Collaborate Disseminate
By now, many of you have seen the video of [Rick Cavallaro]’s Blackbird, the controversial wind-powered land vehicle that can outrun the wind. The video has led to a high-profile …read more Continue reading $10 000 Physics Wager Settles The Debate On Sailing Downwind Faster Than The Wind
the truck transmission whined in protest, the computer gave up. then, bailing away soft flowing sand from our door sills, shovel burning my hands even under a cool moonless starry night… something was truly exhilarating about digging out. this machine … Continue reading Bailing Sand
If you search the outer reaches of the internet you will find all sorts of web sites and videos purporting to answer to free energy in the form of perpetual …read more Continue reading Sailing Faster Than The Wind Itself
Though some folks chase storms for the thrill, and others out of curiosity, there are also those who pursue severe weather events for scientific purposes. And it’s the lattermost pursuit that will see a small fleet of unmanned surface vehicles delibera… Continue reading Saildrone goes chasing hurricanes in the Caribbean
All the fresh reports of a ship blocking the Suez Canal seem to underplay the most important point. This ship built in 2018 was in a similar accident in 2019: …the cargo ship ran into a small ferry moored on the Elbe river in the German port city of Ha… Continue reading Ship Blocking Suez Canal Had History of Losing Control
I think the phrase that stands out for me most in this US Navy press report is “stateless”. The guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) seized illicit shipments of weapons and weapons components from two stateless dhows during a mari… Continue reading “Stateless Dhows” Smuggling Weapons Caught Near Somalia by US Navy
If you want to talk about disinformation in America, “Jaws” is one of the best examples of how a simple story based on a false fear can do exceptional long lasting harm. It is very difficult to get sharks back to what they are, correctly seen as loving… Continue reading The Movie “Jaws” Foreshadowed America’s Disinformation Crisis
While the impressively huge Aircraft Carrier was a decisive platform in past wars, I can’t help but think about it in terms of a commoditization line over history. This is the path from 1960s drone war being conducted on a mainframe in a few high-secur… Continue reading The Future-Future of Aircraft Carriers
San Francisco-based aquatic drone-maker Saildrone has returned with a bigger and better version of its unmanned vehicle designed to explore the seas. The newly introduced 72-ft (22-m) Saildrone Surveyor is equipped with the hardware needed to map the s… Continue reading 72-ft autonomous Saildrone sets out on seafloor-mapping mission
A site called Coastal Review has a fascinating take on the events that led to Blackbeard’s untimely violent death. Blackbeard did not prey on a single ship in the waters off the Outer Banks during his surprisingly brief 23-month career as a pirate. And… Continue reading Who Was The Pirate? Curious Case of Blackbeard’s Murder