Captain Jack's Blog

Waterproofing the World: P2i Plasma Technology | Trendoriginal

2010-04-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Waterproofing the World: P2i Plasma Technology | Trendoriginal:

"Waterproofing the World: P2i Plasma Technology

Forget what you heard about the types of prints, colors and textures that will be featured next in textile and material design-just remember this word: Waterproof. The Ion-Mask enhancement is a new plasma technology devised by P2i, a company that’s part of the UK Ministry of Defense’s programme of commercialization of government technologies. P2i uses “patented plasma technology to treat everyday objects with an invisible mask that repels oil and water, without altering the look or feel of the treated object…invisible to the eye and undetectable to touch”. When using the plasma, essentially all liquids that touch the object simply bead up on the surface instead of soaking or wetting the object. Moreover, the process for creating the plasma is environmentally friendly.
What’s incredible is that this technology can be applied to textiles, footwear, filtration systems and bio-consumables. The ability to use the technology on so many manufactured products ensures that it will have a great impact on fashion, home design, footwear and engineering systems. Simply put: its forecasted popularity is due to the fact that it uses an eco-method to create a variety of more efficient products that have added value. Sneakers you can wear in the rain, shirts you can simply wipe spilt drinks off of and unique shower curtains. Makes me want to get a waterproof blouse and pour a glass of wine on myself.
See below the images to discover how this new technology differs itself from traditional waterproofing methods.

Textile and footwear: “Traditionally, textile waterproofing techniques have relied on extra layers which act as a suffocating barrier; or the chemical treatment of the material, which leaves the edges and seams created during the manufacture of the product exposed. Plasma technology works at a molecular level to change the way the surface reacts to liquids, delivering waterproof performance without inhibiting the circulation of air through the fabric for an effective, comfortable result.”

Filtration: “The effective performance and longevity of such products are dictated by the interaction of their surface with liquid. Traditionally, this relationship has been improved with complex chemical coatings cured at high temperatures, additives introduced during the melt process or chemical dips following an electrical discharge, but there are inherent problems with all of these methods. Plasma technology can treat 3D objects, manufactured from different materials with complex shapes, with a low-cost, universal process. This extends the life of the product, particularly in harsh environments, by vastly improving resistance to oil and liquid.”

Bio-Consumables: ”Despite their inherent hydrophobicity, the materials from which products such as pipettes, petri dishes and microplates are manufactured do retain residual amounts of liquid – resulting in inaccurate test results and the waste of costly reagents. Currently, some manufacturers offer low-retention products which are achieved either by polishing the moulds to ensure minimal surface tension, introducing additives into the melt polymer before moulding or using a post-manufacture dip. While these approaches vary in effectiveness, ease of use and consistency, ion-mask™ treated consumables significantly outperform them all.”
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Trend Original: P2i
Trend Spotter: TrendOriginal
topics: science
tags: materials, technology, waterproof

Spice up your swim, with music • Register Hardware

2010-04-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

Spice up your swim, with music • Register Hardware: "Five different sizes of earpiece are also thrown in, so you’re guaranteed of a secure lughole fit. The headphone’s 3.5mm jack is even gold-plated.

Of course, waterproof headphones are useless if your iPod isn’t wrapped up in a waterproof case. So H2O Audio’s also launched the Amphibx, which is guaranteed to provide a 100 per cent watertight and secure seal around a selection of players, including the Nano and iPhone."

Creatures of the deep: What lurks in the depths of the ocean? - Telegraph

2010-04-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Creatures of the deep: What lurks in the depths of the ocean? - Telegraph: "A nemertean pelagonemertes rollestoni hunting for zooplankton prey that it will harpoon with a dart attached to the tongue coiled within it. Its yellow stomach reaches out to feed all parts of the body"

Jessica Watson Collision Report Released

2009-10-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

"The question most often asked in these situations is: 'Who had right of way?' COLREGS Rule 18 states that a power vessel is to give way to a vessel under sail, however a vessel under sail must give way to a power vessel restricted in her ability to maneuver. The Silver Yang was also to the starboard of Ella’s Pink Lady, which is why the watch reported seeing a green light to port.

Things are rarely cut-and-dried in these cases, which is why this investigation will continue. At the bottom of it all is COLREGS Rule 5, however, which states: 'Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight as well as by hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.' Under this rule, of course, no solo sailor could ever sleep." Read more: Jessica Watson Collision Report Released

Creatures of the deep: What lurks in the depths of the ocean? - Telegraph

2009-09-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

Creatures of the deep: What lurks in the depths of the ocean? - Telegraph: "Thalassocalyce (ctenophone - comb jelly)"

Are bikini baristas in Everett showing too much skin?

2009-09-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Are bikini baristas in Everett showing too much skin? | Seattle Times Newspaper:

"EVERETT — Business was brisk just before noon Thursday at the Grab-N-Go Bikini Hut, where a lone barista, clad in a skimpy pink string bikini, served up steaming vanilla lattes and an endless supply of cheerful chitchat from behind the counter of the espresso stand.

Customers who waited patiently in pickups and SUVs seemed unaware that the stand — no larger than the master closet of a suburban tract house — has become ground zero in one of Everett's most pressing civic conundrums: What is appropriate behavior at drive-up businesses that serve coffee with a view?

The city, inundated with complaints from citizens and business owners who say the so-called "bikini baristas" expose too much skin, is considering restricting their behavior by updating its decades-old lewd-conduct ordinance.

The issue has gained even more steam now that five Grab-N-Go baristas from the Everett stand were charged this week in Everett Municipal Court with prostitution after a lengthy undercover investigation by Everett police. And Thursday, a sixth Grab-N-Go barista from a Lynnwood-area espresso stand was arraigned on an indecent-exposure charge.

Since July, a group of undercover Everett police officers has frequented the Grab-N-Go stand near Everett Mall after complaints that baristas were exposing themselves for cash or working completely nude, according to an Everett police report. The undercover officers who paid extra say the female baristas stripped naked, fondling each other and exposing themselves, according to a police report. A $20 "whip cream show" featured a barista licking whipped cream off a co-worker's groin and breast, police allege.

Baristas also charged to play "basketball," in which customers threw wadded cash, and baristas caught it in underwear or bikini bottoms, police said.

The Everett City Prosecutor's office charged the women with prostitution because money was exchanged for "sex acts," said an Everett police spokesman.

