Andrew Thaler

Blending smartphones for science, understanding the environmental hazards of 3D printing, flooding the midwest, and ocean news, too! Monday Morning Salvage: March 25, 2019

March 25, 2019March 25, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Your regular reminder that the currently proposed 2020 US budget is a crime against the American People. Call your representatives, especially if you live in MD, LA, or NC.
- U.S. Interior Official Suggests Trump’s Drilling Proposal Will Include Parts of Atlantic.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

The destruction of Beira is a catastrophe on a nearly unimaginable scale. ‘Almost Everything Is Destroyed’: Cyclone Idai Leaves Mozambique’s Fourth-Largest City in Ruins.
It’s Official, This Is the Oldest Known Mariner’s Astrolabe in the World.

The oldest mariner’s astrolabe ever found, decorated with the Portuguese coat of arms. COURTESY DAVID MEARNS

After Two Decades, a Fishy Genetic Mystery Has Been Solved.
A scientist faced down the ultimate cold case: How did two groups of fish separately evolve genes for making antifreeze?

Trump’s 2020 Budget will be a Disaster for America’s Coastal Economies

March 19, 2019March 20, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Uncategorized

Yesterday the Trump Administration unveiled its proposed budget for fiscal year 2020. This budget contains steep cuts research, education, and social services in order to fund the construction of the border wall. Chief among the cuts is an unprecedented reduction in funding for NOAA, which functionally disbands several core research programs within Ocean Services. From A Budget for a Better America:

“The Budget also proposes to eliminate funding for several lower priority NOAA grant and education programs, including Sea Grant, Coastal Zone Management Grants, and the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund.”
A Budget for a Better America, page 21

Rumblings on the hill suggest that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross plans to unveil his own plan to drastically reduce the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and permanently hamstring NOAA in furtherance of the Administration’s goal to find funding to construct a wall on the US southern border.

These cuts include zeroing out the budget for the following agencies and programs:

NOAA SeaGrant
NOAA Coastal Zone Management Program
National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS)
Pacific Salmon Restoration Program
Potentially at least one fisheries laboratory

These cuts would be catastrophic America’s Coastal Communities and Economies, especially in places like North Carolina, Maryland, and Louisiana.

I built the cheapest 3D printer available online so that you don’t have to: iNSTONE Desktop DIY (review)

March 14, 2019November 15, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Reviews and Interviews

How cheap can a 3D printer be and still function? Although they seemed plucked out of science fiction, there’s not really that much to these machines. A few stepper motors, some switches, a control board, a heating element, and a nozzle are really all you need. It’s the software, and the expiration of a bunch of patents, that kicked the 3D printing revolution into high gear.

Is it possible to assemble the right collection of components to make a functional 3D printer for less than $100? iNSTONE thinks you can, and they are not wrong.

Behold, the iNSTONE Desktop DIY.

This is the best printer you could build for $99. It’s terrible. I love it. You absolutely should not buy it.

A literal foghorn foghorn, Apple’s recycling farce, art from the deep sea, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: March 11, 2019.

March 11, 2019March 11, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

A literal foghorn. Trump official who said air gun tests don’t hurt whales blasted with air horn.A

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

This reports on the activities of the WWF is shocking and damning. WWF Funds Guards Who Have Tortured And Killed People.

I am always here for deep-sea art.

The ongoing search for an inexpensive, field-ready 3D printer: Monoprice Select Mini (review)

March 7, 2019November 15, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Reviews and Interviews

Monoprice, the king of rebadged 3D printers, has two entries in the sub-$200 printer category. We already dug into the guts of the Mini Delta, a great little delta-style printer, and now it’s time for the Monoprice Select Mini! This is a pretty standard cantilever printer, with the x-axis tied to the print bed and an y-axis connected by a single support to a moving gantry. It’s basic, but solid, with a bare-bones set of features that gets the job done.

The Monoprice Select Mini is currently for sale on Amazon for $189. I got mine in white because every other printer manufacturer has decided that you can have whatever color you want as long at it’s matte black.

There is also a Select Mini Pro which, since this review series started, has been discounted to $199. It does look like it has some nice features that make it wort the extra $11, including an automatic bed leveler, magnetic build plate, and touch screen. The budget for this series is blown, but if Monoprice wants to send us one *hint hint* I’ll be happy to put it through the wringer.

Monoprice is a rebadger, as we explained in the Delta review, and this printer is identical to the Malyan M200, which itself seems to be an improvement on the Infitary R100.

This is the only printer in our series with steel construction, so I have high hopes that it will stand up to the abuse I’m about to heap upon it.

