Personal Submarine for 845k

joeldg writes "CNN is carrying a story on the gemini three-person submersible. 'Forget the yacht, mansion and private jet. This is Gemini, the family submarine described by inventor Robert Leeds as the world's first underwater sports car.' However, the submarine only goes about five knots, so speed is not its primary focus. It can handle three people for three days at depths of up to 50 meters. Not quite a James Bond sub-car, but cool nonetheless. The official site has lots of pictures."

Comments

There's /. for ya

[Exiler]

Stupid, lazy editors.

"The official site had lots of pictures."

Re:beware the terrorists booohhooo!

[Anonymous Coward]

Instead of carrying two passengers you'll want to pack that sapce with explosives obviously.

Usefulness

[alpha713]

While I usually try and be positive in my replies, the only thing I can see about this toy for the rich, is that it is a waste of money. Besides the obvious risks in diving to deep and the like it serves no purpose save parting the rich and stupid from their not so hard earned money.

Okay enough negativity. Perhaps this is just the first step in really exploiting the bottom of the ocean to its full potential, since the earth's surface is 70% water (I think) steps that allow development under the water will eventually help to reduce the overcrowding.That unfortunately is a long way off but once the rich and famous have their toys its only a matter of time until the rest of us get a crack at them. A good example of this is when cars first came out. Now I can get one for AU$500 (although it might be a hunk of junk).

My point I guess is that even though I may see it as a waste of money now, hopefully in the future it will have real benefits.

Terrorism this, terrorism that...

[D. Book]

From the article:

"We did have interest from the Spanish police for underwater terrorism detection searching ships' hulls," said Leeds' colleague Frank Barker. He declined to give further details.

Why is it that every news story days has to mention a potential terrorist threat? How long is this going to go on? I'm sick to death of hearing about it. I don't remember seeing repeated references to industrial accidents in news stories two years after the Bhopal atrocity.

Does anyone know of a plugin for Mozilla that will let me filter out any paragraphs containing the "T-word"?

Re:Terrorism this, terrorism that...

[SurgeonGeneral]

I'm not sure if this is a troll or not, but I'll respond anyways with the text-book answer:

There is a very good reason news outlets (CNN in particular, which has US Intelligence ops working as "interns" with the newsmakers) focus on things like Terrorism and not the Bhopal disaster.

News agencies, in fact all corporate America, are interested in making money. This means supporting themselves and their affiliated companies (affiliated can mean anything, from a friend of the CEO, to the US Army in the case of CNN). The more there is a terrorist threat, the more you watch the news, the more watch the news, the more you support US government army initiatives, more products are bought by stockpilers, more weapons are bought from Boeing and Lockheed-Martin, etc. The news agencies have a very strong interest in keeping topics like Terrorism in the front of your mind. Especially when they are so closely allied with the U.S. Government as is the case with CNN, the provider of this story.

Now, in light of this, how interested do you think they are in keeping the Bhopal disaster in the front of you mind? Bhopal conjures images of corporate greed, government corruption, white collar crime, lack of respect for workers and the environment. It paints that stereotypical image of an all powerful faceless corporation stomping across the working world, leaving disaster in its wake. It doesnt encourage spending, it doesnt encourage fear, it doesnt even encourage watching more news because its downright depressing. While we NEED to remember Bhopal and the atrocities that these multinationals commit, you are confusing human NEEDS with what the CEOs of corporate america WANT. Dont think that CNN is doing any kind of a public service. They have priorities and agendas just like all the rest of us.

Horseless Carraiges are for the rich

[GeorgeTheNorge]

The car was a plaything for the rich to start with. They were custom made, by hand, and practically came with a driver.

For that matter, the cost of a cross USA trip on a stagecoach in the 1800's would have been equivalent to $4000 in today's money.

This is how these things always start. The difference is that nobody lives under water today, so it is not just a matter of creating a vehicle, you have to give people a reason to go there.