NY eatery frees ancient lobster

Information 2 Comments

An interesting article indeed :

"George" the giant lobster

Large lobsters are usually too big to get caught in traps

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A lobster believed to be some 140 years old is to be freed from the confines of a tank at a New York restaurant.

George the giant lobster, weighing 9kg (20lb), will be returned to the ocean, from where he was caught two weeks ago.

The crustacean was bought for $100 (£66) by the City Crab and Seafood and quickly adopted as its mascot, posing for pictures with restaurant patrons.

But animal rights group Peta sought the lobster’s release, and will now put it back into the waters off of Maine.

It will enter the ocean in the waters around Kennebunkport, where lobster trapping is banned.

George was originally caught off Newfoundland, Canada, and has spent about 10 days in the tank at City Crab and Seafood.

These intriguing animals don’t deserve to be confined to tiny tanks or boiled alive

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The approximate age of a lobster can be deduced from its weight.

Restaurant manager Keith Valenti said there was never any intent to harm the lobster, and the decision to keep it in the tank was made to offer customers a little something extra.

“We bought a big lobster, started taking pictures with kids and it worked out real well,” Mr Valenti told Reuters news agency.

But it was a “no brainer”, he added, to agree to the request to return George to the ocean.

“We never intended him to be sold, just draw attention to the restaurant, and he did.”

Ingrid Newkirk, of Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) praised the decision.

“We applaud the folks at City Crab and Seafood for their compassionate decision to allow this noble old-timer to live out his days in freedom and peace.

“We hope that their kind gesture serves as an example that these intriguing animals don’t deserve to be confined to tiny tanks or boiled alive.”

Google search finds missing child

Technology 3 Comments

Natasha Maltais

Natalie Maltais was found using the GPS signal from her mobile phon

Here is something which I found interesting online,

A nine-year-old girl, allegedly kidnapped by her grandmother, has been found using a mobile phone signal and Google Street View.

A police officer and a firefighter in Athol, Massachusetts, joined forces after authorities were alerted that Natalie Maltais had been taken.

Officers used GPS in the girl’s mobile phone to find her approximate location.

They fed the co-ordinates into Google Street View, pinpointing a hotel where the child was subsequently found.

The alarm was raised after grandmother Rose Maltais picked up Natalie from the child’s legal guardians for what was supposed to be a weekend away.

She “said that she wasn’t going to return Natalie and then left the state”, Athol police chief Timothy Anderson told the BBC.

The police contacted Ms Maltais, but after she didn’t return Natalie as promised, they decided to track them down using Natalie’s mobile phone.

Since 2005, US law says that mobile phone providers must be able to locate 67% of callers within 100 metres and 95% of callers within 300 meters.

This requirement has led to GPS capability in most new mobile phones in the US.

Rose Maltais

Rose Maltais took the child during an arranged visit, say authorities

“This is very useful, although we can only use it in emergency situations such as when a person is missing or lost, or a life is in danger,” said chief Anderson.

Knowing this, police officer Todd Neale contacted the mobile phone provider, AT&T, which gave him GPS coordinates every time the phone was activated. Police must submit a compliance form to the phone provider to request location information.

Joined-up thinking

Officer Neale then got in touch with Athol’s deputy fire chief Thomas Lozier who had previously used GPS to direct firefighters tackling forest and brush fires, and to find lost hikers.

“Last spring, there was an incident where the cell phone transmitted the co-ordinates of some people lost in a local conservation area,” deputy chief Lozier explained.

“We tracked them down using hand-held GPS units and within an hour we’d gotten them back.”

He used mapping software to determine the location of the co-ordinates given to him by Officer Neale over the radio. Then he turned to Google.

Google street view

Athol’s deputy fire chief, Thomas Lozier, spotted the hotel where Natalie was later found on Google Street View

“As soon as the officer said to me, ‘I wonder how we can research the area’, I thought of it,” he said.

He found the location on Google maps and looked at the Street View, which shows eye-level photographs of the area. That’s when he spotted a nearby hotel.

“I noticed the hotel in the area, and as I was panning the map, I was able to see the road sign at the intersection,” he said.

He used Google to search for hotels near that intersection and found the Budget Inn in Natural Bridge, Virginia.

Officer Neale alerted the Virginia state police, who found the missing child and her grandmother in the hotel as predicted.

The deputy fire chief said how happy he was with the outcome of his team effort with Officer Neale.

“It was brilliant,” he said. “Half an hour later, he called me [on my walkie-talkie] at home. I had my home computer ready to go and he informed me that it had been successful.”

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