Here’s a cool story cool story about how researchers are learning more about ocean currents by tracking where the toy ducks wash to shore. Keep your eyes peeled for those ducks – they’re probably worth something.
Archive for the 'Science & Technology' Category
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Some clever engineers have figured out how to use standing waves to form all letters of the Roman alphabet and even some kanji characters. What will they think of next?
Check it out: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=695
The Germans have developed a way for wave-deprived people to experience the feeling of riding a wave. City Wave, as they’re calling it, is basically a fake standing wave formed by fashioning a large wave-shaped conveyor belt out of a special non-sticky material that people can ride with special boards. It doesn’t require a drop of water and can be moved and setup anywhere. 
We’re seeing more and more ways for people to experience the sensation of riding a surfboard without having to get their feet wet in the ocean. I think it’s great that inventive people, who are passionate about surfing, are developing ways to make surfing more accessible to the masses. Hopefully, the more people learn about surfing (when they’re on land), the more they’ll feel drawn to the ocean. That’s not to say I wish the line-ups were a little more crowded. I do wish people had more respect for the ocean, though, and surfing in the ocean has a tendency to earn people’s respect for the ocean.
When people start showing more respect to the ocean, hopefully they’ll think more about taking better care of it. If that comes at the cost of having to ride a wave with 200 other yahoos, then so be it. I’ll just go and find myself a City Wave that I can ride all by myself.
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but according to the New Economics Foundation, a self-proclaimed "think and do tank", if you live in the U.S., then you’re one of the most unhappy people on the planet. Grab a tissue and choke back your tears for a minute while I explain.
The NEF recently published a report called the Happy Planet Index (HPI), The HPI attempts to gage the overall happiness of a country by comparing the average life expectancy of its people to the country’s environmental impact on the planet, so countries where people consume very little and live long lives have a higher HPI than countries where people live as long, but consume more. The HPI rankings have Vanuatu (HPI=68.2) as the happiest country on Earth with Colombia coming in second. The U.S. (HPI=28.8) is pretty far down the list, well below most of the countries in Central America, the Middle East and Africa, which are often thought to be the third world. You gotta love it when economists set out to model something like happiness.
It’s worth mentioning the fact that scientists have actually found that animals tend to live longer the less they eat, so the HPI makes a lot of sense. Thus far I haven’t found any mention of this scientific research in the NEF’s report.
The HPI is clearly subjective and doesn’t account for things like oppressive political regimes, war, lack of surfable waves, or anything else that might make people unhappy. So far it has received a lot of constructive criticism from the media. Despite it’s numerous flaws the HPI is an interesting idea to consider and should serve as a solid foundation for further research on the topic. I doubt people will read the HPI rankings and move to Pakistan, but hopefully it puts a bug in people’s ears and makes them think about how much their own sense of happiness depends on their daily level of consumption.
Now, wipe those snot bubbles from your nose and pack your bags because we’ve got a little research project of our own. Someone’s gotta check out the waves in all those happy countries, so we can bring the HPI down to earth.
Anyone who’s seen or read The Perfect Storm has heard of rogue waves, aka "freak waves", giant waves that form and break far out at sea. These freakishly large waves can obliterate small ships and do serious damage, even sink, large ocean going vessels like oil tankers. Until recently scientists understood little about what causes rogue waves to form, but thanks to a group of European researchers that is no longer the case.
Several European research institutions have partnered on a project called MaxWave, which has made substantial progress in understanding rogue waves. They’ve actually been able to identify, measure, and track rogue waves with buoys, lasers and radar satellites. They’ve determined that rogue waves form more frequently when strong winds blow against strong ocean currents and when different swells traveling in the same direction merge. Makes sense. 
They say that at any point in time there are probably ten giant waves roaming the open ocean. Now that we have the ability to identify conditions that are ideal for the formation of giant waves, as well as the ability to identify and track the waves with satellite radar, one has to wonder when some crazy surfer is going to try and ride one of those suckers.
Check out The New York Times‘ recent article on the topic. It’s got some cool pics & diagrams.
Thanks go to our Junior Brogue Wave Analyst, Stephen, for digging up this story for us. Keep up the good work, bro.
