Navy dolphins find torpedo lost for 130 years

From Clarion Ledger:  Navy dolphins find torpedo lost for 130 years

Navy specialists found a rare torpedo off the San Diego coast, an 11-foot brass gem called the Howell that dates back 130 years or so and was one of the first torpedoes to propel itself. The Navy specialists who found it were trained dolphins, reports the Los Angeles Times.
"Dolphins naturally possess the most sophisticated sonar known to man," explains a specialist at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific. "We've never found anything like this," says the head of the Navy's marine mammal program. "Never."
Give credit to dolphins Ten and Spetz for finding the torpedo, stamped "USN No. 24," and then directing human divers to the spot.
The torpedo, rendered inoperable by its long stay in the ocean, is now being cleaned and readied for display at the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington.
"It was the first torpedo that could be released into the ocean and follow a track," says another official at the warfare systems center, and that made it a state-of-the-art weapon in its day.

 

Take your blood pressure medication!

Spent most of yesterday in the hospital, where my mother was admitted. Her doctor had changed her blood pressure medication a couple of weeks ago, it wasn't doing the job. Unfortunately her doctor was out of town and a home therapist said we should take her to the Emergency Room.

Bad idea, as far as I'm concerned. Put her back on her old medication which was working, just causing her to cough.

Instead we brought her to the emergency room, and since she's old and deaf, this got her more stressed out and scared than ever, because they were all gathered around her shouting questions and wanting to run tests and I'm sure she thought she was dying or something, which sent her blood pressure even higher.

She spent the night there, and is still in today for more tests, which I don't think she needs but I guess since they've got her in there they want to get their money's worth out of our insurance...  she's in a private room which must be costing a fortune....

The reason for my headline... she was about 40 when she was first diagnosed with high blood pressure...took pills for a couple of days but didn't like how they made her feel....so she stopped taking them and tried to do the "natural remedy" thing.

Result, 20 years later she had congestive heart failure, and now instead of taking 1 pill a day she has to take 4. And has to go into the hospital periodically on occasions like these.

Moral of the story - go get your blood pressure checked, and if you have high blood pressure make sure you take your meds, otherwise believe me you'll wish you had, when it is too late...

Radioactive scuba diving a potential new Aussie destination sport

From Vancouver Observer:  Radioactive scuba diving a potential new Aussie destination sport

Okay, I am exaggerating, but only slightly, but new anti-regulation laws have recently been passed in Australia that could mean uranium will be shipped out directly over this oceanic masterpiece of nature. 
Ever scuba dived? Or even just put a mask to your face in knee-deep water and looked under the surface at all the brilliant fish and creatures that make a tropical reef their home?
It is brilliant, and one of those moments you never forget.
One place nobody forgets visiting is Australia's Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of the province of Queensland. But some pretty shortminded politicians are positioning to see the Reef become a shipping route for uranium  -- the radioactive substance used for nuclear power and high-powered military weaponry.
Queensland is a a place of seemingly competing economic interests.
On one hand, you have the Barrier Reef that contributes more than $5 billion a year in tourism and employs 54,000 people. On the other hand, you have a series of industrial ports that line the coast of Queensland that are keen to expand and export uranium to overseas markets. For 28 years there has been a ban on uranium mining in Queensland, but that was lifted late last year by  Queenland's Premier Campbell Newman. Now that the ban has been lifted, two mining companies are pushing to ship mined uranium from the coast of Queensland, over the Great Barrier Reef.

"The State Government is not opposed in principle to uranium being shipped from a Queensland port through the Great Barrier Reef," Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps says.

The price tag of the uranium deposits in Queensland, if all extracted and sold is about $10 billion. A pretty big chunk of cash, but worth only a paltry two years of tourism dollars that the Great Barrier Reef brings in. Professor Callum Roberts, a marine expert, told the Australian International Business Times:

"With something as sensitive as the Great Barrier Reef, you have to ask yourself what is it you want in the long term? Do you want those ports or do you want the Great Barrier Reef to continue being great, because you can't have both."

I am not economist, but shipping tons of radioactive material over the Great Barrier Reef seems like a really financially risky idea. As a person concerned about all the degradation we are seeing to natural wonders of the world like the Great Barrier Reef, it is borderline criminal.
To anyone who has looked in wonderment at the fish on a reef, this is not an "Australian issue",  this is an issue that speaks to how we want to leave the world to future generations. Our kids will remember visiting a reef teeming with tropical fish, turtles and fluorescent coral, but what will they remember if it isn't there to be seen? They sure as heck won't remember the quick buck made by uranium mining companies a few decades previous.

