Overland Underwater drive from UK to New Zealand raising money for CARE May 15, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Trivia , add a commentFor those that don’t know CARE is an international humanitarian organisation which helps the poor and vulnerable in the poorest countries of the world, fighting global poverty. I saw this press release recently regarding some guys from Overland Underwater, who have chosen to drive from the UK to New Zealand in order to raise money for the charity. As it is a good cause I thought it would be a good idea to help promote it. Here is the press release from Scuba Cat Diving, who donated 10% of the income from a day’s fundraising trip;
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New Dive Site Directory May 15, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Trivia , add a commentIts been a while since I checked out what has been going on at Travel-Dive and Yorkshire Divers. It seems they have been busy in recent months. Not only have they started a new technical diving blog called Shadow Diving, but they have also been working on a Dive Site Directory using Google Maps.
Shadow Diving seems to be aimed at divers who are into more advanced subjects such as cave diving, decompression, rebreathers etc. Its early days but there are quite a few nice articles on the site and I like the design. Easy to get around.
The Dive Site directory is a way of viewing the world and seeing all the stuff relevant for divers. The technology allows you to distinguish between diving communities and members as well as dive sites and wrecks, and also businesses and dive operators. Very interesting and easy to navigate, this should prove useful when you want to find out what kinds of diving facilities there are in those far flung destinations on the shortlist.
Canadian Army Scuba Divers play Detectives May 11, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Trivia , add a comment
The Canadian Chronicle report an interesting story today about part of the training being undertaken by the Canadian army divers. As part of their training the divers had to recover bodies from a submerged vehicle without disturbing the silt around the vehicle which would need to be visited by the forensic team. It looks like the divers found the scenario useful for learning and enjoyed it;
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Gander Mountain Company Introduces SCUBA Products in Partnership with Divers Direct May 10, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : News, Trivia , add a commentSaw this little news piece this morning and thought it might be interesting for some. To me this shows just how competitive the SCUBA industry is becoming. In order to increase sales and minimise risk in terms of opeining new dedicated stores, some companies are now looking for complimentary type activity stores to show their wares. Anyway, here is the release, from Yahoo;
David Blaine: Man or muppet? May 8, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : News, Trivia , 1 comment so far
I know, I know, it may be a little harsh, but I have watched and heard and read so much about this latest caper from David Blaine for that last week with more and more incredulity. Maybe I am just a cynic.
For the few that don’t know, David Blaine, the world famous magician, has been living in a globe full of water for the past week, being fed liquidised food through a tube, and breathing from a scuba second stage on a long hose. He plans to exit by being chained up, and holding his breath for 9 minutes, before breaking loose. Paul Kotik, at deeperblue.net, has been covering the events each day, and Willy Volk, over at Divester has been commenting on Pauls comments, and finding more resources and information.
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Dolphins ‘know each other’s names’ May 8, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Trivia , add a commentEvery scuba diver I have ever met wants to swim with dolphins. There is just something about them everyone loves. Well, it may be that dolphins are closer to humans than previously realised, with new research showing they communicate by whistling out their own “names”, says the Times Online.
The research was carried out by Vincent Janik of the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University, who has found bottlenose dolphins to be among the animal world’s quickest learners of new sounds.
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