Online persons are using the closing of Disney World‘s “Splash Mountain” attraction as a chance to make a quick buck by selling the alleged water from the ride.

Splash Mountain, the enormously popular log flume ride at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom theme park, closed on Monday in preparation to be rebuilt as a more “inclusive” ride. But Disney fans, eager to preserve the memory of the iconic ride, are looking for souvenirs. To that end, internet salespeople are looking to cash in by selling alleged water from the ride.

A quick search of “Splash Mountain Water” on eBay yields some interesting results. Entrepreneurial eBay auctioneers are selling bottles, mason jars, and even plastic bags purportedly full of water from the ride, at prices ranging from just a few dollars to hundreds. One product is a plastic bag that allegedly contains 4 ounces of water from the ride, with “Splash Mountain Water 1/22/2023” written in black marker on the bag, with water droplets drawn on it; it is selling for $13.50.

A similar bag full of water is selling for $25. One auction was for a reusable bottle full of the water, selling for $27; that auction was ended because the item was no longer available. Another person was selling a small mason jar full of the water. The image of the item shows a person holding the jar and standing in front of the ride entrance; that image has been appropriated by other sellers for their own auctions. And one seller is offering a tupperware container of the water for just 99 cents. One person selling their water sample for charity offers it “with rocks from the ride.” As of the publication of the piece, the water has 13 bids and is selling for $91.

But many sellers are charging more than a pretty penny for their used log flume backwash. One seller advertises “AUTHENTIC Water From 01/22/23,” but with no picture of the item, only stock photos of the ride; it is being sold for $700. “OWN YOUR PIECE OF HISTORY,” the listing entices. Another person offers a half-filled water bottle for the low, low price of $1000. One seller advertises, “RARE Disney 2023 Splash Mountain Attraction Flume Water” in a custom Ziploc bag for a bargain; only $5000. One seller offers a 16.9 ounce water bottle of the water; as of publication, it currently has a whopping 40 bids and is selling for $5,100.

One Disney World guest who has ridden Splash Mountain more than 200 times, summed things up succinctly. “The Disney community can be very weird sometimes,” Adrian Vasquez told The New York Times. “I honestly don’t know how else to put it.”

Splash Mountain took guests for the final ride down its 50-foot drop on Sunday. The ride opened in 1992 and has been a popular staple of Disney World’s Magic Kingdom ever since, with celebrities like Princess Diana going for a ride. But the company announced in 2020 that it would shut down Splash Mountain, which was accused of having racist themes, in favor of creating a more inclusive ride themed after Princess Tiana from “The Princess and the Frog” in its place.

Some parkgoers called Splash Mountain “extremely problematic” due to “stereotypical racist tropes.” It’s based on elements from the Disney film “Song of the South” (1946), which were included on the ride.

Disclosure: The Daily Wire has announced plans for kids entertainment content.

In a recent breakthrough, scientists have created a robot that can transition back and forth between solid and liquid states, allowing it to navigate through numerous obstacles and environments.

Researchers applied the technology in a few different scenarios. The robot was able to navigate obstacle courses and deliver and retrieve objects to and from a model human stomach. They even constructed a version of the robot that looks like a Lego Minifigure that was able to escape a cage by liquefying and then restoring itself to its original form once out.

ScienceAlert reported on the experiment, noting that the authors took inspiration from the shapeshifting Sea Cucumber, which can alternate between physical states by adjusting its internal temperature. The experiment, published in Matter, details how microscopic magnetic particles were embedded into liquid metal, and how those particles heated and cooled the metal based on adjusting the magnetic functions, thus changing the physical state.

“The magnetic particles here have two roles,” says Carmel Majidi of Carnegie Mellon University, senior author and mechanical engineer in the experiment. “One is that they make the material responsive to an alternating magnetic field, so you can, through induction, heat up the material and cause the phase change. But the magnetic particles also give the robots mobility and the ability to move in response to the magnetic field.”

Gallium was the perfect metal for this experiment, researchers found, because of its low melting point, which is around 86 degrees Fahrenheit. The authors describe the metal as having “high mechanical strength, high load capacity, and fast locomotion speed in the solid phase with excellent morphological adaptability (elongation, splitting, and merging) in the liquid phase.”

A leader of the study and engineer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Chengfeng Pan, said, “Giving robots the ability to switch between liquid and solid states endows them with more functionality.”

In another video, researchers show this technology clearing a foreign object from a model human stomach.

“More functionality” means the technology could open up many new possibilities, especially in the mechanical and electrical fields. The robot could enter into spaces and apply fixes in small, tight, or perhaps even dangerous, places. It could even be used as a conductor in circuits.

Majidi, however, suggests that the new robotic technology should be further explored in the biomedical field. While gallium proved to be successful for the experiments, the metal will likely be insufficient for biomedical applications due to its melting point being so low – lower than the ambient temperature of the human body. Though a gallium-based alloy could get the job done, ScienceAlert notes.

“What we’re showing are just one-off demonstrations, proofs of concept, but much more study will be required to delve into how this could actually be used for drug delivery or for removing foreign objects,” Majidi said.