MetaFilter posts tagged with sea

You've got serious thrill issues, dude.

arcticseal — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:59:02 -0800

For those that think they chose the wrong subject of the new Finding Nemo movie, there's always the true star of the show: Crush the turtle. Sea turtles sometimes get overlooked compared to the flashier and splashier oceanic inhabitants, however they are seriously cool and groovy creatures. They also travel huge distances during their migrations; researchers tracked an adult female more than 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometers) using satellite telemetry. Unfortunately, most species of sea turtle are endangered, but there are a few bright spots. They're also very relaxing to watch.

Join the merchant navy and transport people for a living

Talkie Toaster — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:44:25 -0800

A ro-ro ferry briefly "docks" at the island of Kimolos. Video. Everyone, and everything gets soaked.

Ronan the sea lion gits down to Boogie Wonderland

nickyskye — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:21:51 -0800

Ronan keeping the beat | Sea Lion is First Non-Human Mammal to Keep a Beat | Study done at the Pinniped Cognition & Sensory Systems Laboratory.

sea & sky

kliuless — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:11:11 -0800

seaQuest: what if we could learn to live on/underneath the oceans (or in orbit)? [prev iou sly(er)] also btw... -Why Utopia? -Envisioning Real Utopias -Utopianism, Conservatism, Ideal Theory: Who is Trying to Get Where, From Here?

A brief history of saturation diving

jason's_planet — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 13:54:08 -0800

Today it is an economic and even geopolitical necessity for oil companies, in order to maintain pipelines and offshore rigs, to send divers routinely to depths of a thousand feet, and keep them at that level of compression for as long as a month at a time. The divers who do this work are almost entirely male, and tend to be between the ages of twenty-five and forty. Were they any younger, they would not have enough experience or seniority to perform such demanding tasks. Any older, and their bodies could not be trusted to withstand the trauma. The term for these extended-length descents is “saturation diving,” which refers to the fact that the diver’s tissues have absorbed the maximum amount of inert gas possible.

Artistic SeaSnails build other shells into their shells SL

maiamaia — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 08:52:51 -0800

Artistic SeaSnails build other shells into their shells SL

Ancient Fears: The Return of the Flood Saga

the mad poster! — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:40:03 -0800

"The word reclaim came up more than once to describe the rising tide. It is a revealing word, more narrative than simply descriptive: it hints at some larger backstory, some plot twist in a longer saga about our claims and the water’s counterclaims to the earth.… This story was already ancient when it was adapted for the biblical text—which is to say, it records a very old fear. Like all old fears, it has the uncanny feel of a vivid memory. It may be a memory of an actual flood in an actual Sumerian city, Shurrupal, ca 2800 B.C.E. In fact, it may be even older than that."

oh my gosh the end of this video :3

boo_radley — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 19:59:09 -0800

Nellie the Sea Otter stacks cups at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

First there was Flash Friday, and now . . .

resurrexit — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:19:49 -0800

Maritime Monday. (No NSFW images in this link, but some weeks there will be a random picture or two of a topless mer-person or sailor.)

Sea. No Evil.

jhandey — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:57:43 -0800

"If your science gives you a result you don't like, pass a law saying the result is illegal. Problem solved." On June 12, 2012, the North Carolina Senate approved HB 819 by a 34-11 vote, requiring North Carolina's Coastal Resources Commission to base predictions of future sea level rise along the state's coast on a steady, linear rate of increase - thereby prohibiting state agencies from using projections of accelerated sea-level rise due to global warming in drafting coastal development rules. This follows Texas' deletion of references to climate change and sea level rise in a 2011 report on Galveston Bay and pressure in the Virginia General Assembly to replace references to sea level rise with "recurrent flooding" in a recently-commissioned study. The North Carolina Coastal Federation has responded with a contest to identify other problems the state faces that the Senate might outlaw next.

The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World

Blasdelb — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:13:03 -0800

Spanning one-ninth of the earth's circumference across three continents, the Roman Empire ruled a quarter of humanity through complex networks of political power, military domination and economic exchange. These extensive connections were sustained by premodern transportation and communication technologies that relied on energy generated by human and animal bodies, winds, and currents. Conventional maps that represent this world as it appears from space signally fail to capture the severe environmental constraints that governed the flows of people, goods and information. Cost, rather than distance, is the principal determinant of connectivity. For the first time, ORBIS allows us to express Roman communication costs in terms of both time and expense. By simulating movement along the principal routes of the Roman road network, the main navigable rivers, and hundreds of sea routes in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and coastal Atlantic, this interactive model reconstructs the duration and financial cost of travel in antiquity.

