2010/05/04

It turns out that the legendary inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla (1856 to 1943) predicted mobile phones in 1909. In an interview with the New York Times (pictured below), published in Popular Mechanics, Tesla states that "It will soon be possible, for instance, for a business man in New York to dictate instructions and have them appear in type in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call from his desk and talk with any telephone subscriber in the world. It will only be necessary to carry an inexpensive instrument no bigger than a watch, which will enable its bearer to hear anywhere on sea or land for distances of thousands of miles." Read the full Popular Mechanics article from 1909 below....

2010/09/09

Strong currents, extreme depths, and the distance from land and medical facilities have always made diving the Andrea Doria a hazardous endeavor. It is even more so today. The Doria is not the dive that it used to be. The hull is collapsing badly, and the top of the wreck is now below 190 ft. Many of the places that divers used to visit have deteriorated beyond recognition. Gimbel's hole, once the famous entry to the inside of the wreck, is now no more than a closed-off depression. Every year, as the hull sinks further into itself, the dive becomes deeper, more dangerous, and more pointless. Once the "Mount Everest of Shipwreck Diving", the heyday of the Andrea Doria is over. I have never been there, and have no desire to go, but I know a lot of people who have, including some of the most experienced....

2010/09/09

SMS Emden was a light cruiser of the Imperial German Navy in World War I. The Emden raided Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean early in the war, sinking or capturing thirty Allied merchant vessels and warships before being run aground by her captain to prevent her from sinking, after engaging more powerful HMAS Sydney at the Battle of Cocos....

2010/09/09

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