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Wrong Chemical Dumped Into Olympic Pools Made Them Green (arstechnica.com)
Z00L00K writes: [Ars Technica reports:] "After a week of trying to part with green tides in two outdoor swimming pools, Olympic officials over the weekend wrung out a fresh mea culpa and yet another explanation -- neither of which were comforting. According to officials, a local pool-maintenance worker mistakenly added 160 liters of hydrogen peroxide to the waters on August 5, which partially neutralized the chlorine used for disinfection. With chlorine disarmed, the officials said that 'organic compounds' -- i.e. algae and other microbes -- were able to grow and turn the water a murky green in the subsequent days. The revelation appears to contradict officials' previous assurances that despite the emerald hue, which first appeared Tuesday, the waters were safe." I would personally have avoided using the green pools, but that's just me. "Hydrogen peroxide is sometimes used in pools -- often to de-chlorinate them," reports Ars. "Basically, the chemical, a common household disinfectant, is a weak acid that reacts with chlorine and chlorine-containing compounds to release oxygen and form other chlorine-containing compounds. Those may not be good at disinfecting pools, but they still may be picked up by monitoring systems. Hydrogen peroxide can also be used to disinfect pools but must be maintained in the waters -- not a one-time dumping -- and can't be used in combination with chlorine." Apparently, the green water irritates eyes and smells like farts.
/. on the ball as usual with "news"
I'm sure the dorks will be along shortly to gloat, once they get done from jumping for joy three or four times (they can only jump three or four times before their fat asses are out of breath) to the thought that the Olympics might not have been totally safe. Of course, it was due to human error and not that Rio was inherently unsafe. The dorks will also claim that Rio is extremely infested with crime, ignoring that criminals are drawn to any large gathering of people with lots of money. This is the wet dream for the dorks, who desperately want the physically fit people at the Olympics to get violently ill and be robbed of all their possessions. Get over yourselves.
I do feel the color options for Olympic pools could be greatly expanded. Green and a slight blue are not enough, We should have red pools and purple pools as well. Deep blues and pinks wouldn't go amiss either. But not yellow pools, that might be distracting.
Just happened to have 100+ gallons of hydrogen peroxide sitting around.
More likely, they tried to be clever and use it in an attempt to sanitize the pool after a test for high bacterial load.
What's the point of posting this days late, written the way it is?
Any self respecting nerd has already looked up how H2O2, Cl2, H2O react days ago.
The Olympics are a massive waste of money. The athletes don't do anything productive with their lives. The Olympics are only around to entertain the 1%, who can actually afford to travel there or participate. It would serve everyone right if people started getting sick, and out an end to the Olympics once and for all. Countries might spend their money on productive things and athletes might be forced to do useful things with their lives. Yay!
They're swimming in a toilet bowl.
The facts of this story have been "everywhere" for about 5 days, now, and yet it's just made it to Slashdot? Perhaps more Slashdot readers need to step away from Slashdot more often?
They can build decent aircraft but can't figure out how to properly maintain a pool... and for the Olympics no less... geez...
The revelation appears to contradict officials' previous assurances that despite the emerald hue, which first appeared Tuesday, the waters were safe.
How does this work? You don't want tons of algae growing in your pool, but there's nothing particularly dangerous about it. It reduces the ability of chlorine to sanitize the water, which still doesn't make the pools "unsafe", and since they reportedly dumped in a bunch of extra chlorine anyway (that's what was irritating the athletes' eyes)... Again, how does this contradict the officials' previous statements?
I'm not a pool expert, maybe there's something I don't know here, but you can't just throw in a sentence like that and offer nothing to back it up. I even checked the article and everything (going above and beyond here) - nada.
handy, you are frre And promotes our
So I don't get it, is the green shit in the pools containing microchips? How is this appropriate for slashdot instead of a tabloid at the supermarket?
You know they made an EM drive right? It opens the possibility of us traveling to the stars. This is some blip in a 3rd world shithole and it is expected. I think the admins here are confusing us with the Jerry Springer audience where we bandwagon pile onto whatever pile of shit gets a clickbait.
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Who gives a FUCK about filthy water in a place legendary for filthy water, after we've been hearing stories about filthy water for weeks. You lazy limp wristed empty headed dip shits.
Honestly...just what the hell is going on? It's like you've just completely lost the thread of things. I'm pissed off, goddamnit I want somewhere for people like me who are smart and care about unique and useful things. This is just tabloid trash. Argh...I have watched the discovery channel devolve from showing me the first images of how an atomic is constructed and giving me instructions to build my own photovore robot into ice road truckers. Now even my internet is turning stupid.
I believe flint is not the only location with a water contamination problem and it's effects across the spectrum of the united states are beginning to show in various and sundry ways. Your all becoming stupider and stupider every single day even as there is more and more possibility technology and potential rising.
Should I laugh or cry?
The pool used to be blue, like the one next to it.
