IPICP memo

The memo from the hidden directory at Stop Polarneft reveals Arkady Simkin was not the first to discover the mysterious arctic remains, or the first to be covered up for his trouble.

"Worth a read, if only for the exquisite detail of it."

- Eric Belson

At the conclusion of the Polarneft conspiracy story arc of the Giantology campaign, a hidden directory was found on the Stop Polarneft site. The directory contained a 3D scan of Quadratus, a cave painting of Quadratus fighting a few hunters, and a lengthy memo from a team at the International Polar Ice Core Project (IPICP).

The memo was written on June 15, 1985 by an unknown person related to the United States Department of Geological Sciences; all names were blacked out prior to its posting in the directory.

Summary

The author of this memo is writing to several authorities in the U.S. government regarding the inexplicable and sudden removal of funding for an IPICP project to collect ice core samples in various regions of the world. The purpose of this project was to determine the extent of human influence on the environment and climate. Before their project was terminated, the IPICP team had collected fifteen samples (whose locations are detailed in the middle of the memo). However, during the team's expedition to an island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago on April 26, 1985, they discovered something "anomalous" in the ice - the semi-exposed remains of a giant creature.

Even though the team (who initially theorized the remains were part of a meteorite) never intended to study the giant, they produced a brief report and some footage, and sent both to a colleague in Murmansk (whose name, as with all other names in the memo, are censored). However, the mail never reached its intended recipient; the writer of the memo strongly suspects the mail was intercepted, for reasons beyond understanding. More disturbingly, the IPICP team received a short message from an immigration officer in Murmansk stating that the team's research licenses had been revoked. Thirteen days later, as the confused team members regrouped in Uppsala, Sweden, they received a fax from the Chairman of the IPICP committee stating that all of their funding had been pulled.

The memo author, understandably shocked at the revocation of the team's rights and funds, concludes the memo asking for an explanation from his superiors. He states that the team will gladly apologize to anyone they could possibly have offended or wronged in their discovery, and reiterates the importance of their studies.

Full text of the memo

What follows is a full copy of the scanned portion of the memo (the bottom was torn off), including censored text. Every character was copied as-is from the original document; note that a few typos are present.

