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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 09/24/2009 : 20:23:40
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What on Earth? # 73: Ships of the Desert
No, I'm not using the poetic metaphor for camels. These are literal seagoing merchant vessels. They are now rusting stranded in a desert, miles from any sea.
Rather than being caused by global climate change, this mess was a delayed, indirect, but certain result of the US Civil War.
1. Why caused these ships to be here?
2. Where is "here"?
3. What's the connection between this and the US Civil War?
Click for larger version
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/24/2009 20:35:57
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steinhenge
Skeptic Friend
USA
69 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2009 : 23:06:32 [Permalink]
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I assmue I'm wrong, but just to get something in before Hal I'll guess that this is the Aral Sea near Kazakhstan that's been shrinking due to the rivers that feed it being diverted in the 1960's. This probably has nothing to do with the U.S. Civil War because I'm probably wrong.
(edited for a moronic spelling error) |
| Edited by - steinhenge on 09/24/2009 23:16:51 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 02:39:18 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by steinhenge
I assmue I'm wrong, but just to get something in before Hal I'll guess that this is the Aral Sea near Kazakhstan that's been shrinking due to the rivers that feed it being diverted in the 1960's. This probably has nothing to do with the U.S. Civil War because I'm probably wrong.
(edited for a moronic spelling error)
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Correct for the first two points, steinhenge!
Now, who's going to pick up the spare?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/25/2009 02:49:09 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 02:52:03 [Permalink]
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Hint # 1: In what ways did the American Civil War affect the world's economy?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 04:22:04 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Hint # 1: In what ways did the American Civil War affect the world's economy?
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First thing that came to my mind was a reduction in the supply of cotton. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 04:30:44 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by moakley
Originally posted by HalfMooner
Hint # 1: In what ways did the American Civil War affect the world's economy?
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First thing that came to my mind was a reduction in the supply of cotton.
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Can you follow that with a logical chain of events that could eventually result in the drying of the Aral Sea?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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steinhenge
Skeptic Friend
USA
69 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 05:24:39 [Permalink]
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I assume this has something to do with "Cotton Diplomacy", which I know was a complete failure for the South, which eventually led to enough of a cotton shortage for the Soviet Union to feel the need to kill an inland sea so that Uzbekistan could become one of the worlds' largest exporters of cotton.
An even longer-term effect of "Cotton Diplomacy" is the huge, awkward sentence that I wrote above this one. |
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steinhenge
Skeptic Friend
USA
69 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 05:28:27 [Permalink]
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Correct for the first two points, steinhenge!
Now, who's going to pick up the spare?
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On another note, I can't believe I guessed that right! Could you give me coordinates for that image, cause they're probably the only stranded ships on the Aral that I couldn't find. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 05:33:41 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by steinhenge
Correct for the first two points, steinhenge!
Now, who's going to pick up the spare?
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On another note, I can't believe I guessed that right! Could you give me coordinates for that image, cause they're probably the only stranded ships on the Aral that I couldn't find.
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Coordinates of the above images: 45°17'51.71"N and 59°20'6.90"E. I picked that at random, with plenty of other ships available.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 05:37:10 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by moakley
Originally posted by HalfMooner
Hint # 1: In what ways did the American Civil War affect the world's economy?
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First thing that came to my mind was a reduction in the supply of cotton.
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Congratulations, steinhenge, you picked up the spare to get all three points!
Here's an interesting short article on the Aral Sea.
The standings:- Hal, 22 points
- steinhenge, 11 points
- bngbuck, 7 points
- Hawks, 5.5 points
- lorddix, 4 points
- Randy, 3 points
- sailinsoul, 3 points
- Dave W., 2 points
- Simon, 2 points
(Ties are listed in alphabetical order.)
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/25/2009 05:40:57 |
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steinhenge
Skeptic Friend
USA
69 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 06:03:07 [Permalink]
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Coordinates of the above images: 45°17'51.71"N and 59°20'6.90"E. I picked that at random, with plenty of other ships available.
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Thanks for that. It's hard to believe I missed it as I looked right around that area. And thanks for the interesting article. The abandoned Soviet bio-warfare testing facility that exists on what is now a land locked island on the Aral will probably add to my nightmare quotient. I still have one or two nuclear war dreams a year, hold-overs from a childhood spent in the Cold War; this will complement those nicely. |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 07:24:28 [Permalink]
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| I had my first ever getting nuked dream the other day, it was quite interesting. Actually it was the Luxor hotel which got nuked, I was just nearby, I realised I was dreaming after the second nuke failed to vaporize me. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 07:40:07 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by BigPapaSmurf
I had my first ever getting nuked dream the other day, it was quite interesting. Actually it was the Luxor hotel which got nuked, I was just nearby, I realised I was dreaming after the second nuke failed to vaporize me.
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My dreams a few hours ago were weirder yet. I was dreaming of lovely ladies (an erotic favorite of mine), but the dreams always had strawberries in them, and the focus of the dreams kept morphing from the lovely ladies to the strawberries, upon which I would awake with a craving strawberries. The same pattern of berry hijacking of erotic dreams continued for hours, until I simply got up and Googled for a local IHOP restaurant.
The nearby one seems to be closed, unfortunately, but I'm now walking over to the local cafe to get something for breakfast with plenty of fresh strawberries in it. The lovely ladies will have to wait until this serious business is taken care of.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/25/2009 07:42:39 |
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steinhenge
Skeptic Friend
USA
69 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2009 : 07:56:36 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by BigPapaSmurf
I had my first ever getting nuked dream the other day, it was quite interesting. Actually it was the Luxor hotel which got nuked, I was just nearby, I realised I was dreaming after the second nuke failed to vaporize me.
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Well, you know what they say, "What fissions at the sub-atomic level in Vegas stays radioactive for a hundred years."
Possibly I got that quote wrong.
Either way, that's a very... specific dream. Been dealt a particularly bad hand of canasta at the Luxor recently?
The dream I've been having for the past two decades or so is always the same: I'm in the back yard of my grandparents' house deep in the woods of east Texas. It's some time in the early evening and I'm standing next to someone, and there are other people I know on the property that I don't see but I know are either in the front yard or the kitchen or somewhere. It's a different cast of characters every time but always people I know well.
I look up at the stars in the night sky and notice that one of them is moving, which I assume to be a satellite. As I raise my hand to point it out to the person next to me, it takes a sharp angle and rapidly falls over the horizon. I never see a flash or destruction or anything, but I "know" that what I saw was a missile. And then I wake up.
Creepy, stupid dream. I hates it! |
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WoE # 73: Ships of the Desert
