This isn't the first mysterious incident with cargo ships and the Russians I've heard of.

I grew up in Port Angeles, Washington. Port Angeles is located on the Olympic Peninsula, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Vancouver Island. The Strait of Juan de Fuca just happens to be the primary route to the Pacific Ocean from Naval Submarine Base Bangor, in nearby Bremerton. Bangor is one of two naval bases in the United States that houses America's fleet of Trident nuclear missile submarines.

A Russian cargo ship anchored itself in the middle of the strait about twelve years ago and just sat there without explaining themselves. The obvious explanation is that the Russians were probably counting submarines leaving and returning to Bangor. I suspect the Strait is shallow enough that it's not feasible for the submarines to leave the Strait submerged, and on fishing trips my dad and I saw one of them. Even surfaced, they are damn silent. I suppose they could have left Bangor through Canadian waters, though I don't know the political feasibility of sailing subs full of nuclear weapons through Canadian waters.

After the Russian cargo ship hung out in the strait for awhile, the American authorities figured they'd investigate it. So they got together with the Canadians and flew a helicopter over the ship. The ship evidently shone a laser at the helicopter (this is a couple of years before the days when lasers were an everyday cat toy) and blinded the American naval intelligence officer that was observing the ship. Investigating further, the Coast Guard decided to board the ship and search it for the laser. When they got around to boarding the ship, the laser was nowhere to be found. Eventually, the ship left the Strait.

While interesting speculation, I don't understand why we've frontpaged this story on a community site generally focused on technology, startups and hacker culture. I'd love to see this on a community site called UnsolvedMysteryNews, but until one exists, flagging for relevance.

I don't know about you, but speculation about the reality of international affairs certainly "gratifies [my] intellectual curiosity". See: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Aliens, it's definitely aliens. Wait, it's called the Arctic Sea, penguins it's definitely penguins, emperor penguins! Wait, it was sailing too far south for penguins in a non-refrigerated vessel, Alien-Emperor Penguin Hybrids! Being, er delivered to North Korea, to, er, make counterfeit US One Dollar Bills!

There, solved it. So now that's over and done with, can we find something else to satisfy your intellect, not mysteries that are only a mystery because the investigation isn't complete yet.

> Wait, it's called the Arctic Sea, penguins it's definitely penguins, emperor penguins!

You forgot the 'intellectual' part. Penguins are in the Southern Hemisphere, unless you count zoos.

You caught me, I have plans to release Emperor Penguins onto the Arctic glaciers, now you might want to forget this whole conversation . . . unless you want to fight a Mexican Snorkelling Kangaroo!

Dammit I haven't made those yet either. Supervillanry is hard :(

P.S. You pointed out the most logical flaw in an illogical conspiracy theorist dig, I feel quite honoured.

Because HN is optimized for churn (constantly getting new stuff on the front page), and it only takes as a little as a single upvote to get something on the front page.

I think I saw another similar "unsolved mystery" posting about the Dyatlov Pass a few days ago. This one is at least related to current events, but how did the other one come up?

And yet, it is possible to stretch it to make it look like it belongs to hackers news: trying to resolve a mystery is like hacking through the fog surrounding the mystery. (Not only is it a stretch but also a mixed metaphor. Oh well.)

The "stretching it" is a game called "7 degrees of hacker news". Take any random page on the internet, and explain how it's really about hacker news. For example:

http://reviews.roadbikereview.com/blog/why-you-should-be-rid...

Carbon vs Steel road bike frames.

Bicycle frames are high tech, especially carbon fiber ones. Hackers are all about high tech. The hack is that for most people that aren't elite racers, steel is still better for the price/performance ratio than carbon fiber, despite the advertising and bandwagon effects pushing carbon. So, the article is perfectly at home on hacker news!

Thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one annoyed by the "7 degrees of hacker news" story stretch.

I thought it was 6 degrees.

Anyway, this is an interesting story, I don't see why you'd oppose it. Most "hackers" I know are also into this kind of thing.

"In its latest version, official Russian television said ecologists had hijacked the Arctic Sea because they had ran out of fuel for their boats. " ... riiiggghhhhtt....

Remember to visit the "new" page and vote with your votes as well as your flags.

What's the point if you can't downvote crap? Out of 30 articles 2 were good enough to upvote, about a dozen needed downvotes the rest were meh.

Comments should be up only, articles should be up/down.

How can a ship disappear from radar?

I would think sinking would be the only way - unless ships transmit an explicit signal for radar to pick up.

i found it it interesting.. missles to iran isnt my cup of tea to be honest, although speculative, was interesting, reeks of a tom clancy story

It contained a Black Oil, an extraterrestrial virus that controls the host. I believe there were 2 FBI agents checking that ship out before it got hijacked.

If Russia has been shipping these to Iran for awhile, what was the Bush administration doing shaking nukes at Iran? Did they not know about it, or simply not care about retaliation against Israel?