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Black Blobs Appearing In Camden, NJ
Ieshan writes "Strange alien scares or just New Jersey Pollution? Occam's razor points towards the latter, but still, odd black blobs are appearing in a New Jersey city - no joke. CNN has the story - apparently, no one can identify them yet. Investigators say that they're not petrolium based, and that's about all anyone knows. On the plus side, at least they don't have stalks with green eyes?"
They are everywhere in populated areas. They are gum.
I'd do something interesting, but my server can't handle a slashdotting.
"Why should I be content to simply live in this world, when I, as a human being, can CREATE it?" - Oertel
I go to school in Philadelphia, which is across the river from Camden, and grew up in southern Camden County, NJ, a comfortable 18 miles from Camden's state-leading crime rate and once close-to-nation-leading murder rate.
Anyways, I've seen this story on the local news. One suspicion is jet fuel falling from planes landing at Philly International, but I dont think that explanation holds much as why havent these blobs been there for however many years the airport has been there?
I personally would not be surprised if it's drug related. Philly started a huge crack down on drugs in recent weeks, causing many druggies to leave town. Camden then started their own crack down because that's where many druggies went.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
from Bruce Springsteen's latest album.
--jdp Maintainer of VisEmacs
As a resident of NJ for the last 20 years, I can say that there is no way this could possibly happen. As my fellow residents can vouch, NJ is the cleanest place of all the places in the world. Where else in the world can you wake up to the the beautiful view of a smoke-stack filled skyline, emitting fluffy plumes of green tinged smoke. Or perhaps the placid lakes and ponds, that maintain their rainbow colored, slick surfaces all year around. No sir, you cannot be more in tune with nature unless you live in NJ.
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
well, if its something falling from the sky then it should realisticly be on everything, including cars. Actually it should be getting on people also.
If ignorance is bliss, the world is full of blissful people
"Bob Lentine, assistant commissioner of the county health department, said he thinks the stuff might be ... discharge from the jets that fly directly overhead from nearby Philadelphia."
Ahhhh, so that's where they empty the toilets in planes.
The article states that they were not able to confirm that it was petroleum based. This is completely different from showing it is not petroleum based. If you don't know why, you have a poor understanding of hypothesis testing and the scientific method in general. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Just because you can't confirm that some stranger is who they say they are doesn't mean they are lying. Etc.
Except it's on the sidewalk, and tests seem to show it's not petroleum-based. :)
The photo looks like old dried-up gum, but unless a gum factory exploded, that wouldn't explain the rate of accumulation...
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
A noticed the black blobs on new sidewalks right here in Chicago. I could see a lot of dots on the sidewalk below when I looked down from the 'L' platform. I figured that they were chewing gum but wondered how there could be so much.
It makes sense that it's tar that flows off of the roofs in the extreme heat. I saw a temperature of 106 degrees F on concrete a few weeks ago. Black flat roofs probably get a lot hotter.
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
This reminds me of the Seattle Window Pitting Hysteria (about half way downb the page).
So these days we blame aliens instead of demons, but that is about the only thing that changes.
Idiocy is a universal constant...
People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
Do you think that if they mapped the distribution of these in a Geographic Information System, it would point to the source? Such as being distributed mainly along a flight path, or exactly downwind of a certain factory, or in a radial pattern from GumWorld(r).
don't need to "take over" Camden, NJ - they can have it, for all I care.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Mr. President, I regret to inform you that project XV 543b has escaped! Black tar-like spots have been appearing on sidewalks everywhere in Camden NJ, and at they're rate of multiplication they will be ready to attack in roughly two weeks. Shall I order an evacuation sir?
<Dubya> NJ eh?
<Some General> Yes Sir.
<Dubya> Screw 'em they voted Democrat.
>
Well I'll be! It -can- be spelled Ockham.
Whoops. Apologies.
tests seem to show it's not petroleum-based.
Not quite. According to the article, "a quick field test wasn't able to confirm that the substance was petroleum-based." For all we know, somebody licked it and decided it didn't taste like motor oil.
Boy, that makes me feel a lot better.
