but just as important roles in diagnosing diseases, inspiring new ways to safeguard data, and discovering new planets...

Here is a a link for more about that.


People who make breakthroughs were not taught how to do it.  They had a passion to do something, and a lot of natural talent.  They didn't look at things like everybody else.

Thomas Edison didn't have a degree in making light bulbs or inventing.  Nobody taught the Wright brothers how to build a plane.  They had creative genius, and skills that couldn't be taught.  They didn't have courses or degrees for the things they did.

There are skills that aren't taught in schools.  People who are driven problem-solvers have a unique way of looking at things.  Creative people do not tend to follow the prescribed path.  Unschooled hackers, dropouts and gamers are just as likely to solve our country's most important problems, but our country, and perhaps most countries, fail to recognize and foster much of their intellectual capital.  Our country, and perhaps most countries, fails to identify and make good use of that human resource.  It is a huge waste.  People who follow the rules work their way up the latter, but aren't always the most likely to come up with the most creative solutions.

In a recent update, Foldit added a new puzzle for players to solve: coronavirus, and researchers want players to design an antiviral protein to block the coronavirus spike protein from interacting with human cells. "Coronaviruses display a 'spike' protein on their surface, which binds tightly to a receptor protein found on the surface of human cells," explains the puzzle brief. "Once the coronavirus spike binds to the human receptor, the virus can infect the human cell and replicate. In recent weeks, researchers have determined the structure of the 2019 coronavirus spike protein and how it binds to human receptors. If we can design a protein that binds to this coronavirus spike protein, it could be used to block the interaction with human cells and halt infection!"

Here is that link.


In my opinion, that is one of the smartest things that could be done.  If you put the data out there where the public can get to it, there is a good chance that some hacker or gamer will come up with the best solution.  Every field and profession has its gatekeepers, so I don't know who came up with this idea.  Professionals don't normally acknowledge those without credentials or positions.  Amateur archaeologists don't encourage publics participation.  What incentive is there?  But amateurs make many contributions - recognized or not.

A lot of the genius of this country remains unrecognized and unused.  The cloud makes it possible for people to participate in solving big problems.  If we did a better job of identifying and encouraging creative skills and talent, we'd be a much richer country.

Major creative breakthroughs are often made by people who follow their own path rather than going through all of the prescribed steps to gain entry.

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The Treasure Coast surf will be four to six feet.  The high tides are running very high, but it looks like the swells will be hitting the beaches mostly straight on.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

5/21/20 Report - Treasure Auction. Million Dollars in Cash Found. Religious Medallion. Cuneform Tablet.

Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.





Less than a week left.   For more information see https://auction.sedwickcoins.com/auctionlist.aspx

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A family in Virginia trying to escape the boredom of coronavirus lockdown on Saturday did exactly that when they happened upon two duffel bags of cash totaling almost $1 million.

David and Emily Schantz, residents of Caroline County, Va., were out for a drive with their children when they ran over what they thought were trash bags in the middle of the street.

It was only after putting the bags in their truck and driving home that the family realized they were full of cash. According to the family, there were “plastic baggies” inside the duffels that read “cash vault.”...

Here is the link for more about that.


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I just received the following email from a Connecticut person concerning a post I did in 2015 about the Christogram shown above.  I thought it was interesting that people from around the country are responding to posts that are five years old.


Hello,

Regarding this post: http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2015/12/122415-report-christogram-pendant-find.html

I have an exact duplicate of this medallion that was given to me by my ex-step mother in law. She purchased it in the Vatican and attended a ceremony in the presence of Pope John Paul ii where he blessed the crowd making this medallion the relic of a Saint.

The medallion might very well have more value than its weight in gold.

Susan C.
Stamford, CT

That would certainly make it more valuable to those who appreciate it.  That is the way it is with value.

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NEW YORK – Pursuant to ongoing Cultural Property, Arts and Antiquities investigations by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York, a civil complaint was filed Monday to forfeit a rare cuneiform tablet bearing a portion of the epic of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian epic poem considered one the world’s oldest works of literature. Known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, it originated in the area of modern-day Iraq and entered the United States contrary to federal law. The tablet was later sold by an international auction house (the “Auction House”) to Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (“Hobby Lobby”), a prominent arts-and-crafts retailer based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for display at the Museum of the Bible (the “Museum”). Despite inquiries from the Museum and Hobby Lobby, the Auction House withheld information about the tablet’s provenance. The tablet was seized from the Museum by law enforcement agents in September 2019...