JUN-15-85 SAT 13:10M 30554935376 JUNE 15, 1985 VIA FACSIMILE FROM: ████████████████, DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES, ██████████████████████, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS TO: ██████████████ CHAIRMAN, NA█████████████████████████████S ██████████████ TREASURER, █████████████████████████████████ ███████████, FINANCIAL SUBCOMMITEE, S███████████████████████████████████ RE: OSTROV VINER-NEYSTADT ANOMALY & ICICP FUNDING I AM WRITING ON BEHALF OF A TEAM OF GEOLOGISTS AND CLIMATOLOGISTS WHO FOR THE PAST YEAR HAVE BEEN WORKING TOGETHER ON THE INTERNATIONAL POLAR ICE CORE PROJECT (IPICP). THE PURPOSE OF IPICP, AS YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW, ISTO OBTAIN ICE CORE SAMPLES FROM MULTIPLE LOCATIONS WITHIN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, IN AN EFFORT TO ACHIEVE A BROAD CROSS-SECTION OF DATA, TO BETTER UNDERSTAND LONG-TERM CYCLES OF GLBAL CLIMATE CHANGE, AS WELL AS DETERMINE WHETHER HUMANKIND HAS HAD A MEASURABLE IMPACT ON THE ARCTIC ICE SHEET OVER THE PAST 100 YEARS OF INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING PROCESSES. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT ICE CORE SAMPLES CAN YIELD VALUABLE DATA FROM 50 YEARS UP TO 200,000 YEARS DEPENDING ON LOCATION AND DEPTH OF THE SAMPLE TAKEN. ALTHOUGH A SINGLE ICE CORE SAMPLE CAN PROVIDE A LIMITED BUT USEFUL DATA SET, THE BROAD SCOPE OF IPICP WOULD GUARANTEE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE ICE CORE DATA EVER GATHERED. WE ARE AT A CROSSROADS AS A SPECIES AS WE HAVE ONLY RECENTLY BEGUN TO UNDERSTAND THE EFFECT HUMANKIND HAS ON THE GLOBAL CLIMATE - "ACID RAIN" IN THE NEWS, NUCLEAR WASTE CONTAINMENT AND DISPOSAL PROBLEMS, THE EFFECTS OF CARBON DIOXIDE AND OTHER POLLUTANTS, ETC. IPICP IS INTENDED TO BE THE VANGUARD OF THE NEW FIELD OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE. FUNDING FOR IPICP WAS OBTAINED FROM A VARIETY OF SOURCES, INCLUDING INTERNATIONAL UNVIERSITY RESEARCH FUNDS, INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE INVESTMENT, A SIZABLE AMOUNT OF SOVIET RESEARCH ASSISTANCE, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, U.S. GOVERNMENT GRANTS WHICH PROVIDED THE BULK OF IPICP FUNDING, EQUIPMENT, FACILITIES & STORAGE, TRAVEL, COMMUNICATIONS, MAINFRAME COMPUTING TIME, ETC. AS WELL AS THE "INTANGIBLE" SUPPORT OF INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY WITH THE U.S.S.R., TO HELP GARNER PERMITS AND ACCESS TO LOCATIONS PREVIOUSLY RESTRICTED TO SOVIET SCIENTISTS ONLY. PER THE ATTACHED PROJECT STATUS REPORT INCLUDING TOTAL COSTS TO DATE, OVER THE PAST THREE MONTHS, IPICP HAS CONDUCTED ITS FIELD RESEARCH SYSTEMATICALLY WITH A TEAM OF 18 SCIENTISTS AND GRADUATE STUDENTS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE, LED BY AN INTERNATIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE (CC'D BELOW). WE HAVE OBTAINED 15 ICE CORE SAMPLES TO DATE: --U.S.: ALASKA SAMPLE 1: BONA-CHURCHILL --U.S.: ALASKA SAMPLE 2: NORTH SLOPE, BARROW --CANADA: BAFFIN ISLAND SAMPLE 1: PENNY ICE CAP --CANADA: BAFFIN ISLAND SAMPLE 2: DEVON ICE CAP --CANADA: ELLESMERE ISLAND: AGASSIZ ICE CAP --GREENLAND SAMPLE 1: DYE 3 --GREENLAND SAMPLE 2: HUMBOLDT --NORWAY: SVALBARD SAMPLE 1: AUSTFONNA ICE CAP --NORWAY: SVALBARD SAMPLE 2: VESTFONNA ICE CAP --NORWAY: SVALBARD SAMPLE 3: LOMONOSOVFONNA ICE CAP --U.S.S.R.: SEVERNAYA ZEMLYA SAMPLE 1: VAVILOV ICE CAP --U.S.S.R.: SEVERNAYA ZEMLYA SAMPLE 2: ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ICE CAP --U.S.S.R.: FRANZ JOSEPF LAND SAMPLE 1: ZIEGLER ISLAND --U.S.S.R.: FRANZ JOSEPF LAND SAMPLE 2: GLACIER NO. 1, HALL ISLAND --U.S.S.R.: FRANZ JOSEPF LAND SAMPLE 3: KUPOL VYETRENIY, GRAHAM BELL ISLAND PLANS WERE IN PLACE TO CONTINUE GATHERING ICE CORE SAMPLES FROM FURTHER LOCATIONS OVER THE COURSE OF EIGHT ADDITIONAL MONTHS, FOR A TOTAL OF APPROXIMATELY 45-50 SAMPLES, ALL TO BE STUDIED AT A COLD STORAGE FACILITY AT COLUMBUS, OHIO. HOWEVER, OUR RESEARCH WAS ABRUPTLY HALTED WHEN ALL U.S. AND SOVIET GOVERNMENT FUNDING WAS PULLED FOLLOWING AN ANOMALOUS DISCOVERY IN THE FRANZ JOSEF LAND ON OSTROV VINER NEYSTADT. THE ANOMALY DETECTED ON APRIL 26 1985 BY AN ADVANCE LOCATION SCOUT TEAM WAS AN ICY BULGE PROTRUDING FROM A SMALL, BOWL-SHAPED VALLEY IN THE INTERIOR OF THE ISLAND, MEASURING APPROXIMATELY 110 METERS LONG BY 60 METERS WIDE, RISING ABOUT 20 METERS ABOVE THE SURROUNDING TERRAIN. ALTHOUGH THE ENTIRE FRANZ JOSEPH LAND ISLANDS ARE VOLCANIC IN ORIGIN, THE BULGE WAS NOT PERCIEVED TO BE PART OF A CALDERA, AND THEREFORE WAS NOT A VOLCANIC BULGE. ADDITIONALLY, SEVERAL UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE ANOMALY LED OUR ADVANCE TEAM TO BELIEVE THAT THIS WAS NOT A NATURAL FEATURE OF THE ISLAND. THESE FEATURES INCLUDED SEVERAL SMALL (LESS THAN 5 METERS) BUT SIGNIFICANT ROCKY PROTRUSIONS FROM THE ICE SHEET THAT CLEARLY DID NOT MATCH THE SURROUNDING TERRAIN. OUR INITIAL ANALYSIS WAS SOME TYPE OF METEORITE, HOWEVER WE MERELY DOCUMENTED THE BULGE FOR THE PURPOSE OF NOTIFYING SOVIET SCIENTISTS. IT WAS NEVER OUR INTENTION TO FURTHER INVESTIGATE THIS ANOMALY; THE SCOPE AND BUDGET OF OUR CURRENT RESEARCH DOES NOT ALLOW FOR DEVIATION FROM OUR SCHEDULE. WE DID, HOWEVER, PREPARE A BRIEF REPORT OUTLINING THE ABOVE, AND MAILED IT ALONG WITH 1 UNDEVELOPED ROLL OF 35MM COLOR STILL FILM AND 1 UNDEVELOPED 400FT ROLL OF 16MM COLOR FILM ON APRIL 28 1985 FROM THE WEATHER STATION AT ZEMLYA ALEKSANDRY TO ███████████████ IN MURMANSK. HOWEVER, NEITHER THE FILM NOR THE REPORT REACHED MR. ███████. IT IS MY PERSONAL BELIEF THAT THESE FILMS AND OUR ADVANCE TEAM'S INITIAL REPORT ON THE ANOMALY WERE INTERCEPTED. WHY AND BY WHOM, I CANNOT POSSIBLY SPECULATE. HOWEVER, ON MAY 7 1985, WE RECEIVED A TERSE COMMUNICATION FROM AN IMMIGRATIONS OFFICER IN MURMANSK, REVOKING OUR PERMITS TO CONDUCT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN THE SOVIET UNION AND REQUESTING THAT WE RETURN TO OUR COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN IMMEDIATELY. NO REASON WAS GIVEN. FURTHER, ON MAY 20 1985, AS SEVERAL OF OUR TEAM REGROUPED IN UPPSALA, SWEDEN, TO PLAN NEXT STEPS, WE THEN RECIEVED A FASCIMILE FROM █████████████, CHAIRMAN OF THE IPICP STEERING COMMITTEE, NOTIFYING US THAT ALL FINANCIAL SUPPORT PREVIOUSLY GRANTED BY THE ████████████████ OF SCIENCES AND SEVERAL OTHER PROMINENT U.S. AND SOVIET RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS, HAD BEEN REVOKED, AND THAT WE WERE TO DISPERSE OUR RESEARCH TEAM. THIS WAS SUCH A FINANCIAL SETBACK THAT WE WERE FORCED AMONGST OURSELVES TO USE OUR OWN PRIVATE MONEY TO PAY OFF FOUR MONTHS OF COLD STORAGE IN MURMANSK, AND FINANCE THE SHIPMENT OF SAMPLES BACK TO COLUMBUS, OHIO. AT THIS TIME, IT IS NOT CLEAR WHETHER OR WHEN ANY FUTURE FUNDING WILL ENABLE US TO CONTINUE OUR RESEARCH, EVEN TO THE POINT OF ANALYZING THE SAMPLES WE NOW HAVE ON HAND. THUS I AM WRITING TO YOU IN HOPES OF AN EXPLANATION AS TO THE REVOCATION OF OUR FUNDING, AND FOR YOU TO REINSTATE SUCH FUNDING AND SUPPORT IMMEDIATELY. WE ARE, AS AN ORGANIZATION, MORE THAN PREPARED TO OFFER AN APOLOGY TO THE SOVIETS IF WE IN ANY WAY OFFENDED OR CROSSED ANY SORT OF NATIONAL SECURTY LINES. SINCE THERE SEEMS A DIRECT CONNECTION BETWEEN OUR DISCOVER OF THE VINER NEYSTADT ANOMALY AND OUR FUNDING "PROBLEMS" (TO