I just think the novelty of these type of displays was up in the 90s, It’s time for an upgrayedd. I propose leprechauns flying up and down the river wearing water jet packs, shooting people with their Chicago-style hot dog cannons would be more with the times. What’s your idea?
Fun fact: It’s actually beneficial that they do this because they use Gatorade which has electrolytes and as we all know, that’s what the plants crave.
Tribal custom. They do it because they’ve always done it.
better yet, make a green dye outta algae, so that it actually does something other than look interesting. And knowing how rivers in cities work, it’s polluted enough that algae will die off withing a few days tops, so it’d be efficient
It’d be bad. Real bad. An algae bloom of massive proportions. It has one huge issue.
Enough algae to make the rivers run green will use up enough oxygen at night to kill off fish and oxygen hungry invertebrates, starting a chain reaction of death.
Now you have a river full of dead organisms, so they start decomposing thanks to microbes. You know what many types of bacteria love? Oxygen. So they start using up oxygen, multiplying all the while. Night hits and the algae need to use oxygen, but a bunch die because there’s not enough. Now the river is full of literally hundreds, maybe thousands of tons of decomposing matter. The river largely goes anoxic (meaning there’s no oxygen) so things start dying left and right. A bunch of those bacteria can live with and without oxygen, so they use up what they can and keep on chugging without.
Now we’ve moved from aerobic respiration to anaerobic. You know what the primary byproducts of anaerobic respiration are? Organic acids and alcohols, which smell. The river begins to smell like an infected wound. It’s no longer green but deep, murky brown from the suspension of decomposing organisms. This continues until the river flushes everything out, but it kills what’s downstream as it continues until it hits the ocean, where it likely continues to kill everything in the vicinity until it becomes dilute enough.
I’m a microbiologist and worked with algae and cyanobacteria as an undergrad. Never underestimate the impact of uncountable billions of trillions of living organisms.
oh damn. more colossal waves of death is the last thing a celebration of the Irish need. thanks for setting it straight
I like that you’re thinking of alternatives, though! Don’t ever lose that, it’s less common than you might think.
A recent article asking the same thing on Tampa Bay’s activities
While there doesn’t seem to be obvious red flags of harm, something doesn’t feel right to me about dumping chemicals into the environment that eventually break down. The article says the company making this particular dye warns about it in higher quantities or letting it become concentrated in places downstream, and wearing protective equipment when handling the larger amounts. How much of that is only legalize to protect from misuse vs. actual tested issues?
I just think that color green is ugly and looks like industrial waste
it’s how you make more ninja turtles though, and lord knows we need them now more than ever!
Chicago is the only city other than New York that makes enough pizza to support growing teenager mutant ninja turtles.
But New York probably has more sewer rats trained in karate.
It’s wasteful and a bad look, but many things are only hazardous in high concentrations. Even a tanker full of milk getting dumped into a small lake could cause mass die offs. The PPE is probably more about preventing it from being breathed in or getting in their mouths. You can check out the SDS here.
Would any animals in the water not breathe it in or get it in their mouth?
Head over to the unpopular opinion group, you’re not asking a question, you’re stating an opinion.
I’m asking you why they do this when it looks like crap? People actually like seeing a neon green river? What is wrong with those people? See, 3 valid questions.
People have different tastes.
Can you not fathom this idea?
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This causes no harm to the wildlife and is a fun celebration. People here are always talking about “let people enjoy things” when that thing is some counter-culture thing. Well, I say let people enjoy things, even when that thing is a mainstream holiday. Have some fun. Let loose.
It’s the hotdog cannons that really made this fly for me.
As a Dubliner (Ireland, not one of the many Dublins across the pond), I must say that Americans are really weird about Paddy’s Day. We have a large parade in Dublin and smaller ones in smaller cities, and then those of us who have kids ho to family fairs, and the rest for a pint at the local. We leave the city centre to the tourists who get shitfaced on overpriced, prepoured Guinness for no good reason. And even though we did some weird things with our river (the time in the slime), we never dyed the Liffey green.
I mean… Other than them dying that shit green none of that sounds that different from what goes on over here in general
Can’t argue with that. I never really paid attention to Paddy’s Day while I was in the US, so all I have to go by are the news reports (which may be a bit sensationalist).
In Liverpool, which prides itself on its Liverpool roots, Paddy’s Day is one of the days to avoid town and most of the pubs for me. Absolute carnage. The other ones to avoid are Grand National weekend, particularly Ladies Day, and Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day? Really? That’s quite surprising. Why is that?
It’s a drinking city. People go out for a family meal, get pissed up, things get raucous, fights happen. It’s not everyone, but if you work in bars it’s one of the nights you dread, especially in the rougher places where the fights kick off. I worked in one of the roughest city centre bars many years back and the fights between women were way worse than the ones between men. Absolutely vicious… And I say that as a woman btw.
Americans look for any reason to get shitfaced. Ask anyone what Cinco de Mayo is about about. Most wont have any clue.
which, you’d think, hey France, we hate the french (which is hilarious considering the Statue of Liberty and La Fayette)… Mexicans beating the French should be easy to recall for us.
The whole French thing is so goddamn funny, from an outside perspective - I mean, France is basically one of the few major countries the USA never fought a land or proxy war against - their only war was the Quasi war which was solely smaller naval battles and was clearly the US fault. And France was almost always willing to back the US…while the US let them down countless times.
Have you never met an American? Look at it from the perspective of an inferiority complex and you may begin to understand.
Screw little rivers. Dye the oceans green.
I want XKCD to do the math on this one
The crowds it attracts today still are huge. What do you mean the novelty has worn down? I have lived in the area since 2012 and I still haven’t gone down to see this because I don’t want to deal with the crowds.
On another note, I guess I’ll be there in a jiffy if they shot me with an Italian beef - wet (not from the river) and lots of giardiniera.
Yes, Italian beef for St. Patricks day. Hahaha.
In all honesty I wouldn’t blame you or Chicago, they are super delish. (Edit grammar)
Haha! Yeah, I read the post before coffee that they were shooting Chicago-style hot dogs so I was countering with Italian Beef. 🤣
I should probably wake up more before commenting.
With the money they save in river dye they could paint the riverside with Italian beef, can you just imagine it?
Fuck yeah. What’s your preferred place to get from? Johnnies is the one I’m most familiar with and enjoy.
Johnnies all the way.
I this what you want?
I want to see this,
In case it’s not just a typo, it’s “upgrade” not “upgrayedd”
May I recommend the movie Idiocracy to you? You will be one of today’s lucky 10,000
Better than a whoosh! Thanks I’ll check it out.
To be fair, the context here has nothing to do with the movie, just the spelling being done for funsies. But it’s still a fun watch.
How is it not a good look?
Well I live near an actual toxic river that has been cleaning up lately. I just think dying it green makes it look gross, maybe it’s time to projection map it green or give everyone green tinted glasses so then everything is green and you don’t have to make the river an oooz color.
Lol sounds like a you problem. It’s all biodegradable and good fun. It actually does look cool. Long time Chicagoans and new visitors still like it. Sorry you don’t.
