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Remote New Zealand Volcano Sees Dinosaur Alert?

Posted by simoniker on Mon May 24, 2004 05:20 PM
from the dino-crush dept.
It's funny. Laugh. Science
Thanks to BoingBoing for pointing to a ChannelNewsAsia story discussing a 'dinosaur' sighting in webcam pictures of a remote New Zealand volcano. The latest live webcam picture shows the offending creature, with Geonet spokesperson John Callan saying: "Some wag has glued a [toy] pink dinosaur in front of our digital camera", even though "...most people do not go ashore on the uninhabited, rumbling" White Island, east of Auckland, where the webcam is located. Apparently, the dinosaur will stay for now, since authorities "are not planning on removing it, counting on the sulphur and high acid environment to deal to the creature."
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  • Hah! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Some guy named Chris (9720) * on Monday May 24 2004, @05:21PM (#9242367) Journal

    The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has a story [abc.net.au] complete with picture [abc.net.au] in case of a Slashdotting.

    This is a great hack. It has to be an inside job. How else would they know when the camera takes pictures, to avoid getting caught. Not to mention the exact location of the camera.

    Too funny!

    • Re:Hah! (Score:5, Informative)

      by trs9000 (73898) <trs9000@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Monday May 24 2004, @05:44PM (#9242572)
      well i dont know that it has to be an inside job.
      from this article [abc.net.au] it says that:

      the webcam is updated hourly and

      the nz team got a lot of responses about the inflatable dino.

      so im assuming this information is known and available to the public and also that enough people follow the cam. i dont know these things for sure cause nz is getting /.ed.

  • "Some Wag"? (Score:5, Funny)

    by DynaSoar (714234) * on Monday May 24 2004, @05:22PM (#9242372) Journal
    "Some wag" is a cop out. They did it and are afraid to admit it. Who else would have the necessary safety equipment to put the toy there, other than the people who put the web cam there, and who else would know exactly where the web cam was on an island that "people don't go on"? We're expected to believe "some wag" jusy happened along in that forbidding scenery and just happened to be carrying that particular toy, and happened to find that aprticular spot and know what the thing was attached to?

    • Re:"Some Wag"? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by LostCluster (625375) * on Monday May 24 2004, @05:23PM (#9242388) Homepage
      Are they the only scientific project on the "unhabited island"? If there's more than one crew taking measurements, it wouldn't be too far out to mess with a rivial team's camera this way.

    • Re:"Some Wag"? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rakshasa Taisab (244699) on Monday May 24 2004, @05:28PM (#9242430) Homepage
      You can propably get there without any safety equipment. You can locate the web cam by looking at the pictures...

      If the dino appered suddenly (as the article suggest), then it propably was by some outsider.

    • Re:"Some Wag"? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Roland Piquepaille (780675) on Monday May 24 2004, @05:31PM (#9242459)
      "Some wag" is a cop out. They did it and are afraid to admit it. Who else would have the necessary safety equipment to put the toy there

      What tells you there isn't the horribly burnt, decomposing cadaver of the tourist prankster down on the ground, out of the camera's field of view?

    • Re:"Some Wag"? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2004, @05:38PM (#9242526)
      White Island isn't a dangerous, lava-covered island. It's actually relatively safe so long as you don't stay there too long and, on bad days, where a mask. Tourist boats go out there all the time, it's just that most of them don't stop off to let people wander around due to the liability problems of having un-educated people wandering around a live volcano spewing out noxious fumes. If you're careful, you can easily get on, attach a Dino, and get off again.

    • Re:"Some Wag"? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by taniwha (70410) on Monday May 24 2004, @05:38PM (#9242530) Homepage Journal
      White Island's not that far from shore - certainly within reach of any of the local sea-going pleasure boats - from memory people actually used to mine sulphur there in years gone by - but it's also somewhere that's particularly expected to let loose one day soon so it's not reccomended

  • Not as offending as another pink dinosaur... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2004, @05:22PM (#9242373)
    ... to go unnamed.

  • In other news... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2004, @05:22PM (#9242380)
    Actually, there IS no other news, which is why this made it to the front page.

