Sleeping with the Fishes

PenguinRadio writes: "I know it's not about Linux or Msoft or anything else techie related, but the photo of a big red NYC subway car being pushed into the ocean was cool enough that I thought I should send it in to slashdot. Take a look at the BBC's story on how an artificial reef is being created out of old red subway cars. As they said in the godfather "he sleeps with the fishes."" Note that it's more for economic reasons than concern for the poor ocean critters.

Comments

Re:Contaminated windows

[maggard]

It's not the glass, it's the laminates inside the glass and the coatings on it. Subway cars don't use house window glass but instead the safety glass similar to car windowshields (at least in the US; European vehicles have different, lower safety standards (no flame, just a basic fact, many argue that the US's standards are overly high.))

Anyway, the stuff that bonds the layers of glass together along with the IR blocker embedded in many windows is a nasty stuff when it degrades into the ocean, particularly into stuff growing directly on top on it.

As to any danger from future large panes of glass on the sea-bottom, that's not likely a big concern. The sea beds where these artificial reefs are being placed are pretty much 95% silica and the glass will erode due to mechanical and chemical action eventually. In the meantime it's not like kids will be walking on this sand.