Cloverfield: The Prequel

They aren't that scary-looking. We had water-striders on our creek every summer when I was a kid. I used to watch them, trying to figure out how they stayed up on the water.

/surface tension

Garbage Patch???

Striders are scary looking now? I clicked hoping for giant isopods...

If the picture and the size of the actual bug is to a 1:1 ratio or bigger then lets get ready to nuke the patch from orbit. If not, eh.

Those aren't bugs, they are my in-laws!

The bugs don't scare me (and I hate bugs)...it's the gigantic mass of garbage floating in the ocean that is far more terrifying...

I vote we douse it with Napalm and set it on fire.

Why does everyone want to get rid of this poor creature's habitat?

Why do you hate nature?

It's nature, baby!

rhondajeremy: The bugs don't scare me (and I hate bugs)...it's the gigantic mass of garbage floating in the ocean that is far more terrifying...

I saw the actual expedition videos to this "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" and it was a HUGE let-down.

They seem to be saying there's a huge raft of tangled debris, like you see hugging the coast after a tsunami, stretching as far as the eye can see, and beyond. There's nothing there you can see. The lay person would declare it pristine, unspoiled ocean, and this feature is rather esoteric. You'd need to lay out a fine-mesh net and troll for awhile to pick up plastic particulate. There is plastic bits there, more so than elsewhere. Whether it's a problem or not is hard to say, but the fact is they're grossly exaggerating what it is, and what they're implying is an observable patch of garbage does NOT exist.

If I change the standard of plastic particles per cu meter of seawater to a different number, I can include the entire volume of the world's oceans as the "garbage patch". I just wanna know how they came to the decision of what density of particulate becomes a toxic problem, because it sounds simply like they found more here than there and that's the definition.

On one hand, yes, the population will increase. But on the other, it will provide food for countless other animals.

Not to say that this huge mound of plastic floating in the ocean is a good thing. But, at least nature has found a way to make use of it. Nature is good that way. And as such, it will all balance out.

The world's food problems are solved.

Sticky Hands: Water Striders? Scary looking?
Those are some of my favorite bugs ever.

Don't try to catch them. They give a nasty "bite" which might just be using their claws to puncture you so they can suck your juices out.

Scary looking water bugs?



If subby is scared of that, subby probably cowers in fear before his or her toaster.

Article said something about floating seashells . . . huh?

Don't crabs live on the bottom of the ocean? And these strider things on the top? How will the crabs eat them?

All I go from that article is that we will need to eat more crabs to rebalance the ecosystem... not seeing a problem with this

// also not sure how a crab that is on the bottom of the ocean is the strider's main predator

FTFA: "The researchers compared recently collected plastic to that collected in 1972 under a microscope."

English major much?

If'n ya'll are so worried about a garbage patch the size of Texas, Why Don't ya'll just get in yer rowboat with a fish net and clean up. Go ahead, I'll wait

/IF ya'll can find it. It consists mostly of pieces smaller than than 1mm in size. Ya might need a finer net.
//Call the Sea Shepard and tell 'em that this would be a more productive waste of time than bombing whaling ships.
///Bring the troops back and have them sort through it. It won't shoot back.

porkloin: Article said something about floating seashells . . . huh?

How do you think seashells get on the beach? Riding on concrete?

">

So why hasn't this been made into a horror movie yet??
At least a B movie.

/the person who hotlinks Seinfeld's Bee movie and writes "what a B movie might look like" will be shot

Resident Muslim: So why hasn't this been made into a horror movie yet??
At least a B movie.

