Thousands of Rubber Ducks to Finally End Journey 210
Bert de Jong writes "The Daily Mail reports that thousands of rubber ducks who have traveled the seas of the world since 1992 are about to end their journey. After escaping out of a container fallen off a Chinese freight ship in a storm, scientists have been followed them on their fifteen year trek. This has turned out to be an invaluable source of information for studying ocean currents. Now it seems inevitable though that they will finally land on the shores of South-West England. '[Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer] correctly predicted what many thought was impossible - that thousands of them would end up washed into the Arctic ice near Alaska, and then move at a mile a day, frozen in the pack ice, around their very own North-West Passage to the Atlantic. It proved true years later and in 2003, the first Friendly Floatees were found, frozen and then thawed out, on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada. So precious to science are they that the US firm that made them is offering a £50 bounty for finding one.'"
How can they identify one ducky from another? (Score:5, Funny)
1) Goto shop and purchase large amounts of rubber duckies
2) Emerse them in water and ice for a few years and so
3) Sell them to this company for 50 pounds each
4) Profit!
More seriously, maybe scientists should be getting more brightly coloured floating objects and chucking them in the sea at various points. What about red for Russia (two types, one for each coast), yellow for (no I won't go there...) and various other colours for other countries.
A great way to learn more about ocean currents.
But they would get into trouble with (some) environmentalists, maybe they need to just "accidentally" knock a few more crates overboard?
Re:How can they identify one ducky from another? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, oceanographers already do this sort of thing, though not on such a large scale (with so many objects I mean). And of course, they use modern technology, including satellites (See for example http://vathena.arc.nasa.gov/curric/oceans/drifters
In that post I was aiming for a "funny" moderation, yet it seems that there are some unamused moderators who think it is redundant
Moby Dick doesn't have an outhouse (Score:2, Funny)
It may create local conditions that are unpleasant or even unhealthy for humans, but that's not the same as "bad for the environment". Lots of things that are perfectly natural are unpleasant or even downright deadly, and the presence of mass of fecal matter is no exception.
Where do you think all the fish in the sea go to shit? Ever wonder how lions find that herd of millions
Re:Moby Dick doesn't have an outhouse (Score:4, Funny)
A. The water closet!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Consider the difference between the amount of excretia generated by even the largest shoal of fish (or even Moby Dick) and the amount generated by a human population centre of any size, lets say a city of 100,000+, of which there are many around the coasts of the world.
Add to that the fact that the shoal of fish, and especially Moby Dick, will be mobile and deposit the excretia over a significant area whereas sewage outlet pipes aren't particularly known for the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
> Seem to me if you dumped sewage or industrial waste carefully into the deep ocean
Seems to me that the untreated sewage/industrial waste being dumped at the moment is not being dumped "carefully into the deep ocean".
Taking a blind dump? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and if you 'carefully dilute' something into the ocean by what process do you propose that you keep it from becoming undiluted? Life forms are the most efficient way to aggregate dilute substances.
Actually this is one of the dumbest, "If I can't see anything it must not be happening" suggestions I have ever heard.
THINK! Did it work for landfills? 'But we did such a good job of hiding it under the dirt and I can't see it there!' (Of course my well is contaminated now and I have to pipe water in...)
Re: (Score:2)
the enormous dilution factor should make any that reaches the surface harmless. What about all the ocean animals? It wasn't a retorical question, I don't know much about the effects of waste.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
And hydrogen! Attracted to each other through quantum electrostatic forces! And unless those forces are overcome, that oxygen won't be available for deep sea dwellers to breathe! That was their point!
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, and so is rust. What's your point?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Dilution is the solution to pollution.
In fact, in some municipalities, waste into the sewer system is allowed below a certain concentration, but get above that concentration and get fined. So you can (and some do) simply add water when dumping stuff down the drain. Environmentally this makes little sense as it's the same amount of "bad stuff" going down the drain, but in the allowed case you're also "wasting" lots of water. (this ignores the iss
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
WTF do you think happens to shit put in the ocean? It DILUTES! It DILUTES so freaking great that now Tuna is full of Mercury and orcas (killer whales) are going nuts because of the DILUTED pollutants.
The "dilution factor" works only if you have insignificant amount of pollution. Not cubic miles of shit dumped all over the place.
