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NOAA Identifies Mystery Noise as Minke Whale

Posted by michael on from the heard-it-on-the-grapevine dept.

Anonymous Cowherd writes "An underwater noise that has long confounded Navy sonar operators turned out to be a call of the minke whale, the Sacramento Bee reports. Scientists at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego made the discovery this fall when they heard the noise during a research expedition and saw a minke whale surfacing. While the story mentions minkes in the North Pacific, here's a sample from an Atlantic minke."

3 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. A sample? by jmd! · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Here's a sample"?
    Where's a sample?

    If you get to the page and there's no sound, it's because you're using a Free OS and Apple are assholes.

    Page nonobviously requires quicktime.

    1. Re:A sample? by orangesquid · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you look at the page source, you'll see this tag:
      embed src="atlminke10x.mov" width="80" height="20" type="video/quicktime" controller="true" autoplay="false"
      I used wget to fetch http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/sound01 /background/seasounds/media/atlminke10x.mov and it played just fine in mplayer. I used the PCM writer plugin and Notlame to make an mp3 of it (please mirror!!!!!!)

      --
      --TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
  2. Re:In other other other other other news by js7a · · Score: 3, Informative
    We would probably be in much worse shape as a country, if we didn't have such a well trained, well supplied military.
    Bullshit. This year alone, the bloated defense budget is taking:

    • $189 million from higher education
    • $541 million from Training and Employment Services
    • $1.026 billion from Law Enforcement Assistance, Community Policing and other justice programs.
    • $223 million from Small and Minority Business Assistance, a 31% reduction
    • $227 million from disaster relief
    • $109 million from Small Business Administration Disaster loans, a 59% reduction
    • $338 million from Energy Supply programs
    • $354.1 million from clean up programs at former defense sites
    • $756 million from Water Resources programs, including flood prevention efforts
    • $498 million from Pollution control and abatement programs
    • $1.23 billion from Conservation and Land Management programs
    • $144 million from Animal and Plant inspection programs

    If you think that folks like Hitler, Stalin, Hussien, etc. wouldn't already be over here, then you are crazy.

    And if you think the likely source of that threat today is not from within, then you are crazy, or, more likely, just following orders.

    I am a strong believer in a well prepared military and a well armed nation.

    Clearly, you have greater belief in military and arms than in your God's commandment against killing. Remember your drill sergeant telling you to obey without question? You have made him very proud. I hope he is there to congratulate you when you receive your "heavenly reward" for your actions.

    These two things are what will keep the U.S. free and at peace most of the time.

    Then you are a fool. How many troops are worth one more student in your children's classes? How many bombs are worth one more undiagnosed tuberculosis patient in your town? How many bullets are worth one fewer book in your public library? How many rifles are worth one fewer ambulance in your neighborhood?

    The Constitution you have sworn to uphold has been eroded to the point of unrecognizability. Are you such a coward that you refuse to see that "folks like Hitler, Stalin, Hussien, etc." are in your own backyard?