All Posts By

Jill Heinerth

Feb 15
2

Team Sedna Solidifies Plans for 2014

By | All Posts, Sedna Expedition, Uncategorized | No Comments

  MV Cape Race to Support Team Sedna Before tackling the 100-day Northwest Passage Snorkel Relay during the summer of 2016, Team Sedna will mount an 15-day, action-packed expedition in July 2014. Traveling aboard the 116-foot MV Cape Race, along the Labrador coast to Baffin Island and across the Davis Strait to Western Greenland, the sea women will conduct team-building exercises, perform oceanographic studies, deliver educational outreach in Inuit communities and broadcast their findings to the world. Further, they’ll demonstrate that snorkelers—using diver propulsion vehicles—can successfully ‘go the distance’ through ice-infested arctic waters.

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Feb 09
0

Everett

By | All Posts, Robert McClellan | No Comments

Homeless I was homeless. For about a week. In the summer. Okay, I know that is not quite as challenging as being on the frozen January streets of a big North American city, wondering where my next meal or shelter bed will come from, but still, there was a short time when I had no home. I was between jobs and apartments. I did not plan well enough to have the funds required to get me over the hump. Like most of my major plans up to this point they had a fatal flaw: I was in charge of the planning…

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Feb 02
2

Cleaning Contacts

By | All Posts, Rebreather Diving, Uncategorized | No Comments

Cleaning Low Current Electrical Contacts Always use cleaners specifically designed for the precious metal contacts used in low current applications found in high-tech electronics. The low current makes the contacts exceptionally sensitive to contamination yet their ultra thin precious metal plating is easy to damage during cleaning. Never use the cleaners commonly associated with SCUBA maintenance. Many such cleaners contain solvents that are polar and also may leave residues, making them a potential problem in low current applications. This is also true of many household products such as rubbing alcohol. Never use ordinary ‘tuner cleaner’ products for cleaning precious metal…

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Jan 15
2

Lessons from the Air France Disaster

By | All Posts, Rebreather Diving, Uncategorized | No Comments

What We Can Learn From Air France Flight 447 On the evening of May 31, 2009, 216 passengers and 12 crew members aboard Air France flight 447 disappeared into the South Atlantic. For almost two years, the mystery remained, until the back boxes were plucked from the sea floor nearly two miles deep, revealing that it was not poor weather conditions that brought down the plane, it was simple human error. In an age of such advanced technology, how could human error override a perfectly functioning airplane? Under pressure, human beings can lose their ability to think clearly and to…

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Jan 01
0

Battery Fires

By | All Posts, Rebreather Diving | No Comments

It Worked We had some excitement at the house tonight. While entertaining Bill Stone and members of the United States Deep Caving Team on my back deck, we heard an explosion. We ran around the side of the house to find my “blast box” erupting flames from the side. The blast box was built to contain charging mishaps that seem almost inevitable with lithium batteries. (It is no wonder there are limitations for airline transport.) We managed to contain the fire and fortunately nobody was injured. Ironically I put up this video exactly one year ago on YouTube after a…

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Jan 01
0

Smither’s Code

By | All Posts, Rebreather Diving | No Comments

Always Know Your PO2 Smithers Code is a system of blinking lights that communicate PO2 information to a diver in the Heads Up Display (HUD). The “PPO2 Mode” as some rebreather systems call it, allows the diver and buddy to view actual PO2 at all times. Three color-states are used to indicate actual values of each individual sensor. If PO2 is 1.0, an LED will blink orange. At 1.1 an LED blinks green. At .9, an LED blinks red. The value for each sensor is displayed in succession followed by an extended pause. The lower the PO2, the more red…

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Dec 09
0

Jobless in America

By | All Posts, Robert McClellan | No Comments

Everything That Is Wrong With America’s Economy in One Minute I don’t know about you, but as I was growing up, in 1960s and 70s America, a working person could make a decent living. The blue collar men and women of my North Philadelphia neighborhood earned enough from factory, skilled trades and service jobs to buy a small Philly rowhome, raise and feed a family, and take a few weeks vacation every year. In 2013, it is almost impossible to simply keep one’s head above water with a service or trade job. Factory jobs are no longer considered in the…

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Oct 09
0

The Greatest Generation

By | All Posts, Robert McClellan | No Comments

It wasn’t supposed to be like this You have seen us around. Marching like lemmings into big box home centers, we try to reconnect with our self reliant ancestry. Our grandfather’s built their own houses, but we need Bob Vila to show us how to fix the ceiling fan. We are secretly dark men. Hating ourselves while taking long drags on unfiltered Camels, we are miserable. Born into the most prosperous and dynamic generation in history, we pissed much of our potential away. Our superficial mantra is “He who dies with the most toys wins.” To this end, we shine custom chromed…

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May 01
0

We Are Water to President of Slovenia

By | We Are Water | No Comments

WE SHARE MORE THAN DIVIDES US I have to take every opportunity possible to extend the message of We Are Water. That usually means trying to piggy back the message on other speaking opportunities. I was invited to a diving conference in Slovenia and spoke about tech diving issues, but also had the chance to display a We Are Water art installation and also speak to the President of Slovenia Borut Pahor. I gave him a copy of We Are Water as we exchanged an understanding of water related issues that our respective countries face. What an opportunity!

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Apr 09
0

Scared in America

By | All Posts, Robert McClellan | No Comments

America scares the shit out of me. As I travel outside the United States, I am increasingly aware that my beloved country is reeling off the tracks. Economic security is a luxury only the wealthiest can afford, and physical safety can no longer be taken for granted. When I drive across the aptly-named Peace bridge from Buffalo, New York, into Ontario, Canada, a perceived weight is lifted from my shoulders. Suddenly, I don’t have to be on security alert, with my head on a constant swivel, in a state of hyper readiness to defend my wife or myself from assault, armed robbery…

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