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Water From Wind

ghostcorps recommends a writeup in The Australian by columnist Phillip Adams about a new windmill design that extracts water from air. The article gives few details of how it works, because patent protection is not yet in place, but what is revealed sounds promising. "[Max] Whisson's design has many blades, each as aerodynamic as an aircraft wing, and each employing 'lift' to get the device spinning... They don't face into the wind like a conventional windmill; they're arranged vertically, within an elegant column, and take the wind from any direction... The secret of Max's design is how his windmills, whirring away in the merest hint of a wind, cool the air as it passes by... With three or four of Max's magical machines on hills at our farm we could fill the tanks and troughs, and weather the drought. One small Whisson windmill on the roof of a suburban house could keep your taps flowing. Biggies on office buildings, whoppers on skyscrapers, could give independence from the city's water supply. And plonk a few hundred in marginal outback land — specifically to water tree-lots — and you could start to improve local rainfall."

24 of 411 comments (clear)

  1. Dune by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow. Reminds me of the Windtraps from Frank Herbert's Dune.

    Next thing you know, we'll be harvesting spice.

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    1. Re:Dune by thhamm · · Score: 3, Funny

      Next thing you know, we'll be harvesting spice.

      yeah, then we'll knock it up another notch, and give it a big blast from our spice weasel! BAM!

  2. Calling Uncle Owen and Luke Skywalker by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Your vaporizers are no longer vaporware.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  3. it's a competition by macadamia_harold · · Score: 5, Funny

    [Max] Whisson's design has many blades, each as aerodynamic as an aircraft wing,

    Yeah, but you know Schick is just going to add one more blade and totally steal his marketshare.

  4. Windmills do not work that way! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Goodnight!

  5. Useful, but . . . by Attila · · Score: 2, Funny

    What I really need is a droid that understands its language.

    --
    Dear Will, the plums were poisoned. -- Cheese Club
  6. Where's the need come from? by Lazerf4rt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does this country face a more urgent issue? Will the world have a greater problem? While we watch our dams dry, our rivers die, our lakes and groundwater disappear...

    Forgive me for being unaware of this impending catatrophe, but is there really an urgent issue? Is this mainly happening in Australia? I thought floods were going to be the next big problem, due to global warming.

    What should I be bracing myself for? Floods or droughts? I need to know what I should panic about. Thanks.

  7. vaporware by CDS · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sounds like vaporware to me... just a lot of hot air...

  8. Re:sum zero gain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    All true, but for the last. We shouldn't have golf courses in the desert, but we should let fires burn on a more regular basis. Also, I don't think people should be living in Colorado unless they trap furs for trading for whiskey.

  9. Re:Interested.... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 4, Funny

    > Why should we think this is anythign but a scam?

    So, what you're trying to say is:

    [Morbo]
    "Windmills do not work that way!"
    [/Morbo]

    Chris Mattern

  10. Re:Hand out the Moisturizer by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Funny

    Around here, we have a novel system for collecting moisture from the air in the dead of winter.

    We have a widespread system of asphalt-covered concrete which collect the copious moisture, extracted from the nearby lake due to atmospheric pressure differentials, in the form of a thick residue. We then dissolve large amounts of highly soluble compounds into this residue to prevent it from freezing solid, and then the mixture is processed by repeatedly compressing it under several hundred pounds of weight.

    We use the resulting product to support both the automobile and landscaping industries, by using it to rust out car underbodies and kill treelawn grass.

  11. Re:Interested.... by general_re · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would also like to know how this works. Any speculations here?
    I understand these moisture vaporators are similar to binary load-lifters. Get the right droid to program them, and you're good to go.
    --
    ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
  12. "Weather" the drought by bubbl07 · · Score: 2, Funny

    With three or four of Max's magical machines on hills at our farm we could fill the tanks and troughs, and weather the drought.

    No pun intended?
  13. Re:Hand out the Moisturizer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Is that a runoff sentence?

  14. Re:Interested.... by pizzaman100 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your air here is only MOSTLY dry. There's a big difference between mostly dry and all dry. Mostly dry is slightly wet. -Magical Max

  15. Re:Interested.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I understand these moisture vaporators are similar to binary load-lifters. Get the right droid to program them, and you're good to go.

    Well, you'd better have those units in the South Ridge repaired by midday, or there'll be hell to pay.

  16. Re:Interested.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some new power converters!

  17. Re:Interested.... by slappy_guru · · Score: 2, Funny

    And how can this be ! For he IS the "Kwisatz Haderach"!!!

    --
    "Science is like sex: sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it" Richard Feynman
  18. Re:Interested.... by markmier · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or you could use the power from the flowing sewage to power the sewage lift pumps that lead to the sewage treatment plant!

    oh wait...

  19. Alert the patent trolls by cloudkiller · · Score: 2, Funny

    Someone, quick, alert microsoft. There is still time to get that patent application in!!!111!

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    [an error occurred while processing this sig]
  20. Re:Interested.... by bckrispi · · Score: 2, Funny

    *shoots AC in the head for botching the line.*

    --
    Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
  21. Re:Interested.... by belligerent0001 · · Score: 1, Funny

    DAMN YOU!!!! Damn you and your green blooded logic! It's called sarcasm!!! Besides it CAN be done with paddle wheels if designed properly.

    --
    "...a civilian some of the time, a soldier part of the time and a patriot all of the time." -Brig. Gen. James Drain
  22. Re:But why not? by putaro · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, the best would be more of a turbine like arrangement, but then the shit would really hit the fan.

  23. Re:Nice catch, but by scotch · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Sit perfectly still at zero Kelvin" - not much of a process. You had better patent it.

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    XML causes global warming.