And some extra trivia: There are a bunch of different French towns named Plaisance, some of them near the Pyrenees, so probably that where the Plasentia name came from, as I saw that it was French and Basque sailors the ones that arrived there.
The Spanish city of Plasencia is quite far away from the Basque Country, in Extremadura, so probably they weren't referring (or remembering) that concrete city.
jacoblambda 14 days ago [-]
Mystery Flesh Pit Beach?
gcr 19 days ago [-]
TL;DR: Rubber. Industrial adhesive. Nobody knows why this is there or who is responsible yet.
> I’m quite confident that the sample that I handled was PVA butylene rubber,” [Dr. Kozak] said in a phone interview, describing a mix of synthetic rubber and polyvinyl acetate, known as PVA. That polymer, he said, is “the active ingredient in white glue — the kind of white glue you have at home is a very dilute, kid-friendly version of this stuff.”
> Globs of the white sticky substance, which have a spongy interior and range in size from a coin to a dinner plate, have been found for miles along Placentia Bay since at least September
> Dr. Kozak said that one of the first things he noticed was that the blob had “a kind of petrochemical odor to it, kind of like if you walk down the turpentine aisle of your hardware store.”
mapt 14 days ago [-]
A number of these sorts of "What is this" posts on Reddit about mysterious yellowish blobs, end up being polyurethane expanding foam.
They float, and their default state is "mysterious blob", the only action necessary to create this is to puncture the aerosol container. Most people who use them end up throwing away an aerosol container that's still half full, but which has hardened at the dispenser tip.
jvan 14 days ago [-]
I had hoped from the headline that it would shed some light on the Oakville blobs[0], but no such luck. The images don't look remotely the same material.
I live in rural Newfoundland.
There was a Newfoundland post on 4chan /pol/ today and now this.
Not something I see very often.
We have some very unusual community names. Come by chance, Goobies, Cow Head, Grannies Hole, Blow me Down, Spread Eagle, and of course the famous Dildo.
So, butylene rubber, a petroleum-based industrial adhesive. Meanwhile, Ottawa thinks it's plant based.
NotSammyHagar 19 days ago [-]
the article doesn't say it, but this all suggests someone probably had a bunch of old crap in a tank and dumped in the ocean. Maybe it was a giant ocean liner amount of it. Right? Why does no one want to just say that outright?
Scoundreller 19 days ago [-]
Mostly because the article is about a chemist focussed on identifying WTF it is and less so an expert in shipping/unreported damage/clandestine dumping.
whythre 15 days ago [-]
Seems like goofy credentialism. Large amounts of this stuff don’t just appear; someone put it there. Why do we need an expert in ‘clandestine dumping’ to tell us that?
akira2501 15 days ago [-]
> expert in ‘clandestine dumping’
Do bears clandestinely dump in the woods?
guerrilla 14 days ago [-]
Only when nobody's looking.
chasil 19 days ago [-]
Alternately, shipping containers are regularly lost from container ships.
The article doesn't say if this was closer to raw material or waste.
NotSammyHagar 16 days ago [-]
Good point, didn't think about that stuff falls off ships pretty commonly.
labster 15 days ago [-]
Nothing to worry about, it’s just Elon building Galt’s Gulch in the middle of the Canadian wilderness.
Didn't hit the jackpot this time, keep trying. The stuff they are chasing is more valuable than gold.
Loughla 14 days ago [-]
Wait, what are they chasing?
scbenet 14 days ago [-]
Can't read the article due to paywall, but potentially ambergris? It's a form of whale excrement that washes up on the shore and can sell for ~$10k USD/pound
For a moment I misread that as washing up on Placenta Bay, which would have added a whole extra level of odd.
Come to think of it, that blend of unsettling reproductive metaphors and coastal desolation would fit in the game Death Stranding.
There’s guaranteed to be a historical reason for a name that out there, and not in a way that’s good for property value or sunset watching.
The Spanish city of Plasencia is quite far away from the Basque Country, in Extremadura, so probably they weren't referring (or remembering) that concrete city.
> I’m quite confident that the sample that I handled was PVA butylene rubber,” [Dr. Kozak] said in a phone interview, describing a mix of synthetic rubber and polyvinyl acetate, known as PVA. That polymer, he said, is “the active ingredient in white glue — the kind of white glue you have at home is a very dilute, kid-friendly version of this stuff.”
> Globs of the white sticky substance, which have a spongy interior and range in size from a coin to a dinner plate, have been found for miles along Placentia Bay since at least September
> Dr. Kozak said that one of the first things he noticed was that the blob had “a kind of petrochemical odor to it, kind of like if you walk down the turpentine aisle of your hardware store.”
They float, and their default state is "mysterious blob", the only action necessary to create this is to puncture the aerosol container. Most people who use them end up throwing away an aerosol container that's still half full, but which has hardened at the dispenser tip.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakville,_Washington#Oakville_...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_jelly
We have some very unusual community names. Come by chance, Goobies, Cow Head, Grannies Hole, Blow me Down, Spread Eagle, and of course the famous Dildo.
[1] http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/Sleuths.html
http://archive.today/K1FXn
Do bears clandestinely dump in the woods?
The article doesn't say if this was closer to raw material or waste.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-07/what-were-black-balls...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris