5 ms·
I'm surprised that they are not waiting till 2028 to open it. Would be and great PR. I wonder if the inconclusive X-rays indicated underwhelming contents. A
by ortusdux 3y ago
I'm surprised that they are not waiting till 2028 to open it. Would be and great PR.
I wonder if the inconclusive X-rays indicated underwhelming contents.
A difficult to x-ray lead box sounds like the ideal use case for neutron imaging.
https://www.phoenixneutronimaging.com/neutron-imaging https://www.phoenixneutronimaging.com/neutron-imaging
- highwaylights 3y agoYeah this seems… kind of like a jerk move? Finding a time capsule and then opening it at 195 years rather than 200 years seems very much like you just don’t want someone five years from now to get to do it instead of you.
- unglaublich 3y agoThere's nothing special about 200 besides being a multiple of 10, which is an arbitrary convention.
- brk 3y agoI think sometimes people get too hung up on arbitrary numbers. Will another ~2.5% of elapsed time really make much of a difference? Also, why shouldn't the people who discovered it get to open it at this point?
- chasd00 3y agoI don’t know a lot about Westpoint but my hunch is if someone from Westpoint wrote “don’t open this for 200 years” on the time capsule then it won’t be opened until exactly 200 years has passed.
- goodbyesf 3y agoMost people, probably including those who created the time capsules, like nice 'round' numbers for some reason. It's why we have terms like centenial, bicentenial, etc. People bury time capsules in the hopes that it is unearthed 50 or 100 or 200 or 1000 years You'll notice that most time capsules are buried with the expectation that it is unearthed on non-arbitrary dates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_time_capsules https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_time_capsules > Also, why shouldn't the people who discovered it get to open it at this point? The people who created the time capsules, if given the choice, would probably want it opened in 2028 rather than 2023.
- saalweachter 3y ago195 is a multiple of 13, to commemorate the 13 original colonies, 3, for the trinity, and 5, for the Five Freedoms.
- brk 3y agoSo what would be the recommendation if it was found at 205 years instead of 195 years?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- paxys 3y agoWhy take it away from current cadets? West Point doesn't need internet PR, and 200 is as random a number as any other.
- ortusdux 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bicentennial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bicentennial
- xtiansimon 3y agoSooner better than later. If you wait and there’s nothing interesting in it, the windup and letdown would take the wind out of their sails. Remember Al Capone’s Vault (1986)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Al_Capone%27s_Vaults https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Al_Capone%27s_V...