Comments on: Raiders of the Lost Lake

By: erikmartin

erikmartin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:39:25 +0000

“We don’t live in a human vacuum, it’s not us or animals (or microbes), it’s all of us working together in lots of invisible ways. I could kill a few termites if they ate my house, but getting rid of all of the termites in the world would be disastrous.”

It WOULD or it MIGHT? Personally, I’d be willing to take that chance on mosquitoes. Aside from making people generally miserable they kill and maim millions of us by passing on bacteria, viruses, and parasites to us. Sure, maybe wiping them off the planet will bring down the ecosystem as bats have nothing to eat, and bat-dung bacteria die out and… oh hell I don’t know. But that is a risk I for one am willing to take.

Maybe instead stead when genetic science is improved by a couple orders of magnitude we can genetically engineer a mosquito that can out-compete existing mosquitoes and is repelled by the chemical signature of humans, so they just feed off the rodents and livestock.

By: erikmartin

erikmartin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:24:29 +0000

“Dumping 60 tons of kerosene and Freon into the environment seems like shear stupidity given the already obvious benefits we may receive from this lake.”

It seems much worse than that. The extreme pressure in the lake would likely blow the freon and kerosene out, but the sudden drop of pressure could kill every organism in the lake, cause a rapid outgassing of the lake water’s stored gases, and then contaminate whatever gas content is left in it by exposure to the gases of our present atmosphere. Regardless of whether or not there is anything down there that would be killed, it would be a major catastrophe for science. Hence the self-sealing frozen ice phallus, which I think is an ingenious idea.

By: erikmartin

erikmartin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:14:20 +0000

“Another pristine environment unknown to man. for once we haven’t rushed in and destroyed it, so for once let’s protect it. … I agree with onbelay1, like the moon, research into this ‘virgin’ lake is going to be a waste of time.”

By “protect” it you mean never explore it at all? Protect it for what purpose. If we’re going to pretend it doesn’t exist it might as well not exist.

Calling exploration of this lake a waste of time reflects of profound ignorance of the state of earth science. That very Vostok core gives is absolutely invaluable data about the contents of the atmosphere over the last 400 million years. But that’s where it stops. There are no deeper ice cores. Yet just before the beginning of that 400 million years there were two GLOBAL glaciations — glaciations which no human would survive if they were repeated. That lake preserves the conditions — biological and atmospheric of the environment at the time of those glaciations. Despite anything you might have heard from Al Gore the science of the earth’s climate is filled with mystery and speculation. This science can only progress by finding new ways to extract information from the earth itself. And the answers that that science will eventually give may be crucial to the future of mankind.

By: Mirage_GSM

Mirage_GSM — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:32:54 +0000

[quote]Still, explain one simple fact, and maybe all will clarify: Why does an Antarctic expedition involve a whole battle squadron? What for? Who is it supposed to fight? [/quote]
Since this coule, with a bit of goodwill be construed as a reasonable question, I’m going to answer. Though, if you had followed the links I provided earlier, you would know the answer yourself. Again:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_High_Jump
[quote]The stated claims of the operation were as follows:

to train personnel and test material in the frigid zones

to consolidate and extend American sovereignty over the largest practical area of the Antarctic continent

to determine the feasibility of establishing and maintaining bases in the Antarctic and to investigate possible base sites

to develop techniques for establishing and maintaining air bases on the ice, with particular attention to the later applicability of such techniques to operations in interior Greenland. (where, it was then believed, physical and climatic conditions resembled those in Antarctica)

to amplify existing knowledge of hydrographic, geographic, geological, meteorological and electromagnetic conditions in the area. [/quote]
This is a mission profile completely consistent with what I would expect for an army – or navy in this case – in peacetimes.

By: Mirage_GSM

Mirage_GSM — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:21:49 +0000

This is getting tedious. Since it is futile to have a meaningful discussion with alex, I will just add a few points for other readers:
- Wikipedia is not a “media agengy”. I agree it is not an absolute source, but so far alex has provided no source whatsoever, and until he does, I will deem Wikipedia adequate.
- Neither the Casablanca nor a ship named “Murdoch” were a part of Operation High Jump. In fact there has never been a US ship named “Murdoch” And USS Casablanca was decomissioned about six months before the alleged events in the antarctic.
- Richard Byrd continued to be on active duty until his death in 1957. I doubt he would have been if he’d had a mental disorder.

By: alex212

alex212 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:28:37 +0000

To Thumper235
Oh yes, experiments on humans are an integral part of your Civil Rights and worldwide “Democracy” system. I have seen what you have done in Iraq. When in Fallujah I saw traces or rather numerable undeniable evidence of the use of white phosphorus on women and children. Wanna know how they look, here it is: THE CLOTHES ARE LEFT INTACT, ONLY THERE ARE NO FACES, NO FLESH ON BONES, NOTHING LEFT OF THEM. YOU WOULD HARDLY IDENTIFY THEM.

By: alex212

alex212 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:09:23 +0000

Mirage, you say:Nice story. Only it’s not based in fact
Allow me to disagree with you there.
1) Wikipedia can’t stand any such facts as mine, because it is under pressure like most of the world’s media agencies: Reuters et c. You know well who makes them lie to people.
2) I saw with my own eyes an old Soviet declassified intelligence report including video materials on what Exactly happened to the “High Jump” squadron. And what was told to the Congress. You see, we were watching each other pretty scrutinizingly in those years.
3) UFO studies were a top program of NASA and USAF and nobody declassified it by now. Now, I do not get data just out of my imagination, Mirage, I’m too old for that.
By the way, Byrd had a mental disorder after the incident.

By: Mirage_GSM

Mirage_GSM — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:26:31 +0000

Nice story. Only it’s not based in fact.
Here is the actual account of Operation “High Jump”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Highjump
About the only thing that matches your account is the year and the name of the expedition leader. (Except for him being only a rear admiral and the name being spelled “Byrd”.
The “terrible losses” amounted to one aquaplane and four casualties – three died when the plane went down during a blizzard and one died during a “ship unloading accident”.
Of the two destroyers who took part in the expedition none were lost. USS Brownson was decomissioned in 1976 and USS Henderson continued to serve in Korea and Vietnam before being sold to Pakistan in 1980 and finally decomissioned in 2001. (They sure built those ships to last!)
All of this information was available in under 5 minutes of search on the internet, so please check some moderately reliable sources before posting such outrageous stories.