Class A Shines in the 2013 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race

Congratulations to all the racers in this year’s Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race.  In last year’s race,  Woodwind, Heron and Prom Queen, the top three Class A schooners (from 40′ to less than 50′) all beat the elapsed and corrected time of the … Continue reading

City of Adelaide – a Ship Renamed, a Duke Showered in Champagne, & Funding Approved

The composite clipper ship, City of Adelaide, which had been renamed HMS Carrick, was officially renamed the City of Adelaide once at a ceremony on the River Thames at Greenwich near London.  Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was accidentally … Continue reading

Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race 2013

The Parade of Sail in the 2013 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race starts in a few minutes from Canton, MD in Baltimore harbor.  The race begins tomorrow at 1330 just south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis and ends 127 nautical miles … Continue reading

JEROS, Terminator Robots Shred Jellyfish Hordes with Rotating Blades of Death

This sounds like the title of a made-for-TV movie from the SyFy channel.  JEROS, Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm, are jellyfish-shredding semi-autonomous robots designed by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to round up jellyfish in nets and shred thousands … Continue reading

Pedaling on the Water – BayCycle, Shuttle-Bike, Akwakat, Hobie Mirage and More

Recently, a young designer, Judah Schiller, generated considerable attention by riding his bike first across San Francisco Bay and then across the Hudson River in New York City.  He didn’t sink during either trip because his bike was clamped to … Continue reading

A Tale of Two Pirate Roberts – Bartholomew Roberts of 1722 & Ross Ulbricht, the Dread Pirate Roberts of 2013

This is the tale of two very different men, from different places and different times. The first was a Welshman named John Roberts, though he took the name Bartholomew when he began his wildly successful but extremely short career as … Continue reading

US Navy Bribery Scandal Probe Expanding – Navy Captain, NCIS Agent & Contractor Charged, Second Captain Relieved of Command

Last month, the former captain of the destroyer USS Mustin, a Navy special agent and a Singapore-based defense contractor were charged in an alleged bribery scheme to swap classified ship information for luxury travel and prostitutes. Cmdr. Michael Vannak Khem … Continue reading

Jellyfish Invasion Shuts Down Swedish Reactor – A Sign of the Jellyfish Apocalypse?

Over the weekend, a huge swarm of moon jellyfish shut down the 1,400 megawatt Unit 3 reactor at the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant on Sweden’s Baltic Sea coast.  The jellyfish clogged the cooling water intakes, located roughly 60′ feet below the … Continue reading

Historic Clipper City of Adelaide’s Voyage Home in Limbo? Will New Government Write the Check?

The clipper ship City of Adelaide is supposed to be transported by heavy-lift ship back to Australia in the near future. Scottish taxpayers have already chipped in $1.2 million.  The City of Adelaide Trust, however, has been unable to book … Continue reading

Guess Who Arrived in Pittsburgh Yesterday Afternoon?

Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s inflatable sculpture, “Spreading Joy Around the World,” universally known simply as “Rubber Duck” has arrived in Pittsburgh after spending the spring and summer on Hong Kong.  Pittsburgh will be the 14th city on the Rubber Duck’s … Continue reading