Posted on 09/12/2018 9:54:20 PM PDT by House Atreides
UPDATE 9/12/18 4PM PST The issue may be related to Mercury (the metal, not the planet). On a tip from a science journalist friend who covers telescopes and who has been there, I verified the observatory uses a vat of liquid mercury as a float bearing for the giant solar telescope. According to an internal NSO/NMSU document, that bearing is “high-risk” during maintenance. If there was a major mercury spill, it might explain why the Feds are there, with FBI providing security. The amount of Mercury is said to be in the “tens of gallons” range, which is next to impossible to come by in the commercial market these days, and if it were weaponized, it would make a very nasty dirty bomb. Perhaps there’s some security issue with the mercury on-site.
The mysterious and sudden closure of the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico is sending alien hunters into a frenzy as the facility remains shut without explanation. The research institute in Sunspot was evacuated last Thursday along with a nearby United States Postal Service office for unexplained ‘security reasons.’
A spokesperson for the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) which manages the observatory said the evacuation was a precautionary measure due to a security issue. “It was our decision to evacuate the facility,”spokeswoman Shari Lifson added....
...
(Excerpt) Read more at wattsupwiththat.com ...
Control? Keep people scared over minor things?
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. H. L. Mencken
Interesting article about mercury bearings in old lighthouses:
http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2014/03/mad-as-a-lighthouse-keeper-not-the-solitude-but-the-mercury/
The mercury story is certainly plausible but why is the FBI involved unless someone spilled it as a terrorist act or was trying to steal it? The EPA would seem to be the more likely agency to take action.
That is not mercury. It is unobtanium the gov’t got from the aliens at Roswell....
Agreed. I’m still wondering how one “weaponizes” it (per article mention, above).
The only way I know of weaponizing Hg is to convert it to Methyl Mercury. An energy intense and expensive conversion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Fear
“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.”
Basically, if you can keep the people in fear, you can keep yourself (or in this case, the Feds), in control. And that’s what they want more than anything. More than peace, more than friends, more than family - they NEED control.
So why are all the other Solar Observatories offline, even NASA is not displaying anything current?
Last week SETI and other radio observatories announced they were receiving radio signals from another galaxy to the tune of 300 signals amounting to 400 terabytes of data..
Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
Robert A. Heinlein
They just discovered that the Sun is not making Sunspots....Ice Age Imminent.
That is a better excuse than “Anthrax.” ha ha.
Where it would go right to the bottom. And it would be sucked up by a vacuum in about a week.
Good plan, right there. /ha ha.
“... Chinese infiltrators perhaps?” This seems to be the going rumor now. Large quantity of Chinese foreign exchange students at the college “spying” on White Sands/Holloman - given up by DiFi’s Chinese-spy driver.
Post Office was closed because that’s how they were communicating.
1,966 posted on 9/13/2018, 9:46:58 AM by Larry - Moe and Curly (Loose lips sink ships.
Thanks for that. A broken thermometer was great fun when we were kids.
The Lewis and Clark expedition carried mercury in their supplies. It was administered by Capt. Lewis to some of the men who contracted the clap from dallying with the natives.
Gee do you think Feinsteins spy could be involved”
What about anyone with a sun filter on their telescope as well as foreign observatories and local planetariums?
Have they all stopped looking at the sun?
FBI = Counterintelligence.
Wouldn’t be surprised to learn the observatory was used as a listening post by foreign governments, and there was someone at the observatory facilitating that as a spy.
Seems like the most likely scenario.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.