Thankful for the mooks on this forum, and got the chance to demonstrate some properties of the deep ocean. This may be of no interest but we'll see, love to share my passions. Grew up as a beach bum on the Jersey shore.
Deep sea oceanography is fascinating, but not in the same way most expect. There's less giant sea serpents, and more just empty, inky blackness with incredible amounts of pressure. Without light there's far less energy; yes, there's hydrothermal vents injecting energy into an otherwise barren environment, but otherwise food drops down from the shallows and warmth is scarce. We don't expect to see megaladons or giant squids at the very deepest depths, there's little food to support these beasts, we expect to see fish ranging from the size of your pinky nail to the size of an American football. These animals have adapted to crushing pressure, no light, and very little food & energy, much like a graduate student. At these depths, it has the same pressure as 400+ bowling balls resting on every square inch of your skin. Pretty intense, and very tough to even imagine.
If you bought coffee in the 90s, it probably came in a styrofoam cup, why? Because there's small air bubbles trapped inside that insulates the heat. Same reason its still used for packaging dry ice and other boxed goods, its efficient packing material due to those air bubbles. Horrible for the environment because it takes centuries to break down, but fantastic as a tool.
We customized some styrofoam cups, attached them to an instrument and dropped them to 5000 meters deep in the North Atlantic. Those air bubbles are crushed, leaving a much denser material! I find this process fascinating and made one for the wife, one for my brand new nephew, and one for you mooks. This giveaway is for the PCF cup I made, and if we do another deep cast next week I'll make one featuring whatever you request. I've used these as ornaments, gifts, lessons, whatever works. Sorry about my handwriting, its bad BEFORE I get on a ship and start moving around.
*NotRealNameNoSirGuide HOARD ALERT: Full disclosure, there's other cups in a private hoard somewhere....
To enter, just give me your best memory of the ocean or beach in a comment below. *If you've never been to the beach, first off I'm sorry but second just be honest and say so and you're good to go. I'll use MATLAB to pick some names randomly and run a poker hand of some game that I decide later; if there's less than 9 people interested I'll just run it. If no one wants it I'll keep it as a Christmas Tree ornament! I'll close this tomorrow, 6/8/23, Thursday at 21:00 UTC. It'll be a few weeks before I'm on dry land and able to ship it out, will probably throw in some other random goodies.
*I still consider these cups to be in very good condition with minimal to no bowing.*
Styrofoam Cups, difference of 5000m worth of pressure:
Soapbox moment: please keep your trash out of the ocean, and roadways that spill into the ocean. We've found cigarette butts and Coke cans in the deepest depths and it depresses the hell out of me. Cigarette smokers that toss them out their car windows are the worst, those butts are found everywhere. Out of sight is out of mind for you but it remains in the ocean for a lifetime.
Deep sea oceanography is fascinating, but not in the same way most expect. There's less giant sea serpents, and more just empty, inky blackness with incredible amounts of pressure. Without light there's far less energy; yes, there's hydrothermal vents injecting energy into an otherwise barren environment, but otherwise food drops down from the shallows and warmth is scarce. We don't expect to see megaladons or giant squids at the very deepest depths, there's little food to support these beasts, we expect to see fish ranging from the size of your pinky nail to the size of an American football. These animals have adapted to crushing pressure, no light, and very little food & energy, much like a graduate student. At these depths, it has the same pressure as 400+ bowling balls resting on every square inch of your skin. Pretty intense, and very tough to even imagine.
If you bought coffee in the 90s, it probably came in a styrofoam cup, why? Because there's small air bubbles trapped inside that insulates the heat. Same reason its still used for packaging dry ice and other boxed goods, its efficient packing material due to those air bubbles. Horrible for the environment because it takes centuries to break down, but fantastic as a tool.
We customized some styrofoam cups, attached them to an instrument and dropped them to 5000 meters deep in the North Atlantic. Those air bubbles are crushed, leaving a much denser material! I find this process fascinating and made one for the wife, one for my brand new nephew, and one for you mooks. This giveaway is for the PCF cup I made, and if we do another deep cast next week I'll make one featuring whatever you request. I've used these as ornaments, gifts, lessons, whatever works. Sorry about my handwriting, its bad BEFORE I get on a ship and start moving around.
*NotRealNameNoSirGuide HOARD ALERT: Full disclosure, there's other cups in a private hoard somewhere....
To enter, just give me your best memory of the ocean or beach in a comment below. *If you've never been to the beach, first off I'm sorry but second just be honest and say so and you're good to go. I'll use MATLAB to pick some names randomly and run a poker hand of some game that I decide later; if there's less than 9 people interested I'll just run it. If no one wants it I'll keep it as a Christmas Tree ornament! I'll close this tomorrow, 6/8/23, Thursday at 21:00 UTC. It'll be a few weeks before I'm on dry land and able to ship it out, will probably throw in some other random goodies.
*I still consider these cups to be in very good condition with minimal to no bowing.*
Styrofoam Cups, difference of 5000m worth of pressure:
Soapbox moment: please keep your trash out of the ocean, and roadways that spill into the ocean. We've found cigarette butts and Coke cans in the deepest depths and it depresses the hell out of me. Cigarette smokers that toss them out their car windows are the worst, those butts are found everywhere. Out of sight is out of mind for you but it remains in the ocean for a lifetime.
