People Are Applauding This Twitter Manager For Using A Whale Blown Up In The 1970s As A Lesson On Coronavirus
The current response to the coronavirus is like an exploding whale. I’ll bet you weren’t expecting that comparison! The person managing the Doncaster Council Twitter account posted a history lesson about the time that US officials blew up a decaying 7.3k kilogram (16.1k pound) sperm whale in Florence, Oregon, in 1970. With dynamite.
That solution wasn’t the brightest idea because it rained chunks of whale meat on everyone, smashed a car, and didn’t get rid of the main problem. But do you know what was a success? The Doncaster Council’s Twitter thread which got more than 63k likes and over 35k retweets.
People were so wowed by the story that some of them even suggested giving the Twitter account’s manager a raise. Scroll down to read the full story and the lessons we’re supposed to learn about the coronavirus from this disastrous historical “solution.”
More info: Doncaster.gov.uk | Twitter | Facebook
The Doncaster Council Twitter account manager posted a historical analogy about how the 1970 Oregon exploding whale can teach us 3 lessons about the coronavirus
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: TheExplodingWhale.com
Image credits: TheExplodingWhale.com
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: TheExplodingWhale.com
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Here are the 3 lessons we can learn from this event
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Image credits: MyDoncaster
Back in 1970, news reporter Paul Linnman who covered the story stated that “ the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds.” Not only was part of the whale still intact, but the explosion also scared away the birds that officials had hoped would eat the chunkified remains.
“It might be concluded that, should a whale ever be washed ashore in Lane County again, those in charge will not only remember what to do, they’ll certainly remember what not to do,” Linnman said. In fact, US officials learned from their mistakes. So when 41 sperm whales beached nearby in 1979, they were burned and buried. No more messing with explosions.
Here’s the full news report from 1970
Years later, in the mid-1990s, Linnman contacted George Thornton, the engineer in charge of the operation, once again. Thornton thought that the operation had been a success and blamed the media for turning what happened into a PR disaster.
As things currently stand, the policy of the Oregon State Parks Department is to bury whales when they wash ashore. And, if the sand’s not deep enough, the carcasses are transported to another beach. Lesson learned? Lesson learned. Now, it’s time to learn the lessons that the Doncaster Council’s trying to teach us about the coronavirus.
People loved the analogy and some even suggested giving the Twitter account manager a raise
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"It will be the biggest, most beautiful explosion you've ever seen! I've been in touch with people, the highest quality people, and they all asked how I knew so much about these wonderful exploding whales."
Load More Replies...They should have moved it far back into the ocean so other sea life could eat it.. imagine how much food that would be for so many species .. this is stupid and sad :/
George Thornton, the highway engineer in charge, admitted before the explosives were placed that, "Well, I'm confident that it'll work. The only thing is, we're not sure exactly how much explosives it will take..." How very tRumpian. Why didn't he heed the advice of experts?
I want to read the insurance claim for the car. I helped cut up a whale - 40-ft Minky - on an Oregon beach about an hour south of Portland in 1988. Interesting experience. That is when I learned of The Tale Of The Exploded Whale. Also of a sperm whale being transported through a Japanese city - it "cooked" too long and naturally exploded. Quite a mess.
The Tale Of The Exploded Whale !! The absolute same thing happened in Portugal,also in the 70ties.The army sappers were brought in to dispose of a dead whale on one of the more popular beaches close to Lisbon(Guincho)and being army naturally resorted to explosives.Blew it to smithereens and doused all the surrounding houses and beach in blubber. Off limits for months while clean-up took place...and gave rise to countless jokes on Army Stupidity.
