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Area 51 Hackers Map Buried Surveillance Network
advair writes "There's a story on SecurityFocus about a pair of Area 51 'hackers' who discovered a buried network of wireless motion sensors on the public land surrounding the "operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada." Using a frequency counter and a GPS receiver, they tracked down and logged 30 - 40 of the sensors, before the FBI and Air Force raided one of them, and questioned the other. Now one of the guys has been charged with a federal crime for allegedly removing one of the devices that was protecting a base that doesn't officially exist."
The base exists. Clinton signed it into existance when the workers sued for being exposed to pollutants which the goverment didnt want to disclose. As of 2002 all of the John Doe's are now dead and the foverment still didnt explain what materials they were exposed too.
In case you didn't know, there is an excellent search engine called Google which gives you the answer. Just search for groom lake satellite pictures and you'll get this as your first hit.
I don't know if it is or isn't in use, but if you do some research, you will find that they will probably be guarding it for quite some time.
There were several civilian employees that worked there and they became ill. They sued the government due to what they said were illnesses resulting from EPA violations (burning toxic chemicals). Apparently all the experimental stuff they have been doing has some nasty bi-products. They were running out of storage room so naturally they just burnt it. Apparently if a base doesn't exist, it is free from abiding by EPA regulations. That is a whole topic for another discussion though.
To make a long story short, they weren't allowed to sue because officially the base didn't exist. I do not know the final outcome of the case since the base has been acknowledged.
If they were handling toxic stuff there, it is possible that they will continue to guard it even if it isn't used anymore to prevent hapless curious seekers from exposing themselves to lethal substances.
The Federation of American Scientists has a nice description of what is on Area 51, as well as many links to provide more info.
There is no denying that there is much about the place kept under wraps, but the crazy UFO stories need to come to an end.
Sunny Dubey
I believe the military installation commonly known as Area 51 is actually an advanced aircraft development center, where they developed craft ranging from the old U2 spy plane to the F-117 stealth fighter.
Actually, both the U2 and the F-117 were developed at Lockheed's Skunk Works plant in Palmdale CA. A lot of information can be found in Skunk Works, a memoir by the guy who ran the place during the F-117 development. He also discusses where some of the testing took place in the book, and if I recall correctly most of it was (for the obvious reasons) well-known radar testing ranges.
Now, for all we know, Area 51 still could be an advanced aircraft development center. If they retired the SR-71 (also a Skunk Works Project) and allowed the F-117 to become public before it was absolutely neccessary, then what do they have that they aren't talking about?
Area 51 is real and is used everyday. There are planes that take off everyday from McCarran Airport in Las Vegas bringing employees to Groom Lake.
"Another area of interest is the EG&G terminal on the Northwest corner of McCarran International Airport. Every weekday morning, about 500 people arrive at the guarded terminal with one destination, Groom Lake. When I was in Las Vegas observing the activity of the EG&G terminal, I counted six EG&G owned 737-200s. The aircraft are easily identifiable; they are white with a red strip running the total length of the plane. They fly out to Groom Lake about every half hour in the morning but things slow down in the afternoon with about two to three aircraft always sitting outside. Starting in the late afternoon (I noticed one coming in at 2:30 PM), the 737s start coming back to Las Vegas. At about 6:00, all of the aircraft (6 of which I counted, there could be more) were back to the EG&G facility for the night. Below are the photos that I took when I was out to Groom Lake and observing the EG&G terminal." From sr-71.org, and a picture here.
Also for the "new" Area 51, Popular Mechanics had an article a long time ago that is located here.
The truism that the USPS is an awful service is baloney. Whenever I hear about faster services it turns out to be in a much smaller country like England or Switzerland. Who, by the way, charge more to post a letter. Most mail I send in a few hundred mile radius gets delivered the next day. And I can send a letter several thousand miles away for 37 cents. And the USPS has to deliver to everyone (everyone!) in the US for the same price. Tell Fedex you want to deliver to Hawaii for 37 cents and see what they tell you. The USPS technology borders on the surreal. Forget Mr. Chaney sorting mail in the back of the general store. Try a half mile conveyor with mail moving so fast you literally only see a solid blur of white, with unbelievable high speed character recognition and Aunt Mabel's handwritten scrawl put into a 10 second holding pattern while the next available human sorter anywhere in the US gets a snapshot beamed by satelite to their monitor.
My friend once got a letter sent from Belize. It was addressed "Tom and Debbie. The Yellow House Next to the Meat Store on Atlantic Ave. Rochester, NY" It took a grand total of 6 days to get there.
Flame off.