quote:Whale of a mess on a busy street A 50-TONNE sperm whale left more than an impression on onlookers when it exploded, showering blood and entrails all over a busy street in Taiwan.
The dead whale was being transported to a research centre near the south-western Taiwanese city of Tainan early this week when it exploded, local media said.
A marine biologist said pressure from gases building up in the mammal's belly as it decomposed caused the blast.
'What a stinking mess. This blood and other stuff that blew out on the road is disgusting, and the smell is really awful,' a resident told Taiwan News.
The animal, at 17m long, was the largest whale ever recorded in Taiwan.
It was found beached in Yunlin county last Saturday.
It had taken 13 hours, three large lifting cranes and 50 workers to load the carcass onto a trailer truck.
posted
Why does this remind me of the exploding Oregon whale of oh so many years ago?
I mean, the article and video of that are so much funnier, but same subject matter. I also seem to be reminded of DNA's falling whale...
But I made the mistake of showing the Oregon whale video at one of my student jobs, and all of us were laughing far too hard to help anyone for a good half hour.
At least it isn't only human that have an affinty for exploding whales, it seem entropy does as well.
posted
On the other thread Mackillian also found a link to pictures of the Oregon Whale explosion. I haven't viewed it since my server bans it as "gross"
posted
Here's a Yahoo slideshow of the Amazing Exploding Whale, although only the first three picutres actually have anything to do with this particular incident. Check out the third picture (which I've tried to link directly to)--you can really see just what a large area got hosed down with putrified whale guts. It's pretty incredible.
posted
I know, especially the white one with the sunroof. There's still blood running off the door of that one. You know that that smell isn't coming out.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
People of Hatrack, I beg your forgiveness for posting this link but on the topic of grossness: Sorry, decided it was best not to keep this link.
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Blocked my my firewall. Hope security doesn't come and kick me out for trying to go to whatever that was.
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One of my most vivid memories from middle school is the day me and my two best friends at the time went into visit the science teacher after school to do a followup on a project we'd done.
Weeks earlier, we had incubated a dozen chicken eggs. Unfortunately, we were having major problems in our area with the power and had repeated outages. This is the best reason we have to explain that only two of our chicks hatched (Lucky and Stepper both got adopted by Kevin and Don - my Mom was quick thinking that time.).
So about two weeks after the hatchings we brought in the unhatched eggs. Mr. Hable, our teacher, set the eggs carefully out on large desk. Kevin, Don and I crowded arond the desk. With a scalpel, he cracked the first egg open and showed us how you could tell how far the chick had developed before it died. He repeated this with the second egg which had progressed even further in its development.
Which brings me to the third egg. As soon as the scalpel made contact with the egg, there was a loud BANG! And a horrible smell. With my ears ringing, I could see that egg matter was all over the front of the lab coat of Mr. Hable, and the coats of Kevin and Don. By a stroke of luck, I had been spared.
Kevin was freaking, wiping at his coat and making yecchhh noises. Don was doing pretty much the same. My ears were ringing.
Without skipping a beat, startling or changing expression, Mr. Hable said: "That's hydrogen sulfide." and then went on to explain the decomposition process, the resultant gasses, and the buildup of pressure in the egg.
All this while Kevin and Don were yecching and wiping their coats. I was in awe.
Talk about your "teachable moment."
Maybe not my favorite science lesson, but certainly the best-remembered one. Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Valentine, I think you should probably remove that link. It looks like they've got pornography on that site.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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