The women charged in Everett Municipal Court are Samantha Lancaster, Alexis Quigley, Kristina Evenson, Leloni Bailey and Dana Fitzpatrick. Paperwork didn't list ages or cities of residence, although all are between 18 and 24 years old.

The barista charged with indecent exposure, Bridget Barnhouse, 26, was seen "shaking her butt" toward traffic July 10 while outside the stand at 11323 Highway 99, court papers say. The Snohomish woman was wearing a G-string and pasties, charges allege.

Barnhouse and her attorney declined to comment Thursday after her arraignment in Everett District Court.

Bill Wheeler, owner of the four Grab-N-Go stands in Snohomish County, called the charges "B.S." and said that he supports the six employees facing misdemeanor charges. "These are all college girls who are trying to make a living," Wheeler said. "We're a coffee stand, not a strip club." Read more>

Jessica Watson sets sail on solo record attempt

2009-09-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

Schoolgirl skipper, 16, sets sail in global quest

Story by: CHRISTINE KELLETT

September 8, 2009

Queensland schoolgirl Jessica Watson, 16, on her yacht. Photo: Eddie Safarik

Schoolgirl skipper Jessica Watson has pushed off from Mooloolaba Wharf today on a week-long test run ahead of her record attempt to circumnavigate the globe on her own.

Ms Watson, 16, of Buderim, on the Sunshine Coast, hopes to become the youngest person ever to sail around the world unassisted in her 10-metre sloop Ella's Pink Lady when it leaves Sydney for the Tasman Sea later this month.

She will spend the next 10 days sailing south - the longest time she has spent on her own aboard the pink-coloured yacht.

The "rules" she has set for herself include only using wind and water to increase, maintain or decrease her speed on the 22,000-nautical-mile journey. She will also have to carry out her own repairs.

Ms Watson has just left her berth.

------------------------------------------
'Yes I can': schoolgirl's solo quest
Jessica's solo sail 'irresponsible'
Dutch skipper, 13, banned from voyage
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"Everyone's been asking whether I'm feeling nervous but to be honest, I just can't wait to leave," Ms Watson wrote in her blog, which she will use to log her voyage, expected to take seven months.

"I plan on taking around 10 days to sail down to Sydney so that I get plenty of time on the water the test all the systems and give Ella's Pink Lady a good run in."

Ms Watson, who was 15 when she announced her solo ambition in May, has polarised public opinion on the safety of a teenager sailing around the world by herself.

Her decision, which has the full backing of her mother Julie and father Roger, has attracted criticism from parents groups.

The debate was reignited last month when a Dutch court blocked 13-year-old Laura Dekker's attempt to set her own solo sailing world record, citing "serious concerns" and temporarily placing her in state care.

Ms Watson hopes to shave a year off the current record set by Victorian Jesse Martin, who completed his solo voyage in 1999, aged 18.

Her yacht is the same design as that used in Mr Martin's successful journey.

Ms Watson spent the weekend packing food supplies onto the boat and will stay in constant contact via a satellite phone, her spokeswoman said.

"She's fully outfitted," the spokeswoman said, citing internet access including a web cam.

"She's done a couple of solo sails already, she's taken [the boat] out for a couple of days on her own.

"She's on a pretty tight schedule and the trip has been delayed a few times due to the weather."

A mission statement posted on Ms Watson's website acknowledges the dangers of the journey.

"In her quest, to reach what is considered the absolute pinnacle of sailing, Jessica will pit herself against mother nature and all she can deliver including the notorious Southern Ocean as well as the physical and psychological demands of eight months alone at sea," the statement reads.

"In doing so, Jessica wants to show that even the most gentle among us can achieve great things and with determination and the support of those around us can live our dreams."

Mother Julie said she was relieved to see her daughter head out of Mooloolaba.

"I'm feeling so happy we've got to the start line,'' she told ABC radio.

"Preparations have gone so well and she's in the right space.''

- with AAP

New BioRobot Cleans Up the Ocean for Navy Ships

2009-08-27T05:12:00.000-07:00

New BioRobot Cleans Up the Ocean for Navy Ships:

New BioRobot Cleans Up the Ocean for Navy Ships

With Congress taxing the ax to military budgets, the Navy has cut out spending $500 million each year on "biofouling" maintenance to make sure that barnacles, oysters, and algae don't end up on ship hulls. Biofouling reduces ship speed by up to 10% and adds up to 40% in fuel costs.

The Navy's solution? The Bio-inspired Underwater Grooming Tool (BUG) clings and crawls around on the underwater portion of a ship's hull with an onboard biofilm detector that senses and removes marine biofilm and organisms before they are attached.

So far the BUG is a hit with the swabs. The BUG's fuel-saving capabilities can reduce the impact of an industry that is responsible for three percent of global CO2 emissions.

[Via UK Register]

The Greatest Shoal on Earth Threatened by Global Warming! : EcoWorldly

2009-08-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

The Greatest Shoal on Earth Threatened by Global Warming! : EcoWorldly:

Written by Dave Harcourt

Published on August 22nd, 2009

Posted in About Animals, About Climate, In Africa

"The Greatest Shoal on Earth, less prosaically known at the Sardine Run, has been an annual event along the east coast of South Africa for decades. What was simply a natural resource that provided an easily accessible protein source for local inhabitants and an income for fisherman has become a tourist event, classified with the Serengeti Migration and Iceland Atlantic Puffins as “Must See Nature Sites“."

Quantum Gravity: The Ultimate Theory of Everything or SciFi?

2009-08-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

Quantum Gravity: The Ultimate Theory of Everything or SciFi?

Quantum Gravity: as well as allowing sci fi writers claim anything plus impossibility, it could be the ultimate theory of everything. The thing is, such reality-Rosetta stones aren't easy to come by, which is why recent "advances" are often working out that previous postulations aren't actually so.

Quantum mechanics works awesomely at the small scale, while general relativity matches all our observations of the incredibly large - but both break down if you try to make them play together. Any attempt to merge quantum mechanics with gravity leads to things like infinite density spikes, and even bigger problems than that (proving that English is comparative instead of analytical).

A new theory wouldn't replace the old ones - science isn't just a fad, you see, and one or two unexplained aspects doesn't invalidate an entire filed (no matter what some shrieking evangelists might have you believe). General relativity reduces to Newton's laws of motion as long as you don't go near the speed of light or the size of a planet, and humans generally don't, and non-quantum science was fine until we worked out how to measure extremely small things. Every time we work out we were wrong is an advance into a new field.

