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Friday, March 11, 2011

Panic / ??!! / Enviro That Giant Sucking Sound...?

Posted by Goldy on Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 12:11 PM

In the literal wake of the Japanese quake and tsunami, a giant whirlpool has opened up off the coast. Nature is fucking awesome.

(I thought Charles might have something more profound to say, but all he could do was mutter something about the movie Solaris and a "living planet.")

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I don't remember - was the whirlpool Scilla or Charybdis?

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on March 11, 2011 at 12:20 PM

Fuck Solaris. Run, it's GOJIRA!

Posted by Pmasp on March 11, 2011 at 12:20 PM

Um. Whirlpool. Releasing nuclear radioactive gasses. Trains derailed. Bodies in the water ...

@2 is right. Goko Godzilla.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 11, 2011 at 12:27 PM

-RUN! IT'S GODZILLA!
-It looks like Godzilla, but due to international copyright laws - it's not.
-WE SHOULD RUN LIKE IT IS GODZILLA!

Posted by ike76 on March 11, 2011 at 12:27 PM

I'm sure "awesome" was the last word coming to mind for the poor people on that boat; hope they made it through okay. Although it might have been better if, instead of trying to fight the current, they'd gone with it, revved up to full throttle and used the extra velocity to sling-shot out of the whirlpool.

Posted by COMTE

on March 11, 2011 at 12:35 PM

@1, that was Charybdis. Do you realize this makes the second reference to an old Police song on Slog this morning?

LiveScience rang up a retired UW seismologist:

Based on eye-witness accounts and video in recent years, whirlpools probably occur with some regularity after large tsunamis, said Ruth Ludwin, a retired seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.
"Whirlpools have a big impact on the human imagination," Ludwin said. "They're very notable and very frightening. But from the perspective of the geological record, they don't leave any particular sign that has been recognized so far."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/2011…

Posted by gloomy gus on March 11, 2011 at 12:35 PM

There's no sucking going on. Other than the breathless reporting, that is.

Water is not disappearing down the center like a bathtub drain or a Poe story. The camera zooms back several times to show a long curved breakwater, open at one end. The influx of water at an angle to the center of the basin set the whole mass slowly spinning. The owner of that boat is very lucky it ended up there instead of being pummeled with debris and washed a kilometer or more inland.

Posted by rob!

on March 11, 2011 at 12:37 PM

@6 well, yeah, but that's cause they're usually not quick frozen in their whirlpool state.

You can see a few whirpool like magma formations (probably due to rapid drop in temperatures) and mud formations (same thing), but in general, anything in water won't be preserved. They're mostly flat, though, since cooling takes time.

Now, if we get some UFOs with freeze rays ...

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 11, 2011 at 12:39 PM

Fucking awesome is really not how I'd describe anything about the earthquake or tsunami.

Posted by lostboy

on March 11, 2011 at 12:58 PM

"a giant whirlpool has opened up"

bad science.

Posted by Geraldo Riviera on March 11, 2011 at 1:01 PM

@5, @9,

awe·some [aw-suhm]
–adjective
1. inspiring awe: an awesome sight.
2. showing or characterized by awe.

Posted by Goldy on March 11, 2011 at 1:06 PM

@10,

Notice how I didn't put a "Science" tag on it.

Posted by Goldy on March 11, 2011 at 1:07 PM

@ 11 The generally accepted connotation of awesome is positive, dictionary definitions notwithstanding it's a dickish choice of words.

Posted by danindowntown on March 11, 2011 at 2:00 PM

Goldy used the word correctly, Nowhere does it say awe is required to be positive. Lay off you cunts.

Posted by McGee on March 11, 2011 at 2:58 PM

@ 13, That misuse of the word is only "generally accepted" by people who can't be bothered to know or consider the literal meaning. Just because words are commonly misused, doesn't mean one can no longer use them properly. This certainly is awesome.

Posted by awe on March 11, 2011 at 3:03 PM

You thought Charles might have something profound to say? Charles Mudede?? The one that writes for the Stranger?????

Posted by catsnbanjos on March 11, 2011 at 3:26 PM

@13. Just because "awesome" has been co-oped by everyone under 40 to mean "neato", its original definition is still incredibly apt. The whirlpool was awe-inspiring. It was awesome in the literal sense of the word and no amount of whipper-snapper common vernacularism is going to undo that.

Posted by veo_ on March 11, 2011 at 4:02 PM

It looks awesome but it's effects on the area and it's cause is most definitely not awesome.

Posted by Simone on March 11, 2011 at 4:45 PM

If that pilot is trying to get out of the whirlpool, he aimed precisely the wrong way. Aim in the direction of the spin, but tangentially out. Directly fighting the motion is the dumbest approach (other than diving straight in.)

Posted by Tomisme on March 11, 2011 at 6:27 PM

@17:

I'm not quibbling over the definition of "awesome". I merely stated that, from the perspective of the people on that boat there are a whole host of other, even more appropriate words that may have come to mind well before "awesome" was even considered.

For example: "私は今、自分自身を小便だ恐ろしいクソ", which roughly translates into English as "so fucking terrifying I'm pissing myself right now"...

Posted by COMTE

on March 11, 2011 at 7:50 PM