Subaqua Sternal Rubs

Just weeks after Barbados Butterfly reported that her content was being stolen and republished without her permission in her post "I do not want green eggs and ham", I come to find out that The same thing has happened to me. An "Aquatic Cabinets" company has syndicated posts (Don't worry folks - the one place on my site where the link includes rel="nofollow") from my Scuba Diving category onto their site. I have no problem with people syndicating my feeds (that's why they are there), but I have established rules as to how the feeds can be used, and those rules need to be followed. The license under which the content on this site is released specifies that it may not be used for commercial purposes. I have reiterated that in the disclaimer for those not able to comprehend the extremely simplistic license. Links to both are on the bottom of every single page, making them pretty hard to miss, if one were to adhere to common courtesy at all. BRI Aquatic Cabinets is obviously using the feed in a commercial manner. They have also syndicated every single post from the largest scuba-related internet message board onto their site. What's the purpose of all this? Fool search engines into thinking that the site is more important than it really is, thus raising the site's rank in the search engine's results (which theoretically brings in more customers to the site –> commercial.)
I have emailed the admin of the site to remove my feed, but so far no response. No worries though, I have blocked the web server the site is hosted on, so theoretically it won't be able to get any more posts, just constant 403: Forbidden errors.

Hmm, I hope they pay the claim resulting from my trip to the chamber… I really don't have a few extra thousand dollars lying around…

Recompression Chambers Reject DAN America Insurance: The SSS Recompression chamber network, operator of hyperbaric chambers in a dozen popular dive destinations, has announced that some facilities will no longer accept the Divers Alert Network (DAN) America insurance for payments at some chambers: Nassau, Bahamas; Cabo San Lucas, Merida and Cancun, Mexico. SSS has other chambers, which they say may also stop accepting DAN insurance payments: Cozumel and Playa Del Carmen, Mexico; Ambergris Cay, Belize; the Galapagos Islands, and five in Thailand. In a prepared statement, SSS declared it could "no longer tolerate unpaid services, and since the only insurer in the world who has refused to settle our bills is DAN America, some SSS chambers have no other choice but to ask DAN America patients to pay for services when rendered and file the claims themselves with DAN America." SSS owner Mauricio Moreno told Undercurrent that their chambers are still "duty bound to render services despite a patients' ability to pay." SSS has filed a lawsuit against DAN over the matter.

Undercurrent

Based on DAN data, I am now one of the top 90 divers in the world. Or better yet, bottom 90, because I was stupid enough to get Type II Decompression Illness with some neurological symptoms.

You all no doubt remember my foolish dive attempt last week. Well, after the dive, I started feeling very nauseous and vomited a couple of times over the side of the boat. Soon thereafter, I started feeling pain and numbness/tingling in my extremity joints. I had initially attributed this to hyperventilation and hypocapnia. However when the symptoms persisted over the next 24 hours, I began to suspect some sort of sub-clinical variant of decompression illness.

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Remind me never to do that again… For the first time in two months, I got back in the water today for some scuba diving. With the exams and other stuff I have to do, it will probably be the last time in Grenada. Too bad it couldn't have been a better experience.

The first (and only) dive was to the Bianca C, a 600-ft 1940's cruise liner that I have written about before. Since I've done the dive about 5 times previously. Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled about doing it again… However, this time the Divemaster offered something different — he proposed going down to the stern of the ship and swimming under the props, which I had never done before. The only problem is that the props are in 170 feet of water. I knew the proposed dive would be pushing the limits of sport diving (limit is theoretically 130 feet), it was something I have wanted to do for a while, and since the Divemaster had done it numerous times and survived, I figured how dangerous could it be?

