The Dark Island was originally produced as a 6 part television series by the BBC in 1962, from what I understand no copies of the show actually exist at this point. The BBC produced this radio version in 1969 - and the book to the right appeared a few years later. It was referred to as a "story of espionage in the remote islands of the Outer Hebrides".

The basic premise is described fantastically in the Wikipedia entry as this:

"The plot involves the discovery of a mysterious torpedo found on the shore of Benbecula. A Naval team descends on the area to deal with the torpedo accompanied by Nicolson, an intrigued security officer. Further investigation of the torpedo reveals an international spy kit, the contents of which include a Finnish passport, British and Swedish currency, and most intriguing of all, a fragment of sheet music.

This is an absolutely brilliant piece of radio drama and a great story. It's got everything: remoteness, islands, intrigue, mystery, murder...

You can download all 6 parts, roughly 3 hours total from TimesPast here:

The Dark Island - BBC Radio 1969

Permalink    Labels: Audio Drama, Mystery, The Ocean, Islands

Some insane amateur video above showing conditions at Waimea Bay yesterday. The waves could hit 50 feet today prompting the first Eddie Aikau Competition in 5 years. The event, which requires perfect conditions and waves over 30 feet, is not officially on quite yet but, if when it gets the go ahead, surfers have a 12 hour window to register and get to the North Shore...this has people already flying in from Brazil, Australia and South Africa. This would be only the 8th time the event has been held since it started in 1985.

More on the contest and Aikau can be read on Quicksilver's official site for the competition here:

2009/2010 Quicksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau

Permalink    Labels: The Ocean, Surfing, Weather

John Wyndham, probably best known for The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos (ie Village of the Damned), wrote a number of lesser known works that are of no less value in the world of speculative/science fiction. One of them, The Kraken Wakes (published in 1953), has been broadcast in a number of different versions through the years as a full cast audio play. This particular one, done by the CBC out of Vancouver, is available in all 5 parts - roughly 150 minutes - on Archive.org.

As like a number of Wyndham's apocalyptic tales you get to follow along and unravel a mystery that brings the world to near destruction. Loaded with the author's great ability to bind science with the impossible it really is an entertaining story. The 40+ year old broadcast does the book justice, and the age of it gives it something that a modern adaptation would lose.

You can download the MP3 files, 131 MB for all 5 in a zip file here:

The Kraken Wakes - Full Cast Audio - CBC 1965

Permalink    Labels: Audio Drama, Science Fiction, Archive.org, The Ocean

This is, for the most part, a documentary about Cyrus Field who laid the first transatlantic cable more than 150 years ago. Despite accomplishing something that was considered ridiculous (like putting a man on the moon) he has been left out of most history books.

Considered at one time to be the "greatest American" Field is given some oft forgotten credit in this documentary done by Modern Marvels. If anything it certainly proves you can accomplish something through determination no matter what the odds.

The video, which is about 45 minutes long, can be viewed via Google Video (to the right), but is also available for download in mp4 format for the iPod Touch and iPhone on this page:

Modern Marvels - Transatlantic Cable (Cyrus Field documentary)

Field, incidentally is actually a distant relation of Stockgnome....

Permalink    Labels: Documentaries, Google Video, History, The Ocean