Gizmodo Australia » submarine

Submarine Home Theatre May Require Captain Nemo’s Underpants

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

What would you do if you had $US100,000 to spend on anything you wanted? Make a home theatre room that looks like a rotten Nautilus, complete with working periscope, plutonium torpedoes that glow in the dark and sound effects?

I mean, what else, right? RIGHT? Wayne Eyre—the owner—and special effects artist Dean Johnstone—the designer—thought exactly the same. In the immortal words of Gob Bluth: Magic! [Stuff]

Does The S In IPhone 3GS Stand For Submarine?

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Sure, this video must be fake, but the sound is so clear I find hard to believe that it is inside a case. Then again, I find even harder to believe that any iPhone can survive this.

There’s only one way to know the truth: Get your iPhone 3GS to the pool today, submerge for a few seconds, and tell us. Come on. You know you want to do it. Send me your test video to jesus@gizmodo.com.

Homemade Cocaine-Smuggling Sub: Party Time on Das Boot

Sean Fallon — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 01:00:24 +0000

When it comes to the millions of dollars involved in smuggling drugs, even coked out dealers can tackle a big, complicated project. Recently, Colombian marines seized a homemade fiberglass submarine big enough to hold 4 crew members and 12 metric tons of cocaine —making it one of the largest such crafts found. Since the sub never saw action on the Pacific, there is no telling whether or not it would have actually worked. Still, if you had to die a slow death at the bottom of the sea, this would be the vessel to do it in. [Reuters]

Zombie U-Boat 33 Still Trying to Sink Ships in English Channel

Addy Dugdale — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:30:08 +0000

A German submarine from World War I is threatening to surface again after it sank 89 years ago. Unterseeboot 33 is lying in shallow waters directly below the world’s busiest shipping lane, and it is feared that, unless a salvage operation is launched, passing tankers, cargo and passenger ships could have an unwelcome run-in with the ghostly sub.The U-Boat is lying in just 77 feet of water on the Varne sandbank, just eight miles from Dover. After hitting a mine on April 11, 1918, she sank with all 28 crew on board. And this is the crux of the problem: U-33 has been designated a war grave, which makes it impossible to just blow the problem out of the water.

The possibility of placing a buoy above the wreck was also mooted, but it was thought to be as useful as “putting a speed hump in the fast lane of a motorway,” (the UK equivalent to a freeway, where cars travel upwards of 50 mph) as the Varne Bank area is so congested with shipping.

The current plan is to move the sub gently to deeper waters. A vessel has temporarily been stationed above the U-Boat by Trinity House, the body in charge of British shipping lanes and lighthouses, and divers sent down to recce the wreck. The move is expected to take place in the next few weeks. [Daily Mail]

Home-Made Mini-Sub Dives to 328 Feet

Seamus Byrne — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:17:52 +0000

2Dive is a mini-sub that Very Clever Personâ„¢ Michael Henrik Schmelter knocked up in his spare time. The vessel can dive to a depth of 100 metres (328 feet) and you can see him taking it out in the bay of Kiel, Northern Germany, in the gallery after the jump.
[Spiegel via Spluch]

Fiberglass Ghetto Sub Intercepted in Brooklyn Harbor Missing Pastrami, Cheddar, Pickles

Seamus Byrne — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 10:07:04 +0000

The guy on top of that egg is artist Duke Riley. And the egg is in fact a Revolutionary War-era submarine replica made mostly of plywood, fiberglass and lead. And the police is pissed off because they thought he was a terrorist trying to sink the Queen Mary II at Pier 41 in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Maybe with a chisel. Or throwing paint balloons at it, I don’t know. [NYT]

We All (Want To) Live in a Yellow Submarine

jenneth — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 02:57:56 +0000

Yachts are so passe. Media magnates and other filthy richers that dare to be different should check out the submarines from Exomos, available for a suprisingly-affordable $40,000 in yellow, blue, green, orange, black or white.

The battery-powered Goby can hold up to three people and travel up to 40 metres below the surface for 8 kilometres per charge. [The Red Ferret Journal via Crave] -Jenneth Orantia

iBotics Stingray Up Against it at in a San Diego Swimming Pool

Seamus Byrne — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:56:14 +0000

This is the Stingray robo-sub, one of the competitors in the tenth Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition, which is taking place at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego this weekend. Rather confusingly, one of its rival’s entries, from the U.S. Naval Academy, is known as Project Stingray, which you can see below. It’s not as sexy as the one above, although the Academy boys get points from me for looking buff in their shorts.

The Stingray, with its carbon-fiber hull, is the brainchild of the San Diego iBotics Student Society, a bunch of undergraduates from a variety of colleges and universities in the San Diego area. They and the Naval Academy will be battling it out against teams from Duke, Cornell, MIT and last year’s winner, the University of Central Florida. There’s a whole bunch of other pics at over at CNET if, like me, you’re into hot pool action.

[CNET News]

Microsoft’s Paul Allen’s $12 Million Yellow Submarine

Seamus Byrne — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 02:13:09 +0000

It appears Microsoft’s co-founder is a big fan of things that sink. Obviously an avid Beatles fan, Allen’s latest toy is a fully functional 40-foot yellow submarine (not to be confused with a 40-foot Yello Sub, which would be an even worse investment). He’s now a member of a small, exclusive clique of ultra-rich underwater explorers; about 100 personal submarines are floating around our oceans. Hopefully it came with better drivers than Vista (zing!). [Paul Allen's New Sub via Valleywag]

Aussie’s two weeks underwater in a box

Seamus Byrne — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:56:31 +0000

In a flooded quarry in Albury, Lloyd Godson spent 12 days in a yellow submarine. Not any submarine. “The world’s first self-sufficient, self-sustaining underwater habitat.” By self-sustaining, they mean he still needed food deliveries, but it did generate its own oxygen, thanks to special algae soaked in Lloyd’s urine. Mmmm… I can almost taste the aroma…

Can’t say I spotted this in local press, but there was a big story on the ~~ordeal~~ experiment at the Daily Telegraph in the UK. That’s where the cool diagram came from too.

Australian emerges after two weeks in underwater box [Daily Telegraph UK] [via Neatorama]