It's likely that any new theory would "reduce" to what we know under some conditions, and when something simplifies to quantum mech and relativity it's going to be pretty impressive. A recent contender was Petr Hořava's "nonrelativist renormalizable theory of gravitation", which reduced to recognizable general relativity at large distances. So far, so physicsy-funky, until a team at Texas A&M team showed that those "large distances" were actually too big to fit in the universe. Which means that if we ever actually observed general relativistic effects (and we have, loads of them), then Petr's theory wasn't quite right.

So it's down - but not out. Science has the amazing advantage of being able to learn from criticism.

Luke McKinney

Rewriting General Relativity

BioBombers of the Deep-Ocean Cosmos

2009-08-27T04:51:00.000-07:00

BioBombers of the Deep-Ocean Cosmos:

"The depths of the ocean and space have a lot in common: they're hard to get to, often very dark, and we always end up with alien-looking things firing glowing projectiles at us. A brand new species has been discovered, and when even the scientists call them 'Green Bombers' you know they've got unique properties.

Found over two kilometers straight down by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the small worms have powers that would fit in with the X-Men (even if not for very long): when pursued by predators they blow off parts of their own body, organically glowing decoys which break off one or two at a time and shine brightly as they drift away."

As far as defense mechanisms go "Breaking off bits of yourself" hasn't been seen since the Black Night, who always triumphs, but at least the "Swima Bombiviridis" have a few more limbs to spare - and can grow them back later. The inch-scale worms cluster in their hundreds in what must be the most awesome combination of aquarium, rave, and explosives defusing class amateur hour ever imagined.

It's about here that writers usually crack the old cliche of "more of the moon being explored than our oceans", and in our defense at least we at leastpresented it a bit differently just now. The fact that we're only now discovering something that can turn parts of itself into glowsticks? Earth is awesome, and we've lots more to learn.

Luke McKinney

New species of worm releases "bombs"

The Associated Press: Feds: Mass. to get $25M for wind blade test center

2009-06-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press: Feds: Mass. to get $25M for wind blade test center: "Feds: Mass. to get $25M for wind blade test center

By STEVE LeBLANC

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts once boasted some of the fastest clipper ships in the world, and the state is again aiming to be a leader in harnessing the wind. — this time by hosting the nation's largest wind turbine blade testing facility.

The state will receive $25 million in federal stimulus dollars for construction of the testing center on Boston Harbor in the city's Charlestown neighborhood, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday.

When finished, the Wind Technology Testing Center will be the first commercial blade test facility in the nation capable of handling blades as long as 90 meters.

The longest blades currently in commercial use worldwide are about 60 meters long, although companies are exploring blades as long as 75 meters. No facility in the US is capable of testing blades longer than 50 meters.

The center will help wind turbine developers reduce costs, improve technical advancements and speed deployment of the next generation of blades to the marketplace, Chu said.

The facility is also part of the Obama administration's effort to dramatically ramp up the nation's reliance on renewable forms of energy and promote green technology jobs.
"As the world moves toward a significant expansion in wind power, the test blade facility will help make sure that the best, most efficient wind turbines are built right here in America," Chu said.
More research into longer blades could also help accelerate the development of large-scale offshore wind power facilities, according to Chu.
Massachusetts is in the running to be home to the nation's first offshore wind farm in the waters off Cape Cod. Cape Wind Associates LLC has proposed erecting 130 wind turbines across 25-square miles of federal waters in Nantucket Sound.
Chu said the testing center will attract companies from around the world to design, test and manufacture their blades in the United States. It will also spur the growth of American companies that are part of the supply chain for wind turbine production including fiberglass distributors and advanced composite materials manufacturers.
Massachusetts was tapped in 2007 as a possible location for the testing center. The federal Department of Energy pledged an initial $2 million for the project at the time.
Since then the state has pushed for the funding needed to break ground. The Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, funded through a small surcharge on electricity bills, set aside $13 million in grants and loans for design and development expenses, working capital and first year operating expenses.
In February, Gov. Deval Patrick met with Chu in Washington to push for stimulus funding. Sen. Edward Kennedy and the state's congressional delegation also lobbied for the project.
"Testing the next generation of wind turbines here will make Massachusetts a hub for the fastest-growing energy source in the world," said Patrick, who joined Chu at the Charlestown site to announce the funding.
Locating the center on the harbor will allow test blades too long to negotiate highways and local roads to be delivered by ship. The facility is also on a rail line.
The project is expected to create 250 construction jobs with work beginning in September. The facility should be ready to test its first blades in 2010.
Boston residents won't be seeing massive wind turbines spinning on the waterfront, however.
The facility will resemble a long, horizontal hangar. The turbine blades, which can weigh up to 15 tons, will be affixed on one end to pilings anchored 160 feet down. They will then be subjected to a battery of vibrational tests than can mimic 20 years of wear in three months.
Up to three blades will be able to be tested at a time.
Steve Lockard, president of Arizona-based TPI Composites, said the facility will help put new materials and designs through their paces, including the much longer blades that will be used to equip offshore wind farms.
"We're trying to demonstrate under extreme wind conditions," said Lockard, whose company includes a manufacturing plan in Iowa and development center in Rhode Island.

Green Light For Biggest Offshore Wind Farm

2009-06-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

2:34pm UK, Tuesday May 12, 2009

Energy firm E.ON has confirmed it will start building the world's biggest offshore wind farm along the outer Thames Estuary.

E.ON's Scroby Sands offshore wind farm in Norfolk has 30 turbines

The first phase of the London Array project, to be completed by 2012, will comprise 175 wind turbines.
The farm will be located off the Kent and Essex coasts in the outer Thames Estuary, and will go some way towards hitting the government's renewable energy targets.
The Prime Minister said: "The London Array is a flagship project in our drive to cut emissions by 80% by 2050 and meet future energy needs."
The project is a joint venture being developed by three international companies, DONG Energy, E.ON and Masdar.

Float Plans – Nothing but Upside…

2009-05-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

Atlantic Maritime Academy

Float Plans – Nothing but Upside…

As we close in on the end of summer, it still isn’t too late to think about Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS). In fact, as we contemplate the end of the crowded beaches, we might even feel compelled to venture out towards Connecticut or places further north and east to catch the first hints of the incoming Fall. If so, the Float Plan, oft spoken of and more often ignored, can be key for you and those closest to you.
The Float Plan is nominally known as a mechanism for ensuring that missing vessels are indeed missed in time for action to be taken that might otherwise lead to the rescue of the crew rather than the recovery of their bodies. “Boat-A is supposed to be at Payne’s Marina in the Great Salt Pond on Block Island at this time and date. Is it there?”
So, in a nutshell, float plans are all about SOLAS - Safety Of Life At Sea. However, as the title infers, the development of a float plan delivers nothing but upside to the boat’s master and thus to the crew who are fully the master’s responsibility.
Charting
The ideal float plan involves the detailed analysis of getting to your destination and returning safely. The float plan provides the opportunity for the skipper to sit with his or her charts, in the calm of a kitchen, den or study, and literally walk through the passage with parallel rulers and dividers.
What is the goal of such detailed analysis? The net effect is to create your own Pilot Guide for the entire passage and to be able to assign predicted times to each leg. Deviation from predicted times is an early warning to the skipper that something is up – working against (or with!) a current, cross winds creating additional work effort for the engines to hold course, etc. All of this translates into fuel consumption “deltas” which ultimately leads directly to SOLAS issues – Safety Of Life At Sea… If you have made an error in the development of your pilot guide, the rest of the guide is likely to be suspect and you’ll have to do what every skipper has done for centuries untold – improvise carefully… If the chart is generally consistent but winds and tides have done the inevitable, then the overall pilot guide is likely to still have integrity but, once again, you’ll have to do what every skipper has done for centuries untold – improvise carefully...
Weather
With respect to predicting the weather, I use the Weather.com website – www.weather.com - and the reason I do is because I can get weather prediction by the hour. If the chance of precipitation for a particular day is 50%, but it is 10% in the morning and 90% in the afternoon, I want to know that. Put in your zip code or city name and click go…
Click on “More Details” and see how the hourly details add to the weather analysis...
Tides
Nothing is more likely to surprise you and more potentially perilous to happen than running aground – and understanding the tide is all about that. There are several good services to use but there is something very subtle about tide analysis that no chart gives you.
Tides change at different rates at different places as we talked about in the column on Time and Tides. Knowing the tides at Moriches Inlet while spending the next 6 hours transiting from Seatuck Cove to Smith Point, then easting to Potunk Point and back to Seatuck Cove would require major mental gymnastics in order to keep pace with the pace of the tide as it works its way down the East and West Cuts and across the bays and into the coves…
Why do that if the internet can do it for you?
Local Notice to Mariners
As of April 1, 2004, the United States Coast Guard stopped mailing the Local Notice to Mariners. Instead, it is accessible on the Internet – and they will even email you a link to the updates each week as they “go to press.”
The electronic versions of LNM appear on the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center’s Website at http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/lnm/default.htm.
Why go out upon the briny deep with less information than there is available to you? What’s the upside in that? Go on their web site, click around until you find the area for you to put your email address in – and from then on get, direct from the United States Coast Guard forever, the latest they know about what is happening “out there…” For free…
Battening Down the Hatches
So, in summary, a complete float plan encompasses all of these components...And a prayer…

Dear Lord,

Be good to me…

Your Sea is so wide…

And my boat is so small…

Amen!

“Hello? Hello? Can You Hear Me Now?” Cell Phones and Boats

2009-05-26T23:22:00.000-07:00

From: Atlantic Maritime Academy, Vincent Pica

Vincent Pica

Division Commander, Division-18 (1SR)

United States Coast Guard Auxiliary

When I wrote about the need and use of a VHF radio 2 summers ago, (see SSP, “Sounding Smart on the Radio”, 8/1/07), I noted that if you didn’t have a radio aboard that you were risking your life over a couple of hundred dollars – it was “nutty” not to have a radio aboard. Nonetheless, many don’t! And those skippers rely on their cell phone for emergency assistance. OK, I guess you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Here is the “scuttlebutt” on cell phones on the water…

*CG - Gone

Starting in the early 90’s, many cell phone service providers offered a special telephone number that would give you direct access, via your cell phone, to a US Coast Guard Operations Center. However, as many cell systems were upgraded, the feature didn’t migrate to the new system and the Coast Guard found that coverage was thus very spotty and could create dangerous delays in dispatching USCG resources to an emergency situation. As a consequence, in October 2006, the Coast Guard requested that all cellular phone service providers discontinue the *CG service, except in Alaska, and any such calls be routed to the 911 Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) nearest to where the call originated.

Even when it worked, mariners didn’t always know where they were and the USCG had no ready mechanism to determining where they were. Now, with Rescue 21, this problem has been dramatically reduced and often eliminated (see SSP, “Rescue 21 – 21^st Century Savior”, 4/23/08), if you are using a VHF radio. Lastly, even when you did reach the USCG, they were the only one aware of your predicament. VHF-16 is, by Federal law, required to be monitored by all vessels equipped with a VHF radio. Another private boater could be much closer to you than the nearest USCG station – and getting the “rescue clock starts now” sequence going may be the difference between life and death… (see SSP, “The Good Samaritan”, 8/15/07)

But I Want My Cell Phone!

OK, skipper, here is the scuttlebutt. First, there is no – none – reliable way to be definitive about cell phone coverage at sea. Is it better the closer you are to land? Yes, compared to being far away. But cell phone systems are designed for land-base use and the associated physics of how objects absorb and reflect signals. Water is an entirely different kettle of fish, no pun intended. Another agonizing puzzle is when you can see “5 bars” on your cell phone but still can’t connect a call. Why..? Here is a likely scenario – there is a cell phone tower high up on a hill somewhere and it, with its higher-powered signal, can see you. But your cell phone isn’t strong enough to transmit all the way back to the cell tower! So, if you are intent on using your cell phone at sea, start looking into external antennas and signal boosters. Some boosters claim, when attached to an external 8’ antenna, that the signal range can extend up to 50 miles. Now, if you are ready to spring for the cost of the external antenna, can I suggest again that you attach a VHF radio to it..?

The Technology

The world-wide cellular system depends on two things – low power transmission and continual reuse of a limited number of frequencies. This is where the term “cell phone” comes from – you travel from cell to cell, bounded by low-power transmission, and are handed off automatically from one radio frequency to another. The cell tower is transmitting, usually, at just a few watts and your cell phone is transmitting back at even lower power – as low as 1/1,000^th of a watt. It is always lower than 1 watt. (BTW, a handheld VHF radio is transmitting at 5 watts and the “desk-top” VHF radio is transmitting at 25 watts…) As you travel towards the edges of adjacent cells, the cell phone tower’s software coordinates the hand-off from cell-a to cell-b. If your boat is disabled and bobbing in the waves, there is no way to move closer to an adjacent cell like your car naturally does…

To Take Or Not To Take?

Take it, by all means! When it does work, there is no better way to have a private, non-emergency conversation and most USCG and USCGAux vessels are equipped with cell phones for this reason. But, when it comes to an emergency, your VHF radio is the best and fastest way to being rescued..!

BTW, if you are interested in being part of USCG Forces, email me at JoinUSCGAux2009@aol.com or go direct to Lisa Etter, who is in charge of new members matters, at FSO-PS@emcg.us and we will help you “get in this thing…”

©2009 Vincent Pica - Reposted with permission

Top Ten Signs President Obama Needs A Vacation

2009-05-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

David Letterman Top Ten List

Top Ten Signs President Obama Needs A Vacation

10. Seems slightly less awesome than usual

9. Put $50 billion in bailout funds on Gonzaga to win the NCAA Tournament

8. Now says, 'nucular'

7. Last week he accidentally smoked a number 2 pencil

6. Already endorsed Hillary for 2012

5. Today's economic meeting was run by his mother-in-law

4. At this point in his presidency, George W. Bush was already on his fifth vacation

3. Requested a meeting with 'that blue naked dude from 'Watchmen''

2. Been calling Sarah Palin for advice

1. Since inauguration, hasn't given Michelle a 'stimulus package'"

Sanyo invites you to splash out on 52in waterproof HD TV

2009-05-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

Sanyo invites you to splash out on 52in waterproof HD TV • Register Hardware:

"The flat-panel telly has a “marine grade” anodised aluminium frame and cabinet construction, helping to protect the innards against everything from Coke spillages to showers"

British boffins perfect process to make any item '100% waterproof'

2009-05-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

British boffins perfect process to make any item '100% waterproof' • Register Hardware:

"According to P2i, all the individual fibres of a shoe - at a molecular level - are treated with the ion-mask plasma. So, unlike Scotchgard and similar waterproofing sprays, absolutely every part of the shoe is waterproofed, including the laces, sole, uppers, lowers etc at more than the surface level. Additionally, this treatment is permanent and doesn't eventually wear off like Scotchgard, P2i claimed."

Animal Oddities - ABC News

2009-05-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

Animal Oddities - ABC News

Animal Oddities

This recently discovered psychedelica was found in the waters of Ambon Island, Indonesia. The fish, which resembles a frog, bounces on the ocean floor like a rubber ball and has been classified as a new species.
(David Hall/seaphotos.com, via AP)

Marine paintings at Bruce Museum capture moody beauty of the sea | lohud.com | The Journal News

2009-04-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

Marine paintings at Bruce Museum capture moody beauty of the sea | lohud.com | The Journal News:

By Georgette Gouveia • ggouveia@LoHud.com • April 25, 2009

"Marine paintings at Bruce Museum capture moody beauty of the sea"

The Bruce Museum in Greenwich goes down to the sea in ships with a handsome exhibit of Buttersworth paintings that locates the metaphor in the maritime.

Even if you don't know a flying jib from a fisherman staysail, you'll relish "Illuminating the Sea: The Marine Paintings of James E. Buttersworth, 1817-1894" (through July 5), for Buttersworth wasn't merely illustrating America's Golden Age of Sail. The son of an English marine artist, who gave him his early training, Buttersworth was creating mini draºmas, in which the sea was the stage; the sky, the backdrop; and the vessels - including steamships, clippers, frigates and America's Cup yachts - were the star players.

http://lohud.com/article/20090425/ENTERTAINMENT/904250305/1164

A large detail of "Magic," which is part of the exhibit, "Illuminating the Sea: The Marine Paintings of James E. Buttersworth, 1817-1894," at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn., through July 5. (Photos by Mystic Seaport collection)

"Newport" by James E. Buttersworth shows yachts and other vessels off Newport, R.I.

Dubai Maritime City announces the completion of over 200 units within its Industrial Precinct and handover to Drydocks World

2009-04-19T23:37:00.000-07:00

Dubai Maritime City announces the completion of over 200 units within its Industrial Precinct and handover to Drydocks World | Dubai World Media Centre

The 6000 tons ship lift as seen from the ship lifts control building at the industrial precinct in Dubai Maritime City. The ship lift control building, in the inside frame, is fully finished and handed over to Drydocks World – Dubai, which will put it to use soon

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Dubai Maritime City announces the completion of over 200 units within its Industrial Precinct and handover to Drydocks World

Dubai Maritime City, the world’s first purpose-built maritime centre and a member of the Dubai World group of companies, announced today details of a number of milestones and major developmental achievements within the project. The announcement included news on the completion of over 200 units within its Industrial Precinct, as well as the completion of the first kVA substation within the City.
“There has been strong and rapid progress within Dubai Maritime City over the last few months,” stated Amer Ali, the CEO of Dubai Maritime City. “With every milestone, we get closer to seeing the completion of construction work within the Industrial Precinct, which in turn brings Dubai Maritime City closer to being a major player in the global maritime industry.”
According to Amer Ali, a total of 217 units within the Industrial Precinct have been structurally completed, which include 140 workshops, 60 warehouses, 12 showrooms and 5 yacht manufacturing facilities. The units are spread across the entire Precinct and come in various sizes. They have been handed over to Drydocks World – Dubai, who will start leasing them to the industry, as the latter is responsible for running and operating the Industrial Precinct based on an agreement signed by both parties in 2008.
In addition, the hand-over also saw Dubai Maritime City delivering a number of additional components, which included the central administration building, ship lift control building and mobile boat hoist. The 3,000 tonne ship lift is expected to be fully operational in June of this year, while the 6,000 tonne one is expected to run in August of the same year.

Big Love for Tiny Dog

2009-04-19T23:29:00.000-07:00

ABC News

Big Love for Tiny Dog

This Chihuahua/Jack Russell mix is small enough to fit inside of a tea cup.

