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In Germany, a Message-in-a-Bottle Found 108 Years After Its Release
schwit1 writes with a report that an early 20th century experiment has generated a belated data point. One of many floating bottles released 108 years ago to study currents was recently found by a German couple; it washed up on a beach in Amrum, Germany. From The Independent:
When the couple unfurled the note inside, they found a message in English, German and Dutch. It asked the finder to fill in some information on where and when they had found the bottle, before returning it to the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth. It said whoever did so would be rewarded with one shilling. Communications director of the Marine Biological Association, Guy Baker, told The Daily Telegraph: "It was quite a stir when we opened that envelope, as you can imagine." Once at the association, staff recognised the bottle was one of 1,020 released into the North Sea between 1904 and 1906 as part of a project to test the strength of currents. Mr Baker told the paper: "It was a time when they were inventing ways to investigate what currents and fish did. Many of the bottles were found by fishermen trawling with deep sea nets. Others washed up on the shore, and some were never recovered. Most of the bottles were found within a relatively short time. We're talking months rather than decades."
Came to see first, got disappointed by stupid cow bullsh!t
If it's cows, bullshit is the raison d'etre.
Hideki!
Cows make cow shit. Only bulls make bullshit.
I would insist on being paid in 1904/1906 currency, not given 5 "modern" pence. Either that, or inflation adjust.... perhaps cheaper to contact some numismatists and find the old coins.
Viral for a Lost reboot.
Seville daredago
Tauzan bussis inaro
Nojo demmis trux
Summit cowsans summit dux.
"Don't trust that Hitler guy. I know he's never gonna make it but you never know..."
1 shilling in 1904 is worth five quid now!
...Delivered over CenturyLink!
This is one of those situations where a sense of humor could make an interesting story into a great story.
The Marine Biological Association in Plymouth should buy a 1904 shilling (on eBay around $13) and send it to the German couple.
It would be the perfect story ending, generate some good-natured publicity, and the bottle and note are probably antiques of historical value. (Imagine the bottle and note in the Salem maritime museum (Peabody Essex Museum), with the above-mentioned story ending in the description.)
I find it hard to believe that bottle was so clean. Usually things out at sea over a large period of time become covered in pelagic barnacles.
Message in a Bottle
OMFG old music videos are strange.
Zeig Heil! These are our kind of people!
Actually, it would have been more amusing, if the actual message was an announcement of the latest release of Duke Nukem . . . really soon now!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I bet it smelled funny
Came to see first, got disappointed by stupid cow bullsh!t
I much prefer the smart cow bullshit myself.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Fanmail from some flounder?
Good, inexpensive web hosting
A few words ... encode them as ASCII, divide by 108 years -- what does that come out as a bit rate ?/p?
Is that reward adjusted to inflation? And how much would a shilling of 108 years ago be worth now? 30 shilling or 1,5 pound?
Please mod parent Off-Topic. Thanks.
Some competition for Comcast.
I just modded parent insightful and you off-topic. You're welcome
Sounds like they did pretty good. Some googling tells me a shilling was worth 1/20th of a pound. Using an inflation calculator it gives the worth to be 4.58 pounds in 2015. A currency converter tells me that equals 7.19 US dollars. So they just made a premium of 5.81 dollars! Well done!