 

Never get involved in a land war in Asia

and never agree to transcribe 20 hours of meetings from an Australian business meeting.

That's what I've been doing for the last 4 days...utter nightmare. Could NOT understand their accents. Making it worse were the bad audio levels and the fact that a lot of the people preesnt insisted on talking over each other from all around the room except in front of the microphone... I will never transcribe ANYTHING every again.

Anyway, so sorry to be MIA from my blogs.

Designer creates wetsuit that lets wearers 'fly' underwater

From Digital Designer: Designer creates wetsuit that lets wearers 'fly' underwater

A French designer has created a wetsuit that is designed to allow the wearer a feeling of "flying" while underwater. It is unclear if the product, called 'Oceanwings' is planned for production.

French designer Guillaume Binard partnered with Aqua Lung to create a wetsuit that was inspired by skydiving wingsuits, reported Laughing Squid. The concept was reportedly submitted to Designboom, a website that encourages its readers to submit projects to share with other readers.

The wetsuit, called 'Oceanwings' is designed to allow the wearer to have an underwater 'flight' experience. The premise is that the wearer can swim through the water like a fish, with ease.

Aqua Lung/YouTube

Here the diver spreads on of his "wings" as he gets ready to dive into the water

Like this image1

It has "webbed" arms when extended, and the lower portion of the suit is restricted to keep the wearers legs in position while gliding underwater.

Aqua Lung posted a demo video, which was directed by Jérôme Espla, on its YouTube page on Feb. 5, 2013 to show how it works with a brief description.

[q]This movie shows how powerful are sub-aquatic activities feelings & emotions.

Through out a neoprene wing suit called "Oceanwings", the analogy between aerial and aquatic flight illustrates this intense tridimentionnal feeling met by the underwater Humans. [/q]

No word at this time on whether or not the wetsuit will be put into production. The video, however, is generating a lot of attention.

Aqua Lung/YouTube

'Oceanwings' is supposed to create an underwater 'flight' experience. Here the video illustrates the diver gliding downward

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/343395#ixzz2LBPSQYC5

Switch off crisis for biggest aquarium in Spain

Okay, perhaps not really Volcano Seven material....but there's got to be a plot for a book here!


From the Olive Press:  Switch off crisis for biggest aquarium in Spain

THOUSANDS of rare and endangered fish are at risk of death as Roquetas Aquarium falls further into financial hot water.
Due to a €9,500 unpaid electric bill, Endesa are turning off their electricity supply on February 7, which will cause the death of more than a thousand different species of marine life, including rare and protected fish.
The Aquarium, in Roquetas de Mar, Almeria, is the largest in Andalucía and has been struggling under a €3.5 million debt for several years.
Aquarium director, Enrique Fernandez, is in crisis talks with the energy company and the courts in the hope of postponing the switch off until the summer when the top tourist attraction will benefit from increased revenue.

Talking to the Spanish press earlier this week he admitted that, ‘things look bad’ because the survival of the animals depends on the electric power that powers the tanks.
It is thought a cash injection of 150,000€ would be needed just to keep the centre operating.
The owners- a consortium of Spanish businesses which includes the bank, Cajamar-have been unable to find an alternative aquarium in Spain big enough to take their stock.
Aquarium Roquetas de Mar opened in July 2006 but fell into financial difficulty in 2009.
The tourist attraction managed to stay afloat but has been struggling to pay its staff for several months.

 

South Africa: We're no croc hunters, say Limpopo cops

Well, I don't really know if this qualifies as a Volcano Seven story, but....



News 24: We're no croc hunters, say Limpopo cops

Johannesburg - Limpopo police said on Saturday they were not involved in hunting down crocodiles that escaped from the Rakwena Crocodile Farm after floods in the province.
"[Police] do not have the capacity or the expertise [to hunt the crocodiles], however we are monitoring the situation on a daily basis," Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said in a statement.
Mulaudzi said there were no incidents reported regarding the crocodiles.
Zane Langman, the son-in-law of Johan Boshoff, who owns Rakwena, told Beeld newspaper on Thursday that around 15 000 crocodiles escaped from the farm into Limpopo River during the floods.
A few thousand crocodiles were recaptured in the dense bush next to the river and in the adjacent orange groves.
Langman told the newspaper he and Boshoff were forced to open the crocodile farm's gates, out of fear that the force of the water would crush the walls of Boshoff's home.
"We've been recapturing them as and when the local farmers phone us to tell us that there are crocodiles on their property.
"In Weipe there were a lot, and I also heard there was a crocodile a on school's rugby field in Musina," Langman said.
Most of the recapturing efforts were taking place at night, he said.