TED Talk: Jeremy Jackson

The survival of human life depends on the restoration of the Oceans.

Robot Fish Farms Under Development

http://gnews.com/science/Robot-Fish-Farms-Under-Development-2009082014450873.html

Scientists looking at the problem of overfishing have come up with a bizarre solution – giant robotic cages that would roam the oceans farming fish for human consumption. 

National Geographic magazine has reported that engineers and scientists in some of the world’s top institutions are working on designs for the autonomous fish farms. Remote-controlled prototypes have already been built. 

Experts argue that this method of fish farming would produce more healthy and sustainable fish stocks at a time of great environmental concern – the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization recently warned that 70 per cent of all the worlds’ fisheries are finding it extremely hard to replenish themselves at current catch rates. 

Concerns over depleted natural fish stocks have meant that fish farming is increasingly seen as an alternative. A standard fish farm comprises a series of cages in shallow, calm coastal waters, but these are often susceptible to disease and poor hygiene. 

This is why the concept of ‘smart’ cages allowed to roam autonomously in deeper waters are being researched by institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Offshore Aquaculture Engineering Center (OAEC). 

The OAEC’s director Cliff Goudey is making self-propelled cages which can be remotely-controlled by operators on a boat. He hopes that these automated cages could usher in a new era of fish farming. 

“Why don’t we just go with the flow and behave more like the way a large school of fish behaves?” he asked the magazine. “I think most people would agree that would have a far less negative impact on the environment. I think the idea of mobile operations will be a natural evolution.” 

Biological news posted by Daniel Coysh on Thursday, August 20, 2009

Le Bateau-usine de Takiji Kobayashi

if you happen to be in paris France, this films sounds very interesting :


http://www.mcjp.fr/francais/cinema/le-bateau-usine-de-takiji-107/le-bateau-usine-de-takiji
Le Bateau-usine de Takiji Kobayashi : témoin de l’histoire, symbole d’aujourd’hui
Table ronde cinéma
プロレタリア文学の名作『蟹工船』の現代性

Samedi 30 janvier de 14h à 18h
Présentation et projection du film
Table ronde consacrée au roman 

Le Bateau-usine (Kanikôsen, 1929) roman de Takiji Kobayashi (1903-1933) raconte l’épopée de trois cents hommes envoyés en mer d’Okhotsk pour pêcher le crabe et en faire des conserves. A travers le microcosme de leur bateau-usine, l’auteur dénonce le capitalisme en tant que système. Ce chef-d’œuvre de la littérature prolétarienne connaît aujourd’hui un fort regain d’intérêt, contemporain d’une prise de conscience des nouvelles inégalités sociales au Japon.

Présentation et projection du film
14h 14h30 : pré sen ta tion du film par Teru Shimamura (spé cia liste de la lit té ra ture pro lé ta rienne japonaise, uni ver sité Ferris, Tôkyô)
14h30 16h30 : pro jec tion du film
Le Bateau-usine「蟹工船」
1953 / 109’ / N&B / vo/stf

Un film de Sô Yamamura / D’après le roman de Takiji Kobayashi / Avec Sô Yamamura, Masayuki Mori, Sumiko Hidaka, Sanae Nakahara / Prix spé cial au Festival de Karlovy-Vary en 1954

Table ronde consacrée au roman
16h30 18h : Table ronde

Intervenants : Cécile Sakai (Professeur à l’Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, mem bre de l’UMR CRCAO Centre de Recherches sur les Civilisations de l’Asie Orientale),
Jean-Jacques Tschudin (Professeur émérite à l’Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, mem bre de l’UMR CRCAO),

Evelyne Lesigne-Audoly (doc to rante à l’Inalco, tra duc trice en fran çais du roman Le Bateau-usine).
Autres pro jec tions du film : jeudi 4 février et samedi 6 février à 20h (petite salle, entrée libre)

© Hokusei

Date
samedi 30 janvier
Table ronde - cinéma : Le Bateau-usine de 15h00 à 18h00

6 sides, 12 pieces, 5 levels

- 6 sides
- 12 parts
- 5 levels thick

Unstable, fragile, uneven...

Download the 3d sketchup file (220kb)


http://sites.google.com/a/opensailing.net/www/labs/nomadic_ecosystem/drafts-ideas

Scenarii of usage for nomadic ecosystem modules

by Nadine Freischlad

Letting our minds run wild with the possibilities of the modular floating system we came up with this ideal-world-scenario for its use and application.
In the setup, we have considered the following needs and applied them to the modular system.

