Remote New Zealand Volcano Sees Dinosaur Alert? 312
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."
Flintstones... meet the Flintstones. (Score:3, Informative)
Hah! (Score:5, Informative)
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!
Love the burn-in (Score:5, Informative)
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)
Location (Score:2, Informative)
White island (Score:5, Informative)
Re:"Some Wag"? (Score:5, Informative)
Mirror (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Won't the plastic last despite the sulfur... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hah! (Score:5, Informative)
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
Mirror of the Image (Score:2, Informative)
Mirror 2 [msn.com]
Enjoy, and hey at least this post had a point.
Re:Mirror of the image... (Score:3, Informative)
Not glued? (Score:4, Informative)
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... :-)
Re:fact check? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:fact check? (Score:1, Informative)
try wikipedia [wikipedia.org] for a much better one.
being a satelite photo it's actually quite interesting in that you can see the fault line:
well thats my $0.10 worth
It's been there for three weeks (Score:5, Informative)
Source of figurine identified (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Flintstones... meet the Flintstones. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Love the burn-in (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Won't the plastic last despite the sulfur... (Score:3, Informative)
Plastic bags are made "biodegradeable" by mixing starch in with the resin, which decomposes in sunlight (but not in landfills, oops). The plastic resin persists but only as dust rather than a film. If this Dino is inflatable it is probably PVC, a resin that is easy to mold even if it isn't all that strong. PVC can be surprisingly durable if you add enough stabilizers/UV blockers/plasticizers to it, as would be common for an inflatable pool toy. But the air will perfuse through the plastic and Dino will deflate.
Early plastics incuded Bakelite, a very stable epoxy-like material that lasted forever, and celluloid, which doesn't last (much to the chagrin of film preservationists). The celluloid stuff is all long gone so when you look at old plastic objects the selection bias makes it look like they used to make everything long-lasting. The cheapest stuff always got brittle because anti-oxidants add to the cost.
Re:How long will that thing last? (Score:3, Informative)
5th may, 11 AM pic here [geonet.org.nz]
Current photo 25th May 3 PM
here [geonet.org.nz]
Re:no safety equipment, no brain (Score:3, Informative)
As a side note, when was the last time something being astronomically dangerous has ever stopped some idiot from attempting to be funny or cool? I know people who used to hood surf, and all things considered this is probably a lot safer.
Re:no safety equipment, no brain (Score:4, Informative)