Working USB stick discovered in year-old leopard seal poop

midian182

Posts: 9,658   +121
Staff member
WTF?! USB sticks can be resilient pieces of hardware. They’re so tough, it appears that passing through the digestive system of a leopard seal and spending a year in a freezer can’t break them.

Scientists from New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) place a lot of value on leopard seal excrement. Not only can it provide useful information about the mammals' diet, but it also reveals if they’re in good health and how long they've been in the country’s waters. What the scat doesn’t usually contain, however, are USB drives.

Back in November 2017, one of the volunteer poo collectors, a local vet, found a sample and sent it to NIWA marine biologist Dr Krista Hupman, who placed in in a freezer.

The sample, which is about the size of two bread rolls, stayed in cold storage up until three weeks ago when volunteers removed and examined it. After running the poop under a cold tap to defrost it and remove the “bones, feathers, seaweed and other stuff,” the USB stick was found embedded deep inside.

“It is very worrying that these amazing Antarctic animals have plastic like this inside them,” said Jodie Warren, who made the discovery.

The device was in reasonably good condition, so after leaving it to dry out for a couple of weeks, its contents were examined. Somewhat ironically, it contained videos and images of sealions.

A search for the owner has resulted in “no serious leads yet” but NIWA will keep trying. The only clue is the nose of the blue kayak in the video. No word on the USB stick’s brand, either, but whatever make it is, it gets our seal of approval.

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These things are like cockroaches....they'll survive Asteroid strikes, Zombie plagues and the full on human race apocalypse.

..Only when the Sun expands and swallows the Earth in about 4 billion years can we be sure that there will be no 21st century porn left in existence.
 
Well, It's a shame We don't get to know the brand and model.
I'm in a search for a new USB stick for sensitive company data.

I don't think anyone tested USB drives that way before?
No more excuses: "dog ate my homework".
 
Interesting but not as entertaining as the cell phone ringing in the giant mound of dinosaur poop in Jurassic Park .......
 
This should be self explanatory:

Media censorship in the 70's being what it was, I can't imagine them allowing the killer whale to pass it through and out with its poop, then see if the watch still worked.
 
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