Thank you, but your kind of thinking is why there is 10 TIMES as much plastic in the ocean than algae and phytoplan
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
BASIC Strikes Again! (Score:3, Funny)
Wow, old habits die hard. GOTO? How about: ...
10 LET STEP1$ = "Go to shop and purchase large amounts of rubber duckies
20 LET STEP2$ = "Emerse them in water and ice for a few years and so"
30 LET STEP3$ = "Sell them to this company for 50 pounds each"
40 GOTO 1000
1000 REM Profit Routine
1010
this will eventually turn into a pixar movie. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:this will eventually turn into a pixar movie. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:this will eventually turn into a pixar movie. (Score:5, Funny)
I think you mean a duckumentary...
(I thank you, I thank you. Don't forget to tip your waitresses, etc.)
Re:this will eventually turn into a pixar movie. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:this will eventually turn into a pixar movie. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Already is a story (10 rubber ducks, Eric Carle), which was based on a true story.
ralph wiggum (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
£50 bounty, for a duck? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a pretty cool story though (shock, someone actually read TFA). I'm sure that we've learned a lot more about oceanic patterns from those plastic toys than we have from a lot of other (more expensive) methods employed in the past.
Re:£50 bounty, for a duck? (Score:5, Funny)
Who wants to go to an Artic Expedition, we're mining ducks....
Re: (Score:2)
That is so insightfull, I'm still laughing while I type!
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:£50 bounty, for a duck? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Umm, the ducks float.
Can't remember seeing many blue whales skimming the surface for plankton.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Perhaps we should just teach scientists to disguise their floats as rubber ducks or equip the floats with GPS so they're not so reliant of sightings to chart the course their floats are taking.
I foresee a whole new range of scientific devices...weather balloons shaped like alien heads (with a limited edition of Gremlin-features), rubber duck floats...
Re: (Score:2)
"Prepare for trouble [serebii.net]..."
Well, you'd get a lot of kids involved in science.
1. Train ticket to West Country 2.Profit!! (Score:4, Interesting)
1. Train ticket to West Country
2. Beach scavenge
3. Profit!!
This will be more fun than when the Napoli [wikipedia.org] beached off Branscombe! Easier to sneak plastic ducks off the beach than BMW motorbikes....
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/exmouthjournal/fl
Re: (Score:2)
umm, maybe its "getting there before everybody else in the country who's read the same newspaper and has the same idea"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Please return to your campsites and ice cream shops and await further orders.
This is actually interesting... (Score:5, Interesting)
However, given the way the climate change deniers have been trying to rubbish oceanographers and meteorologists because of their agreement on inconvenient data, the fact that this guy predicted something as counter intuitive as the ducks traveling through a North-west passage in pack ice should give pause for thought.
When even people like Dyson try and rubbish climatologists (presumably because he wants unrestricted space travel and they are warning that this is impossible without doing severe damage to the Earth) this sort of thing reminds us of just (1) how much these people know and (2) what a lot they still want to learn, while their opponents seem to rely on soundbites and dodgy statistics rather than science.
Re:This is actually interesting... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:This is actually interesting... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
No one expects the Spanish Emigration!
Thank you! I'm here till Thursday! Try the veal!
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/story/0,,2115 307,00.html [guardian.co.uk]
However, as it's a story about a bunch of foreigners trying to get to the UK, it's standard Daily Mail fare, really. These ducks are different to us - they're not even the same species!
1998 was exceptionally hot, but the trend still... (Score:3, Informative)
The global warming scare suffers from the fact that the world has been cooling ever since 1998.
Take a look at this graph. [nasa.gov]. It is true that 1998 was exceptionally hot, but the trend looks increasing to me. It even looks as if 1998 wasn't a record year, with some year 200Ox being a bit hotter, though the text of the article [nasa.gov] says it is a draw within the error bars. Also, according to the article 1998 was a El Nino year, while 2005 wasn't... had it been, it would have been even warmer.
Do you have other facts to share? ;p
Re: (Score:2)
Only this. [wikipedia.org] In the face of this, I agree the earth could be a on a long term (ish) warming trend, but I doubt man's role in it.
But that scale is in *thousands* of years. The global warming trends I showed you was measured in *years* . That's off by a factor of one thousand, an entire three magnitudes. In slashdot terms, it's the difference between a file of one Gb and one Tb.