I learnt in school that when you mix blue and yellow you get green. Did a diving team have an accident in the pool?
...Pool supply company Eurinott has announced the release of a new chemical that reacts quickly with chlorine to produce a remarkable and embarrassing colour change when people relieve themselves in your pool.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
When you book a high profile event in a country run by blacks.
Where did it go from green to unsafe?
I understand that smells like fart is not usually a good thing, but is is just a sulfur emanation without any risk of bacterial infection? I'm nor a good chemist nor biologist, so this is where I stop.
Who's there?
Emmerson.
Emmerson who?
'Em are some big ol' titties!
That's why pools today, especially those used at such events, come with automated systems where the water is constantly monitored and chemicals are injected automatically as needed. I mean, WTF is a pool-boy doing manually chucking stuff into the water anyway?
When you do a high profile event in a country run by monkeys.
In a venue as big as the Olympics. I am wondering how Rio support people couldn't manage to have a knowledgeable staff to maintain the pools? Nothing to me seems more important for achievement then proper equipment. Rio seems to have suffered in many areas from ineffective staffing and maintenance. It's pretty scary when you have Police riding around with automatic rifles and swat gear. I think the Olympic committee needs a better way of choosing a host for the Olympics. Maybe based on existing facilities rather than expecting a host to build so much infrastructure.
We should have red pools and purple pools as well { ...} and pinks
You joke, but there *are* actually red algae that could give warm colours to pool watter.
It's just about waiting that the correct olympic blunders happens....
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Brazil has nice big beaches, full of topless chicks, covering up their butts with shoestring bikinis. Why would anyone want to go to a pool at all . . . ?
Because last time I checked they weren't handing out Olympic diving medals on the beach. I'm pretty sure the "topless chicks" are not much of a draw to the female divers or the gay male divers so there's that too...
Over the last 15 years, good chemists all over the world have been losing their jobs. Wages have been stagnant for 20 years. Those MBA types keep thinking any jackass can be hired to do the job. Well, this is what happens when you hire a jackass to do chemistry. You get green pools to put out for the whole freaking world to see. And you end up looking cheap and stupid. Well, us chemists are laughing our asses off while we stand in the unemployment line.
spilled his bong in the pool again...
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Didn't 'murican media tell everyone the pool smelled like zika and farts, though? Lol.
"is a weak acid"
So now all the swimmers and divers are platinum blonde?
"This pool is a little low. It needs some H20 added. This other pool needs some H20, too."
This coming from the same people that think Chemistry is not an exact science. It is not surprise to me. Quote: “We first learned that chemistry is not an exact science,” Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada told the AP Friday. Citation: http://time.com/4451260/rio-20...
"organic compounds" = poo
Because in Latin America, it is very common to hire somebody that seems to be totally qualified for something, and then it turns out they really did not know their stuff that well.
You would think for something like the Olympics they might be able to dig up someone who knows how to treat a swimming poll correctly. You would thing FINA might have had the topic come up once or twice.
I also think the Olympic Committee should have a way to make a country lose the right to host, if things are not ready like 2 months before or something. So that when a host is selected, a backup host with a country that has most of the stuff ready can be selected.
Why would any country agree to be a backup host? They're supposed to spend millions of dollars getting ready for an event that will probably never happen? It's not like the IOC would pay for it. And realistically there really is maybe 2-3 countries who could host something the scale of the Olympics on short notice. The US could do it most easily. Maybe a few countries in western Europe (UK, Germany, France). Maybe Russia or China. Canada for the winter games. But really there just aren't a lot of places with the infrastructure in place already and I can't see them agreeing to the hassle realistically.
I think what really should happen is that there should either be a permanent home for the Olympics (how about Greece?) or a rotating set of cities with already established infrastructure. Spending billions that will never be recouped on a one time sporting event is idiotic.
I'm an engineer with an MBA.
As am I. I went to business school concurrently with my engineering masters to learn how to better manage the projects I work on. Frankly there are a lot of bitter engineers here on Slashdot that are looking for a scapegoat for what they perceive (sometimes rightly) as injustices in the workplace. Blaming "MBAs" is their modern version of blaming Jews or moneylenders as an easily demonized group that in reality has little or nothing to do with the actual problems. It's just tribal scapegoating. There are just as many incompetent engineers as there are incompetent business majors. I run into both almost daily.
I treat anyone who blames "MBAs" with a sort of corollary to Godwin's law. As a discussion progresses the probability of some idiot scapegoating "MBAs" for a problem approaches 1. If they blame MBAs for a problem they no longer have a reasoned argument to make based on actual facts and so they lose the argument and the discussion is over.
Nothing in my studies ever suggested to cut corners for short term profits. It was focused on long term growth strategies and employee development. To remain globally competitive you have to build from within.
This is 100% true. I remember several case studies being used to highlight the dangers of seeking short term profits through financial engineering. The professors took substantial pains to show how short term profit seeking will often backfire long term and damage a company.