It seems to me that black blobs like this occur where cigarette butts are likely to have been discarded. The ones I see do not visually thick or gooey enough to be gum--and they're black, black, black. Looks to me like someone dropped a drop of asphalt crack filler on the concrete or brick surface. So would there be some process that would turn a cigarette filter and/or cigarette ash and/or unburned tobacco into such a blob?
I find it supicious that these people claim that the blobs start out 6" accross, and then shrink way down to dry 1" spots, yet there are only pictures of the spots.
In a google image search of the word sidewalk, here are the first few pics that come up in which the sidewalk can be seen clearly enough to make out any potential spots:
spots
No spots (but close in)
2 small spots
no spots, but quite funny
no spots
small spots
small spots
Ok, so there is some background spotting on many sidewalks, which MAY explain the smaller ones. The yet unphotographed larger ones could be from public exaguration/hysteria. here are several examples of such events. In particular look at the seattle winshield pitting in 1954, and the school gas leaks in 88. I'd bet that those spots are usualy there, just that nobody paid attention until now.
Don't Bogart the fish sticks
Wait, there were two nuclear "tests" in Japan in 1945 also, right?
Do you have any sources for your theory? That is, researh which backs up the statements:
1) Nicotine does not increase cancer risk, and
2) Fallout from nuclear testing was spread over the US heavily enough to affect cancer rates.
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
Beware of The Blob, it creeps
And leaps and glides and slides
Across the floor
Right through the door
And all around the wall
A splotch, a blotch
Be careful of The Blob
Words and music by Burt Bacharach.
From the article (emphasis mine):
A quick field test wasn't able to confirm that the substance was petroleum-based, said Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Fred Mumford. That seems to rule out tar from roofs or street repairs and leaky cars.
This is not the same as what the OP claimed: "Investigators say that they're not petrolium based" (sic).
Maybe it is just tar or cigarette remains.
Maybe it is a publicity stunt for Dreamcatcher, which is being made into a movie...
:q!
The black blob has been found to be very dangerous. A woman, Denise Crosby, 45, was killed mysteriously when trying to walk pass the blob. Police are warning New Jersey residents to stay away while scientists determine how the blob caused her death.
Veramocor
Article: A quick field test wasn't able to confirm that the substance was petroleum-based, said Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Fred Mumford.
Slashdot: It's roofing tar
Obligatory simpsons reference:
Lisa: I don't understand professor, why didn't your tests show that the skeleton was a fake.
Dr. Gould: I'm going to be honest with you Lisa, I never did the tests.
[Dr. Gould walks away]
I mean...it's Camden
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
It was just reported on the local news here in Philadelphia.
They speculate it got there from candle-drippings from all the candlelight vigils they have for people getting shot to death, etc.
It is moldy saliva.
I saw those spots while growing up in a small town (mitchell) in southwestern Ontario, and I still see them now in Toronto.
I always saw them in higher concentrations in places where many people smoke (for example smoking sections at highschools).
They are about the size of a spitwad, and about the shape of a normal one too...
This would also explain being found just outside of overhangs (as another user pointed out). People will crowd under an overhang in the rain, but they wont spit on each other, they will spit on the ground where all the rain is.
It's no big deal, just use a pressurewasher to clean them off every couple of months and you have nothing to worry about.
Give the conspiracy theories a rest.
One suspicion is jet fuel falling from planes landing at Philly International, but I dont think that explanation holds much as why havent these blobs been there for however many years the airport has been there?
Because Philly International changed their flight patterns about 2 years ago. Now the line is almost a direct line from Lindenwold to the Airport, along roughly the same track as the PATCO high speed line.
Sit in the Lindenwold parking lot at watch them line up for final approach. The view is even better at Ferry Avenue.
The opposite of progress is congress
They're wax.
If it's the Garden State, things should be growing, right? I mean smoke stacks are goin' up like friggin rabbits.
We now have confirmed reports from an informed Orange County minister that Ethel is still an active communist.
It is all the falling dots from the dying dot-com's
Table-ized A.I.
The pollution in the air starts settling out and eventually it's only possible to survive up sky scrapers.
Can't recall the name, but the collection I read it in was 'The Ghost Light'
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
LOL. I live in Newark... and I take offense. :-p. Just kidding... a price to pay to go to the best comp sci school in the area. :)
My dad is moving to Lindenwold and he hasnt heard about it yet...
My guess is it's one of those Weird NJ things...
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