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Antarctic Lake Actually Two in One
Scoria writes "USA Today reports: Scientists have discovered that Lake Vostok, a liquid freshwater lake which has been isolated from the world beneath 4 km of ice for approximately 500,000 years, contains two separate basins. They believe that the basins, which are divided by a ridge that limits water exchange, may host individual ecosystems that are home to ancient microbes."
It's really one giant organism in the process of dividing....
wbs.
Huh?
...must be worth destroying in the name of science. Someone ready the drill!
...because there's something in there that'll try to kill us all.
Stop the world; I need to get off.
Nah ... they already covered that one in an episode of X-Files.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
So what. A few million will die so I can grow immunity and live. No biggie.
RUN! :-)
... Vostok bottled water, a pleasant alternative to Evian. ;-)
Do you like German cars?
>>Further to that, the chances that Al Qaeda, the Tamil Tigers, or Cobra itself are going to infiltrate the artic and spirit away with these microbes are too ridiculous to entertain.
I can see the reflection of the snow in old chrome-dome's facemask now as he flys around Antartica barking out orders....
"GET ME THOSE MICROBES!!"
And only the Joe-Team can stop him. GO JOE!
wbs.
Huh?
Oblig. Reply: "But I'm Mr. Freeze you insensitive clod!"
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
Lets wipe out America's white trash majority.....I could do without seeing another episode of Jerry Springer anyway.
...of what scientists believe the life may look like down there.
Just remember - every new supermicrobe is another potential blockbuster disaster movie.
How theories evolve:
"???" and "Profit!" are left as an exercise for the reader.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
Bottle it! Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. Let's siphon some off into lake Erie and see what happens..where'd I leave that roach..
If you're actually scared of that, you should probably live in fear of terrorists raiding your fridge.
Ahh in Australia our government is prepared for that, we got special Fridge Magnets
Y'all got taken in. Obviously this "news" story is movie hype for Alien vs. Predator (8/15 release). If you had gone to the movies this weekend you would have seen the trailer (scientists find pyramid buried 1000s of feet under Antarctic ice cap, it contains Alien-style aliens which emerge from their pods and eat you.
[AD 2015, RESEARCHERS FINALLY MANAGE TO MAKE CONTACT WITH ANCIENT MICROBES AT BOTTOM OF LAKE VOSTOK]
[MICROBES] So, what has the media been saying about us?
[RESEARCHER] Oh, well, I've got the newspaper articles right here..
[MICROBES] What? "Lake untouched for 500,000 years"? Is that all it's got to say? "Lake untouched for 500,000 years"! Five words!
[RESEARCHER] Well, there's an awful lot happening on earth, and only so much print space in the international media.. and no one knew much about the Lake Vostok of course.
[MICROBES] Well for God's sake I hope you managed to rectify that a bit.
[RESEARCHER] Oh yes, well I managed to transmit a press release summarizing our research off to Reuters. They had to trim it a bit, but it's still an improvement.
[MICROBES] And what does it say now?
[RESEARCHER, SLIGHTLY EMBARRASED] "Lake mostly untouched for 500,000 years"
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Anchored in something? in a book written 2k years ago about tales of un-reproducible events like spontaneous multiplication of bread and fishes?
Uh sure, that's absolutely scientific!
If you excuse me i'll continue my studies in hobbit science, it's also written in a book, but has the un-refutable evidence of being in a movie too...
Oh why even bother? It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
Why aren't environmentalists up-in-arms about this type of arctic drilling? This is a pure, untouched ecosystem that's going to be contaminated by people for no real reason except for curiosity.
Don't those 500,000 year old microbes have just as many rights as the spotted owl, salmon, and those lizards in the West somewhere?
Stop this microbe genocide now, and prevent all drilling - whether it's for commerce (oil) or science!
Pour salt on it for christ's sake
Lots and lots and lots and lots of salt
The let the rain wash the slime away
Since liquid water is less dense than ice,
And that my friends, is why ice cubes sink to the bottom of the glass.
If VISTA is the answer, you didn't understand the question