Remote New Zealand Volcano Sees Dinosaur Alert?

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."

Re:"Some Wag"?

[LostCluster]

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.

Fred's pet

[rctay]

This could create a new fad. Place object of choice in the field of these site cams.

How long will that thing last?

[WarlockD]

I mean its made of plastic, but it looks like it might be one of those rubber types.

I would also like to know WHEN it showed up. I mean, really, who would miss something like that.

SOMEONE has to be getting paid to stare at that camera, or at least review it every day.

Won't the plastic last despite the sulfur...

[henryhbk]

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?

For those who haven't read the thread on Fark...

[Rude Turnip]

There have been musings from several New Zealand-based fark.com members that other items may soon be joining Dino.

how do they know...

[Anonymous Coward]

...whether the dinosaur is actually there or whether the feed was hacked to add the dinosaur then? it must go through some postprocessing to add the text. that seems a more likely place to add a dinosaur than going out to a remote island. i guess time will tell--if it's impervious to the elements then it's probably not real.

another more interesting possibility is the web cam is suffering from charles bonnet syndrome. this is a condition wherein cartoon characters appear in some part of the visual field--such as the lower half. sounds like i'm making it up, but go ahead and google it.

Neat Idea

[V50]

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...

Place your bets

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, I think we need to start a pool for who most accurately guesses the date/time that:

1. More objects appear next to Dino.
2. Dino melts.

Re:Won't the plastic last despite the sulfur...

[Bloomy]

Is it cheaper to manufacture plastic so it will wear out within 5 years vs. something that will last? Companies would want that turnover for household items, but in the toy world, aside from video game controllers, Legos (and other building blocks) and Barbie, most plastic toys probably get pushed aside by the next fad before their plastic gets a chance to wear out.

Reminds me a lot of Geocaching

[magefile]

One variety of which involves going to the GPS coordinates and finding the webcam, then either staying there 'till it takes your picture, or calling a friend back home and having them go to the site and click "save".

Makes authentications of one's claim that you were there a bit easier; just post the photo to the forums. Yeah, you could Photoshop it, but no one cares enough to do that.

Re:Has it occured to anyone

[xMjollnir]

Gee, I'm not sure what I could have to back it up that would make you believe me. Yes, it was an inside job. No, I don't have proof.

no safety equipment, no brain

[SuperBanana]

You can propably get there without any safety equipment.

Not if you don't want to meet a hydrogen sulfide(I think?) gas cloud that might come out of a vent at any second and wind up dead pretty much on the spot. Remember they said they're planning on the acidic fumes taking care of Dino? That sucker's active (the volcano, not Dino), and I remember a story about most of a team of volcanologists getting killed from that and a rock slide (of course, they ignored warning signs of an impending event, but still- you don't get anywhere near that close to an active volcano without at least a gas mask.

I've been to the White Island

[stvangel]

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.

Re:Has it occured to anyone

[xMjollnir]

Actually, it's probably not easier for someone on the inside to upload doctored pics. Scientists go to White Island pretty regularly... once a fortnight at least I'd say to take crater lake temperatures and what not.

We know when it arrived...

[rediguana]

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]

Location too remote

[Anonymous Coward]

To me, it looks as if the real reason why they don't remove the dinosaur is because the location is too remote to make it worthwhile to send somebody over to clean up this rather minor embarassment.

In the olden days, they had a similar situation at the Eiger North Face [sfdrs.ch]: some mountaineer died in an accident while attempting to ascend it, and rather than fall down, he stayed stuck in the "wall", hanging in his rope. In plain view from the nearby village. For two years (!). With no feasible way to remove him from there.