T.F. Torrey's Shared Items in Google Reader

Dell Begins Selling Inspiron Mini 9

2008-09-04T20:33:00Z

mocoloco writes "A week after the rumored date, Dell has begun selling their entry into the netbook/subnotebook/UMPC market, the Inspiron Mini 9. The base system for $349 includes Ubuntu 8.04 "with custom Dell interface", 512MB RAM, and a 4GB SSD. There are options with XP, one that includes an 8GB drive and a $40 instant savings, another with a 16GB drive and 1GB RAM that has a $55 instant savings. Curiously the Ubuntu systems are a pre-order at this point, to be shipped within 15 days. Also, no Red option yet."

Sarah Palin

2008-09-03T07:00:00Z

03 September 2008 (Sarah Palin)

Sarah Palin would be even worse than McCain, if that is possible.

UK's prison population

2008-09-02T07:00:00Z

02 September 2008 (UK's prison population)

9% of the UK's prison population is made up of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. It seems that war is dangerous even for those that survive it.

CC Companies Scotch Mythbusters Show On RFID Security

2008-08-30T22:40:00Z

mathfeel passes along a video in which Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage recounts how credit card companies lawyered up to make sure the Discovery channel never, ever airs a segment on the flaws in RFID security. "Texas Instruments comes on [a scheduled conference call] along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else... They [Mythbusters producers] were way, way outgunned and they [lawyers] absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it's on Discovery's radar and they won't let us go near it."

Appeals Court Rules US Can Block Mad Cow Testing

2008-08-30T23:45:00Z

fahrbot-bot tips a story of mad cow disease, a private meat packer that wants to test all of its beef for the disease, and the USDA, which controls access to the test kits and just won an appeals court ruling that the government has the authority to block testing above and beyond the 1% the agency performs. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef sought to test 100% of its beef, in order to reassure its export markets, especially Japan and South Korea, that its beef is safe. Large meat packers opposed any such private testing, because they feared they would be forced into 100% testing and would have to raise prices. The appeals court ruled, 2 to 1, that under a 1913 law, test kits that are used only after an animal is killed still constitute "diagnosis" and "treatment" — this for a disease that has no treatment and is 100% fatal — and therefore fall under the USDA's authority to regulate.

A steam powered fish: the Ictíneo

2008-08-24T13:25:49Z

Few Victorian inventions have the grace and charm of the Ictíneo, the series of two wooden submarines built by Narcís Monturiol i Estarrol in the second half of the nineteenth century. Unlike some of the better known early submarines from his contemporaries in Germany, France and the United States, the Catalan inventor managed to build submarines that operated flawlessly. The Ictíneo II was the first combustion engine driven submarine ever, pioneering concepts that were only rivalled in the 1940s. Sadly, both submarines were eventually scrapped and Monturiol died penniless and forgotten.

Fish

Monturiol’s Ictíneo (derived from the Greek words for fish and for ship) was launched in 1859 in Barcelona harbour to instant success. Monturiol, who possessed no scientific education, became a local hero. The submarine, made of olive wood supported with oak rings and sheathed in two-millimetre thick copper, measured only 23 feet (7 meters) in length and offered hardly enough space for the captain and the four man crew who powered the ship by cranking.

Despite it's low-tech appearance, the Ictíneo was a marvel of sophisticated technology, decades ahead of its time. The vessel had a double hull - a spherical inner shell that resisted the water pressure, and an outer fish-like shell that protected the submarine and was used for steerage and hydrodynamics. Between both hulls were four ballast tanks, controlled from within the cabin by valves letting in water or forcing in air. During driving, pitch was controlled by a weight which could be moved along a rail. This micromanagement of buoyancy allowed the Ictíneo to remain at extremely precise depths - a feat which other submarines at that time could not achieve.

Lit by a candle

Monturiol was a man who had safety in mind. Apart from the protective hull, weights could be dropped immediately to surface quickly in case of an emergency. The glass ports on the side, the top and the nose were designed enabling water pressure to push them inside the hull, rendering leaks virtually impossible. The interior of the submarine was lit by a candle, using up precious oxygen although serving as an integral indicator when oxygen began to run low. Monturiol demonstrated his submarine 59 times, without any adverse incident. The machine could stay submerged for 2 hours and dive up to a depth of 20 meters.