Another Night to Remember

Avenger50 — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:06:13 -0800

"I never believed this could still happen in 2012." The sinking of the Costa Concordia. In slides.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

zarq — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:40:32 -0800

In 1984, The Voyage of the Mimi set sail on PBS, exploring the ocean off the coast of Massachusetts to study humpback whales. The educational series was made up of thirteen episodes intended to teach middle schoolers about science and math. The first fifteen minutes of each episode were a fictional adventure starring a young Ben Affleck. The second 15 minutes were an "expedition documentary" that would explore the scientific concepts behind the show's plot points. A sequel with the same format, The Second Voyage of the Mimi aired in 1988, and featured the crew of the Mimi exploring Mayan ruins in Mexico. The links above are to the playlists for both shows. 13 episodes for the first. 12 for the second. Individual episode links: The Voyage of the Mimi 1. All Aboard / Planet Ocean 2. Setting Sail / Whale Watch 3. On the Shoals / Mapping the Blue Part 4. Counting Whales / Whale Bones 5. Going Fishing / Scraping the Bottom 6. Home Movies / Songs in the Sea 7. Fastening On / Hands Full of Words 8. Tracking the Whale / World's Worst Weather 9. Shipwrecked / Goose Bumps 10. Making Dew / Water, Water, Everywhere 11. The Feast / A New Alchemy 12. Rolling Home / Boat Shop 13. Separate Ways / A Sailor and a Scientist The Second Voyage of the Mimi 1. A Charter To the Past / If I Can Do This! 2. A Tomb In the Jungle / Sweating It Out... 3. A Light In the Dark / As the Earth Turns... 4. The Underworld / The Incredible Shrinking Head! 5. A Stone Puzzle / Feeling The Pressure 6. Cracking the Code / Written in Stone 7. The Quest Begins / The Ancient Farm 8. A Road To Danger / Venom: A Scorpion Tale 9. A Friendly Village / Curandera 10. Discoveries / Up a Tree 11. Found and Lost / In the Canopy 12. The Fate of a King / One Stone at a Time Wikipedia on The Voyage of the Mimi / The Second Voyage of the Mimi. Here are summaries of each episode. Oceanographer Kim Kasten discusses her time on the show, and asks: Was "Voyage of the Mimi" effective? Apparently, it's still being used as a foundation for curriculum in at least one school. Here's a quote from Affleck on the show. The final documentary of the first season mentions that the ship used in both seasons really was called the Mimi. Wikipedia has its history. Last year, boston.com covered the sad, Last Voyage of the Mimi, in East Boston.

Biggest fish story of the year

sammyo — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:57:46 -0800

The tuna-fisher Trevignon responded to a call for help from the Costa Allegra... if the crew of the Trevignon are like many other sailors I know, I bet they're swilling champagne and living the high life in Mahé. But the story may be a bit more controversial.

Not quite 20,000 leagues under the sea. Our apologies.

maudlin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:35:04 -0800

The BBC has produced a fabulous infographic showing the ocean zones: Sunlight, Twilight, Midnight, Lower Midnight, and The Trenches. The page also includes videos showing: what happens to material at 100, 1000, and 10,000 meters down; the animals living in the Abyssal Plains (described in a lovely Scottish accent); and the story of Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh going down to the Mariana Trench in 1960. No one has been back there since, but director James Cameron and Richard Branson are among the contenders who are going to make a go of it. (Rumour has it that Cameron intends to be the sole person in the sub, while Branson is just financing a team.) Meanwhile, the Doer team (backed by Eric Schmidt of Google), says it's all about the science and not just being first in this century's race. And there's even a yellow submarine for the rest of us, if by "rest of us" one means "has $250,000 to spare for a single trip". Don't forget to click the links at the top of the infographic page to see everything.

Whales for Sale II

Funmonkey1 — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:37:05 -0800

A whale of a tale. On Sunday, a jet-ski activist of Paul Watson's Sea Shepard gang (Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson Documentary) was water-cannoned into the Antartic by a Japanese scouter boat during filming of Whale Wars. The ICR presents a different side to Paul Watson as evidenced by their regular press releases. Greenpeace believes Paul Watson is an extremist.

"You hold your breath, it's absolutely perfect."

zarq — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:05:50 -0800

Like a "modern-day pirate," 75-year-old Ray Ives has been diving for sunken treasure for decades. Wearing an ancient, bronze-helmeted diving suit, he searches the ocean floor and keeps a huge collection of marine salvage (including antique cannon balls, 'bottles, bells, swords, portholes and diving gear') in a shipping container "museum" at a British marina.

