Catonic wrote:
] So my interest got peaked and I started looking at photomaps
] north of Hudson Bay. What I've found so far is an interesting
] splotch which makes me wonder -- what *is* this?
]
] http://maps.google.ca/maps?ll=64.916840,-87.878265&spn=0.65918
] 0,1.010742&t=k&hl=en
]
] Another large splotch, obviously something that's been edited
] out; is it a goverment installation, or the word I've been
] looking for above.

Interesting.. Possibly an old distant early warning (dew) installation? Terraserver also has nothing on those coords.

Catonic wrote:
] Every once and a while, when I log into a FreeBSD machine, I
] recieve this fortune:
]
] Between 1950 and 1952, a bored weatherman, stationed north of
] Hudson
] Bay, left a monument that neither government nor time can
] eradicate.
] Using a bulldozer abandoned by the Air Force, he spent two
] years and
] great effort pushing boulders into a single word.
]
] It can be seen from 10,000 feet, silhouetted against the snow.
]
] Government officials exchanged memos full of circumlocutions
] (no Latin
] equivalent exists) but failed to word an appropriation bill
] for the
] destruction of this cairn, that wouldn't alert the press and
] embarrass
] both Parliament and Party.
]
] It stands today, a monument to human spirit. If life exists
] on other
] planets, this may be the first message received from us.
] -- The Realist, November, 1964.
]
]
] So my interest got peaked and I started looking at photomaps
] north of Hudson Bay. What I've found so far is an interesting
] splotch which makes me wonder -- what *is* this?
]
] http://maps.google.ca/maps?ll=64.916840,-87.878265&spn=0.65918
] 0,1.010742&t=k&hl=en
]
] Another large splotch, obviously something that's been edited
] out; is it a goverment installation, or the word I've been
] looking for above.

I don't think they'd go through that kind of trouble just for that sort of thing. If you dork with http://imageatlas.globexplorer.com/ImageAtlas/view.do?group=ImageAtlas a bit you can get it to actually show you more than you're probably supposed to see, but it may just be doing a bad job of splicing in older satellite footage. Someone definitely appears to have done something deliberate about that tho, since two separate scans of the area by two companies at two different times have it blanked out.

Judging by the shape of that tract of land it *could* be an airstrip, but based on what was improperly revealed, I think anyone would be hard-pressed indeed to land there, unless they like doing it nose-first into a mudpuddle.

Catonic wrote:
] It stands today, a monument to human spirit. If life exists
] on other
] planets, this may be the first message received from us.
] -- The Realist, November, 1964.

It is worth considering the source. /The Realist/ was not a particularly factual magazine. The creator and author was Paul Krassner (http://www.paulkrassner.com/). There is a bio (http://www.paulkrassner.com/pkbio.htm) that gives some juicy quotes.

Or, from http://www.sevenstories.com/book/index.cfm/GCOI/58322100706950

] In 1958, having decided that what the world needed was a satirical
] magazine for adults, Krassner began publishing The Realist, and has
] continued to do so, on and off, ever since. People magazine calls
] him the "father of the underground press." Library Journal calls The
] Realist "the best satirical magazine in America."