  • Who? (Score:5, Funny)

    by NIK282000 (737852) on Monday May 24 2004, @05:24PM (#9242391) Homepage Journal
    Who has the time to go up a volcano to pull a global prank? Only a geek

  • So .. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bitmanhome (254112) <bitman@@@pobox...com> on Monday May 24 2004, @05:24PM (#9242394)
    Slashdot points to BoingBoing points to ChannelNewsAsia points to a webcam pointing at New Zealand?

    I think I'm getting dizzy..

  • Fred's pet (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rctay (718547) on Monday May 24 2004, @05:25PM (#9242408)
    This could create a new fad. Place object of choice in the field of these site cams.

  • Won't the plastic last despite the sulfur... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by henryhbk (645948) on Monday May 24 2004, @05:28PM (#9242432) Homepage
    Many plastics are fairly resistant to acidic environments and sulfur aren't they? Isn't this why toys like this last for hundreds of years? I realize that many plastics have different chemical characteristics, but aren't the majority pretty inert? Someone out there with some plastics chemistry knowledge like to weigh in?

    • Re:Won't the plastic last despite the sulfur... (Score:5, Informative)

      by arivanov (12034) on Monday May 24 2004, @05:41PM (#9242552) Homepage
      Not any more. Most companies have learned the lesson that they are too inert and they are not getting enough turnover. As a result modern toy and household plastics have under 5 years of life and become brittle and break due to decomposition and loss of plastifiers. Some plastics are even more short lived (plastic bags have under 6 months of life). So that dino is not going to be there for very long.
  • After turning up the audio gain for the web cam, said dinosaur was heard to vocalize: "Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh!!!"

  • You fools! (Score:5, Funny)

    by mcc (14761) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Monday May 24 2004, @05:29PM (#9242445) Homepage
    That's not a dinosaur, it's Smaug! He's escaped from the set of Peter Jackon's The Hobbit and is trying to nest!

    If they don't do something quickly, this could be even worse than the incident when all those orcs got loose during the Battle of Helm's Deep filming and slaughtered that busload of Japanese tourists!

      • Re:You fools! (Score:5, Funny)

        by mcc (14761) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Monday May 24 2004, @05:57PM (#9242660) Homepage
        Silly rabbit, Peter Jackson's working on King Kong and won't commence shooting The Hobbit for some time.

        Oh, and that's supposed to make me feel better?? The man couldn't keep control of an orc herd in rural New Zealand, and you're expecting him to be able to rein in a giant god-like ape creature representing the untamable and unfathomable strength of nature while shooting in New York?? Oh yeah, I'm sure nothing will go wrong.

        Just you wait, one of the junior rigging people is going to mess up with the lighting or something while shooting one of Kong's scenes, the handler won't be able to calm him down, and before you know it the property damage will be in the millions, the ASCPA rep will be in tears and the liability lawsuits will be pouring in...

  • Love the burn-in (Score:5, Informative)

    by zcat_NZ (267672) <zcat@wired.net.nz> on Monday May 24 2004, @05:29PM (#9242446) Homepage
    If you're ever setting up a webcam outside, position it so that the sun is always behind it, not shining directly into the camera for two or three hours every afternoon.

    I learned this the hard way; my weathercam has exactly the same pattern of smokey lines across the sky now too..

  • fact check? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2004, @05:29PM (#9242447)
    actually it's not that remote, it's a 40 min boat ride from where i live, tourists go there almost daily (yes i've been too) and it certainly is not fuckin east of auckland!

    • Re:fact check? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2004, @06:00PM (#9242677)
      and it certainly is not fuckin east of auckland!

      May I remind you that this is Slashdot, which is an American site, and to Americans, anything outside of the US is called Foreignland and everybody speaks Foreigner. (Oh yes, and some parts of Foreignland have oil, and those inhabitants who happen to live near the oil may be tortured at will, in order to surrender said oil).

      Anyway, the point is, to an American, you're just a Foreign citizen who happen to speak their tongue natively, and they really don't give a shit where you are exactly, or where is White Island and Auckland for that matter. What matters is that they recognized Dino on the picture, and also... oooh, shiny!...

