April 26th, 2005

If you pull a 1920's fire extinguisher out of the ocean, for pete's sake don't drink it!

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer is a fascinating source of information. He appeared again on my local public radio station to discuss issues related to garbage floating in the ocean. For example, at the 5:05 mark, he reminds us that, if you pull a 1920’s fire extinguisher out of the ocean, you shouldn’t drink it.

Other fascinating facts:

  • Ten-pound bowling balls float.
  • Sneakers float upside-down, and the tongue acts as a rudder, resulting in left-footed sneakers and right-footed sneakers washing up on different shores. (Beachcombers from different-footed shores occasionally meet up to try to assemble a pair.)
  • There are 1939 different species of plastic ducks.
Category
Old New Thing
Topics
Non-Computer

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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