Uncle Bex kindly shares her scuba diving magazine with me, and lately I've been reading several of them. Below are some interesting tidbits I've gathered.
I found one interesting article on the history of scuba diving innovations. Here were a couple of note:
- Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan invented the modern demand regulator in 1942 in France during WW II. This was not the first regulator as one was invented as far back as the 1860's, but this is the invention that most modern regulators are based on and the one that was more robust and allowed expansion of the sport. In the U.S., it was called the "Aqua Lung".
- Cressi produced the first diving mask in 1952 with a dedicated nose pocket, making it possible for divers to equalize.
- Scubapro introduced the Stabilization Jacket in 1971, which is now standard equipment for all divers known as a BCD (Buoyancy Control Device).
- The first electronic dive computer was introduced in 1983 by Orca Industries.
Here's the Wikipedia
link to scuba diving, which has all kinds of interesting information.
Scuba diving involves breathing compressed air and taking the air in tanks with you when you go underwater. Another interesting but different sport is
Freediving where you only go down into the water with the air you can store in your lungs. This results in a much shorter dive but not necessarily any shallower dive than if you went scuba diving. At least for professional free divers. And of course this sport is much more ancient than scuba diving with compressed air.
OceanOne robot from Stanford University has built an underwater robot that includes haptic feedback. Check out the video link - it's pretty cool.
Also of note is the U.S. Navy's invention of the
Divers Augmented Vision Display (DAVD). Right now virtual reality and augmented reality are all the rage, and this is the scuba diving version of it.
Last but not least, check out this link for a
list of the best islands to live on. The ad I saw in the magazine said, "Quit your job. Move to an island. Be happy." OK then. Just keep a watch on the hurricanes and typhoons.
On a totally unrelated note,
this video clip from a movie always cracks me up and is related to the title of this post.
