When a Florida Rip Current Loses Its Way

A rip current may have different shapes, but it can always turn deadly. June of 2023 was a disastrous month along Florida Panhandle Beaches. Having saved money all year for a beach vacation, tourists were dead set on entering dangerous water. They did so despite double red flags warning of unsafe water, police-levied fines (reportedly … Continue reading “When a Florida Rip Current Loses Its Way”

Breakthrough

Revealing the Secrets of Rebreather Scrubber Canisters More than thirty years of research, testing, and computer modeling of rebreathers in a military laboratory have been condensed into a small, approachable monograph. Breakthrough is an affordable textbook unlike any other in the technical diving genre. Clarke is a scientist and writer known for both his scientific … Continue reading “Breakthrough”

Nighttime Prayers in War and Peace

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought clarity to many things we have long taken for granted. One of those is the ritual of putting children to bed at night. For most of a century, parents have had the security of knowing their children were likely to survive the night. Now, as before, that … Continue reading “Nighttime Prayers in War and Peace”

Great Balls of Fire, Plasma

The first impression from the Fire Chief was that my childhood home had been firebombed. The Event As my Father headed home one afternoon in 1958, he had left behind the hectic traffic of Kansas City, Kansas. He was approaching the bedroom community of Prairie Village, Kansas, when he had to stop as a procession … Continue reading “Great Balls of Fire, Plasma”

A Cloud of Smoke is No Way to Go

Smoke inhalation is a rapid and ruthless killer. It is the number one cause of death from fires. I learned that lesson the hard way. Long before I was born, my Grandfather Clarke died of smoke inhalation during a fire at the Hotel Kilgore in Fordyce, Arkansas. Wild Fires You don’t have to be in … Continue reading “A Cloud of Smoke is No Way to Go”

The Most Important News You Didn’t See Coming

In June of 2021, the Director of National Intelligence made a guarded announcement that UFOs/UAPs might be of extraterrestrial origin. UFO experiencers greeted that revelation with amusement. In terms of the childhood searching game hot and cold, the ODNI statements were “lukewarm” as far as searchers for truth were concerned. Mind you, lukewarm is far … Continue reading “The Most Important News You Didn’t See Coming”

Professional Diving, Truth, and the Uncertainty Principle

Is anything known for sure? Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle applied to quantum events avows that there is no certainty until you look. Well, this morning, I looked, and I’m just as confused as ever. It was a chilly morning in late November. As we warmed up with coffee, I wondered how cold it was outside. So, … Continue reading “Professional Diving, Truth, and the Uncertainty Principle”

My Weird, Spooky Body

My body has a few unusual traits, or anomalies if you will. For most of those anomalies, science has attached a name. But those traits are still strange enough to make them worth describing. And a couple of them are, well, just plain weird. Sun Sneeze. Let’s start with an easy one. The so-called photic … Continue reading “My Weird, Spooky Body”

Diving Technical Papers

Toward a Predictive Algorithm for Untoward Events in Elite Breath-Hold Divers Breath-hold divers (also known as freedivers) have only one diving outcome that they strive for: the successful completion of a breath-hold dive. That requires freedivers to push their bodies to their physical and physiological limits. Yet, in pursuit of the elite breath-hold divers’ depth … Continue reading “Diving Technical Papers”

Confessions of a UFO Skeptic

Some lines are risky to cross. The line separating fact from fantasy is one such line. What is remarkable to me about the U.S. government’s recent disclosure of the reality of UFOs, or UAPs, is that even those skeptics who have a reputation for rolling their eyes and bursting forth with ridicule have had to … Continue reading “Confessions of a UFO Skeptic”