Category: the Human Element | a Journey through Depth, Time, & Space
a lot to digest…
Here in the US, consumerism has evolved to reach scales of excess that most cannot even imagine. Most people go about their day, making trash, flushing toilets, and throwing away food without any second thought of how this post consumer waste is managed. Frankly, once the trash man takes it away, it is out of…
Read Morebarnacles for breakfast
This morning I chugged down half a coffee and then slipped beneath the layer of floating cigarette butts, seaweed, and miscellaneous plastic garbage to settle in to my home for the next 90 minutes – scrubbing the hull of a sailboat that had sat stationary in a dirty marina for more than a year. Nothing…
Read Morethe Greeks and testing time
I find myself frequently fascinated by the cycles of life, within life, and in how history does indeed repeat itself. Ever more fascinating is how every now and again someone stands out as seeming to have a handle on making history, rather than just becoming a part of it. It’s a skill that very few…
Read MoreDive #4000 this Sidemount Saturday
My technical beach excursions have gained some attention the last few weeks, and I suppose with reasons to be understood as I schlep a diver propulsion vehicle and a few sidemount bottles to the beach of our most popular local dive site where openwater training is the norm. Over the winter, I had the place…
Read MoreOceanOne Robot | an Avatar for the Life Aquatic
The recent news of Stanford University’s OceanOne Robot’s successful salvage/recovery of artifacts from Louis XiV’s flagship came as quite the news to me. Admittedly, I know very little about the robot, however it does warrant some thought and discussion as we consider the value of humans versus robotics within the field of ocean exploration. On…
Read MoreCreating ‘Space’ for Space
Having ‘space’ within space seems to be a critical bottleneck in manned space exploration, second of course to cost-effective round trip travel. Regarding the latter, the various recent private initiatives are certainly making progress, though like anything groundbreaking, there remains a long road ahead. Once we get there, what are we going to do? Answering…
Read MoreInflatable Habitats from Sea to Space
Recent space news is nothing short of exciting: http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/20550/20160409/nasa-and-affiliates-send-inflatable-habitat-named-beam-into-space.htm. An inflatable habitat is headed to space. This of course makes great sense to be light and efficient when considering that weight is probably the single most cost-prohibitive factor when looking at space ventures. In the future, this level of modularity and portability will be what let’s us…
Read MoreNew Paper | A Paradigm Shift for Human Exploration
Very pleased to share a newly published paper in the Marine Technology Society Journal (Vol. 50, Issue 1), entitles, “A Paradigm Shift for Human Exploration of the Sea: Standards of Practice, Training, and Program Development for Atmospheric Diving”. download .pdf This is a timely and essential white paper reflecting on the recent efforts to bring together partners…
Read MoreTop Underwater Tech Gadgets to Keep an Eye On in 2016
This last year has made me enthusiastic to see the future of diving unfold. While there are certainly numerous ‘big’ issues to address, a few seemingly simple innovations, or rather evolutions of terra firma tech to life beneath the waves, have surfaced (or rather made their first descent!). The following pieces of tech are, in…
Read MoreOceanscrapers & Cities by and within the Sea
Every handful of years we see a short bit of press related to elaborate proposals to construct grandiose and magnificent cities beneath the sea, much like this recent piece in CNN highlighting Vincent Callebaut’s proposed ‘Oceanscraper’. These are all awe-inspiring, intriguing, and draw on dreams buried ‘deep’ within our brains that were all left by the…
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