Military Dolphins Discover 1800s Torpedo 112
First time accepted submitter The0retical writes "A couple of mine-sweeping dolphins dredged up what is known as a 'Howell torpedo' dating from 1870 to 1889. Only 50 were ever produced, this being the second example known to exist. The 11-foot-long brass torpedo had a maximum range and speed of 400 yards at 25 knots. The new example will be displayed at Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Wash. alongside the only other example."
The unwritten story (Score:5, Funny)
What was left unsaid (by the dolphins) was how many times the critters have found 'unintended' things and not told their handlers about it, but instead squirreled it away to their underwater hideout, planning for the eventual overthrow of human kind. They just felt that since this was so old and unusable, there was no harm in telling the Navy guys.
Besides, they were hungry and wanted a snack.
Re:The unwritten story (Score:4, Funny)
but instead squirreled it away
The squirrels are in on it too? Aww, nuts!
-- posted from my radio tracking collar
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Just more evidence that SpongeBob SquarePants got it right all along (See Sandy Cheeks [wikipedia.org])
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Squirrels are already suicide attacking power lines here. I can name at least three times where a squirrel took out the power after it killed itself by shorting out a substation.
Why should the US worry about domestic terrorists or Chinese hackers when we already have them in our backyards, literally?
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Of course they are! [illwillpress.com]
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"Sqeeeeek sqeAAAAK fffffZZZZZZZZZZZZZt ssssssssERK! click!"
"Now we just need to wait around until we evolve hands, then THEY'RE DONE FOR!"
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So long and thanks for all the fish! If I had just one last wish, I would like a tasty fish. :)
A more informative article link (Score:5, Informative)
From the LA times [latimes.com].
Serious editors, that link is even provided at the bottom of the crappy summary article you folks pointed to - and it is MUCH more in-depth.
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When they said that nobody reads TFA, they really meant it:
NOBODY reads TFA! Not even the editors.
And if you were wondering why the summaries are so bad... ;)
Re:A more informative article link (Score:5, Insightful)
You are mistaken, there are no editors on Slashdot.
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Somebody said that we should get Bucket, Cleverbot, Dante, A.L.I.C.E, ELIZA, Dr. Sbaitso, and all the other chat bots together and make out own site, used, controlled and ruled by chat bots.
Somebody else said that already happened. And the submissions were the best he’d ever seen.
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Somebody said that we should get Bucket, Cleverbot, Dante, A.L.I.C.E, ELIZA, Dr. Sbaitso, and all the other chat bots together and make out own site, used, controlled and ruled by chat bots.
But we already have Reddit.
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If you're going to read TFA then you don't need slashdot...............
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I guess even the editors are in on the meme.
Re:A more informative article link (Score:5, Interesting)
Meant to be launched from above the water or submerged torpedo tubes, the Howell torpedo was made of brass, 11 feet long, driven by a 132-pound flywheel spun to 10,000 rpm before launch. It had a range of 400 yards and a speed of 25 knots.
Clever design. The energy in the flywheel was used for propulsion, but it also created a gyroscopic effect that helped it track in a straight line.
Re:A more informative article link (Score:4, Informative)
Perhaps only clever in modern parlance; there was a time where flywheels were very, very common for energy storage. (And no, I don't mean the one between the engine in your car and the transmission.)
That said: It spun at 10k RPM before launch, which also seems mighty nifty for the time until one realizes that the bearings only have to work once...
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It was allegedly significantly cheaper than the competitor Whitehead torpedo, which had it's own little engine. The downside of this one was that it was difficult to spin up the flywheel.
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See, Honkies can't jump :-)
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(Part of some "War of the Worlds" research I've done off and on over the past couple decades......)
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Thanks for that. It's an engineering work of art. Very impressive.
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Dogs would be too busy trying to pee on everything to mark it,
Dolphins pee on everything too, but they're sneakier about it.
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There were also a bunch of patents seized by the government, and pulled from the archives
and its not at all clear that the original patent holder was adequately compensated.
In that day this was easy because the there were essentially only a one copy in existence
and the archives hadn't even been microfilmed yet.
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There are more than 5000 secret patents in the US today. See Invention Secrecy Act [wikipedia.org].
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There was a lawsuit, but the other party was across the sea, making it tricky both from a travel standpoint and from a legal standpoint.
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It was the capability that is reported as copied and then surpassed, not necessarily the method of achieving that capability.
