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Man builds social network using Atlantic Ocean


Tom Sawyer
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Harold Hackett has thousands of friends all over the world, and he didn't get them through social media.

The Canadian has spent the last 15 years using the Atlantic Ocean as his very own Facebook by casting bottled messages on the waves.

A resident of Tignish, a fishing village on Prince Edward Island, Hackett has received over 3,100 replies to more than 4,800 messages he has sent out, a 64 percent response rate.

Hackett, interviewed on BBC News Magazine, tossed out his first message in May 1996. He has received replies from Canada and the U.S., Iceland, Europe, and as far away as Africa, Russia, and South America.

The 59-year-old hobbyist uses juice bottles with their launch date inscribed in permanent marker. He encloses photocopied messages asking those who find the bottles to write to him--via snail mail.

Hackett often sets bottles adrift on his birthday, August 23, and waits.

Some bottles have taken more than a decade to be discovered. Some have been opened and then returned to the waves, only to be found by someone elsewhere.

"I got one (note) back with five different people finding it," Hackett was quoted as saying by The Guardian of Charlottetown, capital of the island province.

"They found it and let it go. It started in Cape Breton, went to Nova Scotia. It went to Newfoundland and then it went to St. Pierre-Miquelon and Florida, and then he wrote back to me," Hackett said. "There were five letters in my letter when I got it."

He doesn't include his phone number because he wants a tangible reply. "Evey letter has its own story," he says. He has formed many pen-pal relationships and usually gets 150 Christmas cards.

Known as "Harold the bottle man," Hackett has gone through over 4,800 plastic bottles, 680 rolls of black tape for securing the caps, hundreds of pens, and dozens of permanent markers. And he's still going strong.

"I don't think I want to quit until I shut my eyes for good," he told the BBC. "I'm going to go as long as I can. I'll keep doing it."
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This guy is an environmental nightmare using the Atlantic ocean as his own personal trash bin. f*cker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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new_thumbsupsmileyanim.gif

 

Yay! Nobody writes personal letters anymore, and they should.

 

Come to think of it, few people know how to write anymore, and they should. yes.gif

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I thought that it was a great story. However, I'm quite an environmentalist so I'm not too thrilled with it either. I think the guy is going to have some great stories for his grandchildren (provided he doesn't have already) but damn that's a whole lot of pollution.
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QUOTE (USB Connector @ Sep 27 2011, 04:56 PM)
I thought that it was a great story. However, I'm quite an environmentalist so I'm not too thrilled with it either. I think the guy is going to have some great stories for his grandchildren (provided he doesn't have already) but damn that's a whole lot of pollution.

nah-nah-nah.. if you want to talk about Canadian's polluting water -

http://environment.about.com/od/waterpollu...anadasewage.htm

 

 

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QUOTE (Tom Sawyer @ Sep 27 2011, 09:38 PM)
QUOTE (USB Connector @ Sep 27 2011, 04:56 PM)
I thought that it was a great story. However, I'm quite an environmentalist so I'm not too thrilled with it either. I think the guy is going to have some great stories for his grandchildren (provided he doesn't have already) but damn that's a whole lot of pollution.

nah-nah-nah.. if you want to talk about Canadian's polluting water -

http://environment.about.com/od/waterpollu...anadasewage.htm

Unfortunately I'm aware of that, but I try to reduce consumption in almost every way I can (I'll never become vegan for the environment, sorry).

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