Plastic Bottle Catamaran Crosses The Pacific Ocean 56
The Plastiki, a catamaran made with plastic bottles, has completed a 8,000 mile trip between San Francisco and Sydney. Captain David de Rothschild said, "The Plastiki is literally a metaphorical message in a bottle about beating waste and reducing our human fingerprints on our natural environment." The boat will go on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum for the next month.
How much did it cost to build (Score:4, Interesting)
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Probably nothing if you do get enough people to donate money to your "cause". I am not saying this is what this guy did, but this sort of thing is a great way for someone that has no money to support their dream to sail across an ocean. The same scheme works for getting a free 50 state U.S. vacation in an electric car, etc..
he's a Rothschild (Score:2)
I am sure he's not short of a few quid. Maybe he got sponsorship as well (hey, the rich are rich because they are good with making money, right?) but he's hardly an inner city kid raising pennies to live a once in a life time dream. Fair play to the bloke for making a good ecological point, and definitely a good one for using his wealth well, but his dad is a multi-billionaire [wikipedia.org] so I think the cost is irrelevant to him. He's not in it for the free holiday, he could buy any boat he wanted.
Nyaargh! (Score:5, Funny)
literally a metaphorical message in a bottle
story 1542227, line 2, Error: Parse failure, non-literal use of literally
story 1542227, line 2, Error: literal and metaphorical declarations are incompatible
INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR
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What makes it even worse is that it's neither a literal nor metaphorical message in a bottle.
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Sadly, reading slashdot is more interpretive as opposed to a compiled language, so really that "Nyaaargh" is probably a runtime error.
To people who are replying to me: If you use interpretive and metaphor in your post to make a clever pun on programming, I'll give you my Perl Textbook from College.
The Heyerdahl Connection (Score:5, Informative)
The name "Plastiki" is also a reference to how the craft resembles Norwegian amateur explorer/archeologist Thor Heyerdahl's raft/catamaran Kon-Tiki which had done a similar journey across the Pacific.
Thor Heyerdahl's son is also one of the people behind the project, and on board.
Re:The Heyerdahl Connection (Score:4, Interesting)
If you've never read it, the account of Thor Heyerdahl's trip [amazon.com] is a fascinating read. How little they knew about the oceans (didn't know about the zooplankton coming to the surface to feed at night [pugetsoundsealife.com], etc) and how much fortitude was required and how many hardships would be endured to make such a journey.
Sadly, I'm not too sure we know an awful lot more about the oceans now, except that we're killing them.
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Sadly, I'm not too sure we know an awful lot more about the oceans now, except that we're killing them.
We know a lot more about the oceans than our ancestors did, incredibly so. The real problem is that, during that same period, human beings haven't changed all that much. We're just as avaricious as we were then, only now we have the power to do more damage.
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Sadly, I'm not too sure we know an awful lot more about the oceans now, except that we're killing them.
Good news, everyone: There is less and less about the ocean that we don't know!
How Soon (Score:1)
That's impressive (Score:4, Insightful)
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When I lived in the bay area, I used to take a 17 ft Bayliner up the delta on weekends. After finishing a 12 pack a beer with a friend, we decided that, instead of heading up to Sacramento, we would just take the boat out on the bay.
It happened to be a very windy day, albeit warm.
I thought we were gonna die. By the time we got back to the marina in Suisun, the boat had well over a foot of water inside.
Re:That's impressive (Score:5, Funny)
Clearly you've never been attacked by one of the Giant Squids that swallow ocean liners. The Pacific is not as safe as it seems. Why do you think people are dumping all their trash in there? Too lazy to get to China? No! They're too scared to stay on the ocean any longer! And it's a new attack technique to polute their habitat to kill them off!
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Giant squids that swallow ocean liners?
Some people with mod points need a whoosh. Ocean liners are some of the biggest ships that cruise the oceans (and due to the very importance of their cargo, tend to be some of the toughest). Also, they are very seaworthy, as their draft don't vary much depending on their load levels (unlike a tanker, cargo ship and so on).
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i wouldn't congratulate him on anything. he's not a philanthropist he's a propagandist. multinational corps(ie old money) buy the local water companies, etc. bottle the water, mark it up then tell you how you're killing gaia, and brainwash you into accepting taxes/rationing, etc. on the air and/or water you need to live, and use the revenues to further solidify their stranglehold. all while we applaud their benevolence.
Gotta love Google Ads... (Score:2, Funny)
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Is that Eddie Murphy?
Convenient (Score:1)
Must be really convenient to have all those empty plastic bottles for a long trip. No need for frequent delays at the rest stops.
Dangerous reuse of plastic (Score:4, Interesting)
Better Recycling (Score:1)
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Why do these guys always make me think of "this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl".
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What it makes me think is "whoa, that guy drinks way too much soda!"
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Trying to stay on topic, what about the beer can regatta at Darwin, Australia
Regatta [beercanregatta.org.au]
Becoming quite famous here.
Detailed construction plans... (Score:1)
Sure one plastic bottle boat floating across the Pacific is kinda newsworthy, but if they published the plans perhaps they could make this more grassroots and less publicity stunt.
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Publicity stunt, yes. Environmental statement, absolutely. Specifically espousing recycling bottles into building materials for oceangoing use, doubtful. They did highlight a lot of "green" technologies (solar power, wind, towed turbines, and bicycle generators) for their internal power. But the actual ship design was pretty impractical.
Thor Heyerdahl died in 2002. Maybe it took Olav eight years to help put this all together as a fitting second tribute to gramps. The name is certainly a tribute to Kon
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But of course. They used glass bottles back then. See the important documentary "The Gods Must Be Crazy" for further details.
In the immortal words of Manny Calavera... (Score:3, Funny)
Hola, trust funder!
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"Hello. It's me. Death. I'll be seeing you real soon, OK? Listen, I know you can't hear me, but try to feel what I'm saying, deep down in your soul. Don't. Eat. The Gazpacho.
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I've got a turkey baster full of dirty hookah water!
In a related story... (Score:1)
Funny mental image (Score:1)
Direct image links (Score:1, Informative)
To save work for anybody else who hates the stupid formatting on the website, here are direct links to the images:
http://www.upi.com/story/image/fs/12801716709263
http://www.upi.com/story/image/fs/12801765546116
Spare parts a-plenty (Score:2)
It seems to me if they lose a few bottles during a storm, there will be plenty of spares as they cross the Pacific Trash Vortex.
Garth Sundem (Score:1)