I love it when a plan comes together. Teeka Tan Products, a company that produces sun care products, and SharkDefense, a R&D company that focuses on chemical shark repellent technologies, are teaming up to produce a single lotion that not only protects humans against the sun’s harmful rays, but from sharks, too. Teeka also offers a lotion that they claim inhibits jellyfish stings.
It’s good to know someone’s working on capitalizing on people’s anxiety and at the same time actually trying to mitigate some of the risks that come along with playing in the ocean.
It’ll be interesting to see how well this stuff works…
Anyone who appreciates surfing waves and the internet ought to be a fan of Wikiriders, a European site that combines wiki technology and google maps to create a collaborative, interactive map of surfing information. Similar to Wannasurf, anyone can post a surf spot, surf shop, shaper, etc to the Wikiriders map, which is then edited by a group of moderators that Wikiriders designates. And they say
" We will make sure to have no secret spot revealed."
Huh?
A sandwich with nothing tasty between the bread is not a tasty sandwich. It will be interesting to see how tasty of a wave map Wikiriders can make.
Still, throw ‘em a shaka for bringing the bread.
Surfing is a lot of fun. Catching a wave can put a smile on the face of even the grouchiest of sourpusses. Nine times out of ten, the stoke is what attracts people to surfing. All it takes is one little stoke to convert a regular person into a surfer. That, coupled with the fact that surfing looks really cool, is probably why the number of surfers has increased, and continues to increase, over time.
Let’s face it, the world certainly isn’t getting any bigger these days. On the contrary, globalization kind of makes it seem like the world is getting smaller. It stands to reason that with an increasing population of surfers and a shrinking world, we can expect the waves on this planet to get pretty crowded. And when the waves at home get crowded, surfers will have to start exploring places that are a little more out-of-the-way.
No need to panic because we’ve got the right people on the case. Astronomers believe they’ll soon be able to view images of oceans on planets in other solar systems. Having a wavecam this powerful will definitely be nice because you’ll want to know if there’s actually an ocean on a planet when you’re deciding whether or not to travel there in search of waves. Gotta know before you go, … right?
I know, an intergalactic surfing safari sounds pretty far out, but it might actually be possible several hundred years from now. And when it’s time to paddle out, try not to upset the locals.
Most surfers typically support green initiatives that promote environmental sustainability, but evidently not when it comes at the cost of smaller waves. Surfers in the south of England (Cornwall) are fighting the construction of a wave energy farm on the grounds that it will reduce the power of the waves by more than 10% along a 20 mile stretch of beach.
Who would’ve ever thought that surfers would be battling environmentalists for waves? I wonder if the environmentalists are telling the surfers not to worry because the waves will be getting bigger as a result of the increase in violent weather that global warming is allegedly causing.
If the wave energy farm gets built and it puts a significant dent in the surf, then there’ll probably be a good opportunity for companies that know how to make waves. Imagine if the energy generated by the wave energy farm were actually used to make waves in a wave pool. That’d be too much.
Honestly, this is a precarious situation for the global surfing community. It’s a textbook case of NIMBY and it’ll be interesting to see the final outcome.
Here’s a link to the article http://www.globalsurfnews.com/news.asp?Id_news=22550
UPDATE: Not all surfers are protesting the WaveHub project. A group called Surfers Against Sewage would rather the waves be a little bit smaller if it means the water will be cleaner.
lalatimes.com has a funny article about a fictional company, BuyAWave.com, that tracks ocean
waves and sells them online. Fortunately, the idea is a little far-fetched, but not so much that we won’t ever have to worry about some miserable bastards actually trying it, if they figure out how to track ocean waves in greater detail. Should the technology ever fall into the wrong hands, don’t say we never warned you.
It’s kinda funny because this guy in Long Island, NY and a few of his readers actually think the article is legit. I’m pretty sure none of them surfs waves, so they get a pass on being down with the idea of buying/selling waves – they being from New York and all. But I’ll bet they do surf the internet, so this should serve as a good reminder to all of us of a very important rule of any kind of surfing:
SAFETY COMES FIRST.
Not everything you read on the internet is true, so you’ve gotta look out for yourself. It’s a jungle out there.