MacCruiskeen » Thu Aug 18, 2016 1:34 pm wrote:I'm trying to imagine what Oppenheimer would say about this soulless, humourless "prank"* carried out with impunity by a witless gang of bored, privileged, entitled young wankers.
I'm trying to imagine what Einstein, Planck, Max Born, Louis de Broglie and the rest of that generation would say.
*
If that's what it was, and if that's all it was. I am still not 100% convinced that it was just a prank.
Pranks can swing way out of control sometimes.
In 1983 I was working for the US Forest Service and was involved with two controversial projects; an unpopular timber sale and an industrial scale application of glyphosate to weed conifer plantations. There were a number of demonstrations and the right wing militia anti-government types found common ground with the counterculture environmentalists. Tensions were high.
The silviculture department (I was District Silviculturist) had an ongoing project to sample cone and foliage for specific insects and diseases. Areas were selected and sample points established near the roads. The areas were typically 2000 to 3000 acres with a network of roads. Periodically Spring to Fall we would into each area to sample cones and foliage. Some data was analyzed in place, other samples went back to the lab. We obtained the samples by shooting into the tree crowns. I used a 16 gauge shotgun and buck shot. We had four shooters. One of the selection criteria for the "areas" was on dead end roads without much traffic so we could readily close the road access at one point while sampling. There were traffic cones, signs, and a guard to keep people out while we worked. The areas and dates were published in the local newspaper and posted on community bulletin boards. Lots of bang bang though.
There was a survey crew that worked planned timber sales and associated roads to gather data for road design and do other items like brush the p-line and cross stake cuts and fills. There was such a survey crew in the area but we knew where they were and acted accordingly (didn't shoot in their direction). We moved on as would do 3-4 areas a day.
When I returned to the office that day, there was commotion and the regional TV news had picked up on a US Forest Survey crew being shot at. The survey crew had hunkered down when the shooting started and then scurried back to the office to report the incident. Hours later I returned as did their boss from the field. There had been a failure in communication and we would not have shot at them anyway.
One of the folks on the silviculture crew was married to one of the surveyors and we were all members of a select social set: married college educated young US Forest Service couples without children who smoked pot and liked the Grateful Dead while drinking mushroom cranberry juice that Spooly grew from a kit he bought in a magazine etc. - "a witless gang of bored, privileged, entitled young wankers."
DeAnn hazed her husband Spooly with little mercy after the shooting incident and we all helped. She would sneak behind him and clap her hands and shout. "Bang!" and so on. I may have to write about DeAnn in the prank thread of the Lounge. Major prankster.
The survey crew was easy to find because once one found their truck, one needed only to look for a "Christmas Tree" of assorted plastic ribbons with a secret language and there would be a brushed trail with stakes and more ribbon with the crew at the end.
DeAnn drove by Spooly and the survey crew's work site one day and added another set of plastic ribbon with various nebulous threats some directed at "Spooly". When I came into the office the FBI was there and again the newest threats were already on the regional TV news, I had my suspicions. Soon after DeAnn came in my office highly agitated especially about the FBI. I suggested we drive out to Musser Hill and not come in from the field until everyone had gone home (and never tell anyone except our spouses about the true events of that day). I am not sure what I would have said if asked by authority about the incident. The frequent demonstrations and other public rhetoric by the folks actively protesting the USFS on that Ranger District served as cover too.
Sorry about the digression but I can see a scenario like this being quite likely - "a witless gang of bored, privileged, entitled young wankers."
If this sort of hoax (or fraternal initiation) is the case, CERN management would probably not want to find the perps but let the incident fade away into internet and CERN lore.
If something of more substance - true Satanic ritual -, the ptb would likely suppress the event as well. Curious.
Still seems to me that finding the identity of the person who filmed and the young woman are the most potentially fruitful lines of investigation. Also who and where the clip was first uploaded to the internet.