Moms protest bikini barista stand next to day cares

2009-04-19T23:09:00.000-07:00

Moms protest bikini barista stand next to day cares | Local News | KING5.com | News for Seattle, Washington:

"Moms protest bikini barista stand next to day cares

04:48 PM PDT on Friday, April 17, 2009

By CHRIS DANIELS / KING 5 News

Video

http://www.king5.com/video/index.html?nvid=353055

A Somali Pirate’s Home Movie

2009-04-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

April 13, 2009, 7:18 am

A Somali Pirate’s Home Movie

By Robert Mackey

While the rescue of Richard Phillips, the American sea captain held by Somali pirates until Sunday, brings one chapter in the long history of piracy to a close, a quick look at the International Maritime Bureau’s Live Piracy Map shows that there have been dozens of similar attacks by pirates so far this year.
Given that level of activity, and the fact that more than 200 hostages are still being held by gangs of pirates in the region — including 16 crew members of an Italian tugboat that was captured on Saturday — the hunger for more information on who the pirates are, and how they live, will no doubt continue.
Fortunately, it turns out that a video camera is one of the tools of a 21st-century Somali pirate’s trade — used to make recordings of the ship and crew to show shipping companies that their vessels have in fact been seized — and one of these videos has surfaced on the Web, giving us some insight into what life is like on board those ships, as the pirates and crew settle in to wait for ransoms to be paid, or rescue operations to be attempted.
On Friday, Wired magazine posted video on their Danger Room blog obtained from “a source with well-placed contacts with pirate groups in Somalia,” who said that the video was shot by a pirate gang during a hijacking that ended three months ago.

Danger Room’s Evan Hansen explains:

The 10 minute 42 second video, taken by the pirates themselves, is both oddly intimate yet strangely banal. It takes place aboard the Yasa Neslihan, a vessel manned by a crew of 20 Turks captured by Somali pirates on October 29, 2008. The vessel and crew were released unharmed on Jan. 6, 2009….
“There are many videos like this,” the source told Wired magazine contributing editor Scott Carney, who obtained the video. “They make this video before they collect the ransom and leave the ship.”

Wired has made the entire video available on its blog, but also created a shorter edit, which features a soundtrack that includes what seems to be the pirate cameraman repeating the ship’s name “Yasa,” over a soundtrack of music blaring from the captive ship’s public address system. The result is a sort of weird mash-up of a music video, a hostage tape and a home movie Gawker called “kind of charming,” if, that is, you are not being held hostage at gunpoint in the middle of the Indian Ocean:

Presumably videos like this will not do much to bolster the case for more sober news coverage of the pirates made by Amy Davidson, who asked on The New Yorker’s News Desk blog last week: “Can we finally agree that the Somali pirates are neither romantic nor funny?” Ms. Davidson’s plea followed a somewhat similar appeal for sobriety from Glenn Beck on Fox.

Mr. Beck seems to be opposing the editorial approach of another news outlet also owned by Rupert Murdoch, the New York Post, which, as Ms. Davidson pointed out, headlined an article on the struggle of an American crew to retake control of the merchant ship Maersk Alabama from Somali pirates on Thursday: “YANK CREW KICKS PIRATES IN BOOTY,” and created a front-page featuring Johnny Depp and a skull and crossbones. Last October, my colleague Jeffrey Gettleman traveled to the semi-autonomous Puntland region of Somalia to take a more sober look at what drives so many Somali men to piracy. The month before, Mr. Gettleman conducted an interview for The Lede with a spokesman for one group of Somali pirates, then holding hostage a Ukrainian freighter loaded with weapons, by satellite telephone. In 2000, Jack Hitt wrote an in-depth account of one hijacking, “Bandits in the Global Shipping Lanes,” for The New York Times Magazine.

WA company makes drone that tracked pirates

2009-04-14T23:17:00.000-07:00

WA company makes drone that tracked pirates

April 14th, 2009 - KGW.com News Channel 8 Portland

WA company makes drone that tracked pirates

http://www.kgw.com/video/video-index.html?nvid=351879&shu=1

Internet Evolution - David Silversmith - Google Losing up to $1.65M a Day on YouTube

2009-04-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

"David Silversmith"

Internet Evolution - David Silversmith - Google Losing up to $1.65M a Day on YouTube:
Written by David Silversmith
4/14/2009

Google is spending more than $2 million a day on YouTube -- and it is nowhere near seeing a return on that investment. Indeed, it may be losing up to $1.65 million daily on the video site.

According to financial firm Credit Suisse and Internet measurement provider comScore Inc. , YouTube Inc. is on track to serve 75 billion video streams to 375 million unique visitors in 2009.

That's the good news. The bad? To support those visitors, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) will spend more than $2 million dollars daily -- to be exact, up to $2,064,054 a day, or $753 million annualized, according to Internet Evolution calculations of YouTube's costs derived from a range of sources, including Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. , comScore, Credit Suisse, and Google itself.

Now, Google does not disclose sales figures by division, so there is no definitive revenue number for YouTube. The range of estimates from financial analysts stretches from a low of $90 million (Bear Stearns) to a high of $240 million (Credit Suisse).

All the numbers are well below the estimated maximum of $753 million Google is spending annually, based on our calculations. So, depending on whose version of revenues you accept, Google is losing anywhere from $513 million to $663 million annually on YouTube, or anywhere from $1.4 million to as much as $1.65 million every day (see chart below).

Let's make it personal: The average visitor to YouTube costs Google more than a dollar ($513 million to $663 million in estimated losses divided by 375 million unique visitors).

In effect, Google is paying you to enjoy YouTube videos. In return, it gets the chance to show you some advertising. But adoption of those big-ticket items (YouTube sells homepage roadblock ads at $175,000 per day and branded channels at $200,000 apiece) has been limited, and Google AdWords image advertising remains the primary revenue source for YouTube.

A YouTube spokesman declined to comment on these figures or any conclusions of this blog.

Meanwhile, to deliver YouTube, Google is bleeding money in the following areas...

Bandwidth: If YouTube will get 375 million unique visitors in 2009 and each user downloads video at 400 kbit/s (based on figures from a range of sources), the cost to Google of YouTube bandwidth is a minimum of $1 million a day. This assumes YouTube is paying a minimum of 50 percent of the lowest market rate for megabit-per-second services.

Content acquisition: YouTube gets lots of user-generated video for free, but it has to pay for name-brand videos from sources like Sony/BMG and CBS. According to Credit Suisse, YouTube could pay up to $260 million -- about $710,000 a day -- to acquire content in 2009. Notably, Google just inked a deal with Disney to get short clips from ESPN and the Disney/ABC Television Group. More publicity for YouTube, more visitors -- but this is an expense, as YouTube pays royalties to Disney.

