
Friendly Floatees - Tomte
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_Floatees
======
hackartist
Not only is this super interesting but it is also an example of something
negative becoming useful with the application of some creativity. A spill of
toys or nike sneakers would normally not be something to celebrate of course,
but in this case it revealed information about ocean currents and deepened our
understanding. Normally we see this type of effect in medical cases where
someone has suffered an accident or has a genetic defect which, while terrible
for that person, can still be used to learn something with is either hard or
unethical to reproduce in experimentation. For me the Floatees are a reminder
that we should work to avoid medical, ecological, societal, etc. disasters but
once they have happened there is a silver lining of learning we can gain with
the right mindset.

~~~
piyh
Also see

[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nuclear-bombs-
made...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nuclear-bombs-made-it-
possible-to-carbon-date-human-tissue-20074710/)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight)

Blindsight is an amazing phenomenon with its implications for intelligence
without consciousness and a great book by the same name.

~~~
anotherhuman0
_> One monkey in particular, Helen, [...] was a macaque monkey that had been
decorticated; specifically, her primary visual cortex (V1) was completely
removed, blinding her._

Wow, go humans. But I guess this is nothing in comparison with what the
commercial farming industry gets up to :(

~~~
taneq
Yeah, if that got a squick reaction then don't go looking up too much animal-
based research. We do all sorts of ugly things to animals in the name of
science. :/ But we learn all sorts of interesting and useful things from it,
so... it's one of those trolley problem things.

------
abalone
Oh cool, I have a 1997 edition of the first children's book inspired by this (
_Ducky_ , written by Eve Bunting). Wikipedia didn't know about it so I just
updated the page, giving her the due credit as the first author to publish on
this. Thanks, HN!

------
scrumbledober
reminds me of the beaches where you can find lego pirate accessories.
[https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28367198](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28367198)

------
notmyname
You can play with simulations based on this data at
[http://adrift.org.au](http://adrift.org.au)

------
kevingrahl
Shouldn’t something like this be relatively simple to do with some kind of
system with mobile connectivity & GPS housed in some kind of floatable shell?

It wouldn’t have to be powered on for the whole journey (to preserve power) as
long as it pings back it’s location from time to time.

And since it’s location is known it should be possible to recover every unit
so as not to pollute the oceans with them.

Shouldn’t cost more than $200 per unit, I’d even tend to say that it’s doable
for around $100.

This would have the benefit that you can plot the exact course each unit has
taken (in real time). And for where there’s no mobile connectivity just save
the location locally and push it once connection is regained.

~~~
Cogito
"Relatively simple" is probably relative.

As others note keeping the electronics alive is going to be hard enough, but
the "ping back" is probably the hardest bit.

There is no such thing as mobile connectivity in the middle of the ocean,
because there are no cell towers, so your only bet is to use satellite
hookups.

Satellite connectivity for things like this is pretty good today, with
providers like Iridium providing low bandwidth ping services like their
Iridium Short Burst Data Service.

You would use something like the Iridium 9603[0] which idles at 34mA and uses
0.8W to send a message.

That is to say it's all definitely doable, but probably not that simple and
much much easier to do today then even 10 years ago.

[0]
[https://www.iridium.com/products/iridium-9603-3/](https://www.iridium.com/products/iridium-9603-3/)

~~~
joncrane
I would think that one hybrid option would be for the balls to enter into a
low-power mode when out of cell signal range and simply store their
coordinates once ever five minutes. Then when it washes upon the virtual
shore, it connects and uploads its track.

~~~
Cogito
What percentage of the coast lines around the world are covered by cell
towers, I wonder?

It would be an improvement over having to find them manually, but if you've
gone to the effort to engineer an electronics package capable of connecting to
a cell tower after years at sea you can probably get it to ping a satellite
regularly "for free".

------
gapeslape
This seems like a nice example of chaotic system
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory)).

~~~
romwell
Any kind of atmospheric studies (or studies of currents) would indeed be an
archetypal example of a chaotic system -- although much simpler dynamical
systems would exhibit chaotic behaviors.

------
albertzeyer
Also related:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16530506](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16530506)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9970336](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9970336)

------
acjohnson55
Wow, I've been 10 Rubber Ducks to my daughter for weeks and had no idea it was
inspired by a real event.

------
sethbannon
What I would give to see their journey graphically represented!

~~~
mygo
I can make it happen. What would you give?

------
village-idiot
Polluting, for science!

~~~
romwell
I know you jest, but it's not like the scientists pushed the container
overboard.

So - using disasters to discover new things, for science!

My favorite example of that is still the discovery of radiotrophic fungi[1] in
Chernobyl.

It's just so _cool_ to find out about species that feed on radiation. Too bad
it takes a local-nuclear-apocalypse level of disaster for that to have
happened.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus)

~~~
PhasmaFelis
When all planes were grounded after 9/11, scientists collected some really
interesting data on how airplane contrails effect the weather. (It's more than
you'd expect.) [https://globalnews.ca/news/2934513/empty-skies-
after-911-set...](https://globalnews.ca/news/2934513/empty-skies-
after-911-set-the-stage-for-an-unlikely-climate-change-experiment/)

~~~
phyller
Huh. "9/11 proves that global warming caused by vapor trails" sounds
absolutely nutty, but apparently is rather accurate.

~~~
romwell
This is offtopic, but can you _please_ post that article with this title to
/r/nottheonion? "Contrails" instead of "vapor trails" might make it even
better, but it's damn near perfect as is.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
That's actually a good idea.

Edit: Sadly they only allow recent news.

~~~
leereeves
Also, they only allow the original headlines.

------
person_of_color
Cant they use this data to find MH370?

~~~
jwfxpr
These data are about low-altitude wind and surface ocean currents. Models
based on those things are part of the toolkit being used as a matter of course
in such searches, but unless MH370 spent months floating at the surface of the
ocean, these models can't find it _per se_ , though they can offer indirect
hints.

Models of surface wind and currents were used to both predict, and trace back
the possible origins of flotsam and debris from the crash that washed
ashore[0][1] around the rim of the Indian Ocean in the following months and
years.

As a side note, the Friendly Floatees event occurred in the Pacific, with
drift around the Pacific, Arctic, and far north Atlantic oceans. MH370 was
lost over the Indian Ocean.

[0]
[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/world/australia/malaysia-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/world/australia/malaysia-
airlines-mh370-debris-mauritius.html)

[1] Part of my sources include personal knowledge, as I lived in Canberra and
knew employees at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau during the early
months of the search.

