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Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

theguardian.com

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Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#51

Post by DanielBMarkham »

canjobear wrote: post #49
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A most interesting idea. I've read several of these "survival at sea" stories and one thing they all have in common is the fact that they end up passing many container ships before they are rescued. Certainly some kind of automated scanning would save lives.

The problem might not be technological. It's possible that the container ships see these people and choose not to save them. The owners and crew of the ship have a monetary incentive not to save people: according to [1] they have to pay a penalty for arriving at a port with people not listed on the crew manifest. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/world/stowaway-crime-scoff...

There's also the question of whether or not people need rescuing. Simply because you see somebody adrift, even if they're waving their arms, doesn't mean it's necessarily a true emergency. And now we would make container ships stop and investigate? That doesn't work.

Still, even if the data was simply collected and logged, perhaps others could sift through it for clues about where rescues might need to take place. With the cost of cameras and bandwidth continuing to go down, it wouldn't be a crazy expensive thing to install.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#52

Post by mmmBacon »

I'm curious about the long-term health affects from such an experience. The parasites sound particularly nasty. [edit] It would be nice to know if he is expected to recover his physical health or if he is left with chronic conditions.

raw birds had infected his liver with parasites. Alvarenga believed the parasites might rise up to his head and attack his brain

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#53

Post by mdaniel »

grecy wrote: post #11

If you enjoy tales of survival against the odds, I highly recommend Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales [1] It recounts multiple amazing tales of survival against the odds, then goes into the psychology of what's needed to survive such a situation. Finally, it lists the top 10 traits exhibited by survivors of these kinds of situations. [1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393326152/?tag=roadchoseme-20

I don't think it's necessary to include an affiliate link here. Foremost, I would be surprised if it gets enough traffic to matter, and in quite a few forums it's considered quite rude.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#54

Post by callesgg »

beeboop wrote: post #47
callesgg wrote: post #42

Interesting read. An idea: Using planet.com's satelite images to find boats at drift seams like a cool use of technology.

If you recall when that airliner went missing tons of people starting scanning satellite images for debris. The resolution is simply not high enough to detect tiny little things like debri or life rafts.

The difference is that planet.com will give a picture per day; every day.

1x1m is what they claim and if you get one image a day i recon one could use some statistical analysis and get better results.

I do recognize that it wont be easy despite that. Image all the shit that is floating around that is not a shipwreck.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#55

Post by mdaniel »

canjobear wrote: post #49
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A most interesting idea. I've read several of these "survival at sea" stories and one thing they all have in common is the fact that they end up passing many container ships before they are rescued. Certainly some kind of automated scanning would save lives.

The problem might not be technological. It's possible that the container ships see these people and choose not to save them. The owners and crew of the ship have a monetary incentive not to save people: according to [1] they have to pay a penalty for arriving at a port with people not listed on the crew manifest. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/world/stowaway-crime-scoff...

In my mental model, rescues differ from stowaways in that the rescued would likely be glad to pay for any fines incurred whereas that's almost certainly not true of stowaways.

But, as has been said over and over in these threads: it's one thing to make commentary on the Internet and quite another to be there and have to choose.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#56

Post by asasasasasas »

callesgg wrote: post #42

Interesting read. An idea: Using planet.com's satelite images to find boats at drift seams like a cool use of technology.

When we have continuous scanning of the earth by satellites you could put out some tarp that is easy to scan for with software. Instead of laying out rocks to say HELP you lay them out in something that looks like a QR code.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#57

Post by got2surf »

callesgg wrote: post #54
beeboop wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you recall when that airliner went missing tons of people starting scanning satellite images for debris. The resolution is simply not high enough to detect tiny little things like debri or life rafts.

The difference is that planet.com will give a picture per day; every day. 1x1m is what they claim and if you get one image a day i recon one could use some statistical analysis and get better results. I do recognize that it wont be easy despite that. Image all the shit that is floating around that is not a shipwreck.

The picture per day part is really cool - instead of having to look for a life raft/debris, we can look for patterns of abnormality across time. Given how large the ocean is, we have a good sense of the 'normal' distribution of images every day, so maybe we can find patterns like consistently "abnormal" images along a wind/current vector over 7 days. Individual debris may not be visible, but fields of debris may have some characteristics we can recognize.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#58

Post by PhasmaFelis »

ghshephard wrote: post #40
JackFr wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like step one of a plan to get rabies.

According to the CDC, squirrels are almost never a source of rabies. http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/pets/ - that is, unless they are acting in an unusual manner, such as letting people walk up to them and grab them....

It was a campus squirrel. They're generally used to people walking by within a few feet. This was just a little slow to shift gears, apparently.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#59

Post by bootload »

jychang wrote: post #29
bootload wrote: post #6

"They ate fish after fish. Alvarenga stuffed raw meat and dried meat into his mouth, hardly noticing or caring about the difference." Fine detail born out of other survivors of long sea voyages, when eating fish don't skip they "eyes" . "Another unlikely luxury are fish eyes, which are a useful source of liquid and of another vital nutrient. Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, a British couple who survived 117 days on a rubb…

Interesting how cultural perspectives differ on this. As a Chinese American, I wouldn't think twice about eating the eyes of a fish. They're tasty!

"As a Chinese American, I wouldn't think twice about eating the eyes of a fish."

The advantage of coming from a strong, older culture. "Head to tail" is a new (old & forgotten) thing in western (I'm thinking Anglo, UK, Aus) ... something SE Asian cultures (and others) haven't forgotten.

Re: Lost at sea: a man who vanished for 14 months

#60

Post by scott_karana »

lordnacho wrote: post #22
Turing_Machine wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dangling things attract fish. If he was wiggling his fingers, fish might well come to investigate. Tickling trout is a well-established (though generally highly illegal) freshwater fishing method. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trout_tickling

Why would that be illegal? You'd think it's the taking that's illegal, not the method?

Possible that it's not considered "fair chase"? In North America, a lot of conservation ethics are hard-codified into law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_chase

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