Since this thread does not appear to be happening, I'm just going to go ahead and jack it, to say that my son's Minecraft server is up today at 54 dot 197 dot 235 dot 115. He'd love for people to join.
But also, yeah, there is a lot of shit in the water. A couple days ago I saw something float by that looked like half a body. Although I don't think it actually was. Still, it was a big-ass chunk of something.
Kinda weird that there would be big stuff down so far away from shipping routes, I would have thought, but what do I know.
4: that region contains a gyre. They accumulate lotsa shit, regardless of shipping
5: yeah but I thought it was very small (nearly microscopic) shit.
Gyres will pick up shit regardless of its size. Plastic shit becomes microscopic as it gets weathered, but it doesn't start out that way.
4: so far away from shipping routes
I was thinking that there are still shipping routes relatively nearby (unlike plane routes) because of the need to go around Cape of Good Hope (and Perth/Fremantle is a decent sized port in addition to other WA mineral shipping) . From this map there appear to be some in the area, but less than I might have thought.
And Wikipedia is all over the Indian Ocean garbage patch. Does mention "thin plastic soup."
Reading stuff about ruining the oceans does the same thing to me as reading about climate change. Huge looming problem that's well understood and reaching the point of no return? Let me retreat to some lighter reading that doesn't involve mass extinction.
OT: Did anyone else know that traditional Muy Thai groin protectors were made from sea shells? That really sounds like a tragically bad idea, doesn't it?
I liked this Miles O'Brien PBS clip on the crowd review of satellite images on MH370.
There's a whole scene around post-disaster mapping. I'm more familiar with its use after hurricanes/earthquakes, but it makes sense when looking for crap in the ocean as well.
I think the old search location had very little ship travel (the linked map does have a couple SA-Perth trips, but they're rare and didn't go directly through), but the new location is significantly less remote and a lot closer to frequently used shipping lanes.
Back in the days of wind-powered travel the old location was on a major shipping route. But nowadays the roaring forties are something ships just want to avoid.
We sure have put a lot of crap in the ocean.
Pretty offensive way to describe Malaysians, you racist.
7,9: In The World Without Us it is averred that lots and lots of nurdles (plastic nubs pre-extrusion or whatever) just get dumped in rivers/the ocean as waste, without ever being used to manufacture stuff. All the plastic gyre stuff in that book is enough to make you want to turn oogle immediately.
The World Without Us
That was an interesting book. The stuff about cats was interesting, if true.
Don't believe imperialist anti-cat propaganda!
Am I really the only one who went to All is Lost?
Did anyone else know that traditional Muy Thai groin protectors were made from sea shells? That really sounds like a tragically bad idea, doesn't it?
The whole kick things with your shinbones sometimes goes awry as well.
Speaking of Minecraft, if somebody gets pushed into a lake of lava in the Nether World, all the stuff is gone for good, even the brand new enchanted diamond helmet. Is that right?
If you ever drop your enchanted diamond helmet into a river of molten lava, let it go, because man, it's gone.
According to the tutorial, if your portal is right by a huge lake of lava, you're supposed to put a wall there. Stupid enchanted diamond sword and brand new helmet.
22: Well....I think it does sit on the bottom of the lava lake for a while. So ask yourself this: do you think you'd be able to dive to the bottom of the lake, get the stuff you need, and get out alive? I don't think it's impossible, but it would be extremely difficult you'd need to have at least a complete diamond set. And presumably yours is already in the lava.
It's compounded by the difficulty of putting out fires in the nether.
Last time I played, the great thing about the nether was that it was an easy lava (and hence obsidian) source. I build downwards to from my portal to get to the lava ocean; it is very hard to build straight down through the air but you can do it with the sticky pistons.
Charley @ 20: I did see, and appreciate, All Is Lost, but being the only one in its Unfogged audience would have been appropriate. (It didn't, however, surface in the garbage context for me.)
Also, from way back in the "Whatcha reading?" thread, I did see The Great Beauty. Very strong, positive reaction. I was & am keenly aware that I'm not at all well-versed in its Italian milieu, but it's one of my favorites from this year's screenings.
I can't make a proper argument for the following, but in the end I thought of it as poetry - elliptical and emotional, but very verbal. Not epic; just poetic in a way I associate with Stephen Crane and Wallace Stevens - lots of short, sharp, diverse "verses" to give an intelligent impression of a very broad subject.
21: oh, jesus. Thanks. I will see that all night now
Diving doesn't sound like a good idea
29: It made me feel a bit better about my tendon-induced limp.
putting out fires in the nether
Some fires in the nethers don't go out.
My son says the diamond helmet is done for.
my tendon-induced limp.
Minecraft really does have a rich in-game universe.
I went back and all I found was one little experience blob and a flint and steel. Also, somebody keeps shooting fireballs or something at me. I'm not going back in with diamond anything for a while.