Underwater rowing boat

Monturiol was not the first to develop a submarine. The Dutchman Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel built some remarkable vessels between 1620 and 1624 based on the unexecuted plans of the 16th century Englishman William Bourne. Essentially, the vessel was an underwater rowing boat enclosed by a leather-covered wooden frame. His final model which had 6 oars, could carry 16 passengers and stay submerged for 3 hours, travelling 5 kilometres down the Thames at a depth of 5 meters.

Robert Fulton, an American living in France at the time, designed the successful "Nautilus", which began testing in the Seine in 1800 (picture above). It could stay submerged for 5 hours by use of compressed air. The German inventor Wilhem Bauer launched his "Brandtaucher" in 1850 and his "Seeteufel" in 1856 (both of which sank). The American inventor Horace Hunley launched "H.L.Hunley", the first submarine to sink an enemy warship (and the first to sink 3 times itself, killing 25 people) in 1863, a few years later than Monturiol.

Propulsion

No matter how state-of-the-art the Ictíneo was compared to her many contemporaries, she still had the same basic drawbacks many submarines at the time possessed: a limited range as a result of limited air supply, and a very low speed. All early submarines were propelled by human muscle, which made them extremely slow. The Nautilus was equipped with a sail, but could obviously only be used when sailing on the surface. Underwater, the ship was propelled by a helical screw, turned by hand. The Ictíneo used pedal power, needing 4 men to reach a speed of 1 mile per hour (about the same speed of the underwater rowing boat designed 3 centuries earlier). That pace was not always sufficient to overcome the effect of currents and tides.

When the Ictíneo I was crushed by a freighter while docked in the port of Barcelona, Monturiol decided to design a larger submarine that was driven by steam. The Ictíneo II, more than twice the length of the Ictíneo I, was launched between 1864 (with human power) and 1867 (with steam power). It became the first combustion engine driven submarine in the world.

The thinking at the time was that it was almost impossible to run a steam engine underwater because it would use up all the oxygen and convert the inside of the ship into an oven. To overcome this, Monturiol invented a chemical furnace based on a reaction between potassium chlorate, zinc and manganese dioxide - a process that produced enough heat to boil water to run the steam engine. To complement this ingenuity, the reaction gave off oxygen as a by-product.

Snorkel

Monturiol had successfully resolved the two basic obstacles presented to submarine inventors: air supply and mechanical power. In fact, he devised an early form of anaerobic (air-independent) propulsion only to be repeated in the 1940s with the Walter turbine in Germany, and finally with the first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus.

The Ictíneo II was the first of its kind providing its own oxygen, without surfacing regularly or using a snorkel, as seen on the Nautilus. Perplexing is the reality that Monturiol, never having patented his ideas, is absent in many maritime records of the progression of submarines.

On account of all the machinery in the vessel, only 2 men could fit in the submarine originally designed for a crew of 20. The Ictíneo II made almost 20 problem free demonstration drives. It could stay submerged for eight hours and plunge to a depth of 50 meters. Monturiol calculated that the maximum possible depth was 500 meters, but chose not to take the risk of diving to this depth.

In 1868, shortly after its launch, the groundbreaking Ictíneo II was seized by the shipyard and scrapped, together with her predecessor. The reason? Monturiol could not pay the bills.

Coral divers

While his competitors devised submarines for military purposes, Monturiol had alternative ambitions. The man was a communist, a revolutionary and a utopian who regarded his invention as a way of improving the life of the working class. He once witnessed the drowning of a coral diver in the coastal village of Cadaqués and he thought his submarine would make coral diving a much safer endeavour. The Ictíneo II was equipped with arms to retrieve objects from the sea floor. According to other sources, Monturiol regarded the submarine as a tool for exploring the underworld of the deep sea and as a passenger transportation device.

When his search for independant funding proved unsuccessful, Monturiol attempted to sell his invention to the military. He mounted a cannon onto the Ictíneo II in a last effort to attract investment from Madrid, but the Spanish monarchy regarded the wooden fish with apprehension and was not prepared to invest any money into it. In other countries at the time, military factions saw little potential in submarines - their use went against their understood etiquette of war in those times.

