Re: [scifinoir2] Re: FW: NEWS: Vast Condom Horror in Pacific
Yeah. I did some browsing, too. Even the site where the story appeared is very wierd...Nahhh...my comment was tongue-in-cheek... LOLLOL! Reece ---Original Message--- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Date: 06/02/05 10:18:39 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: FW: NEWS: Vast Condom Horror in Pacific After browsing the www.unknowncountry.com site, this story sounds like satire or an urban legend. I doubt it is true. The clue as to why this is untrue: "... in places so tightly compressed that a small plane could be landed on it." Like, how did the author actually determine this? And who's terrirotiral waters is this stuff drifting in or towards? Come on, folks! Are y'all that gullible? George Captain THe USS Ronald E. McNair (Boston) --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Astromancer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm sorry, but I have to stop laughing in order to make a comment... > > M C Jennings <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:H...I don't think enough men USE condoms to make such a huge 'reef'. > > > ---Original Message--- > > From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com > Date: 06/01/05 14:25:56 > To: Christopher deMorsella; scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com > Subject: [scifinoir2] FW: NEWS: Vast Condom Horror in Pacific > > -Original Message- > From: GIRLFRIEND [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > Apryl N. Paris > > http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=4636 > > A huge floating reef made up of millions of disposed condoms has been discovered in the mid Pacific. The condom mass is two miles long, up to sixty feet deep, and in places so tightly compressed that a small plane could be landed on it. > > The mass was discovered by the Australian Oceanographic Laboratory Outpost on Macquarie Island in the South Pacific. Scientists there explained that the accumulation, which consists almost exclusively of condoms, is explained by a principle of physics called "like aggregation." Like aggregation is caused by the massing of similar objects due to ocean currents and winds, the response of the objects to the earth's magnetic field, and other factors. > > The tendency of dust to clump and mass in a house or under a bed is > explained by the same principle. > > The Australian scientists are mapping the reef by satellite because it is a serious marine hazard. The world disposes of an estimated 300 million condoms a year. > > Art credit: http://www.freeimages.co.uk > > This could be an environmental catastrophe. > > You get news here you won't find anywhere else. Keep us going: subscribe to unknowncountry.com today! There are lots of advantages, including a special weekly interview just for you. > Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [scifinoir2] Re: FW: NEWS: Vast Condom Horror in Pacific
It's probably based on the true story of how thousands upon thousands of fishing nets menace the world's sealife. NPR did a story on that two days ago. Fishing nets are often lost or discarded then drift all over the ocean posing a threat. Some of the nets are hundreds of square metres, intact, and actually still catching fish, which of course are then screwed. There's a section of ocean near Hawaii where the currents bring lots of this flotsam into a conglomeration of junk. Another problem is that the nets are sometimes pulled over coral reefs by the currents, damaging the reefs immeasurably. Back in the day when the nets were made of hemp or other biodegradeable material this wasn't an issue. Now nets are made of things like nylon that last forever. It sounds weird until you consider the untold thousands of fishing boats that must ply the world's seas, and then the potential damage is sobering. At any rate, this condom thing put me in mind of that net story when I first heard it. -- Original message -- After browsing the www.unknowncountry.com site, this story sounds like satire or an urban legend. I doubt it is true. The clue as to why this is untrue: "... in places so tightly compressed that a small plane could be landed on it." Like, how did the author actually determine this? And who's terrirotiral waters is this stuff drifting in or towards? Come on, folks! Are y'all that gullible? George Captain THe USS Ronald E. McNair (Boston) --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Astromancer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm sorry, but I have to stop laughing in order to make a comment... > > M C Jennings <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:H...I don't think enough men USE condoms to make such a huge 'reef'. > > > ---Original Message--- > > From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com > Date: 06/01/05 14:25:56 > To: Christopher deMorsella; scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com > Subject: [scifinoir2] FW: NEWS: Vast Condom Horror in Pacific > > -Original Message- > From: GIRLFRIEND [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > Apryl N. Paris > > http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=4636 > > A huge floating reef made up of millions of disposed condoms has been discovered in the mid Pacific. The condom mass is two miles long, up to sixty feet deep, and in places so tightly compressed that a small plane could be landed on it. > > The mass was discovered by the Australian Oceanographic Laboratory Outpost on Macquarie Island in the South Pacific. Scientists there explained that the accumulation, which consists almost exclusively of condoms, is explained by a principle of physics called "like aggregation." Like aggregation is caused by the massing of similar objects due to ocean currents and winds, the response of the objects to the earth's magnetic field, and other factors. > > The tendency of dust to clump and mass in a house or under a bed is > explained by the same principle. > > The Australian scientists are mapping the reef by satellite because it is a serious marine hazard. The world disposes of an estimated 300 million condoms a year. > > Art credit: http://www.freeimages.co.uk > > This could be an environmental catastrophe. > > You get news here you won't find anywhere else. Keep us going: subscribe to unknowncountry.com today! There are lots of advantages, including a special weekly interview just for you. > Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: FW: NEWS: Vast Condom Horror in Pacific
