
Paul Allen finds long-lost Japanese battleship - kenjackson
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/03/intl_world/paul-allen-japanese-battleship-musashi/index.html
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NIL8
OT... I am really annoyed that so many news sites set their videos to
autoplay. Facebook does it too. This was bad in the old days when it was
common and it went out of favor for good reason.

Note to those responsible (not that they'll read this): I might want to watch
your video after I first read some text. When I hear the video start up while
I'm trying to read, I immediately try to press stop. This usually takes
several attempts because your video players are awful. Nine times out of ten,
I will leave the site without watching your video or reading the text. I don't
have time for the aggravation.

~~~
graycat
In December, I got a virus likely from such _auto-play_ videos.

Symptom and Solution. On Windows, kept getting auto-started instances program
iexplore.exe running. Virus scanning for days didn't solve the problem.
Finally a Windows system restore back to November or so did solve the problem.

Larger Solution. Of course, for each video clip on a Web page, Firefox and
Flash keep saying that Flash is vulnerable. No joke. Then they refuse to play
the video unless I confirm by clicking three times. So, great! Now those
videos no longer _auto-play_.

Of course, for this benefit, I am still running version 12 or some such of
Flash. So, after 12 versions, Flash still has bugs? So, I'm going to believe
that 13 is such a lucky number that finally version 13 will be safe? Nope! So,
I will stay with version 12 and, thus, block the auto-play videos. When I do
want to play a video, it will be a significant video from a respected source
and, thus, likely safe; I have to doubt that version 13 would be much safer.

There are other such frustrations at Web sites that still cause me to do what
you do -- leave!

~~~
NIL8
Yes! It's incredibly frustrating. I find a solution for one problem only to
find out that the solution created a new problem. It's all because of sites
like these. Maybe I'll just avoid these altogether or maybe I'll create a
browser extension like Adblockplus that prevents me from following links to
sites that are reported to have autoplay. What to do....

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rurounijones
Not just a battleship, one of the two famous Japanese "Super-battleships",
pride of the Japanese navy, with the biggest guns ever fitted on a warship.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Musashi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Musashi)

~~~
smoyer
It's curious that the article you reference already states that Paul Allen
found her in March 2015.

~~~
TeMPOraL
It's the Internet, news spread fast.

~~~
smoyer
True ... but wikipedia is about facts and the history expert cited said he'd
need a lot more proof.

~~~
porker
No. Wikipedia is about what people consider to be facts. I'm sure the
editorial team will be on to it... one day.

It can easily be cross-referenced, and without digging in detail it looks to
be true.

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utefan001
"The launch, like the ship itself, had to be concealed from prying eyes; the
most important means of accomplishing this was a citywide air-raid drill
staged on the launch day to keep everyone inside their homes. Musashi was
successfully launched on 1 November 1940, coming to a stop only 1 metre (3.3
ft) in excess of the hull's calculated 220 metres (720 ft) travel distance
across the harbour. The entry of such a large mass into the water caused a 120
cm (3 ft 11 in) tsunami, which propagated throughout the harbour and up the
local rivers, flooding homes and capsizing small fishing boats.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Musashi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Musashi)

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xgbi
This kind of philanthropy is quite amazing to watch: this guy has the means to
pursue his passion, and we, the humanity, benefit from his stubbornness :)

~~~
kaeluka
Benefit how? Seems like an expensive hobby to me

~~~
curiously
I thought the exact same thing. It might be unfair of me to judge what he does
with his money but all I see is just a rich guy having fun. Not that there's
anything wrong with it. But consider that these battleships once fired on
Americans, helped enslave Asia. If he found a German U-boat my response would
be the same. Here we are celebrating the artifacts of a perverted imperial
force that is responsible for countless crime against humanity.

~~~
TeMPOraL
If only your average rich guy would have similar definition of "having fun",
the world would be a much better place. His "fun" is at least actually useful,
even if you could find better uses of that money.

I start to wonder, if this is why rich people don't do useful things with
their money more often? I mean, reading some comments here, I think I'd feel
like this:

\- Hey people, I found you a battleship of historic importance! Cool, isn't
it?

\- Oh you rich guy, wasting money on fun. How about spending it on malaria?

\- You know what? Fuck you, you ungrateful, entitled assholes. Go die in your
own dung. I think I'll be spending my money on a platinum golf club set
instead.

~~~
Aushin
I disagree with the characterization of people who think he could have used
his means more effectively than this as "ungrateful, entitled assholes."

Are we required to celebrate everything a wealthy man does with his money as
long as it's not overtly bad?

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _I disagree with the characterization of people who think he could have used
> his means more effectively than this as "ungrateful, entitled assholes."_

Not everyone is, of course, but I imagine this is how it _feels_ to be on the
receiving end of those complaints.

> _Are we required to celebrate everything a wealthy man does with his money
> as long as it 's not overtly bad?_

Of course not. But what I see is that the default reaction is almost always
whining. I wonder how wealthy people cope with that - whatever they do, they
get to read a ton of crap written about them. And particularly, Paul Allen
does a lot of really useful stuff with his wealth.

~~~
Aushin
In this case, I think it's because the general perception is that we're
expected to praise him for this (Twitter announcement, press releases) and
there is a backlash against that expectation.

Also I got downvoted for my first comment. I can't even imagine who took
offense or why.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Me neither. I upvoted you to compensate.

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phon
I believe that they could have quickly confirmed the ship's identity by
measuring the chrysanthemum seal that is mounted on its prow and checking to
see if it's dimensions match those of the one found on her sister ship Yamato.
(More information:
[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/supership/producer.html](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/supership/producer.html))

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alimoeeny
Reminded me of Cryptonomicon.

Although I don't know which character will be Paul Allen.

Definitely not Douglas Shafto.

~~~
dredmorbius
There's a _very_ Paul Allenish character in the story already, though he's
cast as a gaming company programmer who'd retired. The one with the 747 wreck
hung from the ceiling of his house.

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WalterBright
It's too bad it's probably impossible to raise such a ship. I'd love to take a
tour of it, the Bismarck, and the Titanic.

Allen has rescued other WW2 things from oblivion like the FW-190 pulled out of
swamp and restored to flying condition. I've certainly enjoyed visiting his
museum of restored rare aircraft at Paine Field.

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n3xus
Paul Allen is an inspiration to creative, idea people everywhere!

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eng_monkey
It might seem as if he really paid other people to find it.

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smoyer
This web-site make Firefox completely unresponsive and (looking at top) uses
more than one full core. Why do they expect I'll stay on their page?