Americans

Monturiol also tried to sell his invention to the American Navy after he read about the Civil War and their attempts to make submarines, but unfortunately for him, the war was over before a decision could be made. Ironically, only 30 years later, the Spanish fleet was annihilated by America in the dispute over Cuba, and with it Spain lost the final remnants of its 400 year old world empire. The Spanish vessels were infinitely inferior to their American enemy. Speculatively, an army of submarines may have been able to change the course of history.

Replica's

Replica's of both submarines are on display in Barcelona: the Ictíneo I in the garden of the Maritime Museum and the Ictíneo II in the harbour (both pictured above).

Info & pictures : 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

Edited by Shameez Joubert

Update :

A human powered submarine built in 2007. It reaches a speed of 15 km/h or 9mph.

Related stories :

Reinventing the wheel : the story of the motorised monowheel
Life without airplanes : from London to New York in 3 days and 12 hours
Mechanical calculators : computing without electricity
Satellite navigation in the 18th century : who needs GPS?

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New US Census Data: Same Reality

2008-08-28T16:19:30Z

Newly released data by the United States Census Bureau continues to show how much President George W. Bush has ravaged the American economic landscape.

Since 2000, median income has decreased 1 percent. That decline is magnified by the higher costs for energy, food and other items during that period; what families could buy for a dollar in 2000 now costs $1.25.

Freedom of Speech

2008-08-22T07:00:00Z

22 August 2008 (Freedom of Speech)

In the US, freedom of speech includes general advocacy of illegal actions, as well as publishing information that someone might use to do something illegal.

In accord with this principle, the gag order against the MIT students has been lifted.

The UK, however, unabashedly imprisons people for general opinions that might lead someone to commit a crime at an indefinite future time.

Iraq's Oil

2008-08-25T07:00:00Z

25 August 2008 (Iraq's Oil)

The Secret Deal For Iraq's Oil.

Forum: New paper organizer software - "Plans Unfolding"

2008-08-05T11:24:43Z

Hi All,

Some of you might be interested in free software I released ("Plans Unfolding") for creating convenient, pocket-sized paper organizers. Using LaTeX as a typesetting engine, a high quality PDF file is generated of 16 mini-pages, which is then printed on both sides of a sheet of letter paper and folded to create a small booklet that can fit in your pocket. The Windows interface directly supports several types of standard pages (List, Text, Calendars, Contacts, etc.) and maintains all user data between sessions. It also provides page types not seen in conventional organizers, such as a Vigenere Cipher page for on-the-go encrypted text and an Astronomy page with a calculated planisphere of current star/planet/moon locations along with other astronomical data. Beyond this, custom user-designed pages can be easily written in LaTeX script and shared in the Plans Unfolding forum and image galleries.

If you'd like more information, the Plans Unfolding home page is at http://www.plansunfolding.com/.

Ron

[Updated: Minor edits, inserted photograph -- DJ]

Great Chefs Prefer Tap Water

2008-08-28T10:34:37Z

Why do we have to keep proving over and over again that tap water is better than bottled? David Suzuki said that bottled water is toast but somehow everyone is not getting the message. This time seven very famous chefs and sommeliers from Michelin-starred restaurants in London did a blind tasting of ten different waters from various rivers across England. Since they are chefs, they have a very sophisticated palate. They used the lexicon of wine-tasting to describe the different waters as “complex,” “having a floral note,” having “good character” and being “honest and unpretentious. The water from the Severn Trent taps was “a moun...

Living Small, Cheap and Simple. Try A Dome House

2008-08-14T09:48:15Z

If I was a teenager that needed some space to myself, I would really like a Dome House out in the backyard. Or as a writer, this could be the solution to all my troubles: who doesn't need privacy! These prefab domes come from International Dome House Co. Ltd. and are approved by the Japanese Ministry of Land and Transport. The material is "expanded polystyrene", that is formaldehyde-free, with measures taken for excellent air circulation. The company also claims that the walls have high thermal insulating properties, meaning air-conditioning or heating could be reduced, and the polystyrene is "free fro...

