One of the by products of being a member in various organizations (ASEE, ASME, AOPA, and two different alumni organizations) is that I get quite a few magazines each month. These magazines quickly pile up and what I usually end up doing is to dump all of them in the recycle bin. This activity invariably leaves me feeling guilty, so last month I instituted a change in behavior. I went through all my old magazines and clipped out articles that looked mildly interesting before I recycled them. Every day I read through at least one of these articles, decide whether or not it is worth saving and jot down the relevant points so, if the topic arises in the future, I have a handy way of finding the article again.
Today's article, written in February 2003, was a brief survey of two companies working to develop sea turbines to harness ocean currents. Like many of the articles in Mechanical Engineering (the ASME publication), it serves as a long advertisement while also providing interesting information about an up-and-coming technology. I'm intrigued enough that I'll file the article and periodically check back on the progress the two companies are making (currently, both IT Power and Blue Energy Canada have installed prototypes and are in the testing phase).
The next to last paragraph of the article, however, was good for a nice chuckle:
IT Power's Thake [senior engineer Jeremy Thake] says that because the rotors of the turbines are relatively slow-moving, they pose little threat to fish and other small marine life. "Fish will likely be accelerated by the movement of the rotors, but not cut up by them, " Thake said. "It's like moving through a revolving door."Wheeeeeeeee! Sounds like fun. Now, how do you go about charging fish for thrill rides?