PUT IT MILDLY), I REPEAT, NONE OF US IS INTERESTED IN THIS ANOMALOUS FINDING. NONE OF US IS INTERESTED IN GATHERING ANY TYPE OF SENSITIVE INFORMATION. WE ARE NOT A POLITICAL GROUP, WE ARE SCIENTISTS SEEKING ANSWERS TO SOME OF THE MOST PRESSING AND IMPORTANT QUESTIONS OF OUR AGE: HOW DOES THE EARTH'S CLIMATE CHANGE OVER TIME, HOW MIGHT WE AS HUMANS BE AFFECTING THIS CHANGE IF AT ALL, AND HOW MIGHT THESE CHANGES AFFECT US. I CANNOT EXPRESS ENOUGH THAT YOUR ORGANIZATION'S ACTIONS HAVE HAD A DEVASTATING EFFECT ON OUR RESEARCH; HAVE, IN EFFECT, SHUT US DOWN COMPLETELY. WE ARE NOW SEEKING MORE PRIVATE MONEY, BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT BIG SCIENCE REQUIRES GOVERNMENT FUNDING AND SUPPORT. WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT, WE CANNOT CONDUCT OUR GLOBAL SCALE CLIMATALOGICAL RESEARCH AND MUST MOVE ON TO OTHER, SMALLER PROJECTS. THE UNFORTUNATE SIDE EFFECT OF YOUR DECISION MEANS THAT THIS RESEARCH FOR ALL SCIENCE (NOT JUST OUR GROUP) HAS BEEN SET BACK BY YEARS, IF NOT DECADES. I EAGERLY AWAIT YOUR RESPONSE. SINCERELY, ██████████████████ CC: █████████████ (STEERING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN), ██████████████████████████ AND DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES, ██████████ ██████████, COLUMBUS, OHIO 43210-1002 ███████████████████ (MANAGEMENT GROUP CHAIRMAN), ████████████████████████ FOR POLAR AND MARINE RESEARCH, BREMERHAVEN, GERMANY ██████████████, ███████████████████████████████████████ AND DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES, ██████████████████████, BOULDER, COLORADO 80309-0450 ███████████████, █████████████, AND ████████████████, ████████ MARINE BIOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, ██████████████████████, MURMANSK, RUSSIA 153023 ████████████, ████████████████████████████████████████████████████, ███████████████████, STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305, USA ██████████████████ DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCES, ███████████████████, UPPSALA, SWEDEN [rest of page is torn] ██████████████████ [rest of page is torn]

Censored item identification

While names of the memo's censored individuals will almost certainly never be known, a few searches around the web have revealed that it is possible to identify at least some of the censored organizations. The censored content will appear in bold and highlighted in grey (like this).

• The first CC'd recipient's location is the Byrd Polar Research Center and Department of Geological Sciences at Ohio State University.
  • Note that the memo's author made a mistake here. The Byrd Polar Research Center was not known by that name until 1987 (the memo is dated 1985). No other geological science department located in Columbus having a name that can fit the length of the censored text exists.
• The second CC'd recipient's location is the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research.
• The third CC'd recipient's location is the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado (at Boulder).

Notes

• In general, the discovery of Quadratus and the quick, mysterious cover-up were both very similar to what happened to Arkady Simkin's team when they found the remains.
• It is not known how the memo came to be in Boris's possession. It is possible that he censored it himself in order to avoid leaking more information than he wanted to (and potentially putting himself in more danger).
• No response to this memo was ever shown on the Giantology blog.

External links

• A retouched, slightly easier-to read version of the memo
• Download a copy of the memo text