Wretched Excess Dept: Lance Armstrong meets Celine Dion By The Pool

2008-08-18T12:38:18Z

There is no question that athletes have to keep hydrated and go through a lot of water. But Lance Armstrong breaks all the records again with his little pile in Austin, where he used 330,000 gallons of water for his acre of gardens and swimming pool, at a time when Texas is going through a dry spell. “We are definitely short on rain,” Lisa Rhodes, a spokeswoman for the water authority, said with a sigh to the New York Times. The charmingly named Daryl Slusher, assistant director of the City Water Authority, has ruled out a leak, and notes that Armstrong is contrite about it. Armstrong told the Austin American Statesman that he didn't know; “I’m a little shocke...

Kite Power on Ships Out Performs Sails Five Times Over

2008-08-18T13:26:17Z

Kite Power Beats Sails The idea of reinventing wind-power for ocean going transport is certainly a seductive one. But usually when TreeHugger reports on the idea of kite powered boats, whether it’s Kite For Sale’s yachts or SkySail’s cargo ships, we inevitably get comments from folks asking “what’s wrong with traditional sail boats?” Now the folks at SkySail have set out to answer this very question (of course they have a certain vested interes...

10 Steps Bill Clinton Believes the US Government Should Do for a Clean Energy Future

2008-08-19T22:41:22Z

photo by Theirry via flickr I find it more than slightly ironic that the National Clean Energy Summit is being held in Las Vegas, a city that on environmental grounds and water usage alone probably should not exist, but nonetheless it’s happening. Yesterday evening Bill Clinton opened the event will a speech which, among other things, outlined what he believes the US government should do to support renewable energy. At the Federal level these are his recommendations: And my comments, where warranted, in italics. ...

Kitchen in a Suitcase from Coleman

2008-08-20T14:17:14Z

Coleman stoves have been around forever; the green metal two-burners have been staples of car camping, if a little bit heavy for canoe trips or hiking. Now they have mashed it together with a storage section; when you unfold it you have room for plates, cutlery, condiments and spices and a cutting board. ...

Slow Design Meets Slow Food Nation

2008-08-20T15:00:14Z

Bread – Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects Slow Food Nation is a celebration of food in America, taking place in San Francisco over the Labor Day weekend. It is "the first-ever American collaborative gathering to unite the growing sustainable food movement and introduce thousands of people to food that is good, clean and fair." It is also an architectural event; two dozen San Francisco area architectural firms contributed services to work with the food curators and develop booths and displays. TreeHugger has talked about slow design before; here it is in slo-mo . Advisory Committee head Hans Baldauf s...

Bush Officials Launch Stealth Attack on U.S. Wildlife

2008-08-21T16:35:19Z

Photo credit: Getty Images Naughty, naughty: The Bush administration has launched what Salon calls a "stealth attack" on U.S. endangered species, couched among glory shots of Michael Phelps' Olympic-history-making victory, the runup to the presidential conventions and the hotly anticipated Obama vs. McCain showdown, and the whirl of last-minute summer vacays. "I have been working on the Endangered Species Act for 15 years and have never seen such a sneaky attack," John Kostyack, executive director of wildlife conservation and global warming at the National Wildlife Federation, tells the online rag. ...

John McCain's Bear Problem

2008-08-25T03:15:00Z

John McCain can't quite seem to make up his mind as to where he falls on the issue of conservation. On one hand, he proudly labels himself a disciple of Theodore Roosevelt's muscular approach to conservation, going so far as to proclaim on his campaign website that a "McCain White House will reflect the guiding principles of Theodore Roosevelt". On the other, he has amassed what can only be called an underwhelming (and dee...

What is the Carbon Footprint of the McCain Mansions?

2008-08-25T17:14:00Z

We have noted before that the rich are different from you and me- they emit a lot more carbon dioxide. Presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain is no exception; Joe Romm of Climate Progress ran the numbers on as many of McCain's homes he could find information on. He writes: "So what is the carbon footprint of McCain’s countless homes? Here is a rough estimate.According to press reports, just one of McCain’s homes, his $4.66 million condo in Phoenix, is about 7000 square feet, which is three times the size of the average American home built last year. His $850,000 Virginia condo is another 2,100 square feet. Given a total estimated ...