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Farewell To the South Pole Dome

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-wanna-live-in-a-dome dept.

Julie188 writes "After more than three decades of service to researchers and staff stationed at the bottom of the world, the dome at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was deconstructed this austral summer. Designed and constructed by the Seabees — the construction battalions of the US Navy — in the early 1970s, the dome's geodesic design provided a unique solution to the challenges posed to engineers trying to build structures at the South Pole. The dome is being returned to southern California where it will be held in storage. It could possibly be trotted out as an exhibit in a new US Navy Seabees museum."

12 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Bad idea. by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    Great, how do they know that in the past 28 years The Thing hasn't managed to figure out how to assimilate non-living matter and is now the dome? Just sitting there, waiting in the cold.
    I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

    How's that for tying two classics together?

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Bad idea. by Gilmoure · · Score: 2, Funny

      Whale skin hubcaps for the win!

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    2. Re:Bad idea. by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 2, Funny

      Crap! I thought it was "travel in pears"... I have been avoiding the produce section of the store for no reason... though they still might be hiding in the live plant and fresh flowers area.... hmmm...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  2. But what about the Others? And Jacob? And Smokie?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Oh wait, wrong 1970s scientific research group.

  3. Dang Air Force cutbacks. by GiveBenADollar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Guess they are also getting rid of the F-302s at McMurdo. Homeworld security must not be important to the current administration.

  4. So the chair is no longer there. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    So the chair is no longer there.

  5. Re:Pictures and more info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not Safe For Government?!? Isn't that an oxymoron?

  6. Deconstructed? by wcrowe · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't think that word means what you think it means.

    "Dismantled" would be a better choice.

    Of course I may be wrong. Perhaps the Seabees really have been standing around considering the the dome's true meaning and searching for inconsistencies in its design.

    --
    Proverbs 21:19
    1. Re:Deconstructed? by grahamsz · · Score: 3, Funny

      Was it mantled in the 70s?

    2. Re:Deconstructed? by gclef · · Score: 4, Funny

      Today's lesson: don't let philosophers dictate meaning.

  7. The new building is really nice by frog_strat · · Score: 2, Funny

    I live down the street, and the new building is much nicer. Parking is a pain, though.

  8. Re:And Here is Why by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 2, Funny

    [...] each year the structure sunk deeper into the ice it was built on.

    Everyone said I was daft to build a dome on an ice sheet, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the ice. So I dismantled that one and built another. That sank into the ice. So I dismantled that one and built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the ice. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest dome in all of Antarctica!

    (Sorry. It just came to me...)