“Supercavitating” boat ready for deployment.
Built by Juliet marine, the “Ghost” creates a layer of bubbles around itself to reduce friction against the water and allow for very high speeds at lower fuel costs. Its speed allows it to outrun torpedoes, and the shape allows it to remain unnoticed by radar.
The main compartment of the Ghost vessel, which houses the cockpit and controls, sits above the water in between two torpedo-shaped pontoons or “foils,” which are submerged and create all the buoyancy and propulsion for the craft. The angle of the struts that connect the foils to the command module is adjustable—so the craft can ride high in choppy seas and at high speeds (so waves don’t hit the middle part), and low in calm water and at lower speeds.
Propellers at the front of each foil generate both the forward thrust and the thin layer of bubbles which allow for the supercavitation - effectively the boat is flying through the air which it creates in the water. Specially designed “air trap fins” keep the bubbles in contact with the hull. While much secrecy surrounds the project, it has a rumoured speed of over 100mph.
The company is in talks with governments from the US, Israel, and the UAE, where it sees the boats could have a critical advantage small boats there which often take over larger ships through “swarm attacks”. The technology could also dramatically reduce costs for cargo shipping.
(Source: xconomy.com, via 8bitfuture)
Video: Google Glass demonstrated at Google I/O.
This weeks Google I/O event in San Francisco has seen more information revealed about Google Glass, in the form of an extreme skydiving/BMX biking/abseiling demonstration all played out via video link from the glasses.
Google have also made pre-orders available, but only to developers attending the conference, and they can only be shipped to addresses in the US due to regulatory requirements. The Explorer Edition for developers costs $1,500 and will be shipped out early next year. No further information on a public release date has been set.
(Source: youtube.com, via 8bitfuture)
(Source: marvelized, via thegoodfilms)
(Source: paulsnewman, via thegoodfilms)
I think the real scandal here is Neil Tyson’s polo shirt.
(Source: throughascientificlens)
Individualism and individuality have to be separated. Individualism can take a turn where it’s a kind of egoistic, selfish thing: Me, me, me, me, and what I want and what I care, what I think and what I like. Oh sure, we need to have the liberty to express all that, but a real individual is a different thing. And to be truly one’s self is to be truly in contact with this great self within, this divinity within. And the paradox of true individuality is that the more you are in touch with what all human beings have in common under God, the more you are uniquely what you, yourself, are. And that’s why I say we need to bring back the obligations that go along with the rights in order to understand the depths of what the human rights really mean.
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—Jacob Needleman, from the On Being show “The Inward Word of Democracy” (via beingblog)
