70 years since Operation HighJump

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Here's one visitor who's travels I found inspiring: http://www.tractortractor.org/en/movies/

I find it amazing that activities that were once only the province of entire nations, are now often performed by common people. Activities such as sending probes to the upper atmosphere, exploring the depths of the ocean, performing sophisticated scientific experimentation, traveling across the vast expanse of the oceans, the list goes on.
 
Was sort of discussing that with a co-worker the other day.

With what you can find on the internet, and a few afternoons, you can grind lenses and make a telescope, for a relatively few dollars can redo the michelson morley experiment, probably to a higher level of accuracy than the original.

What used to be the realm of states, churches, and the thinking gentry are possible to most of the western world.
 
Originally Posted By: Rick in PA
Here's one visitor who's travels I found inspiring: http://www.tractortractor.org/en/movies/

I find it amazing that activities that were once only the province of entire nations, are now often performed by common people. Activities such as sending probes to the upper atmosphere, exploring the depths of the ocean, performing sophisticated scientific experimentation, traveling across the vast expanse of the oceans, the list goes on.


"exploring the depths of the ocean" You mean manned exploration? OK, I know James Cameron has been, but he's not exactly "common people" and it probably cost him more than the 1960 Trieste trip. (IIRC the USN only paid a $million for the slightly used bathyscape, though it needed work.)

I suppose a robotic drone submersible might be within a non-billionaire private budget, though with the support required I doubt it, and havn't heard of it being done.

"traveling across the vast expanse of the oceans" This isn't exactly a recent development. The Polynesians were doing it with a few sophisticated sticks two thousand years ago.
 
Wasn't sure what HighJump was, Googled it. Got several conspiracy theory (tin foil hat wearers) hits, something about 3 hours of missing time on the mission means they found an entrance to the hollow Earth nonsense, were attacked by aliens, found a wormhole portal, or military operations?
 
Fortune and/or notoriety.Growing up in New Mexico, I watched a downed weather balloon array carrying radar targets turn into flying saucer debris and dead aliens. "Roswell", the more the government tried to explain the event, the more people believed there was a conspiracy to cover up Earth was being visited by alien life forms.The JFK assassination led to the "magic bullet" that made right turns in order to pass through both Kennedy and Connally. No amount of graphic detail showing the bullet's path was/is enough to convince those individuals who use the Reynolds heavy duty foil for their tinfoil hat that the 6.5mm round traveled a straight line. Once a meme gets firmly attached to a receptive brain, no amount of evidence contradicting that idea will ever change that belief. An entire generation believe Oliver Stone's JFK was an accurate portrayal of what took place in Dallas. Never mind that Jim Garrison was a nut.
 
Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Fortune and/or notoriety.Growing up in New Mexico, I watched a downed weather balloon array carrying radar targets turn into flying saucer debris and dead aliens. "Roswell", the more the government tried to explain the event, the more people believed there was a conspiracy to cover up Earth was being visited by alien life forms.The JFK assassination led to the "magic bullet" that made right turns in order to pass through both Kennedy and Connally. No amount of graphic detail showing the bullet's path was/is enough to convince those individuals who use the Reynolds heavy duty foil for their tinfoil hat that the 6.5mm round traveled a straight line. Once a meme gets firmly attached to a receptive brain, no amount of evidence contradicting that idea will ever change that belief. An entire generation believe Oliver Stone's JFK was an accurate portrayal of what took place in Dallas. Never mind that Jim Garrison was a nut.

And it's been observed that denying a story (in general) reinforces the memory of the denied story. So there is no way for a truth teller to win.
 
Memory also isn't as good as people think it is. There's studies that show that after planting a false memory, years later the person with the false memory actually thought it had happened. Same with eyewitness accounts. I remember being on one court case where there were several witnesses, they were all asked to repeat their recollections, I remember one guy had the time off by an hour, the 3 or 4 other people had the correct time. It had nothing to do with the case, but it's interesting to note how memories can play tricks on people.
 
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