'Robot' to Film Gowanus Canal/Mob Dumping Ground

From Curbed NY:
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A team of researchers and students from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University have built a robot intrepid enough to brave the depths of the Gowanus Canal, and then report its findings back to us humans. The robot, named Brooklyn Atlantis I, is equipped with sensors that measure the canal's levels of pH, oxygen, temperature, air quality and salinity, as well as cameras, all of which should provide some interesting data.

The Gowanus is so filled with crap (both literal and figurative) that it's tough to know precisely what resides in its murky sludge. After the jump, we've compiled a list of just a few of the things this brave little robot might capture on video.


The rumor that the Gowanus once functioned as a Mafia dumping ground is a longstanding one, and it probably contains more than a kernel of truth. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a few bodies were found floating in the canal including the president of the local Grain Handlers Union. But the real questions surround the bodies that didn't come to the surface. They may have gone in there dead, but with all the chemicals in that water, by now...who knows?


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Comments

  1. If Campbell wanted to can people soup they would only need to drain the Gowanus Canal.

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  2. LOL! I'll email them the blog post! Maybe we can get a finder's fee -- only in money though, not this product!

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  3. Here is one for Newton Creek. Only this effort is by the red beard hipsters polluting the landmass of Brooklyn with their "funemployed" douchebag lifestyle. Toy boats, artisinial mayonnaise, and cool fedoras:

    http://diehipster.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/arty-the-seal-critiques-art/

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  4. I checked out above comment's link, and I quote:

    "Today Arty the Seal critiques a “team of artists” who have “unleashed a fleet of remote controlled toy mini-boats” into the Newtown Creek equipped with underwater cameras to record the toxic sludge and human waste that lie beneath. You’re probably wondering – where’s the art? Hipsters sure do have a fascination with toxic creeks and canals in Brooklyn, don’t they? They eat, drink and play right along them (Gowanus and Newtown) all the time."

    The comment is not really germain, as my post has the "mob dumping ground" angle as opposed to the "phony hipster art" one.

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