Pretty sure you just described Ready Player One.

Yeah- to clarify their existence on something that’s been in the water, it is their larvae that swim freely until they find something to affix to. It isn’t like a wing floats by and a barnacle jumps right on. Maddie, I wonder if the size of the barnacles could be used to extrapolate exactly how long the wing had to…

No space/time for a big harangue here.

I'm not going to respond with vitriol, though thank you for that assumption.

No vitriol, here. I totally understand what you're saying. Ignore the issue at hand, and, yes, the strategy is absolutely brilliant.

I'm going to say something that I know may upset some people, but I feel like I may bring an interesting perspective, beyond hating on these folks, so I want to share it. I am a community organizer, and judgment free of the context, my first response to both sides of this story was "Damn, thats some good strategy!" …