Load More Replies...It was the experts and the City that wanted to blow this up. Listen to the Dollop podcast about this story, was told better than here
Well, the thing is that even the experts do not agree on what to do, and the data basis on COVID is still bad. Just look at how differently the different countries behave, and how this not uniformly is reflected in the figures. The all popular "stay home" is but a proxy, because the virus does not care if someone stays home or not. It cares about close contacts, at least this is what all experts agree on. Besides, "let nature take its course" is about as bad advice as you can get. Nature took its course when the coronavirus jumped from an animal to humans, and we should be thankful to all medial researchers to investigate how to stop the very nature of the virus. Its nature is to spread, and I am not in favour of just letting it "takesits course".
But if you stay home, you will have no close contact. So to avoid contracting COVID you would want to stay home while scientists come up with a vaccine..right?
Load More Replies...But we actually DON'T want to 'let nature take it's course' on the Coronavirus. Nature gave us the virus (it's not human-made, it came from eating bats most likely, bats = nature). We want to use every artificial means possible from the experts (they're right about that) to beat this thing and manage the fallout. A vaccine if created, drugs to help people survive this in the hospital, respirators, masks, soap - none of these things are from nature. Nature gave us Covid-19, Ebola, Anthrax, SARS, AIDS - nature is not our best friend designed by some 'Mother' to help us or some 'Father' watching over us, it is the blind and random system in which we happened to emerge.
Long-haul flights, hour-long commutes and importing your clothes, electronics, toys, etc. from China is not very natural either.
Load More Replies..."It will be the biggest, most beautiful explosion you've ever seen! I've been in touch with people, the highest quality people, and they all asked how I knew so much about these wonderful exploding whales."
Load More Replies...They should have moved it far back into the ocean so other sea life could eat it.. imagine how much food that would be for so many species .. this is stupid and sad :/
George Thornton, the highway engineer in charge, admitted before the explosives were placed that, "Well, I'm confident that it'll work. The only thing is, we're not sure exactly how much explosives it will take..." How very tRumpian. Why didn't he heed the advice of experts?
I want to read the insurance claim for the car. I helped cut up a whale - 40-ft Minky - on an Oregon beach about an hour south of Portland in 1988. Interesting experience. That is when I learned of The Tale Of The Exploded Whale. Also of a sperm whale being transported through a Japanese city - it "cooked" too long and naturally exploded. Quite a mess.
The Tale Of The Exploded Whale !! The absolute same thing happened in Portugal,also in the 70ties.The army sappers were brought in to dispose of a dead whale on one of the more popular beaches close to Lisbon(Guincho)and being army naturally resorted to explosives.Blew it to smithereens and doused all the surrounding houses and beach in blubber. Off limits for months while clean-up took place...and gave rise to countless jokes on Army Stupidity.
Load More Replies...It was the experts and the City that wanted to blow this up. Listen to the Dollop podcast about this story, was told better than here
Well, the thing is that even the experts do not agree on what to do, and the data basis on COVID is still bad. Just look at how differently the different countries behave, and how this not uniformly is reflected in the figures. The all popular "stay home" is but a proxy, because the virus does not care if someone stays home or not. It cares about close contacts, at least this is what all experts agree on. Besides, "let nature take its course" is about as bad advice as you can get. Nature took its course when the coronavirus jumped from an animal to humans, and we should be thankful to all medial researchers to investigate how to stop the very nature of the virus. Its nature is to spread, and I am not in favour of just letting it "takesits course".
But if you stay home, you will have no close contact. So to avoid contracting COVID you would want to stay home while scientists come up with a vaccine..right?
Load More Replies...But we actually DON'T want to 'let nature take it's course' on the Coronavirus. Nature gave us the virus (it's not human-made, it came from eating bats most likely, bats = nature). We want to use every artificial means possible from the experts (they're right about that) to beat this thing and manage the fallout. A vaccine if created, drugs to help people survive this in the hospital, respirators, masks, soap - none of these things are from nature. Nature gave us Covid-19, Ebola, Anthrax, SARS, AIDS - nature is not our best friend designed by some 'Mother' to help us or some 'Father' watching over us, it is the blind and random system in which we happened to emerge.
Long-haul flights, hour-long commutes and importing your clothes, electronics, toys, etc. from China is not very natural either.
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