Ray: A Life Underwater: Vimeo / YouTube. (A short film documentary.) This short film documentary was produced / directed by Amanda Bluglass. Interview with her in the Atlantic: Diving for Gold and Mermaids Stills from the documentary from Directory of Photography Danny Lee Cooke.

Sea Eagle Cam.

Ahab — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 05:18:27 -0800

Chat Room Rules : 1. Be respectful, polite, and focused on eagles. Despite the collapse of the nesting tree earlier in the year this remarkable couple have built a new nest in double-quick time and recently laid two eggs. Through EagleCAM, you have a unique and amazing opportunity to follow their progress as we count down to the hatching of the first egg [S1] on or around the 14th of August [and the second, S2, the next day]. The (wild, resident) White-Bellied Sea Eagles at Birds Australia's Sydney Olympic Park Discovery Centre have hatched two chicks. The live feed under the "EagleCAM" link will be black and white IR night vision for a few hours yet, but the brooding parent can be surprisingly active at night. Viewers are requested to email Birds Australia if they see any shift changes or feeding during the night (email address is down the page under the live video). Video of last years chicks being fed by both parents at three days old. More photos, questions and discussion at EagleCAM's facebook page (no login required). Eagle cams previously.

Saving a Humpback Whale

homunculus — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:01:07 -0800

Saving Valentina. A group of five friends out boating on the Sea of Cortez discovered a young humpback whale entangled in fishing net and possibly near death. After about an hour of hard work they were able to free the whale, who proceeded to put on an amazing show for her rescuers. [Via]

Video of how ships are launched into the ocean

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:11:46 -0800

Hell yeah, let's launch some ships. SLYT.

Cage goes in the water, you go in the water. Shark's in the water. Our shark.

Artw — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:17:25 -0800

"The shark not working was a godsend. It made me become more like Alfred Hitchcock than like Ray Harryhausen" - Steven Spielberg relives the filming of Jaws.

Of spies, special forces and drone strikes

kliuless — Sat, 21 May 2011 13:23:12 -0800

Warfare: An advancing front - "The US is engaged in increasingly sophisticated warfare, fusing intelligence services and military specialists" BONUS China: Police state - "China's security machine causes concern"

Many inside and outside the country believe the Communist party has reverted to a more authoritarian stance following a long period of relative tolerance. This change, they believe, is reflected in, and exacerbated by, the growing power of the security apparatus... In recent years the amount spent on internal security – police, courts, paramilitary forces, riot squads, secret agents, informants, surveillance, internet censorship and the like – has soared. At about Rmb624.4bn for 2011, it now exceeds the country's publicly stated military budget... One of the most obvious manifestations is the proliferation of surveillance cameras. Last month, the western municipality of Chongqing announced plans to expand its network from 310,000 to 510,000 by next year... Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, where almost 200 people died in the July 2009 riots, finished the installation of 40,000 cameras last year. The southern city of Guangzhou, one of the main export manufacturing hubs, boasts 270,000. The expansion of the bloated security apparatus extends to less palpable efforts, including the recruitment of huge numbers of informants to the state payroll... Leaked internal security documents reveal that the ruling Communist party believes that for a police state to work properly, it takes more than the police. "[We have] put the masses in their rightful role as the most important, the most direct and the most pure source of intelligence information," wrote Yang Guangwei, political commissar of the Domestic Security Department in Shaoxing, eastern China... Liu Xingchen, police chief of Kailu county in Inner Mongolia, said more than 12,000 of his county's 400,000 residents were on his payroll.

The Arctic Sea—a New Wild West? - "Global warming is set to bring the Arctic into play as a key strategic region for the US, China and Russia. Can a stable set of rules be crafted?"

Worse things happen at sea

joannemullen — Tue, 10 May 2011 03:39:22 -0800

Here Be Monsters. "Three friends, on a drunken dare, set out in a dinghy for a nearby island. But when the gas ran out and they drifted into barren waters, their biggest threat wasn't the water or the ocean—it was each other." If you want to survive at sea, the epic small boat journeys of Captain Bligh and Ernest Shackleton and the incredible fortitude of Poon Lim and Richard Van Pham remain inspirations. For those cast out onto the waves with little hope or preparation, there may not be a drop to drink but at least the "custom of the sea" offered hope for the menu.

Loaded

reenum — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:07:41 -0800

Law enforcement authorities are in awe of the new wave of narco "supersubs" that are being found in the jungles of Colombia. Previous discussions on the Blue.

Captain Planet would be proud.

Lovecraft In Brooklyn — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:55:34 -0800

Japan has suspended its whale hunt after pressure from world governments and harassment by eco-vigilante group Sea Shepherd. Previously.