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Military Dolphins Discover 1800s Torpedo
First time accepted submitter The0retical writes "A couple of mine-sweeping dolphins dredged up what is known as a 'Howell torpedo' dating from 1870 to 1889. Only 50 were ever produced, this being the second example known to exist. The 11-foot-long brass torpedo had a maximum range and speed of 400 yards at 25 knots. The new example will be displayed at Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Wash. alongside the only other example."
What was left unsaid (by the dolphins) was how many times the critters have found 'unintended' things and not told their handlers about it, but instead squirreled it away to their underwater hideout, planning for the eventual overthrow of human kind. They just felt that since this was so old and unusable, there was no harm in telling the Navy guys.
Besides, they were hungry and wanted a snack.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
From the LA times.
Serious editors, that link is even provided at the bottom of the crappy summary article you folks pointed to - and it is MUCH more in-depth.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
We have mine-sweeping dolphins that actually find stuff? That strikes me as way more important than the torpedo. It's not that the torpedo is unimportant, but we've got one of those already.
Stop learning! Only you can prevent esoterrorism.
Are you kidding? Dogs would be too busy trying to pee on everything to mark it, and chasing brightly colored fish around, they wouldn't get much work done. Yes I'm a dog owner lol.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
You can listen to an NPR piece where the dolphin are interviewed.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Yeah, I've got a 'Howell torpedo' myself. Banned by the Geneva Convention as a weapon of mass destruction.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Actually IIRC there were several patents in WWII that were given out in secret by the government for tech that the government deemed to much of a risk to allow to be filed publicly, they kept those patents on ice until they were no longer cutting edge military tech and then allowed those that had secretly filed them to profit from those war time inventions. IIRC a lot of them were early computer designs and things to do with computers that they were afraid the Russians would be able to copy after the war.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
MILITARY DOLPHINS?! :O
Seriously - there are only two in existence, so they're displayed side by side in the same museum?
How wasteful is that? The US Navy has like a dozen museums, scattered all over the country. Why not share the bounty about a bit?
"Only 50 were ever produced, this being the second example known to exist."
If there are 50 produced, then there are 50 known to exist.
There are 50 known to have existed, but many of them may no longer exist. See, torpedoes occasional blow themselves up, a minor design flaw that means they sometimes stop existing, at least in the form of a torpedo.
"Only 50 were ever produced, this being the second example known to exist."
If there are 50 produced, then there are 50 known to exist.
Except for the ones that blew up. Because, you now. Torpedoes.
The LA times report mentions that another dolphin had alerted them a few days ago, but the operator didn't send anyone to check it out because they didn't expect to find anything. Does the system have a large number of false positives?
...not in torpedo form.
The new example will be displayed at Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Wash. alongside the only other example
Oh good. So if you want to see a Howell Torpedo, you're not going to get confused about where to go. These are definitely the people training dolphins to perform military operations.
.. William Shatner as Kirk in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
"No, ma'am. No dipshit"
Reminds me how Ali G was wondering why ATF are using dogs, instead of dolphins, who are much smarter.
So only two are known to exist? Why display them both at the same location? Do people who see one need to see the other or can you share your rare discovery with more than one museum? I'd think having the only two torpedoes of a type at the same location would risk losing them both if something were to happen to that facility (e.g. fire).
The article links to several articles about bizarre and creative uses for dolphins. I guess those hours spent playing Red Alert 2 taught me more about reality than just the fact that women named Tanya are hot.
Presumably some of them were detonated and therefore known for certain to not exist.
Dogs would be too busy trying to pee on everything to mark it,
Dolphins pee on everything too, but they're sneakier about it.
...is the sound of the entire steampunk community collectively jizzing its pants.
Maybe these dolphins could be used to locate the the missing Mark 15 nuclear bomb? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_collision
'I don't know what it's called. I just know the sound it makes, when it takes a man's life.' ~ Four Leaf Tayback
There were also a bunch of patents seized by the government, and pulled from the archives
and its not at all clear that the original patent holder was adequately compensated.
In that day this was easy because the there were essentially only a one copy in existence
and the archives hadn't even been microfilmed yet.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Same dudes.
Both know surviving examples will be kept by the Navy at Keyport.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
The world disagrees with you.
There was a lawsuit, but the other party was across the sea, making it tricky both from a travel standpoint and from a legal standpoint.
Table-ized A.I.
I highly recommend the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington. (Well only if you are into technology) There is a fair bit of history on display there. More than just weapons. http://www.navalunderseamuseum.org/
There are more than 5000 secret patents in the US today. See Invention Secrecy Act.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
That's not a bug. It's a feature!
I don't agree. Then again I have disagreements about the term "Next Tuesday" since a co-worker thinks that means this upcoming Tuesday while I believe it means the following-Tuesday (2 Tuesdays from now).
