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Came here having misread the title as "Whale Fail" and thought it would be about some early days of Twitter where they displayed whales when the server went dow

Came here having misread the title as "Whale Fail" and thought it would be about some early days of Twitter where they displayed whales when the server went down. But actually learned something very cool!

Jaruzel 6y ago
To me, 'Whale Fall' makes think of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, when the Heart of Gold invokes it's infinite improbability drive to avoid incoming missiles and said missiles turn into a pot of Petunias and a Whale, with both then falling towards the nearby planet at high speed[1]. -- [1] 'I wonder if it [the planet] will be friends with me?', thought the Whale.
- dylan604 6y ago
  "Oh no, not again!" To this day, I still wonder why the bowl of petunias thought that
  - objclxt 6y ago
    > I still wonder why the bowl of petunias thought that It’s covered in the third book! (Life, the Universe, and Everything)
    - Drdrdrq 6y ago
      It is an incredible set of books. You can return to it years later and find jokes and references that you missed in first... few hundred readings (don't judge me :) ).
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - Benjammer 6y ago
    Because Arthur Dent keeps killing Agrajag over and over again and he reincarnates into various people and creatures that then are killed by Arthur. The pot of petunias is one such reincarnation. The entire character arc is basically Douglas Adams taking out his frustration with Jaguar drivers in traffic.
- mrlonglong 6y ago
  Wasn't there was a film where a sentient missile refuses to explode as it wants to live?
  - simonh 6y ago
    In Dark Star a sentient bomb gets stuck in the drop mechanism. One of the crew teaches it existentialism in an attempt to stop it detonating, but then it comes to believe its the only being in the universe and decided “Let there be light”.
  - vidarh 6y ago
    While the sibling comment correctly points out Dark Star as the movie, I'd also like to point out Starship Titanic - Douglas Adams was involved in the game, based on a throwaway line from one of the Hitchhiker novels. Terry Jones novelized the game. Both include a talking bomb where the plot involves distracting the bomb until it looses track and has to start counting down all over again.
michaelcampbell 6y ago
I thought the same, but went back further in time to the live-ish news report of the demolition team trying to vaporize a dead beached whale back into the ocean using construction dynamite. It didn't go well. Classic news blurb though.
siberianbear 6y ago
Here's what a "Whale Fail" is [1]. In 1970, a whale died near Portland, Oregon and washed up on the beach. The local authorities decided to blow it up using explosives, with awful and unexpected results. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBgThvB_IDQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBgThvB_IDQ
- cocktailpeanuts 6y ago
  Haha in a sense this is also a "whale fall". In fact, this is more of "whale fall" than the original article. The whale literally fell from the sky!
krrrh 6y ago
Twitter sunk all those countless fail whales only to provide a perfect habitat and breeding ground for scavengers and bottom feeders. What a perfect metaphor.

Jaruzel 6y ago

To me, 'Whale Fall' makes think of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, when the Heart of Gold invokes it's infinite improbability drive to avoid incoming missiles and said missiles turn into a pot of Petunias and a Whale, with both then falling towards the nearby planet at high speed[1]. -- [1] 'I wonder if it [the planet] will be friends with me?', thought the Whale.

dylan604 6y ago
"Oh no, not again!" To this day, I still wonder why the bowl of petunias thought that
- objclxt 6y ago
  > I still wonder why the bowl of petunias thought that It’s covered in the third book! (Life, the Universe, and Everything)
  - Drdrdrq 6y ago
    It is an incredible set of books. You can return to it years later and find jokes and references that you missed in first... few hundred readings (don't judge me :) ).
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- Benjammer 6y ago
  Because Arthur Dent keeps killing Agrajag over and over again and he reincarnates into various people and creatures that then are killed by Arthur. The pot of petunias is one such reincarnation. The entire character arc is basically Douglas Adams taking out his frustration with Jaguar drivers in traffic.
mrlonglong 6y ago
Wasn't there was a film where a sentient missile refuses to explode as it wants to live?
- simonh 6y ago
  In Dark Star a sentient bomb gets stuck in the drop mechanism. One of the crew teaches it existentialism in an attempt to stop it detonating, but then it comes to believe its the only being in the universe and decided “Let there be light”.
- vidarh 6y ago
  While the sibling comment correctly points out Dark Star as the movie, I'd also like to point out Starship Titanic - Douglas Adams was involved in the game, based on a throwaway line from one of the Hitchhiker novels. Terry Jones novelized the game. Both include a talking bomb where the plot involves distracting the bomb until it looses track and has to start counting down all over again.

michaelcampbell 6y ago

I thought the same, but went back further in time to the live-ish news report of the demolition team trying to vaporize a dead beached whale back into the ocean using construction dynamite. It didn't go well. Classic news blurb though.

siberianbear 6y ago

Here's what a "Whale Fail" is [1]. In 1970, a whale died near Portland, Oregon and washed up on the beach. The local authorities decided to blow it up using explosives, with awful and unexpected results. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBgThvB_IDQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBgThvB_IDQ

cocktailpeanuts 6y ago
Haha in a sense this is also a "whale fall". In fact, this is more of "whale fall" than the original article. The whale literally fell from the sky!

krrrh 6y ago

Twitter sunk all those countless fail whales only to provide a perfect habitat and breeding ground for scavengers and bottom feeders. What a perfect metaphor.