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A lot of work and money has gone in to preventing zebra mussels from spreading to new lakes in Minnesota. Think free sites for people to have their boats clean
by Auracle 9mo ago
A lot of work and money has gone in to preventing zebra mussels from spreading to new lakes in Minnesota. Think free sites for people to have their boats cleaned when they’re going from lake to lake, PR campaigns, etc.
My parent’s small pond, which has never seen a boat or any other real human activity, got them before the big lake it’s connected to did. Clearly there was some other way they could spread, presumably by bird.
Anyways, one by one every lake in the area no has zebra mussels. Even if they would only spread via human, it was clearly only a matter of time. As much as they suck (they’re sharp and attach themselves to basically anything in the lake) I’m not sure the expense has been worth simply delaying the inevitable.
- potato3732842 9mo ago> I’m not sure the expense has been worth simply delaying the inevitable. Now that I'm jaded I ask myself how many government and private sector jobs were "created" (in sarcasm quotes because broken windows fallacy) washing all those boats for free over the years and whether they even expected to prevent the spread or if the spread is the justification for expansion.
- AuthAuth 9mo agoThose are actually great jobs for the government to be creating. Having a workforce of people dedicated to maintaining the environment is invaluable. These people are so poorly paid and driven by passion for their work the government is getting a great deal on all the hard work they do.
- kitesay 9mo agoProbably a swallow. They could carry them.
- dhosek 9mo agoAfrican or European?
- ChrisMarshallNY 9mo agoWonder how many will get that…
- Dilettante_ 9mo agoYeah, famously obscure and underground comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus, you've probably never heard of them, especially in hacker circles. ;-)
- ChrisMarshallNY 9mo agoI'm constantly surprised at how many cultural conventions are mysteries to modern generations. One of the more amusing episodes for me, was when my daughter discovered this great group: The Beatles.
- dhosek 9mo agoThere used to be an ad for a radio station back in the 80s where a girl says, “Mom, did you know Paul McCartney used to be in a band before Wings?”
- ChrisMarshallNY 9mo agoI think I remember that.
- dctoedt 9mo ago> I'm constantly surprised at how many cultural conventions are mysteries to modern generations. Some of my law students are only dimly aware of Jerry Seinfeld. And when I play a bit of the organ solo from Procul Harum's 1967 Whiter Shade of Pale (to illustrate a copyright-royalties point), I'm lucky if one person recognizes it.
- dhosek 9mo agoIt’s often surprising what we discover younger people have no idea about. I had a twenty-something co-worker in 2018 who was a self-professed aficionado of submarine movies who had never seen Yellow Submarine (I can’t remember now if he’d heard of it at least or if even that was beyond his ken). My profile picture on my gmail account is a picture of Harpo Marx because I occasionally use Harpo as a nickname thanks to my first name having become undesirable a decade ago and I had a recruiter that I was working with ask me who the picture was, apparently having never seen a Marx brothers movie or even heard of them. Sic transit gloria mundi.