| |
|
Article: <5ee52d$a3d@sjx-ixn5.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: IN SYMPATHY to the Hale-Bopp Cooperative
Date: 19 Feb 1997 06:02:53 GMT
(Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
We wish to ask Jim Scotti, a brave man, who in fact does NOT run
and hide, to explore the angst and agony of a hypothetical
Hale-Bopp cooperative who might find themselves in the position
of defending an absurdity, all due to the egos and micro-focus of
others whom they are bound by professional allegiance to defend.
Given a hypothetical situation where:
| 1. | INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES within the government, who had enlisted various astronomers and gained their promise of cooperation in the form of a security oath, had in essence a captive group of cooperatives. |
| 2. | these same intelligence agencies, operating off outdated procedures, MAKE A REQUEST of these astonomers in what they called the best interests of the nation. |
| 3. | this request was to CREATE A DISTRACTION where the populace would focus away from an impending threat, a distaction to be repeated as often as necessary until the government could get their act together regarding the threat. |
| 4. | the duty bound astronomers, doing their best with this situation, grabbed the next opportunity in a nova situated where the gawking populace would have their BACKS TO THE THREAT. |
| 5. | working late into the night and using war game tactics, the astromoners PLOTTED AN ORBIT that would dive into a swamp of unmapped stars as the nova faded, and would have such an angle against the Sun upon perihelion that the absense of a tail might be excused. |
| 6. | back tracted this orbit and arranged for a unique image, one that would NOT BE DUPLICATED in any other archieve, to find a doctored bright smear that would ostensibly confirm this orbit. |
| 7. | agreed that all images submitted by an enthusiastic public WOULD BE SCREENED so that only those that confirmed the story would be posted, building a sense that the public was indeed seeing what they had been told to see. |
| 8. | carefully doctored the STORY LINE TO BE PARSED OUT from the half dozen major observatories around the world, and the dozen or so independent astronomers who would give the story the appearance of being egalitarian. |
| 9. | released images of the nova taken by the Hubble, but burried any further threat of exposure of the game plan being played out by CONSIGNING ALL FURTHER HUBBLE PICTURES to a single trustworthy individual, a Principle Investigator. |
| 10. | planned to RIDE THROUGH PERIHELION with a series of pictures, recent releases from the PI, that would dazzle the public and flood the newpapers, so that the absense of any real comet in the skies during perihelion would not be remembered by the majority. |
Just what would an astronomer, caught in this situation, having done what he thought was his civic duty, doing what he had been told was for the good of the country, DO when in the squeeze? What to do when the doctored images are exposed for what they are? What to do when the inconsistencies in the story are too glaring? What to do when the inconsistencies are posted beside each other, so that their cumulative impact cannot be dismissed with various academic mumblings?
A. can't tell the truth, as he's under oath!
B. can't defend the evidence without looking like a fool!
C. can't refuse to discuss the issue, as one is a reknowned astronomer in the public eye!
D. can't make the damn thing go away, and perihelion due any day now!
HELP!!! In this hypothetical situation, Jim, what would you
advise our poor hypothetically trapped astronomer to do?
(End ZetaTalk[TM])