/the person who hotlinks Seinfeld's Bee movie and writes "what a B movie might look like" will be shot

What a B movie might look like



/hot
//ducks

AngryJailhouseFistfark: Indeed. I became suspicious when the articles tell of this Texas-sized "island" of garbage, but only show photos of debris from the Japanese tsunami. If the thing's so doggone big and substantive, I'm wondering, why is there no photo? Texas is a big damn thing. I drove I-10 from one end to the other. Took days. And yet no photo of this continental debris field. I imagined being able to walk across the floating trash as though it were the county dump, picking up old bottles and cast-off toilets and water heaters. Maybe something like the atoll from Waterworld. Seals pulling up to rest on it's banks. But no. No such images appear for me. No, not one.

there are some purported satellite images, but I don't know exactly what to make of the land masses in the pictures so I won't post. still, if they made polystyrene/ethylene bottles that were more susceptible to breakdown by sunlight I'd pay an extra dime for the privilege of buying them even though my trash goes to a dump in the middle of texas.

Biteskrig: also not sure how a crab that is on the bottom of the ocean is the strider's main predator

Some crabs can swim using flattened legs, though they are still not usually oceanic.

The optimist in me says, MmMMmMmmMm, crabs.

relcec: AngryJailhouseFistfark: Indeed. I became suspicious when the articles tell of this Texas-sized "island" of garbage, but only show photos of debris from the Japanese tsunami. If the thing's so doggone big and substantive, I'm wondering, why is there no photo? Texas is a big damn thing. I drove I-10 from one end to the other. Took days. And yet no photo of this continental debris field. I imagined being able to walk across the floating trash as though it were the county dump, picking up old bottles and cast-off toilets and water heaters. Maybe something like the atoll from Waterworld. Seals pulling up to rest on it's banks. But no. No such images appear for me. No, not one.

there are some purported satellite images, but I don't know exactly what to make of the land masses in the pictures so I won't post. still, if they made polystyrene/ethylene bottles that were more susceptible to breakdown by sunlight I'd pay an extra dime for the privilege of buying them even though my trash goes to a dump in the middle of texas.


No kidding. This pic is on an article about the Garbage Patch, but clearly ISN'T.

Wikipedia:
334,721 (confetti-like) pieces per km2
= 1 particle for every 3 sq meter, just below the surface, but generally not "floating" per se.

That won't show up on satellite. It won't be visible on a boat, either.

No, it's not a raft of debris. 1 particle per 3 sq meter is still a concern. There's a LOT of sea creatures which filter-feed through here, and turtles for example swallow anything which appears to be an object. The toxicity of plastic itself isn't high, and most pieces are too small to obstruct the digestive system (some are big enough, though). The toxicity of the breakdown products is not well established, but it's not likely to be improving things.

you're right I think. if garbage patch really weighs 100 million tons then an extremely biodegradable form of plastic might create a significantly bigger problem than the one it solves.

There are some pretty well established markets for PET, clothing fiber, industrial carpet and things like that. Would there be any economic sense in mining the garbage patch?

freewill: Oh, thank God. I was so afraid this was going to be about giant isopods.

[catrandom.com image 640x360]

/ Gives me nightmares.

Them's good eatin'.

So the mother nature network is concluding that because human garbage has created a better environment for a particular form of life, this is bad?

Yeah, I just rembered that shortlived Discover realitv show that was going out to the supposed Mid-Pacific-Dump.

Lasted, what, two shows? Once they found out you can't see the garbage, it just went away.

/maybe the UN should ask Asia to stop dumping garbage in the ocean, instead of whatever else they are doing.

durbnpoisn: On one hand, yes, the population will increase. But on the other, it will provide food for countless other animals.

Not to say that this huge mound of plastic floating in the ocean is a good thing. But, at least nature has found a way to make use of it. Nature is good that way. And as such, it will all balance out.

"It will all balance out" is a bit over-simplistic. If we keep dumping toxic shiat into our environment, eventually it will balance out in a way that it is not easily survivable for the human race. Mother Nature has no vested interest in keeping us alive.

MAYORBOB: Scary looking water bugs?

[www.mnn.com image 530x300]

If subby is scared of that, subby probably cowers in fear before his or her toaster.

I don't know about you but this lil guy made me think of doing just that.






(Loves me mah microwave. Even though war, war never changes)

the_freelance: Cloverfield: The Prequel

Closer to the truth than you think.

Creatures aren't just living in it, they're evolving in it. And only God knows what's stirring in that mess.