Here is the link to the Customs and Immigration Enforcement site for more about that.


Of course the ICE website has a lot of info about counterfeits and smuggling.

As I've said before, you can't separate politics from treasure hunting or much of anything.  You have to wonder how much the politics of Hobby Lobby had to do with the enforcement.  As you probably know Hobby Lobby is religious/conservative and in September 2012 filed suit in federal court in Oklahoma based on its First Amendment Free Exercise of Religion right and the RFRA.

Anyone near the top of federal agency is by definition political.  You can be a government scientist, for example, which means that you are a bureaucrat as well as a scientist.

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Surf Prediction.
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

It looks like the surf will build today.  The swells are supposed to be northeast, but I don't know if they'll be enough from the north.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net







Wednesday, May 20, 2020

5/20/20 Report - Treasure Coast Beaches. Common Mystery Find. Signal Finds. Increasing Surf.


Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Park Tuesday.
I was in the area and stopped to see how the renourishment project at the Fort Pierce South Jetty beach was doing.  It looks like they finished but didn't dump as much sand as I was expecting to see.  They didn't go as far east or south as I thought they would.  The sand is a fine white sand - nicer looking than some of the previous projects.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach Tuesday.

Also stopped at John Brooks.  If I had my pole, I would have done some fishing.  There were some nice schools close in and a nice big fish chasing them.  I didn't take my detector out.


John Brooks Beach Tuesday.
Sand had piled up on the front beach.

John Brooks Beach Tuesday.

I also took a quick look at Frederick Douglass.  Not very exciting, and a thunder storm was coming.


Frederick Douglass Beach Tuesday.

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A couple days ago I posted a photo of a mystery find by DJ.  I got some good information on that object from John C., who showed five examples of the same thing.

Here is what John said.

Yeah, we  used to find those pretty frequently back in the 90s.  I was told back then that they were from a shipwreck, but not associated with 1715, but it's been a while, I haven't found one since I would say the hurricane season of 04.  It's interesting seeing them show up again.
Thanks.   James 1v12 

Items That Look Like the Mystery Item Found by DJ.
Finds and photo by John C.
Thanks John.

Also from the Not Just Coincidence department, below is a find from Steve L. It is the same kind of copper tack I found a few days ago.

Steve said, I also detected turtle trail around low tide Sunday. I saw 2 other guys detecting south ahead of me but none of us were digging much.  I managed to get only one target but I am happy with it. I took a picture next to a penny for size reference. I think it is like the one you found a few days ago I enjoy your blog. Steve L 

If anyone can tell me more about these items, please do.  I'd like to hear from others who have found them and whatever ideas you have about them.  Thanks.


Copper Tack Find by Steve L.
Photo by Steve L.

I always say when you find one of an item, there is a very good chance that there is more nearby.

Last Thursday I checked out a beach and there was some erosion, but I didn't know if it was enough.  I found this piece of lead, which as I said in a previous post, I took as what I call a signal find.


That piece, dense and nearly the size of a cob, told me that there was a possibility of other older dense metals nearby, so I checked the next day and found a few more small and seemingly old items, including another folded piece of lead.  My finds, along with John and Steve's finds, suggests to me that beach conditions were getting very close to producing some cobs, and perhaps would have produced one or two small ones if I had been in just the right place.  While beach conditions were not great yet, they were improving.  Unfortunately, the next day, conditions on the same beach seemed to deteriorate.  With the calm conditions we've had lately, I would guess that there are still some things that are close and could easily become accessible again with a little more movement of sand.

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Archaeologists are racing against the clock to save the remains of a buried Viking ship from a ruthless foe:  fungus.
If the project is successful, the 65-foot-long (20 meters) oak vessel — called the Gjellestad ship — will become the first Viking ship to be excavated in Norway in 115 years, said Sveinung Rotevatn, the Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment...
Here is the link for more about that.


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Looks like after today the small surf will disappear from the Treasure Coast.  Then we'll get up to six feet.

Surf Predictions.
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net