Fascinating scientific stuff

[sparkchaser]

Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica's biggest subglacial lake

This is simultaneously intriguing and terrifying.

 

[beer good]

Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica's biggest subglacial lake

This is simultaneously intriguing and terrifying.

There's really no way they're not going to wake up Cthulhu, is there?

 

[sparkchaser]

I'm afraid not.

 

[Will]

"a vast, dark lake that hasn’t been touched by light for more than 20 million years."

That is not dead which can eternal lie people...

 

[beer good]

That is not dead which can eternal lie people...

Surely that's just a theory?

 

[sparkchaser]

Apparently Vostok is Russian for R'lyeh.

 

[Will]

Surely that's just a theory?

Not according to Abdul Alhazred.

 

[sparkchaser]

And things get weirder:

Shipwreck in Baltic Sea? A UFO? Mystery to Treasure Hunters

They know they're onto something big. If only they knew what that something was.

A group of treasure hunters based in Stockholm, using sonar, has found a strange disc-shaped object on the floor of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. From above, it looks a bit like the Millennium Falcon of "Star Wars" fame. It's large -- 197 feet in diameter -- and it's in about 275 feet of water. Leading to (or from) it is a churned-up track on the sea floor of about 1,600 feet.

 

[beer good]

^^ The David Icke people are having a field day with it.

Personally I think it's PacMan.

 

[Will]

lol best suggestion: it's a fish roundabout

 

[sparkchaser]

I like this one:

It's a plug. DON'T TOUCH IT!!!

I second this. For the love of dolphins, don't dislodge it.

 

[sparkchaser]

Russian scientists seeking Lake Vostok lost in frozen 'Land of the Lost'?

A group of Russian scientists plumbing the frozen Antarctic in search of a lake buried in ice for tens of millions of years have failed to respond to increasingly anxious U.S. colleagues -- and as the days creep by, the fate of the team remains unknown.

 

[beer good]

...says FAUX News.

And considering that they'd be the first to welcome our new Old One overlords, I feel safer.

 

[sparkchaser]

Believe me, it bothers me that was the only news source I found saying that.

 

[Hugh]

Believe me, it bothers me that was the only news source I found saying that.

Looks like the Daily Mail is reporting it too:

Lake Vostok: Russian scientists on verge of drilling into Antarctic lake hidden under ice for 20MILLION years | Mail Online


My understanding is that only the US has lost contact with the Russian team, maybe the Russians are simply not returning their calls.

 

[Will]

I should point out that the Daily Mail is held with almost as much respect in the UK as is FOX News in the U.S. Okay, it's not as obviously bad BUT it's seen as something of a popularist right-wing rag...

Here's a song about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eBT6OSr1TI

 

[beer good]

And to everyone's surprise, it turns out the FAUX News report was up to their usual standards.

Fox Flub: Russian Vostok Lake Scientists Safe - US News and World Report

 

[sparkchaser]

Of course they're not lost. They're at Vostok Station.

 

[Will]

"What I can tell you is that they are doing something that has never been done before—think of it, sampling a lake under 2.5 miles of ice at a location that is the highest, driest and coldest desert on our planet," he adds.

They clearly haven't seen that episode of the X-Files with the worms in it. That should be required viewing for anyone sampling ice from ancient Cthulhu-like lakes...

 

[sparkchaser]

Aye.