This was one of the original internet memes. I remember my 9th grade computer graphics teacher showing it to us off some like 240p 15fps .mov file. It was 1999!
When Oregon blew up a whale with 20 cases of dynamite (2024)
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Re: When Oregon blew up a whale with 20 cases of dynamite (2024)
#12Originally the lesson from this was don't be cheap when you only have one shot to do something lest you create pink chunks when you need pink mist or some other worse than the starting point type situation.
Now, well over 50yr later the most obvious lesson is how far the journalism profession has fallen when it comes to word choice.
Re: When Oregon blew up a whale with 20 cases of dynamite (2024)
#13The blown up whale in Oregon is sort of like the SR-71 speed readout story. Reposted endlessly, but you just kind of accept it.
The two whales:
- blown up by dynamite
- 393-years old, wandering the ocean since 1627
Re: When Oregon blew up a whale with 20 cases of dynamite (2024)
#14I love the list of half considered excuses considered before landing on dynamite. They just wanted to use dynamite.
In the early 70s it was common to use dynamite for all manner of stuff like this.
I'm not gonna say it would have been routine at a small county highway department but in some lines of work it absolutely would have been. It wasn't cheap but it was cheap enough that a typical rural land owner would rather just dynamite stumps or boulders rather than tackle them with any machine small enough that you'd have to dig out around it rather than rip it from the earth in one go.
You don't realize how much you miss it until you start out pricing the options for clearing rocky forest.
Re: When Oregon blew up a whale with 20 cases of dynamite (2024)
#15Bit of a wasted opportunity to earn a bit of extra cash for the community there: Climbing inside the carcass of a whale was once thought to bring relief to rheumatism sufferers ~ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-26807485
Reminds me of an old pain relieve remedy. If your foot or whatever is in pain, just hit your thumb with a hammer. You'll forget about your previous ailment when you're busy feeling sorry for your new one.
Re: When Oregon blew up a whale with 20 cases of dynamite (2024)
#16This sounds like a late-in-series episode of Myth Busters when every show ended with a huge explosion or insane collision.
Re: When Oregon blew up a whale with 20 cases of dynamite (2024)
#17I love the list of half considered excuses considered before landing on dynamite. They just wanted to use dynamite.
In the early 70s it was common to use dynamite for all manner of stuff like this. I'm not gonna say it would have been routine at a small county highway department but in some lines of work it absolutely would have been. It wasn't cheap but it was cheap enough that a typical rural land owner would rather just dynamite stumps or boulders rather than tackle them with any machine small enough that you'd have to dig out…
Folks used it to clear old tree stumps too.
Re: When Oregon blew up a whale with 20 cases of dynamite (2024)
#18[dead]
Re: When Oregon blew up a whale with 20 cases of dynamite (2024)
#19I love the list of half considered excuses considered before landing on dynamite. They just wanted to use dynamite.
In the early 70s it was common to use dynamite for all manner of stuff like this. I'm not gonna say it would have been routine at a small county highway department but in some lines of work it absolutely would have been. It wasn't cheap but it was cheap enough that a typical rural land owner would rather just dynamite stumps or boulders rather than tackle them with any machine small enough that you'd have to dig out…
And for the really big jobs there’s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare
Re: When Oregon blew up a whale with 20 cases of dynamite (2024)
#20> "So I'm all excited, and I went over to my dad: 'They're going to blow it up, 20 cases of dynamite,' and my father proceeded to say, 'I think you misheard them. I think he said 20 sticks,"' Umenhofer recalled in 2015. "And I said, 'No he said 20 cases.'"
> It was indeed 20 cases of dynamite.
Reminiscent of this letter by Evelyn Waugh to his wife during the Second World War:
> Darling...
> So No. 3 Cmdo were very anxious to be chums with Lord Glasgow so they offered to blow up an old tree stump for him and he was very grateful and he said don't spoil the plantation of young trees near it because that is the apple of my eye and they said no of course not we can blow a tree down so that it falls on a sixpence and Lord Glasgow said goodness you are clever and he asked them all to luncheon for the great explosion. So Col. Durnford-Slater D.S.O. said to his subaltern, have you put enough explosive in the tree. Yes sir, 75 lbs. Is that enough? Yes sir I worked it out by mathematics it is exactly right. Well better put a bit more. Very good sir.
> And when Col. D. Slater D.S.O. had had his port he sent for the subaltern and said subaltern better put a bit more explosive in that tree. I don't want to disappoint Lord Glasgow. Very good sir.
> Then they all went out to see the explosion and Col. D.S. D.S.O. said you will see that tree fall flat at just that angle where it will hurt no young trees and Lord Glasgow said goodness you are clever.
> So soon they lit the fuse and waited for the explosion and presently the tree, instead of falling quietly sideways, rose 50 feet into the air taking with it half an acre of soil and the whole of the young plantation.
> And the subaltern said Sir I made a mistake, it should have been 7.5 lbs not 75.
> Lord Glasgow was so upset he walked in dead silence back to his castle and when they came to the turn of the drive in sight of his castle what should they find but that every pane of glass in the building was broken.
> So Lord Glasgow gave a little cry and ran to hide his emotion in the lavatory and there when he pulled the plug the entire ceiling, loosened by the explosion, fell on his head.
> This is quite true.