The companies that are off shoring functions will most likely find themselves in more trouble a few years down the road.
I've actually done some work in global sourcing and I can confirm this anecdotally. Offshoring tends to result in all sorts of management headaches and quality problems. Send work to China and you'd better have someone actually in China to keep an eye on things. I had a client some years ago who blew up their supply chain and sent work all over the place and only then realized that it caused all sorts of quality, logistics and lead time problems. Not to mention that shipping parts halfway around the world often eats away much of the savings.
I wish they still made those Warwick Davis Leprechaun movies. They could totally have an olympics one, where he dissolves some gold thief in the pool. OMFG, gold thief! The Leprechaun could be in the olympics, and he's pissed that other contestants are winning "his" gold medals. It's perfect; the movie writes itself.
But the last two (no, the last three, but especially the "Hood" ones) totally sucked, so I understand why they don't make 'em anymore. My friends and I were so pissed that the "Hood" ones sucked; within just a few minutes of trying to get over our disappointment after watching the first one, were were making up limerick-raps way better than anything in the movie. Those bastards put in so little effort in the end, and why they made "back 2 tha hood" I can't begin to imagine. Sigh.
So anyway, Warwick, tell your agent that you're up for doing another, but only if they'll do a good job, like in Leprechaun 3 (total classic, best of the series!).
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
They could have turned red.
Have gnu, will travel.
These games just shows how badly organized Brazil is/were to prepare these games. I see this in software development all the time, when a project is badly organized, things are late, patched up and rushed. The end result is visible when released with numerous bugs and shortcomings.
Tired of my customary (Score:1)
When no one was looking, I put a Pee-Detection chemical in the pool water. I thought it would be funny to catch the occasional swimmer peeing by the green watercloud forming around their crotch. What I did not know was that there was already enough pee in the water to turn the entire pool green. Maybe the bathrooms are a long way away, and all those cameras and attention does make people nervous.....
My Bad. Sorry.
Disclosure: My father-in-law maintains the pools at a local University.
This isn't like maintaining your above-ground backyard pool whereby you dump chemicals in by the bucket. These modern pools are computer controlled and have constant monitoring by the systems. As the system detects a change in PH or other imbalance, it automatically adjusts what chemicals are needed to be added. For 99% of maintenance it's about topping off the chemicals in the containers that the system draws from. These pools aren't that heavily used compared to those of a waterpark or other community pool which have hundreds (or thousands) of people in them on a given day.
Another example of how Rio screwed up.
First of all, why would they have all this peroxide just sorta "lying around" for someone to "mistakenly use" in the pool.
This isn't a normal chemical to keep around pools. Ask your local pool to see if they have these types of chemicals around.
Second, why would somebody dump in vast quantities of H2O2 without a signed order from whoever runs the pool?
The reality is almost certainly this:
1) The pool was under filtered and under-pumped
2) The pool staff almost certainly didn't understand how to backwash the sand filter at the pool (sand is common in commercial pools)
3) The staff did not do a good job of maintaining pH
4) Nobody was adding chlorine
The result was the mess you see. It's a CLASSIC problem for people who don't maintain their pools regularly and properly.
I have been on both sides as well as having a front row seat to many companies struggling after a "rockstar" MBA CEO pumped up short term profits at the expense of long term viability.
I can show you even more examples of individuals who never went to business school doing EXACTLY the same thing.
While there are many good MBAs out there, many who were originally engineers, there are also many bad MBAs out there, primarily those who are only MBAs.
MBA is a degree. There is no such thing as a person who is "only MBA". Every one of them has an undergraduate degree in something and most people who earn that degree have several years of experience before they get it. Often business but more often something else. My class had people who had undergrad degrees in film, sociology, engineering, various sciences, IT, medicine, and lots more. There were of course finance, accounting and marketing majors too. We had a few professional athletes as well. All but a handful had at least 4-5 years working experience prior to B-school. I worked as an engineer prior to and after B-school.
The continual parade of once proud tech companies whose CEO chooses to fire half the company and outsource to China and then golden parachutes in 5 or 6 years just before the company crashes and burns after $20M a year bonuses for record profits is virtually unending and very damaging to the workforce and the country as a whole. This sociopathic behavior performed exclusively by MBAs is destroying the country one company at a time.
Complete load of crap that what you describe is "performed exclusively by MBAs". Demonstrably untrue. Some people with a corporate raider mentality have a MBA degree. Many others do not. Having an MBA does not make one a corporate raider any more than having an engineering degree makes one an autistic introvert.
This would force management to discontinue the sociopathic slash and burn corporate raider mentality.
No it wouldn't. It would just change where they do it from and how they do it. They would start basing companies outside the US or change the type of payment or pull other shenanigans. I don't have a problem in principle with your ideas about aligning management pay with long term corporate prosperity but there is no silver bullet on that. It's pretty hard to legislate morality.
Just what we needed THANKS.
Can we buy the paperback from Softpedia?