Reporters look back, more or less fondly, in this video, at the most famous exploding whale incident of the 20th century. As the video in this video shows, a dead whale washed up on a beach, and local authorities tried to dispose of the remains by using dynamite. The result was more fervent than they […]
Tag: whale
Elephant Trunk (new patent)
Robert Dale Beadles of Lodi, California, US, has just been granted a new US patent. Clues to its intended function can be seen in the drawing : 704 being a handle, and 703 being a wheel. “In summary, the present container for items and personal effects for travel will be seen to provide not only […]
Exploding-whale day: the 45th anniversary
Today, reportedly, is the 45th anniversary of the famous exploding whale. The event was documented in this KATU television report, in 1970: The announcer summarized, firsthand, the fallout: “However, everyone on the scene was covered with small particle of dead whale.” Now, people have built an entire business, or at least a web site, on the […]
A hazard of snacking on beached whales
Further fodder for nutritionists who warn against indiscriminate snacking: “Outbreak of Botulism Type E Associated with Eating a Beached Whale — Western Alaska, July 2002,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 52, No. 2, January 17, 2003. Additional detail appeared in a later report: “Botulism type E outbreak associated with eating a beached whale, Alaska,” Joseph B. […]
On the non-omnipotence of Elephant Snot: Cactus graffiti
Elephant Snot is not the solution to every problem. The Arizona Daily Star confirms that, in this article: Elephant Snot isn’t the answer. Saguaro National Park officials tested a viscous product — with the odd brand name of Elephant Snot — to remove graffiti from saguaros at the park. It didn’t work. “Elephant Snot is out,” […]
Experiment: Mariachi band + beluga whale
The long history of experiments in communication between humans and whales continues: Athis Mariachi band plays music for a beluga whale: (Thanks to investigator Herman Kranz for bringing this to our attention.)
A brief history of naked Russians swimming for science
Russian science has a tradition of observing naked swimmers. Several years ago we documented Yuri Glebovich Aleyev’s project (which he documented in a book called Nekton). He used an electric winch to tow naked women under water at speeds of two to four metres per second, to better understand how dolphins interact with water. (His logic may […]
Copters and whales… now planes and crabs
Dave Brooks at Granite Geek alerts us to low-flying research that echoes, distantly, the Ig Nobel Prize-winning innovation of using a remote-control helicopter to gather whale snot. The University of New Hampshire news service reports: To survey pits dug by horseshoe crabs in the sediments of the Great Bay Estuary, researchers attached a small camera […]
The tale of the whale and the parachute
Potvin ([seen here] with an accelerometer on his head) has been helping the biologists build a sophisticated physical model of a feeding fin whale. They set out to build a model that would produce the kinds of behavior that real whales do. For example, a fin whale will dive hundreds of feet down in search […]
Giant skimmer works by mixing metaphors
A big boat skims oil from the sea by collecting metaphors and mixing them, it appears from a CNN report: New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) – A ship billed as the world’s largest skimming vessel has begun testing its effectiveness in the Gulf of Mexico, a spokesman for its owner, Taiwanese company TMT Shipping, said Saturday.The […]