The Exploding Whale of Florence, Oregon

[notorious]

50 years ago, today!!!! The news report is top notch. ROFL

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[MMXcalibur]

That poor bastard that had his car hit with whale leavin's.

[TLO]

LMAO

What the fuck... LMAO

[Bwana]

It reminds me of this:


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[Hamwallet]

The Dollop did a great podcast on it a few years ago.

[Frazod]

All that’s missing is “hey y’all, watch this!” LMAO

[eDave]

It reminds me of this:


So good. Should be a holiday special every year.

[eDave]

All that’s missing is “hey y’all, watch this!” LMAO

"Hold my beer."

And who the frick downvoted you?

[Frazod]

"Hold my beer."

And who the frick downvoted you?

I assume it’s a fat finger miss.

[eDave]

I assume it’s a fat finger miss.

Separating the thumbs was a bad move.

[Rain Man]

That poor bastard that had his car hit with whale leavin's.

"Come to Farmer's. We've covered ... wait, no. We've never covered something like that."

[Rain Man]

Nowadays I bet you could put an ad on the Internet and easily find someone who is interested in cutting up a rotting whale.

[tatorhog]

The cars that missed the biggest chunks probably didn't need waxed for a couple years after that.

[notorious]

I love how the Highway engineer guy is looking at his calculator afterwards trying to figure out what went wrong. LMAO

[Shiver Me Timbers]

50 years ago, today!!!! The news report is top notch. ROFL

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Thanks for posting this. I sent it to my CFO who grew up in that area. I guess it is a pretty big deal. Had no idea and I spend a fair amount of time on the Oregon coast. I now read they celebrate exploding whale week as well.

[notorious]

Thanks for posting this. I sent it to my CFO who grew up in that area. I guess it is a pretty big deal. Had no idea and I spend a fair amount of time on the Oregon coast. I now read they celebrate exploding whale week as well.

Any reason to drink. LMAO

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

ROFLROFLROFLROFL

[Buehler445]

Fucking hilarious.

Did I hear they used a half ton of dynamite? Like 1000 lb of fucking explosive?

ROFL

[Rain Man]

I love how the Highway engineer guy is looking at his calculator afterwards trying to figure out what went wrong. LMAO

If I can problem solve for a moment, their mistake was clearly placement of the explosives and not amount of explosives. They must've put it all together and really close, because at least one massive chunk of whale destroyed a car many fathoms distant from the site, and a big chunk of the whale was still lying undisturbed on the beach. If you want to blow up a whale properly, you have to space the dynamite out at regular intervals proportional to the mass distribution of the whale. It's like these guys had never done it before.

[Miles]

Fucking hilarious.

Did I hear they used a half ton of dynamite? Like 1000 lb of fucking explosive?

ROFL

A great excerpt from Wikipedia

George Thornton, the engineer in charge of the operation, told an interviewer that he was not sure how much dynamite would be needed, saying that he had been chosen to remove the whale because his supervisor had gone hunting. A charge of one-half short ton (450 kg) of dynamite was selected.[5][6] A military veteran with explosives training who happened to be in the area warned that the planned twenty cases of dynamite was far too much, and that 20 sticks (8.4 lb or 3.8 kg[7]) would have sufficed, but his advice went unheeded.

[Rain Man]

A great excerpt from Wikipedia

George Thornton, the engineer in charge of the operation, told an interviewer that he was not sure how much dynamite would be needed, saying that he had been chosen to remove the whale because his supervisor had gone hunting. A charge of one-half short ton (450 kg) of dynamite was selected.[5][6] A military veteran with explosives training who happened to be in the area warned that the planned twenty cases of dynamite was far too much, and that 20 sticks (8.4 lb or 3.8 kg[7]) would have sufficed, but his advice went unheeded.

So they used 100 times what the military guy recommended.

[prhom]

So they used 100 times what the military guy recommended.

The problem was always trying to disintegrate it using explosives. A dispersed blast would break it up into more equally-sized pieces. A single, large blast would disintegrate parts of the carcass, but could leave significant portions relatively untouched. It seems the first approach would have yielded manageable pieces of whale to deal with. The “engineer” in charge, however, failed to recall that mass is conserved and that blowing even half of the 8 tons of dead whale sky-high only meant that 4-tons of dead whale was going to come back down over a broader area.

Still a hilarious video. The matter-of -fact reporting really makes it a classic.

[Pablo]

I bet that really soured those folks on eating sushi for a while.

[Frazod]

So they used 100 times what the military guy recommended.

Use enough dynamite there, Butch?

https://i.gifer.com/11T2.gif

[Demonpenz]

Whale whale whale looky what we got here

[Demonpenz]

Remember that one time a town tried to set the ballon record by letting off the most gallons in the air? Then like it became a disaster once the balloons came back to earth.

[WhiteWhale]

You bastards. Blowing up whales isnt funny!

[OrtonsPiercedTaint]

That's a lot to chew on

[Baby Lee]

Remember that one time a town tried to set the ballon record by letting off the most gallons in the air? Then like it became a disaster once the balloons came back to earth.

Take a guess [hint, they're not Detroit!!]

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[penchief]

I’m having tires put on and I’m reading this thread while waiting in the showroom. I haven’t laughed this hard in public for a long time. People are looking at me like I’ve lost it.

[Otter]

ROFL

Who the hell planned that operation? Delta Chi during the pledge keg party?

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Well worth the watch... never could be tried today, HAZMAT and every other agency would be there...

[Otter]

Oregon Highway Division
45 foot, 8 ton whale
Solution: Cases of TNT


Sometimes life is better than fiction

[frozenchief]

The title of this post sounds like a Mark Twain story.

[Scooter LaCanforno]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X0hq0ug9q4&list=FLuAofHQyApVXQZcq7tf7GDw&index=669

[Demonpenz]

Alls whale that ends whale

[TLO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X0hq0ug9q4&list=FLuAofHQyApVXQZcq7tf7GDw&index=669

I wish I hadn't clicked on that.

[Rain Man]

I wish I hadn't clicked on that.

There should be a warning that it's a big explosion of sperm.

[BWillie]

What a great flensing

[Donger]

I wish I hadn't clicked on that.

Can you tell me what it entrails?

[eDave]

Can you tell me what it entrails?

This is super.

[oldman]

It reminds me of this:


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One of the funniest scenes ever.
It's flying something behind it and I can't quite make it out. It's a large banner and it says H a p p y... T h a n k s... giving... from W... K... R... P! What a sight, ladies and gentlemen. What a sight. The 'copter seems to circling the parking area now. I guess it's looking for a place to land. No! Something just came out of the back of a helicopter. It's a dark object, perhaps a skydiver plummeting to the earth from only two thousand feet in the air... There's a third... No parachutes yet... Those can't be skydivers. I can't tell just yet what they are but... Oh my God! They're turkeys! Oh no! Johnny can you get this? Oh, they're crashing to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just went through the windshield of a parked car! This is terrible! Everyone's running around pushing each other. Oh my goodness! Oh, the humanity! People are running about. The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement! Folks, I don't know how much longer... The crowd is running for their lives. I think I'm going to step inside. I can't stand here and watch this anymore. No, I can't go in there. Children are searching for their mothers and oh, not since the Hindenburg tragedy has there been anything like this. I don't know how much longer I can hold my position here, Johnny. The crowd...