The Explorers Club

I was recently granted the privilege of membership into The Explorers Club. Founded in 1904, this is "an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore." The membership roster is filled with historic figures, so I can only hope that someday I will measure up to my new brethren ... either with my current activities exploring the oceans in manned submersibles or ideally with my future endeavors exploring space beyond the bounds of Earth!

MSN "News on Main"

Over the years, I have been interviewed many times for print, web, and broadcast news outlets. Perhaps I have become jaded, but I am not easily impressed with the end product from most media or journalists. It is rare to end with a piece that is factually accurate, visually compelling, entertaining, and informative. Of all the stories I have appeared in, my recent experience with MSN's News of Main is probably my favorite. They were extremely professional from start to finish, the crew they sent to conduct the onsite interviews was a pleasure to work with, and their finished product was well-structured and edited. Below are the two stories they ran, one focused on me personally and one focused on OceanGate as a startup venture.

David Blaine -- and Static Apnea

David Blaine is one of my favorite illusionists. In 2008, he appeared on national television and broke the then current world record for static apnea -- holding his breath underwater for 17 minutes. That record was later broken by Tom Sietas, who is the current world record holder at 22 minutes and 22 seconds. Below is Blaine's TED Talk about his background and breath hold record.

Ames Window

Earlier this year I had the privilege of spending some time with Michael T. Jones of Google Ventures. Among various topics we discussed, he helped me discover the concept of an "Ames Window". This is basically a special type of trapezoid that leads to a very cool optical illusion.

Here is a video that shows the illusion quite clearly:



Here is the same concept applied to a life-size room:

Felix Baumgartner & Red Bull Stratos

Like nearly 8 million other people around the world, on October 14, 2012, my family and I were glued to the Web (and Discovery News) watching Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team break several skydiving records as he jumped from his capsule at an altitude of 128,000 feet (roughly 24 miles!) and broke the sound barrier on his way down.

Not only did he succeed on virtually all of his record attempts (he came up ~10 seconds short of the record for longest freefall), but also the entire event was executed phenomenally well by Red Bull and all of its partners around the world. It was a huge publicity bonanza, continuing to garner public attention even weeks later. I wished that James Cameron, National Geographic, and their partners had executed nearly as well during his March 2012 record-breaking solo submarine dive to the deepest point in the ocean.

This is one of my favorite images from the historic day.

Here is an official Red Bull summary video.



Here is an official Red Bull video where you can faintly hear the sonic boom at :25.