Revenue share: If you provide videos to Google and join its revenue sharing program, then you get a commission if ads are shown alongside your content. Credit Suisse estimates that YouTube will "share" away $24 million this year -- $66,000 per day.

Hardware, storage, software, collocation, electricity, etc.: Every minute, Google claims that 15 hours' worth of video is uploaded to YouTube -- equivalent to 86,000 new full-length movies weekly. Credit Suisse estimates the average video uploaded is 30 to 40 Mybtes and that YouTube is storing at least 5 petabytes of video. Given market estimates of about $2 per gigabyte, it's possible Google spends roughly $13 million -- $36,000 every day -- to store YouTube's stock in trade.

Other overhead: Add to the costs just mentioned all the overhead it takes to run any business -- sales, marketing, administration, all the elements that comprise cost of revenues. On December 31, 2008, Google spent 38.4 percent of total revenues on these items. Assuming the same percentage for YouTube and factoring high-end estimated revenue of $240 million for YouTube in 2009, the cost of YouTube revenues conceivably amounts to roughly $92 million, or $252,054 daily. If you prefer the low-end revenue estimate of $90 million, the cost of YouTube revenues would be $34.5 million, or $94,520 per day.

Now take this economy, in which advertising revenues are declining while all of YouTube's costs are increasing. The forecast is only that Google will start losing more money per day.

On the lighter side, you have to give Google credit for losing money with class! The first participant in its recent "Call to Action" for nonprofit partners raised over $10,000 in one day from a video. Classy of Google, yes. It might also be a tax write-off against its monstrous losses from YouTube.

— David Silversmith, Internet and Web analytics consultant, and former CTO of Carfax

Animal Oddities - A 4-foot-long giant sea worm

2009-04-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

Animal Oddities - ABC News

Animal Oddities

A 4-foot-long giant sea worm has been discovered at an aquarium in the U.K. Workers at Newquay's Blue Reef Aquarium unearthed the creature while they were trying to figure out what was attacking a coral reef and prize fish, the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported. The Daily Mail said the tropical worm, named Barry, is capable of permanently numbing humans with its sting.
(Rex USA)

Animal Oddities - Barreleye Fish

2009-04-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Animal Oddities - ABC News

Animal Oddities

Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) captured this image of a barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) in the deep waters just offshore of Central California from a video taken by a remotely operated video at depths of 2,000 to 2,600 feet. Since it was discovered in 1939, the barreleye's vision has been a mystery, until scientists at MBARI solved it on Feb. 23, 2009. The barreleye has extremely light-sensitive, tubular eyes that can rotate inside of its transparent head. Capped by bright green lenses, the fish's eyes point upward when it looks for food overhead, and then they point forward when the fish is feeding to focus on its prey.
(Courtesy Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)

Recession-proof restaurants

2009-04-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Recession-proof restaurants | KOMO News - Seattle, Washington | Bottom Line

Sky City at The Needle is #32 and Salty’s on Alki is #86 out of 100 independent restaurants with highest sales in 2008. The list, which could also be called Top 100 Tourist traps, is especially fun if, like me, you now eat exclusively at Vietnamese diners.

Back in the day. I ate so-so food on a terrace overlooking the Strip at Mon Ami Gabi (#24) dined on late-night French toast at trendy Coffee Shop in NYC (#41) and savored delicious salmon and a fantastic view at Portland City Grill (#64.) I’d tell you all about the time I had drinks at N9NE (#85), the steakhouse in the Palms hotel, but what happens in… well, you know.

What are your memorable vacation meals?

Analyst: YouTube Could Lose $470M This Year

2009-04-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

Analyst: YouTube Could Lose $470M This Year

A new report by Credit Suisse projects that video-sharing giant YouTube is on track to lose $470 million this year, writes Multichannel News.

Credit Suisse says YouTube will generate $240 million in revenue, but those revenues will be dwarfed by the $711 million in licensing, hardware, marketing and other expenses the site will incur. About half of that expense will go towards bandwidth, which Credit Suisse pegs at $360 million through the following math:

To arrive at the estimated $360 million bandwidth tab for YouTube, the analysts assumed the site will receive 375 million unique visitors in 2009 and that a maximum of 20% of those users are on the site at any given time. Credit Suisse’s analysis then assumed each user downloads a video at 400 kilobits per second, to yield a peak bit run-rate for YouTube of 30 million megabits per second.

Analysts at Credit Suisse came to the rather obvious conclusion that in order to generate more revenue, YouTube must increase the amount of monetizable, premium content (i.e. be more like Hulu). As if on cue, YouTube recently signed a clip distribution deal with Disney and is reportedly in the midst of a drastic redesign of its site that emphasizes premium content over UGC; it’s due to be unveiled April 16.

Porno-Pirate or Clever Marketing?

2009-04-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

A sexy pirate statue is stirring controversy; Penn. priests want it removed.

Watch ABC News video:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7219611

YouTube Sells Ads on “Hundreds of Millions of Video Views” Per Month

2009-04-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

NewTeeVee

YouTube Sells Ads on “Hundreds of Millions of Video Views” Per Month; Adds AdSense to Content ID

Michael Learmonth over at Ad Age managed to get a couple of pointers out of YouTube about its ad-selling efforts. According to YouTube product management director Shishir Mehrotra, the site is selling ads against “hundreds of millions of video views” per month, a number he described as more views than its nearest competitor, Fox Interactive, even has per month.

Using those clues, the scrappy Learmonth turned to comScore’s February numbers, which had Fox Interactive at 463 million U.S. views in February, or 8.7 percent of YouTube’s 5.3 billion. Therefore, his best guess is that YouTube is selling ads on at least 9 percent of its video views in the U.S.

A spokesperson for YouTube would only tell us that it doesn’t think a percent is a meaningful measure (I disagree!), and echoed Mehrotra’s comment to Learmonth that outside estimates of YouTube monetizing 3 to 4 percent of video views are “grossly inaccurate.”

Also today, YouTube made an attempt to amp up partner revenues from “claimed content.” To date, partners could use YouTube’s Content ID program to find unauthorized uploads of their content, and then they could elect to show banner and display ads alongside the uploads rather than taking them down. As of today, as TechCrunch reported, YouTube is now also rolling out contextually targeted text ad overlays (a.k.a. AdSense for Video) on those videos (see the YouTube-provided screenshot above).