Say that you have a patent on killing mice using a machine-vision system, servos and an air pistol. Great fine and marvellous ; it kills mice. ... "kill mice", and design a method using squeak detectors per-room and a knee-high-to-a-mouse rotating laser system tha
I come along and think
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Have I violated your patent?
In a sane patent system or the one used by the USPTO?
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Actually, the next time I see zymurgist Les (a fellow soldier-scientist from the anti-Creationist trenches), I'll have to check details with him, if he knows. He's a patent adviser now, rather than a scientist, so he may be involved in wording things so that they'll get past the Patent Office here AND past the
Wait, dolphins? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Wait, dolphins? (Score:5, Informative)
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"creating effective shark deterrents"
Just say it... creating effecting shark repellents.
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They had a whole range of them - Barracuda, Whale, Manta-ray and Shark repellent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJlHjf_E--4 [youtube.com]
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creating effective shark deterrents
The project failed because they couldn't find an effective way to counter the laser beam.
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I was surprised to hear this as well. I knew they could train dolphins to do various things, but I thought it was more of a parlor trick and less something genuinely useful could come of it.
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The Soviet dolphin paratroopers mentioned in an article linked to by this one sound cooler to me though :).
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We have mine-sweeping dolphins that actually find stuff? .
The navy also has special units of seals, I heard.
I guess they're switching to dolphins because they're just as cute but less smelly.
dudes with the other torpedo... (Score:1)
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Same dudes.
Both know surviving examples will be kept by the Navy at Keyport.
More Information (Score:2)
You can listen to an NPR piece where the dolphin are interviewed. [npr.org]
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I've got one (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, I've got a 'Howell torpedo' myself. Banned by the Geneva Convention as a weapon of mass destruction.
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So they made 22-caliber torpedoes also?
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So they made 22-caliber torpedoes also?
.17 HMR
Re:50 or 2? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Only 50 were ever produced, this being the second example known to exist."
If there are 50 produced, then there are 50 known to exist.
There are 50 known to have existed, but many of them may no longer exist. See, torpedoes occasional blow themselves up, a minor design flaw that means they sometimes stop existing, at least in the form of a torpedo.
Re:50 or 2? (Score:4, Funny)
That's not a bug. It's a feature!
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"Only 50 were ever produced, this being the second example known to exist."
If there are 50 produced, then there are 50 known to exist.
Except for the ones that blew up. Because, you now. Torpedoes.
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...not in torpedo form.
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Presumably some of them were detonated and therefore known for certain to not exist.
Forget about the torpedo... (Score:1)
MILITARY DOLPHINS?! :O
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Why, ummm, yes, as far back as Vietnam.
Re:Forget about the torpedo... (Score:4, Funny)
Why else do you think Dr Evil wanted sharks with frickin' laser beams?
Redundancy (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously - there are only two in existence, so they're displayed side by side in the same museum?
How wasteful is that? The US Navy has like a dozen museums, scattered all over the country. Why not share the bounty about a bit?
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Seriously - there are only two in existence, so they're displayed side by side in the same museum?
The summary makes that claim, but the linked article does not, stating only that it "will likely be displayed in a museum as well."
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False positives? (Score:5, Insightful)
The LA times report mentions that another dolphin had alerted them a few days ago, but the operator didn't send anyone to check it out because they didn't expect to find anything. Does the system have a large number of false positives?
Re:False positives? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't read that as indicating any percentage of false positives. The operator was simply looking for something specific, within a definite area. He KNEW that certain items had been deposited within strictly defined areas. Because this item was found outside of those areas, he wasn't interested enough to investigate. Apparently he recorded and reported the "hit" because days later when another "hit" was made, it was investigated.
In effect, "They've found something, but I don't think it's what we're looking for."
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Not typically. MK7 dolphins are trained to discern a mine-like object from junk on the bottom.
Just for the sake of convenience (Score:2)
The new example will be displayed at Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Wash. alongside the only other example
Oh good. So if you want to see a Howell Torpedo, you're not going to get confused about where to go. These are definitely the people training dolphins to perform military operations.
.. William Shatner as Kirk in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
"No, ma'am. No dipshit"
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I was kinda thinking the same thing, why not ship this second one off to the naval museum in D.C. so people on the east coast can access one without flying 3,000+ miles?
Dolphins vs Dogs (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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From TFA: "The newly discovered Howell will likely be displayed in a museum as well.". In other words: it will likely not be displayed in the same museum.
