Mystery builds as Russians quit drilling for season. The drill lies less than 50 feet from subglacial
Lake Vostok environment. Russians leave
a two mile borehole filled with kerosene to prevent freezing, until drilling resumes in December. Mystery surrounds the lake even thicker than the two miles of ice covering it. There is a reluctance to penetrate an environment separated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The pristine lake could be contaminated in the process, but release of pressurized gases is also a concern.
Vostok station was established in 1957 by the Russians, who suspected the presence of water. A.P.Kapitsa attempted to verify a freshwater lake by seismic measurements in the fifties and sixties, but data failed to confirm it. Russian scientists were convinced though physical pressure exerted by the ice sheets, could reach melting temperatures.
In 1974, British scientists did a radar survey by flying over Antarctica and uncovered the terrain below ice of predominantly mountains, and on Christmas Day, what appeared to be a lake. A satellite study by space-based radar in 1991 confirmed the presence of one of the largest lakes in the world. A documentary, "
The Lost World of Lake Vostok," provides an excellent summary of efforts made in the discovery.
Lake Vostok lies not only two miles down in complete darkness, but apparently a very old and deep lake. Vostok is about the size of Lake Ontario but with twice the volume and almost half as deep as
Lake Baikal--the deepest lake in the world.
NASA became interested because of
similarities to Europa and viewed the lake as a testing ground.
Mystery helped propagate rumors a decade ago, when
a NASA press conference was interrupted after allusions to "national security" concerns and intervention by the
NSA.
The
Art Bell show contributed to controversy with statement on air scientists were suffering ailments after returning from the South Pole. A
McMurdo Station physician made a comment at the time to his replacement,
"fill your pockets with salt," a hint to bring
iodine tablets because of radiation. It didn't end there.
Two million missing Nazis and base 211 have been tied to the lake.
A 2009 Science Daily article can be worked into the conspiracy web, reporting a dynamic network of lakes below Antarctica--what better place for Nazi U-boats? The conspiracy-fest continues with possibility a large crystal, which powered legendary Atlantis, is the source of the
magnetic anomaly detected at one end of Lake Vostok.
Is all the hype comic book fantasy or disinfo agents at work to obfuscate reality? Worse, has a virus we haven't encountered been released? Or, is the South Pole going to suffer a similar fate as the Gulf of Mexico? We won't have long to wait, December is the last month before apocalyptic 2012!
Is the new Cybercommand policy to open the public's eyes? Or, is the only open eye at the top of the pyramid? Are you beginning to feel like an abused b-slapped spouse? You should! Rob Kall at OEN writes definitive article, "Get Ready for Digital False Flag Attacks," about Pentagon's move to codify cyberwar with "equivalence" policy. "If a cyber attack produces the death, damage, destruction or high-level disruption that a traditional military attack would cause, then it would be a candidate for a "use of force" consideration, which could merit retaliation." It's simply an eye for an eye. The United States will be allowed by policy to retaliate with military force if a Stuxnet-like virus turned off, say, nuclear plant vents and caused a F**USHIMA here!.
Cyber security expert Ralph Langner reports his research into Stuxnet in a must see video from a recent Ted Talk. While an article by Washington's Blog, "Could a Rogue Computer Virus be Used to Shut Down Nuclear Plants Worldwide?", has gone viral; the real news is Langner's revelation that "Stuxnet is generic", which implies its flexible code can easily attack other industrial sites not just nuclear plants. The Ugly Truth quotes Langner's pointed comment, “you fail to understand that the hacker underground has been studying control systems for years without any success. You fail to understand that this community will eagerly dismantle Stuxnet as a blueprint for how to cyber-attack installations from the cookie plant next door to power plants.” Virus protection will be at a premium for commercial applications!
from vanity fair: Last summer, the world’s top software-security experts were panicked by the discovery of a drone-like computer virus, radically different from and far more sophisticated than any they’d seen. The race was on to figure out its payload, its purpose, and who was behind it. As the world now knows, the Stuxnet worm appears to have attacked Iran’s nuclear program. And, as Michael Joseph Gross reports, while its source remains something of a mystery, Stuxnet is the new face of 21st-century warfare: invisible, anonymous, and devastating.
Russia warns Iran too dangerous to bring Bushehr reactor online. Sergei Kiriyenko, Rosatom chief (Russian Nuclear Energy Commission), complained directly to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Stuxnet malworm shouldn't be ignored and warned of potential calamity. An article at Debkafile, "Stuxnet hits Bushehr again, Russia warns of nuclear explosion," can only be called ominous in tone. "The impression the Rosatom chief had gained from his staff at Bushehr was that the Iranian teams had been ordered to activate the reactor at any price to prove that the Islamic Republic had beaten Stuxnet. This concern overrode security." Ahmadinejad ordered the reactor shut down after the Russian departed as reason prevailed on this day. Dimitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, warned the Stuxnet virus is very toxic and dangerous like "explosive mines". 