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Memory stick found in frozen seal faeces in New Zealand
- gnat 8y agoNever underestimate the bandwidth of a leopard seal anus of USB flash drives hurtling through the Pacific Ocean.
- gnat 8y ago(original: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/20jlv3/never_underestimate_the_bandwidth_of_a_station/ https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/20jlv3/n...)
- lota-putty 8y agoIrony, we can't see any photos of 'USB stick in seal faeces' despite 'camera in every hand' these days! Or did I miss them by 'JavaScript' blocking by default? http://www.leopardseals.org/scat-poo-collection/ http://www.leopardseals.org/scat-poo-collection/
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ghettoimp 8y agoYou really shouldn't plug this crap into your computer, what with the threat of viruses and all.
- keithnz 8y agoit's ok, these scientist really know their shit, they ensure their computers are sealed from the world.
- eatbitseveryday 8y agoAre we on reddit, or is it now popular to create sarcasm / pun chains on HN?
- yuchi 8y agoI don’t know. Is it?
- userbinator 8y agoBut the discovery of the stick is a cause of concern. No it isn't. This is AFAIK the first occurrence of its kind (which is why it made the news) and very likely to be a rare accident. Start getting concerned when this routinely happens, or other usually considered disposable items start getting found; otherwise it's just paranoic fearmongering.
- kyle-rb 8y agoYeah, this. From the drive's contents it sounds like someone accidentally dropped it directly into the ocean, not that it was thrown in the garbage which was subsequently dumped in the ocean.
- pvaldes 8y agoYup. The stick came attached to a human hand? Leopard seals can be deceptively cute.
- bacon_waffle 8y agoI live a couple hours drive from where this scat was collected; the local wildlife centre here has a box full of plastic "usually considered disposable items" that came out of an albatross stomach on display. It's absolutely gross, you can start being concerned now please.
- bacon_waffle 8y agoWhile I've got an audience: I do embedded electronics/firmware for my day job, and literally this morning bowed out of a volunteer project building a monitoring system for that same local wildlife centre [1]. I have a good job, and am kept busy between it, upkeep of a small home, and a healthy-ish mix of fun and volunteer stuff - just can't make time for that project. It's a good life, I am very lucky and am not trying to complain. But, isn't it a bit weird that we collectively make decisions that lead to this sort of situation - where I'm spending my day getting a VoIP phone better (OK, posting on HN), instead of helping out make the world better? I'd love to be able to dial back the "real job" to put more effort in to this sort of thing, but it just doesn't seem like our industry would be OK with a 20-hour work week. And, it doesn't seem that the conservation groups would be able to pay market rates for engineering work, which is also a shame. How can we fix this? [1] https://albatross.org.nz/ https://albatross.org.nz/ Basically, what's wanted is a system to 1) alert the staff when people peek under the lids of nest boxes for penguins, and 2) attempt to read the RFID tags implanted in those birds, so that when one parent doesn't come home, their egg/chick can be rescued (lose 1 bird instead of 3).
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- echofavor 8y agoThanks for sharing. You can also share your ideas for free on www.echofavor.com
- kinow 8y agoHey it was found by a co-worker. Here's the original article we published: https://niwa.co.nz/news/they-were-defrosting-leopard-seal-pooyou-wont-believe-what-happened-next https://niwa.co.nz/news/they-were-defrosting-leopard-seal-po... Lots of funny tweets about it too: https://mobile.twitter.com/niwa_nz/status/1092610541401587712 https://mobile.twitter.com/niwa_nz/status/109261054140158771... Finally, hijacking the thread, but we also have a Python Open Source tool if you are into weather forecast, workflow, schedulers, etc: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19081972 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19081972
- klyrs 8y agoWhy is nobody considering the possibility that the seal had knowingly swallowed the memory stick in order to conceal evidence?
- siedes 8y ago>conseal
- andbberger 8y agoI am so very disappointed it's not ancient seal faeces. I think we should carbon date it to be sure. Just imagine, forebearer design committees!
- torgian 8y agoBut was there Bitcoin in it?
- danans 8y agoIf it's frozen they probably just need to reboot it.
- elephantitis 8y ago...and in other news, a child pornography ring comprised entirely of elephant seals was discovered near the Piedras Blancas State Marine Reserve and Marine Conservation Area and dismantled, when one of animals defecated in front of a park ranger, who then discovered illicit data on a microSD card embedded in the droppings, and called animal control to have the entire rookery detained indefinitely, pending further investigation.
- Inception 8y agoCheck it for BitCoin
- peterjussi 8y agoNow that's some long con social engineering. I'm impressed.
- pts_ 8y agoWas expecting the faeces to carbon date to some tens of thousands of year ago (cue Timeline by Michael Crichton).
- lupinglade 8y agoYeah, that would be a lot more newsworthy.
- incredible 8y agoHey hacker news, fuck you.
- kekzzz 8y agoDid no one ever tell you to not plug every usb stick you find into your computer? could've had malware on it... or worse: seal poop!
- pvaldes 8y ago... or sealware. Fortunately the memory stick remained sealed after being un-sealed. Able to stand both being dipped in strong acid, saltwater and very low temperatures. Impressive if we think about it. I had find a lot of plastic in whale stomachs, is not uncommon at all.
- pvaldes 8y ago-> I had found
- Grue3 8y agoWhat is the brand name/model of this thing? I'd imagine the fact that it survived being eaten and frozen would be a great endorsement for the durability of the product.