Boats from carrots

[John Vigor]

Scots scientists have figured out a way to make boats from carrots. They say their carrot-resin mixture will replace fiberglass and carbon fiber and be better for the environment.

The mind boggles. You can have your boat in any color you like, as long as its orange.

If you get shipwrecked or stranded, perhaps you'll be able to eat your boat. I wonder if sharks like carrots.

Maybe the day of the vegetable boat is near. Hull from carrots. Sails from onions. Rudder from rhubarb, of course. What else?

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=212262007

Cheers,

John v.

[Neil Gordon]

Use parsnips instead of carrots and you get a white hull. I'd just use carrots for the boot stripe. Garlic below the water line might keep the little critters away. I'd suggest that banana peels for decks would be a bad idea.

[Judith]

Well, these Viennese musicians might wind up with a lot more bookings for cruise ships. . .

www.vegetableorchestra.org

They now have 3 CDs out. And, in case you're wondering, the "cook" is on staff to prepare soup from the instruments after every concert.

[Carter Brey]

Well, these Viennese musicians might wind up with a lot more bookings for cruise ships. . .

www.vegetableorchestra.org

They now have 3 CDs out. And, in case you're wondering, the "cook" is on staff to prepare soup from the instruments after every concert.

Wow. Have you listened to this stuff? Deeply disturbing, like listening to small animals slowly strangling in a nightmare miasma. And the "Gurkophon" (wonderful name)... it looks like it could do double duty as a lonely widow's friend. From the people who unleashed the foetid imaginings of Freud, Mahler and Schoenberg while hiding behind their Linzer Torts.

[Neil Gordon]

Wow. Have you listened to this stuff?

Sure, Carter, but think how much better endowed your orchestra would be with grants from the Department of Agriculture.

[Warren Kaplan]

Wow. Have you listened to this stuff? Deeply disturbing, like listening to small animals slowly strangling in a nightmare miasma

Carter,

Back in the mid 1960s, when my hair still had recognizable color in it, I remember those very sounds, produced not by veggies, but by my brain......compliments of Puff The Magic Dragon and his more potent psychedelic friends. What horrible imaginings often attended those sounds!

[yves feder w1ux]

was during a National Georgraphic show of a bathyscaphe visit to the world 10,000 feet below sea level, recording the marine life near a hot lava outflow on the seabed.....

Perhaps Cousteau could be persuaded to conduct this ensemble, featuring perhaps a sea anemone as soloist?!

[Oswego John]

Yves,

Many, many years ago, more than I care to remember, I first read in the National Geographic about, and was intrigued by, the account of W. Beebe's and O. Barton's descent to the depths of the ocean in a bathysphere.

It was the high spot of each month when the latest issue of the N. G. would arrive.

Fond memories,
O J

[Roy J.]

Carter and all you music lovers,

That repeating, vegetative gurgling is the sound Mr. (fiber)Glass has been seeking for decades. Did anyone notice that John V.'s cited story in The Scotsman generated no fewer than 142 posts in reply! All before they closed the topic for comment. Surely we can do better than that when a new technology with marine applications is upon us. Maybe they can make helicopter foils, or propeller brakes out of it....Or a good, UV-resistant treatment for teak! What do we think?

Just waiting for the thaw to plant something to repair hairline cracks in gelcoat.

[Neil Gordon]

It was the high spot of each month when the latest issue of the N. G. would arrive.

Maybe I need more coffee. I saw my initials here and wondered what you were talking about. As far as I know, I've only been issued once but I could check with my mom to make sure. As for waiting, I post here nearly every day so please check your messages more than once a month.

Okay, tell the truth, OJ... the high spot of the month was flipping through the N.G. for the pictures or the articles?

[Joe Myerson]

I don't know if John V's citation from the Scotsman is related to this, but the UK's office for new technologies (sorry, I don't have my original citation here at home), recently announced that it was funding research to develop a material for use in boat and ship hulls that would be recyclable and/or biodegradable, ending the current environmental problems with old boats.

Could that recycling process involve rabbits?

--Joe

[Oswego John]

Ahoy, N.G.

Aha!!! So you ARE familiar with the pictures in N.G.

Would you be referring to the pictures from Africa and the rain firests of New Guinea?

Nah, probably not.

O J

[Tom in Cambria]

Only remotely on subject, but have you seen the mathematical proof that Winston Churchill was a carrot? Wonderful little book by Charles Seife called "Zero - the Biography of a Dangerous Idea". Appendix A contains the two page proof that only requires high school algebra to understand. Delightful little (about 200 page) paperback. Highly recommended reading.

[Dean Abramson]

I have always wanted to sail on one of those ritzy 30-carrot gold-platers. Or maybe just veg out.

[Judith]

Highly recommended reading.

Tom, the book looks great! I ordered copies for myself and both my daughters

Judith