The global warming is not a "long trend", at least as these things go. The rise will perhaps be over and stabilized in 200 years, which would not even be visually distinguisable on your graph.
The graph does show a very clear match between CO_2 and temperatu
Welcome (Score:4, Funny)
As an inhabitant of South West England (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, replacing the Council with faded yellow Chinese rubber ducks might actually be an improvement.
Re: (Score:2)
This is meant to be the 21st century after all...
I did, you didn't (Score:2)
Harper's article on the floatees (Score:5, Informative)
Also, if you're interested in this stuff, you might want to check out Ebbesmeyer's website and newsletter about beachcombing: http://beachcombersalert.org/ [beachcombersalert.org]
New Scientists take on this press release (Score:5, Informative)
So here is the link to a more sensible website:
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn121
Re: (Score:2)
but no halfnaked ladies (Score:2)
Re:New Scientists take on this press release (Score:4, Funny)
So here is the link to a more sensible website:
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn121
You might be a paleneck if:
You complain about pics of scantily-clad babes distracting you from the article about frozen rubber duckies.
Re:Harper's article on the floatees (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/28/doomed_du
Wanna bet? (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Rubber Ducky, you're the one (Score:2, Insightful)
Ebb (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Cunning plan (Score:2)
You be seeing them on eBay soon, though, since they were also washed overboard it's not entirely clear where I be pickin them up yet.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Old News (Score:4, Informative)
In late May of 1990, the container vessel Hansa Carrier encountered a severe storm in the north Pacific Ocean (~48N, 161W) on its passage from Korea to the United States. During the storm, a large wave washed twenty-one shipping containers overboard. Five of these 20-metre containers held a shipment of approximately 80,000 Nike shoes ranging from children's shoes to large hiking boots. It has been estimated that four of the five containers opened into the stormy waters, releasing over 60,000 shoes into the north Pacific Ocean.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Science? (Score:2)
Just imagine (Score:2)
So this is how it ends *sniff* (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Next up: Lava Ducks (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, you'd have to wait a bit longer than 4 years for them to pop up at their destination...
Chip H.
Re: (Score:2)
Google Earth/Maps (Score:3, Funny)
BBC Radio Documentary From 2006 (Score:3, Informative)
Correct URL This Time (Score:2)
Accidental science? (Score:2)
Pathetic aliens... (Score:2)
Ducks, frogs, turtles, and ... (Score:2)
Canadian Sovereignty (Score:2)
Now, another view.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Or, let's put the question in another perspective : Given the fact that we aren't perfectly sure how to predict climate and that rubber duckies still have something to teach us, will you take the risk to continue dumping into the atmosphere massive amount of CO2 - that wasn't there before in a recent time-scale ?
Are you ready to gamble that we won't encounter any problem ?
Isn't it best to decide that, becau
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Thank you AC for pointing out that people who don't know what they are talking about should be ignored. Just because there are not a lot of blinking lights does not mean that you're collecting bad data. I think / f
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Finally, to get back to the OP's major point, the Kyoto scam will transfer billions of dollars from the developed world to the third world (and make Al Gore rich through his CO2 credit trading firm; gee, do you think he has a vested interest in hyping AGW?). Canada has one of the coldest climates of any developed country; of course we have to use more energy than, say, Gambia, just to stay alive. Why should we send them billions of dollars because we have snow and they don't?
Hang on, why would Kyoto require you to spend billions of dollars to other countries? I think you may misunderstand how the Kyoto protocols work.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, I agree with your math as far as emissions go. If we were just being asked to reduce our carbon footprints (e.g. Al Gore's house), I'd be all for it. But that's not what Kyoto's about; it's about sending billi
Re: (Score:2)
will notice them and report large numbers of ducks suddenly showing up
I just love that phrase; "large numbers of ducks showing up." It is hilarious in so many contexts.
Dinner party: "Honey, a large number of ducks has suddenly shown up. Do we have enough canapes?"
Help Desk: "Sir, I'm afraid we can't fix your network connection right now, because the system reports a large number of ducks."
iPhone: "Large numbers of ducks are suddenly showing up at Apple stores so they can put the phone on their bill and see if it floats.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
We're in duck mode here.
Re: (Score:2)
Silly rabbit. Didn't you read TFA? They came from China.
Obviously, they're Peking Ducks.
Re: (Score:2)
No. Yoda would say "Precious to science, they are."