Just when you thought you’ve heard it all… They bring on the dolphins!
Creativity at a new high, or War-time media at a new low?
This has been tried before but they have trouble observing the etiquette; at one dinner I went to, all the dolphins were trying to use the fish knives to butter the bread. On one table, they even insisted on white wine with the beef. They also tip badly.
This is actually isn’t a new idea.
Both The US and the USSR experiented with using dolphins for military purpose during the cold war.
I seem to recall that such programs were not very successful. For example I think a Dolphin unit was deployed during the Vietnam conflict but withdrawn after it inflicted accidental injuries on American divers.
A quick search turned a couple of interesting links.
www.ukdiving.co.uk/ukdiving/conservation/c698/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/670551.stm
The second link is espicially interesting to me. Iran have apparently bought the Soviet dolphin program.
I’m surprised that you’re surprised.
The US Navy has been training dolphins for operational use since 1960.
There’s also been a top-secret project to re-animate dead dolphins, giving them superhuman strength and endurance.
Oh, wait, that was Dolph Lundgren.
“Flippers got a gun…”
Elu:
it certainly looks that way!
http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/mdf241292.jpg
Y’all:
What i was getting at , was
Which is the bigger benefit of enlisting these our favourite mammals:
A) Military use or
B) Publicity?
They’ve got dolphins to hunt for mines, sea lions to look for enemy divers. The only animal that wouldn’t help was the French poodle.
By the way, credit the above to Jay Leno
It could be a publicity stunt, I suppose, but the fact remains that dolphins (assuming they can actually do the minehunting task, which seems reasonable) are much better suited to the marine environment (both in terms of sensory equipment and endurance) than humans, even with suits and tanks.
It is analogous (or it ought to be) to using sniffer dogs.
Thank God, for a moment I thought it was supposed to be funny!
Mange:
I take it as a given that flipper is put to hard work in both, as the prominent media coverage and the info supplied by you seem to suggest.
To put it bluntly i’m a bit appaled that this kind of feel-good animal news story is planted to “balance” the fact that the news has been full of “bad news” the last couple of days.
At least that’s my interpretation of private flipper.
Rumor has it the Iraqis plan to deploy a net made out of 6-pack rings to counter the dolphin menace.
RandySpears said:
Curious as how this is supposed to make me feel good. Our culture has made use of animals for one reason or another for thousands of years, but this specific example doesn’t make me feel good.
Whether it’s just wishful thinking that they have some sort of higher level of conciousness, or just anthropomorphization on my part, I just don’t think that dolphins deserve to be ‘used’ this way.
I don’t find this surprising at all. The Dolphins are big sonsabitches; their offensive line averages 300 pounds, and they’ve got maybe the best defensive backfield in the NFC. And they’re smart, too - most of these guys went to college! I like them to go all the way…
…Huh? What?
Oh. THOSE dolphins.
It is part of a cunning plan to instill Coalition forces with a sense of porpoise. 
Well, I think they should use sharks. With frickin’ lasers attached to their heads.
The best we can do is ill-tempered sea bass.
“Excuse me, is this cetacean taken?”