After browsing the www.unknowncountry.com site, this story sounds like satire or an urban legend. I doubt it is true. The clue as to why this is untrue: "... in places so tightly compressed that a small plane could be landed on it." Like, how did the author actually determine this? And who's terrirotiral waters is this stuff drifting in or towards? Come on, folks! Are y'all that gullible? George Captain THe USS Ronald E. McNair (Boston) --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Astromancer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm sorry, but I have to stop laughing in order to make a comment... > > M C Jennings <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:H...I don't think enough men USE condoms to make such a huge 'reef'. > > > ---Original Message--- > > From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com > Date: 06/01/05 14:25:56 > To: Christopher deMorsella; scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com > Subject: [scifinoir2] FW: NEWS: Vast Condom Horror in Pacific > > -Original Message- > From: GIRLFRIEND [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > Apryl N. Paris > > http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=4636 > > A huge floating reef made up of millions of disposed condoms has been discovered in the mid Pacific. The condom mass is two miles long, up to sixty feet deep, and in places so tightly compressed that a small plane could be landed on it. > > The mass was discovered by the Australian Oceanographic Laboratory Outpost on Macquarie Island in the South Pacific. Scientists there explained that the accumulation, which consists almost exclusively of condoms, is explained by a principle of physics called "like aggregation." Like aggregation is caused by the massing of similar objects due to ocean currents and winds, the response of the objects to the earth's magnetic field, and other factors. > > The tendency of dust to clump and mass in a house or under a bed is > explained by the same principle. > > The Australian scientists are mapping the reef by satellite because it is a serious marine hazard. The world disposes of an estimated 300 million condoms a year. > > Art credit: http://www.freeimages.co.uk > > This could be an environmental catastrophe. > > You get news here you won't find anywhere else. Keep us going: subscribe to unknowncountry.com today! There are lots of advantages, including a special weekly interview just for you. > Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: FW: NEWS: Vast Condom Horror in Pacific
On the other hand, here in Milwaukee, some citizen discovered that condoms were being deposited into Lake Michigan unharmed after traveling through the waste treatment center. The waste treatment center installed screens to capture the wayward condoms but some still made it through unharmed. So they waste treatment center hired a man at a cost of fifty-two dollars an hour to spy and scoup up the offending condoms (or $18 per condom scooped). ~rave! http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/may05/325680.asp Condom control at a price MMSD's 'floatables' cost is more than $1.8 million By STEVE SCHULTZE and MARIE ROHDE [EMAIL PROTECTED] Posted: May 12, 2005 Case closed on the great condom cleanup caper. Sort of. Condom Control By the Numbers $1.5 million The cost of an elaborate system of nets to catch condoms that get through sewage treatment $120,000 Related costs, including replacement nets $184,400 What contract workers were paid during 424 days to scoop condoms out of Jones Island chlorine tanks. After spending more than $1.8 million for a temporary system to catch stray condoms slipping through the Jones Island sewage treatment plant - including having a full-time worker at $52.15 an hour manually skimming errant condoms from the final wastewater treatment tanks - the sewerage district is declaring its effluent condom-free. Pretty much, anyway. "We are fairly confident we are capturing a majority" of the spent condoms before they can reach the Milwaukee Harbor and Lake Michigan, said Bill Graffin, spokesman for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. "If we need to take more steps, we don't know what they would be," he said. Condoms are notoriously difficult to capture completely at sewage treatment plants, MMSD officials said. However, Peter Swenson, a regional official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the problem is rare. The quest for better condom control dates back to April 29, 2003, when a local fisherman reported seeing what he called a "slick" of thousands of condoms floating in the lake following a heavy rainstorm. MMSD officials initially discounted the story, suggesting the shiny objects the fisherman reported must have been alewives - a small fish. But with a public outcry and a nudge from Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, the district sprang into action. First, a single laborer armed with a swimming pool skimmer was posted at the chlorine tanks at Jones Island to nab condoms that survived earlier phases of screening at the plant. To date, the effort has yielded 14,020 stubborn condoms scooped from the final sewage treatment soup over 551 days. Average daily yield: 25.4 condoms, according to the district. $18.09 a condom The district couldn't provide full costs of the effort. But the final 424 days of condom scooping cost $184,400 for the 10,196condoms collected during that period, which ended Feb. 6. That comes to a per- condom collection cost of $18.09. The work was done weekdays by union laborers under a subcontract with MMSD's private operator, United Water Services. Those workers were paid $23.19 an hour. However, United Water charged MMSD $52.15 an hour, a figure that included costs of fringe benefits and a 15% markup for profit and administrative fees. On weekends, United Water employees scooped condoms at the plant. They were paid overtime - $51.06 an hour for Saturdays and $68.06 Sundays. The subcontract was done because United Water didn't have enough workers on staff to do it, said John Cheslik, United Water's manager of Milwaukee operations. Cheslik and MMSD officials said that although the costs seem high, they reflect the requirement in MMSD's contract with United Water that locally prevailing wages are paid for sewerage district work. State Rep. Pedro Colón, a member of the commission that oversees MMSD, said a cheaper alternative for the job should have been used. "It's just a lot of money," said Colón, a Milwaukee Democrat. "This is in the category of unacceptable." The manual scooping was supplemented during summer months of 2003 and 2004, when MMSD also had the crew of the Pelagos, the district's 43- foot research boat, fishing for condoms that made it through the plant and into the harbor. That yielded another 1,722 condoms in 220 days of intermittent harbor patrol. Cost figures weren't available for that endeavor. Nets also used An elaborate fabricated system of condom-catching nets - which themselves resemble giant condoms - also was approved and installed early last year at Jones Island at a cost of $1.5 million. Other costs, including replacement nets, have added another $120,000 to the project. The net system installed in the plant was supposed to end the manual condom catching effort, but the system blew out when it got its first big test after last May's rainstorms. The device, euphemistically dubbed the "floatables removal project" by MMSD, was re