Contextual text ads result in better click-through rates than display ads, said YouTube, so the thought is that the site’s 600-plus Content ID users will rake in more dough.

The AdSense for Video ads are targeted based on user-inputed text and metadata about each video. My concern would be that user uploads don’t necessarily have great metadata, especially since users sometimes try to obfuscate titles to keep them from being taken down. A YouTube spokesperson said he thought users were more interested in having their content found than keeping it away from the copyright police.

Just in case it needs to be said, the AdSense for Video initiative won’t affect calculations of what percent of video views are being monetized; it will only provide incremental revenue on already-monetized videos. However, if it’s tremendously successful, it could help convince more publishers to join the Content ID program.

A recent Credit Suisse report projected that YouTube would generate $240 million in revenue this year, but those revenues would be overshadowed by an expected $711 million in expenses. Screen Digest predicted YouTube would only take in $120 million in revenue this year.

Website helps you find free stuff.

2009-04-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

Kashless - Free items near Seattle, WA

Great site to find things for free. Doesn't craigslist do this already? Kashless does something craigslist doesn't do. Kashless will email you back if it finds something your looking for. The site even shows you a google map of where the item can be picked up at.

Debt: The next big American crisis? - The Hansen Files with Chris Hansen- msnbc.com

2009-03-28T01:18:00.000-07:00

Debt: The next big American crisis?
Instead of accumulating wealth, many falling further behind on payments

By Chris Hansen

Correspondent

Dateline NBC

updated 2 hours, 51 minutes ago

The economy is in freefall and no one's sure where rock bottom is. And as the mortgage crisis and mounting job losses melt away the American dream, another fundamental economic problem is being exposed: America's debt epidemic.

Undersea volcano erupts, shooting ash high into sky | KOMO News

2009-03-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

I've seen many things at sea but never in my life have I ever seen a volcano erupting under the sea like this. - Captain Jack

Twitter On The Today Show

2009-03-19T06:36:00.000-07:00

"Twitter-mania sweeps the nation" as the Today Show posts on their website.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Planet Solar Hopes To Be First To Circumnavigate The World

2009-03-18T18:13:00.000-07:00

The PlanetSolar team has a goal to be the first to circumnavigate the globe in a solar powered boat, one powered by a quiet, pollution-free electric motor, driven exclusively by solar energy.

In 2010, PlanetSolar with a two man crew will attempt to motor a wave piercing catamaran around the world while stopping at large port cities to promote renewable energies, especially solar. The 25,ooo mile (22,000 nautical miles) voyage will last 120 days, for and average speed about 11.5 mph (10 knots).

http://www.planetsolar.org

HowTo Save Money With Coupons.

2009-03-02T16:00:00.001-08:00

Frugal Coupon Mom, Helping Us Save a Dollar at a Time
Many know Ashley Nuzzo as Frugal Coupon Mom, a former teacher turned stay-at-home mom that launched a blog offering money-saving tips on using grocery store coupons.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1525112/frugal_coupon_mom_helping_us_save_a.html

Why don't I post here much?

2009-02-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

People have asked me why I have not made any postings here. Well I'm working on a new website for some videos I'm making. It's going to be on http://captainjack.tv and this blog will be for just general postings that are not related to the .tv site. I make a lot of Facebook and FriendFeed posts but since I don't have any tools that would allow me to post to blogger. I'll have to look around and see if there is something that will work. I would like to make one post and click to send it to other sites. The problem with some of this software is the formating gets all messed up so it's best to post on each site manually. That takes too much of my time. I guess I'll have to work on this problem a bit more. Anywho this page will be for my miscellaneous post. I hope you will enjoy my muse.

Captain Jack

What is Twitter?

2008-12-13T05:18:00.000-08:00

Well I have been using Twitter now for about a month. I really didn't care for it at first but now I kind of like it. What is Twitter? Think of it as an online chat room for your cellphone. You can follow other Twitters and they can follow you. When you send a message, all of your followers can read it. It's kind of nice to send a message to all your friends if you have a question or two. Maybe you just want to update everyone about what your doing or that you have arrived home safely. Oh and they really can't see where your at, unless you tell them. You can send a private message to individual Twitters. If you know how a chat room works online its basically the same thing. So give it a try. If you don't like it you can always delete your account. There is a link to my Twitter page to the right of this site.

Update - Mar 4th,09: I've been spending some time playing with twitter to find some kind of practicable use for it or it just a waste of time? Also what good is twitter if you only have a few followers? I should be able to broadcast to everyone that is interested in boating and my tweets be blocked to people who have no interest in boats. Without this ability, it makes twitter a child's toy. I feel twitter days are numbered and will be over come with better solutions.
Here is what Robert Scoble had to say about twitter:

“Why Twitter is not for conversations. I will give you five reasons here:”

1. If you get into something with one other person all your other followers will start complaining. - Robert Scoble

2. You can't "thread" and "capture" a conversation, like I can here. - Robert Scoble

3. Most people on Twitter that are joining lately are not people who participate. Compare @ev's followers to mine. - Robert Scoble

4. Twitter's expected usage is "what are you doing?" Not "what would you like to chat with your friends?" Whenever I try to break that usage I get tons of hate DMs and tons of unfollows. - Robert Scoble

5. You can't bundle up a conversation and save it for later, like you can with this one. (You can even permalink to this conversation and link to it from a Tweet, but you can't do that in Twitter itself). - Robert Scoble

Captain Jack's Blog

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Creatures of the deep: What lurks in the depths of the ocean? - Telegraph

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Are bikini baristas in Everett showing too much skin?

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Story by: CHRISTINE KELLETT

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Quantum Gravity: The Ultimate Theory of Everything or SciFi?

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The Associated Press: Feds: Mass. to get $25M for wind blade test center

Green Light For Biggest Offshore Wind Farm

Energy firm E.ON has confirmed it will start building the world's biggest offshore wind farm along the outer Thames Estuary.

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Animal Oddities - ABC News

Animal Oddities

Marine paintings at Bruce Museum capture moody beauty of the sea | lohud.com | The Journal News

Dubai Maritime City announces the completion of over 200 units within its Industrial Precinct and handover to Drydocks World

Dubai Maritime City announces the completion of over 200 units within its Industrial Precinct and handover to Drydocks World

Big Love for Tiny Dog

Moms protest bikini barista stand next to day cares

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Why don't I post here much?

What is Twitter?