  • White island (Score:5, Informative)

    by lakeland (218447) <lakeland@acm.org> on Monday May 24 2004, @05:33PM (#9242484) Homepage
    Actually, white island isn't that remote. It is a fairly popular daytrip. I'd post photos from a holiday there, but there's no way my 128k DSL line can handle slashdot :-(

  • Mirror (Score:5, Informative)

    by davew666 (555119) * on Monday May 24 2004, @05:39PM (#9242536)
    Here [fotango.com] is a copy of the photo, as the site is S L O W at the moment

  • Mirror of the image... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pranjal (624521) on Monday May 24 2004, @05:43PM (#9242567)
    ..in case of slashdotting. Mirror [miowebitalia.com]

  • what is the camera made out of? (Score:5, Funny)

    by slyguy420 (193568) on Monday May 24 2004, @05:55PM (#9242635) Homepage
    If plastics melt in this particular enviroment, what is the webcam made out of?

  • Neat Idea (Score:5, Interesting)

    by V50 (248015) on Monday May 24 2004, @06:01PM (#9242679) Journal
    If it does slowly melt like the article implies, it would be rather neat to download and save the photo everyday and create a time-lapse video of it melting... If it actually does...

  • Not glued? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Odin's Raven (145278) on Monday May 24 2004, @06:05PM (#9242709)

    I rather doubt this is a small toy glued to the camera, since Dino is currently (May 25 10:00 am NZST picture) casting a rather distinct shadow on one of the rocks.

    Unless, of course, the prankster also glued a rock to the camera... :-)

  • Weak up, this is a cover up people! (Score:5, Funny)

    by ArcticCelt (660351) on Monday May 24 2004, @06:12PM (#9242766)
    The real thing is that scientists are conducting experiments on the poor little thing by testing the limit that Dino can reach in an inhospitable environment. Please stop the insanity and save the dinosaur.

    --This announcement is sponsored by PETA

  • I've been to the White Island (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stvangel (638594) on Monday May 24 2004, @07:08PM (#9243122)
    Was there with some friends a few years ago. It was fun. Sail north for a couple hours, climb around the volcano for a few hours, and sail back. I've got tons of pictures of us climbing around the crater, sulpher pools, and factory ruins. They used to have factories built in it to process the sulphur, but after they were destroyed the third time, they never rebuilt.

    It's actually fairly safe there. The volcano is quite well behaved. It throws out steam continuously, and only occasionally has hissy-fits where it throws out rocks the size of coffee-tables. Those come and go, so as long as you avoid it during particularily active times, you'll be fine.

  • We know when it arrived... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rediguana (104664) on Monday May 24 2004, @07:44PM (#9243320)
    Someone has found that the dinosaur turned up between 1100 and 1200 NZST on the 5th of May. :)

    20040505-1100 [geonet.org.nz]
    20040505-1200 [geonet.org.nz]

  • It's been there for three weeks (Score:5, Informative)

    by Chris Brewer (66818) on Monday May 24 2004, @07:45PM (#9243321) Journal
    As in the email I sent to the Inquirer in reply to this article [the-inquirer.com], it appeared between 11am and Noon NZST on the 5th of may, as evidenced by these archived shots: 11am [geonet.org.nz] Noon [geonet.org.nz]. Given the positioning and angle, I suspect someone who has access to the camera and was able to make sure it was lined up correctly.

  • Source of figurine identified (Score:5, Informative)

    by cssjunkie (782656) on Monday May 24 2004, @07:50PM (#9243355) Homepage

    I've been studying this sauropod since thursday, and I believe that it is a plastic pen topper, one of a group of Flintstone pen toppers available on the web:

    http://amres-pics.com/p_asp/a4091.asp

    Here's the topo of the island:

    http://www.gns.cri.nz/what/earthact/volcanoes/nz volcanoes/bookimages/Whit_fig1.gif

    ..and more stuff about it:

    http://www.wi.co.nz/hazards.htm

    The camera is actually located near the beach, about 3/4 kilometers from any active vents, so it's pretty safe and highly accessible by boat. Apparently groups of geology students are sent out there to study, and probably to maintain the camera too. I guess one of them had this fancy topper along, and was struct by sudden inspiration. Since there is likely a pen or pencil under Dino, it will be highly stable against disturbances.

    There is a forum about White island, but in 3 years most posts seem to be blank submits from students "learning" about the island. There was one post a few days ago that mentioned the 'saur, but no other word before that.

    A page on that now-slashdotted site showed the camera setup, and it looks like the camera is just above ground level, matching what's seen in the live image, so I doubt it's faked.

    Compared to some other photos, the island seems fairly quiet right now.

  • The dinosaur is contravening OSH guidelines by not wearing a hard hat.

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