Cognition research focuses on the tongue April 27, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Trivia , add a commentI saw this interesting article today at dfw.com. Research and testing is being conducted with the aim of giving military divers similar senses to those of owls, snales, and fish.
A narrow strip of red plastic connects the Brain Port to the tongue, where 144 microelectrodes transmit information through nerve fibers to the brain. Instead of holding and looking at compasses and bulky hand-held sonar devices, the divers can processes the information through their tongues, said Dr. Anil Raj, the project’s lead scientist.
This research has enabled blind people to found doorways, saw people moving in front of them and even caught balls.
WikiScuba enhancements make it even easier to use and more useful to scuba divers April 10, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : News, Trivia , add a commentIts been a little while since WikiScuba was created with the aim of becoming the scuba diving encyclopedia all divers could call upon as a research aid, and there have been a few recent improvements which I thought were worth telling people about.
There is now a clever little bookmarklet available, the link to which is on the home page of the site. By right clicking and saving as a bookmark or saving to favourites you are now able to search wikiscuba without going through the trouble of actually visiting the site. Once the bookmark is in place you can click on it and a search box appears into which you can type a search term and the wikiscuba site pops up with the relevant search page. Even cooler is that you can highlight any text on a webpage and then click the bookmark and the wikiscuba site pops up on the search page again! This should prove very useful and convenient for finding information about a certain topic you see on another site.
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Ever Played Monopoly whilst scuba diving? December 31, 2005
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Trivia, general , add a commentThe answer is yes for a group of scuba diving students at Plainville High School writes Newsday.com
The game came with its own little problems which needed to be overcome
“It’s definitely harder because you can’t talk,” said Nichol Coggins, president of the school’s scuba club. “You never know what they’re thinking.”
Coggins and 10 members of the scuba club spent five hours Friday playing the world’s best-selling board game, while submerged in 12 feet of water in the school’s pool. The board was specially made out of plexiglas. Instead of playing with Monopoly’s paper money, students used painted washers to denote the different amounts of money. Also, the dice were custom-made out of brass and the property deeds were laminated and held down by binder clips.
“We kind of just came up with the idea and ran with it,” said Fusco, chairman of the school’s science department.
Students were split into five teams. Members of a team would take 30-minute turns playing at the bottom. To communicate, students had to learn hand signals to buy, sell, and trade property. Property names like Boardwalk and Park Place were replaced by different diving locations in the Caribbean and around New England. “Go to Jail” was replaced by “Go to the Recompression Chamber,” and “Free Parking” was changed to “Free Mooring.”
“It’s a confidence builder,” he said. “It’s training them to scuba dive safely.”
Take your iPod Nano Scuba Diving? December 21, 2005
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Trivia, general , 1 comment so farBody Glove technology Accessories has launched the Body Glove Scuba, a water resistant case case for the iPod nano. Can you really take it scuba diving?
Erm, nope, its a marketing gimmic. Apparently the material is called ’scuba’ and the case is designed to prevent the iPod getting scratched. It actually has cutouts for access to the ports and buttons, which hardly gives it suitable protection for onboard a dive boat, never mind a scuba dive. For those still interested it is around $35 and available from Fellowes.
Some marketing people really just don’t have a scoobie, do they? 
Prince Harry on Dhekelia scuba diving holiday December 21, 2005
Posted by Andy Carroll in : News, Travel, Trivia , add a commentPrince Harry is staying at the British base of Dhekelia on a scuba diving holiday. He arrived on Saturday morning and is developing his skills following a basic army course within the UK. The wreck of the Zenobia, claimed as one of the best wreck dives in the world, is only 10 minutes from Larnaca. Wonder if he’ll dive that?
Scuba divers decorate Wreck with Christmas Tree December 19, 2005
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Trivia, WreckDiving , add a commentMembers of the scuba club South Florida Divers have decorated a 70ft (20 mtrs) wreck with a christmas tree as part of a tradition going back 20 years. The wreck of the Hog Heaven is situated off Fort Lauderdale.
The tree isn’t expected to last very long as the wreck is host to many fish species, such as Surgeojnfish, Jacks, Grunts, and Parrotfish.
The tree was lowered down by a combination of divers, line and a lift bag, and once placed, the other club members dived the wreck and decorated the tree with environmentally friendly (fish food ) ornaments.
Nice little christmas story. I wish here in the UK we could swim around with Parrotfish at Christmas.
Source: Miami Herald