Growing
- Land garden indoor (regulated temp/water/nutrients // regular veggies)
- Land garden outdoor (exposed to salt/temp // halophytes)
> needs to be accessible, close to storage facilities
- Salt Water gardens (algae)
- Salt Water fisheries (fish)
> need to be accesible, larger space, free circulation of water

Water refinement
- water stills (large surface/heat)
- water catch (large surface/rain)
> water stills need to be accessible, water catch needs to be very flexible for fast setup and cover max. surface

Process and store
- water store (filled from stills and rain water catch)
- food store (cool/dry, abover water and below water)
- food drying (exposed to wind/hot/dry)

waste
- compost/biomass/ biogas production unit
- fed from organic waste

floating gardens

Floating garden par Benjamin Graindorge, systeme de filtration naturel pour aquarium

Atlantic temperature

Meridian section of temperature in atlantic ocean

Voronoi samples

What is Voronoi? Basic geometric explanation:


Voronoi is very interesting for us: guarantee of a dynamic space for every unit with minimal segment length:

Wanna play with java applets with a cute French accent? Visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7v1wuN_9Wg

If you want to start programming with big C read-made libraries:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DLfkWWw_Tg
http://www.cgal.org/
And also for graphic designers:
Librairy for processing 1 / flash / java...
Voronoi is more than just mesh deformation:


Aggregate solid particles : we don't want to build everything on the shore and bring it to the sea. We want the structure to "grow", unfold, die, regenerate from its own environment and its "natural" vernacular resources:


Voronoi-alike shapes happen in nature as an "optimization tool" :


In this simulation, many predators and many prey.


And now, same in 3D space:


This one looks more like a predatory flock attacking a cube!


This one, an ant model is very good for dumbot exploration:


Swarms can generate more or less clear clusters (or density):


Clustering is amazing for P2P network, adhoc grid computing, mesh network:


We can optimize these clusters, networks:


Very good "passive" exchange and reproductive organisms are plants with flowers:

Flowers are the plant's reproductive structures. Angiosperms are types of plants that bear fruits and flowers. Flowers are usually both male and female, and are brightly colored to attract insects to help them carry pollen used for sexual reproduction. Not all flowers are colorful, though. These flowers usually use the wind for pollination. [source]

Everything should make love!

Now for trajectories, and DNA (lucky structures) it can improve over selection:

Acali Expedition

Le 13 mai 1973 (était-ce un vendredi?), 5 hommes et 6 femmes qui ne se connaissaient ni d'Eve ni d'Adam, embarquaient pour une expérience humaine unique de 101 jours en mer sur le radeau "Acali" (du nom d'une province mexicaine). Une coque de noix dessinée par l'architecte britannique Colin Mudie, reconstructeur, entre autres, de l'Argo amarré à Gênes.

A lire ou à relire, "L'expédition Acali" par l'anthropologue mexicain Santiago Genovès, le premier radeau moderne à ralier l'Afrique au Mexique. Je n'ai trouvé aucun site internet y faisant référence, alors bonne lecture. Santiago Genovès a participé aux expéditions Ra 1 et Ra 2 de Thor Heyerdahl, navigateur, anthropologue et archéologue ayant traversé l'Atlantique sur des radeaux en papyrus.

Extrait: "Entre les chercheurs qui restèrent à terre et nous qui prîmes la mer se produisirent des heurts; il y eut de l'envie, de la jalousie, de la peur. Dans le radeau et loin du radeau. Dans la science et hors de la science. C'est de tout cela qu'il s'agit dans le projet Acali".

20 ans après l' "Acali", l'expédition "Hsu-Fu" reliait la Chine aux côtes de l'Amérique en jonque traditionnelle de bambou. [source : http://www.leblognautique.com/livres/index.html]

Amphibious Architecture

Amphibious Architecture : The East and the Bronx Rivers in New York are home to a new installation project that offers a "looking glass" into the marine ecosystems of the rivers. The Amphibious Architecture project is a way of connecting humans with the watery world upon which we depend, through an amazing lighting display that reflects the incoming information of attached sensors. As the sensors pick up data on water quality, the presence of fish, and human interest in the water system, the lights tell the story of the interactions and feedback loops are created. An interesting, techy way for fish and people to interact, right? But it doesn't stop there - also thrown into the mix is the ability of humans to text message fish. Yes, text message...and get a response.


Video by Chris Woebken

It sounds over the top, but actually it's a very intriguing idea: People can text message the fish, and receive back real-time info about the river system. Text fish a "how are you," and you'll get a response. Pretty cool.



Distinctly moving away from the pervasive 'do-not-disturb' approach to urban environmentalism, the project encourages curiosity and engagement. Treating the river water as a reflective surface to mirror our own homo-image and architecture, establishing a two-way interface between the terrestrial and the aquatic. The project thus creates a dynamic and captivating layer of light above the surface of the river, making visible the invisible through real-time mapping of the new ecology of people, marine life, buildings, and public space.

Amphibious Architecture is a project by xClinic Environmental Health Clinic at New York University and the Living Architecture Lab at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Also see LMS, the Locative Messaging Service, Pozna Anita, aether architecture 2004.