Since 2010... people have been using the term "2000's" to mean 2000 through 2009. Like for Music and such.
But prior to that, I heard (and used) the term 1900s and such to include anything from 1900 to 1999.
So it's probably a regional / preference thing.
I'm sure millions of Americans are malnourished, but the number of Americans who are involuntarily undernourished due to the inability to get enough food from their family's money, charity, or government handouts is very small. Literal starvation usually implies someone who is mentally defective, physically injured and isolated (an oldster who has broken a hip and can't reach a phone), or other situations where tax money won't make a bit of difference.
Or are you a member of a community none of whom, yourself included, will help a person in need?
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
It's been my observation that people who tend to read widely and much also tend to have less confusion about a number of conversational conventions because they have a wider exposure to usage that helps them derive meaning from context.
That said, I suppose there may well be regional and age-cohort differences* in expression. FWIW, I've always taken "next Tuesday" to mean whichever Tuesday comes along next. If it's the Tuesday that's after the up-coming Tuesday then it's "the Tuesday after next" or either "A week from Tuesday" or also "A week Tuesday" after the British usage.
*I'm 66, have lived in six states, east, west and central, and overseas as a child, so YMMV. I still read a fair bit.
Ooops. Tuesdays belong to AC, below.
I haven't heard 'the 2000s much, mostly 'the oughts'. The convention of 'the 1800s' and 'the 1900s' meaning their respective centuries I've never seen anyone be confused over before now.
It was the capability that is reported as copied and then surpassed, not necessarily the method of achieving that capability.
Say that you have a patent on killing mice using a machine-vision system, servos and an air pistol. Great fine and marvellous ; it kills mice. ... "kill mice", and design a method using squeak detectors per-room and a knee-high-to-a-mouse rotating laser system that chops them off at the patella (and elbow).
I come along and think
Have I violated your patent? The normal phrasing of a patent is "A method to achieve X."
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Have I violated your patent?
In a sane patent system or the one used by the USPTO?
Actually, the next time I see zymurgist Les (a fellow soldier-scientist from the anti-Creationist trenches), I'll have to check details with him, if he knows. He's a patent adviser now, rather than a scientist, so he may be involved in wording things so that they'll get past the Patent Office here AND past the USPTO, but obviously mean vastly different things in the two countries. It is, after all, "law", not sense.
But TBH, we're more likely to talk about beer.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
I thought the US Navy had stopped with the use of Dolphins for military purposes. From what I heard they weren't quite reliable and prone to mind their own business and games, even swimming away when they fancied. And I even heard about some incidents in which dolphins and seals brought (fake) explosives to their handlers, which would have been fatal in a real case. Far from a good use for the citizen's taxes.
Reading between the lines what I see here is an attempt of putting a controversial project into a positive line.
-- 29A the number of the Beast
The site seeing vessel named 'The Minnow' has been sunk shortly after leaving Hawaii when it was hit by a Howell torpedo. Missing presumed dead are Captain Jonas Grumby, first mate Willie Gilligan, the movie star Ginger Grant, a professor named Roy Hinkley, a farm girl named Mary Ann Summers, as well as Eunice Wentworth Howell, and the owner of the Howell Torpedo company Thurston Howell the 3rd. The company has said that in light of the accident they will no longer be selling the torpedoes. Though they spent millions setting up the production line, only 50 were sold to date. A company spokesperson has stated that they were flubbergasted that such an accident could occur stating 'Who knew a torpedo could sink a ship?' A search for survivors was called off after a freak storm set in.
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
Agreed on the centuries. Though not too long before the post here I was talking to someone that said / thought the same thing. He was young though, and his "justification" was music. Like "This song is a hit from the 70's, the 2000's, and the 2010's" Which I *guess* if you wanted to classify music be decades... then fine. But the fact of the matter is it's always been "the 1900s" meant the entire century.
You see, that's the thing. Different ages, regions, etc. My parents are from Europe and in their 60's and they use "Next" to mean "Following"
So what I started to do when I noticed that my co-worked had a differing opinion I'd start saying "This upcoming Tuesday" and "The Tuesday after next" and if it's an email I include the date in parenthesis.
Unfortunately the other people in my department still just say "Next Tuesday" and we have people that take it to mean different things. And, said-coworker isn't consistent any more since they will sometimes mean it one way and another email mean it the other.
AND to confuse matters more, one co-worker has some weird logic. Like if the day is within 2 days then "Next" means "the following" but if it's within 3+ days then "Next" means "upcoming"
Which is all well and fine... different strokes for different folks. But when we have conversations as a group stating "we all have different meanings, maybe include dates in your communications" and they don't. And then they get angry that something wasn't done the day they wanted.
Music by decades has been my experience also, although I can't always remember a whole bunch from '67-'77 or thereabouts, it got a bit trippy.
Wow, man, that sounds a mess. I like your using dates to avoid ambiguity, saves bother.