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Wow it's been a busy week. My vacation seems so long ago, I can barely remember it. I promised you all a short synopsis, so here's what I recall:

After picking up gear from the local dive shop (and borrowing a gear bag — that reminds me I need to return it), our group of three divers headed to the airport for the short (25 minute) flight to Tobago. Unlike in Grenada, we breezed through Customs and Immigration, and took a taxi to our hotel - the Hilton. Our reservation was theoretically for two people, since the website wouldn't let you put three adults in a room. Not a problem, I thought, an extra cot is usually $10-15/night. Boy was I wrong. The staff member at the front desk wanted to charge an extra 50% for the third person. I wasn't having that, so I ended up speaking with the manager. Seeing as it was low season, I successfully negotiated her down to an extra $6/person/night. Not bad.

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I survived the weekend, and am now back in Grenada. After 7 dives in 30 hours, going to lab this afternoon, and then doing slides for path lab this evening, I am pretty exhausted. The vacation was great — uneventful plane trips, nice hotel, great food, and awesome diving. I am just too tired to write much now. Update on the trip will be coming shortly, hopefully with some nice underwater pictures that my friend took. (If/when she sends them to me.)

Sorry for the delay, but I need a vacation from my vacation — but unfortunately I have to get up early tomorrow for classes…

It's off to Tobago for a weekend of scuba diving… (Now up to 8 dives in 2 days…) Hotel says it has wireless, so if it's free, then I'll update from there, but if not, I'll be back on Monday!

Microbiology exam is hanging over my head. (It's on Friday.) So what am I doing? Planning a vacation, of course. After the exam a few friends and I are treating ourselves to a weekend of diving somewhere else, most likely Trinidad/Tobago. Looks like some good diving with lots to see (including mantas and hammerheads), yet not to touristy. We also were looking at Dominica, which is supposed to be the 5th best diving in the world, but we couldn't get any flights. Maybe next time. Though since someone wants to stay at the Hilton, there might not be a next time. Oh well, I can always get more loans, and it should be worth it.

Back to studying, in my 90 degree room (half the building is out again because the chiller shut down for no apparent reason.)

Update: The chiller is back on so my room is more comfortable, and the dive trip is booked complete with plane, hotel, and 7 dives potentially in 2 days, with the 3rd reserved for off-gassing that nitrogen. More to come, but need to go to bed now, so I can get up early to study tomorrow.

Update 2: Chiller back off again. Hopefully Maint. fixes it before tonight so I can sleep without sweating to death before my exam…

Damn the dive shop. They had to send me an email that they were doing interesting dive sites this weekend, which of course obliged me to go. But this is the last time before the first exams (in 2 weeks), I promise! But I had to go today, since they were doing a "new" site, and a site that I hadn't done before.

The first dive was to the HEMA I, which is a shipwreck that I first dove in March, only two weeks after it sunk. At that time, the ship was still fully intact, rocking on the ocean floor, and kicking up sand. The passage of Hurricane Emily caused the ship to break apart, hence it is a "new" dive site. It now has a bunch of swim throughs and interesting holes to peer in. Not much in the way of interesting fish life, with the exception of a few barracuda, and a reef shark that reportedly swam behind my buddy and I unbeknown to us. (We were looking in the cargo hold.) I was definitely cool to see the before and after, and as an added bonus we did manage to salvage a bottle of Absolut Limon.

The second dive site was Lighthouse Reef, which the one to which I had never been before. It was a nice site - not as much colorful coral as on the other side of the island, but plenty of fish life. We saw moray eels, lobsters, a turtle, and a nurse shark that started charging towards the Divemaster, after we cornered it against some reef wall. Luckily he had his hands in, and the shark veered off before collision. The rest of the dive was less exciting, yet still filled with colorful reef fish.

I also did three dives a couple of weeks ago (when I didn't have time to log them or to post) to King Mitch, Grand Canyon (a site I had also never done before), and ???. So how do you know you do too much diving? You can't even remember where you've been. Anyways, King Mitch was the same as previously. Grand Canyon was cool, complete with another new wreck (45ft sailboat) courtesy of Hurricane Ivan. And I really can't remember the third dive, but I think it was nice.

Well, it's time to get back to the books…