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Dolphins (Score:1)
That sound you hear... (Score:2)
...is the sound of the entire steampunk community collectively jizzing its pants.
Re:That sound you hear... (Score:5, Funny)
Don't you mean steaming their pants?
Missing H-bomb (Score:2, Interesting)
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I think the Dolphins already found that one and are keeping it hidden away. Just in case they don't get their fish bonus. The navy better not hold out on them.
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On a trip to Savannah last year, as we were passing Tybee Island, I told my wife about this. She had absolutely zero idea that this had ever happened, and couldn't believe that there isn't more being done to find the bomb. Frankly, I'm in the same boat as her, though Charleston would at least be out of the initial blast radius!
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Actually, the entirety of the bomb casing is completely water and airtight, so the detonators would be included within that casing, and would not be susceptible to corrosion, had they been inserted into the casing. The official testimony on this is that the nuclear capsule was not inserted into the bomb itself, thus, it could not be detonated as a nuclear weapon. Of course, if the high explosives were to detonate, it would still be a 'dirty bomb' of sorts.
The most important part of this is that if the bom
Re:1800s has a specific meaning. (Score:4, Insightful)
The world disagrees with you.
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I don't agree. Then again I have disagreements about the term "Next Tuesday" since a co-worker thinks that means this upcoming Tuesday while I believe it means the following-Tuesday (2 Tuesdays from now).
Since 2010... people have been using the term "2000's" to mean 2000 through 2009. Like for Music and such.
But prior to that, I heard (and used) the term 1900s and such to include anything from 1900 to 1999.
So it's probably a regional / preference thing.
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It's been my observation that people who tend to read widely and much also tend to have less confusion about a number of conversational conventions because they have a wider exposure to usage that helps them derive meaning from context.
That said, I suppose there may well be regional and age-cohort differences* in expression. FWIW, I've always taken "next Tuesday" to mean whichever Tuesday comes along next. If it's the Tuesday that's after the up-coming Tuesday then it's "the Tuesday after next" or either
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Ooops. Tuesdays belong to AC, below.
I haven't heard 'the 2000s much, mostly 'the oughts'. The convention of 'the 1800s' and 'the 1900s' meaning their respective centuries I've never seen anyone be confused over before now.
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Agreed on the centuries. Though not too long before the post here I was talking to someone that said / thought the same thing. He was young though, and his "justification" was music. Like "This song is a hit from the 70's, the 2000's, and the 2010's" Which I *guess* if you wanted to classify music be decades... then fine. But the fact of the matter is it's always been "the 1900s" meant the entire century.
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Music by decades has been my experience also, although I can't always remember a whole bunch from '67-'77 or thereabouts, it got a bit trippy.
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You see, that's the thing. Different ages, regions, etc. My parents are from Europe and in their 60's and they use "Next" to mean "Following"
So what I started to do when I noticed that my co-worked had a differing opinion I'd start saying "This upcoming Tuesday" and "The Tuesday after next" and if it's an email I include the date in parenthesis.
Unfortunately the other people in my department still just say "Next Tuesday" and we have people that take it to mean different things. And, said-coworker isn't c
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Wow, man, that sounds a mess. I like your using dates to avoid ambiguity, saves bother.
Don't forget the museum in Keypoint (Score:2)
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I highly recommend the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington. (Well only if you are into technology) There is a fair bit of history on display there. More than just weapons. http://www.navalunderseamuseum.org/ [navalunderseamuseum.org]
I forgot, here is write up on the Howell torpedo. http://www.navalunderseamuseum.org/media/6c06204b6731dd48ffff8332ffffe906.pdf [navalunderseamuseum.org]
Mine sweeping dolphins? (Score:1)
I thought the US Navy had stopped with the use of Dolphins for military purposes. From what I heard they weren't quite reliable and prone to mind their own business and games, even swimming away when they fancied. And I even heard about some incidents in which dolphins and seals brought (fake) explosives to their handlers, which would have been fatal in a real case. Far from a good use for the citizen's taxes.
Reading between the lines what I see here is an attempt of putting a controversial project into a p
News just in ... (Score:1)
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I'm sure millions of Americans are malnourished, but the number of Americans who are involuntarily undernourished due to the inability to get enough food from their family's money, charity, or government handouts is very small. Literal starvation usually implies someone who is mentally defective, physically injured and isolated (an oldster who has broken a hip and can't reach a phone), or other situations where tax money won't make a bit of difference.
Or are you a member of a community none of whom, your