Elonka wrote:
] crankymessiah wrote:
] ] ] LONDON, England (Reuters) -- An armada of small, faded
] ] ] yellow toy ducks is expected to make landfall in Britain
] ] ] within weeks at the end of an epic 11-year voyage from
] ] ] the Pacific Ocean.
] ] ]
] ] ] They are the survivors of a consignment of 29,000 bath
] ] ] toys washed overboard from a container ship in 1992 that
] ] ] have since floated across the ocean, round the United
] ] ] States, through the Arctic and past Greenland.
]
] My first reaction when I saw this was, "hoax?" But I dug into
] it, and it seems to be real. There's a webpage here with
] links to the various stories about the ducks:
] http://www.seabean.com/duckies/
]
] And a "beachcomber" site that even has an executable which
] tracks the locations of the ducks over time (it ran in
] full-screen mode on XP, though your mileage may vary on other
] OSes):
]
] http://www.beachcombers.org/images/images.htm
] (click on North Pacific Toy Spill)
]
] And here's a pic of one of the washed ashore ducks:
] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/31/eveningnews/ma
] in566138.shtml
]
] In my mind's eye, I was picturing a flotilla of rubber ducks
] dotting the waves as far as the eye could see, but it's
] actually probably more like an asteroid field, where you could
] go days without seeing one, even if you're right in the center
] of "duck-density". ;)
]
] Fun story!

The CNN link is now dead but the other info is great! Thanks Elonka

RE: CNN.com - England braces for rubber duck invasion - Jul. 26, 2003