For an explanation of our testing protocols, please see: We’re gonna beat the heck out of these machines: The search for the best dirt-cheap 3D printer for fieldwork.

The fate of the deep sea is being decided behind closed doors, plastic in the deepest trench, memories of whales, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: March 4, 2019

March 4, 2019March 4, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Last week was a huge week for deep-sea mining and there’s still more coming. Catch up on the latest!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Legendary submarine pilot Erika Bergman, a couple dudes, and a group of scientists make exciting discovery inside Great Blue Hole and What Erika Bergman, Richard Branson, Fabien Cousteau, and Aquatica Submarines Found In Belize’s Great Blue Hole.

The voyage meant scientists could construct a 3D map of the hole. Picture: Thomas Bodhi Wade/Aquatica Submarines

Live from the International Seabed Authority, sand strikers, strange typhoons, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: February 25, 2019.

February 25, 2019February 24, 2019 Andrew Thaler 2 Comments

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

We’re live from the 25th General Assembly of the International Seabed Authority. Watch here!
Update your indices. This marine worm is called the Sand Striker.

This is the Sand Striker
[source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26598370@N00/5205585822]

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

This is very much not normal. An Extremely Rare February Typhoon Is Approaching Guam.
US Coast Guard Officer Suspected Of Terror Plot Faces Charges.

Nodules for sale: tracking the origin of polymetallic nodules from the CCZ on the open market.

February 22, 2019February 22, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Uncategorized

[This article originally appeared yesterday in the Deep-sea Mining Observe r. ~Ed.]

You can buy a 5-lb bag of polymetallic nodules from the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone on Amazon, right now.

Depending on your vantage point and how long you’ve participated in the deep-sea mining community, this will either come as a huge surprise or be completely unexceptional. Prior to the formation of the International Seabed Authority, there were no international rules governing the extraction of seafloor resources from the high seas. Multiple nations as well as private companies were engaged in exploration to assess the economic viability of extracting polymetallic nodules and tons of material was recovery from the seafloor for research and analysis. Some of that material almost certainly passed into private hands.

The search for an inexpensive, field-ready 3D printer continues: Anet A6 (review)

February 21, 2019November 15, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Reviews and Interviews

One of the reasons 3D printing exploded seemingly overnight a decade ago has a lot to do with the RepRap project, an initiative to build a fully open-source and largely 3D-printable 3D-printer. The idea of a machine that could replicate itself was pulled straight from the pages of science fiction, and yet, here were machines–janky, kludgey, barely functional, machines–assembled from parts clearly fabricated by those same machines. They were conceptually impressive, but not a particularly awe-inspiring sight to behold.

And then came Josef Průša and the Prusa Mendel.

Affectionately known as the Ford Model T of the 3D printing world, the Prusa Mendel was the first of the open-source 3D printers that was designed to be easily mass produced. It looked good and it ran great. Released under an open-source license, it was replicated and iterated on a massive scale. That didn’t prevent Průša from building a successful company. The current Prusa i3 MK2 is among the most successful desktop 3D printers in the world, and certainly one of the best.

There are a lot of Prusa i3 clones.

Clocking in at $197.69, the Anet A6 is the most expensive printer in this review series. It’s also the biggest, with a massive 220mm by 220mm by 250mm build area. It’s an upgraded version of the popular Anet A8, with a larger build volume and a better user interface, but not much else. From reviews, this printer seemed like a solid representation of what you can get at the top end of the menagerie of sub-$200 Prusa i3 clones. It (and its smaller A8 brother) certainly have the fan-base and hacking community to support its reputation.

This acrylic-framed beast ships as a kit, so expect to spend half a day putting this printer together.

If you’re going off of dollar per cubic millimeter, this is the best bang for you buck by a wide margin. And that’s about the extent of the good things I have to say about this machine.

For an explanation of our testing protocols, please see: We’re gonna beat the heck out of these machines: The search for the best dirt-cheap 3D printer for fieldwork.

Deep-sea gator falls covered in isopods, more struggles for the Ocean Cleanup, a robot lost in the cold (but not the one you’re thinking of), and more! Monday Morning Salvage: February 18, 2019

February 18, 2019February 17, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

What do you do if you find yourself at the helm of a major Louisiana marine science institution? If you’re Dr. Craig McClain, you plant the first experimental Alligator falls in the deep Gulf of Mexico!

Photos courtesy Dr. Craig McClain via Deep Sea News.

On the other hand, if you find yourself at the helm of a US Navy destroyer, you might want to review this incredible and exhaustive accounting of the USS Fitzgerald disaster and how training deficits, exhaustion, and poor decision making compounded to create a deadly situation.