This being the former Federal Science Minister that refuses to accept that Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) pose any possible problem to us and thus cut all funding for catalogueing and studying such objects in the Southern Hemisphere.
The name of the concept, utilising Alfvén waves to accelerate ionised matter for propulsive purposes, is MOA - Magnetic field Oscillating Amplified thruster.
Personally I found the play-dough to be much more tastier. I do remember one kid getting into trouble in first grade at the end of year for pulling his sandwich apart and adding 1/4" of play-dough.
No it is the reason for smelly geeks, no more free showers.
(Prolly way too below the belt for some people but you can blame my mate Jim Beam who has helped me for the afternoon mowing the lawn and pruning the garden)
Such a scheme isn't really revolutionary to be honest, several people have come up with similar things however it seems there is still a problem of stairs, non-level terrain and the fact that a really big sphere is needed for a flat 'floor'.
Howver if we made the ball flexible enough to sit on a flat platform we have one problem nixed. The biggest problem is the stairs, we can cover this by making the 'flat' platform consist of multiple elements of variable height. It will feel strange like walking up/down the down/up escalator in your local store:P. This also solves the issue of inclines. Another issue is that of walls and simulating running into them, forget simulating them, we can place 'brakes' around the sphere. Due to the flexibility of the sphere, the floor will have a slight amount of stretch in it so when the user wants to change direction away from the 'wall' the brakes will let go.
To be honest most of the system is open to homebrew attempts, it is just the major componenet that isn't:( the flexible sphere. Any chemical engineers care to comment on materials/construction of the sphere? Actual porperties of sphere will determine how to construct the hole to enter/leave the sphere. An optical mouse can be easily cannibalised for an adequate sensor to determine movement. Brakes are easy, solenoids or hydraulic. The floor elements will be the costly part, a simple tilting floor can be used to simulate inclines, but individual elements are wanted for stairs. Solenoids could be used, variable height done by using a variable current rather than just on/off.
Hrm, I spend way too much time brainstorming useless stuff I will prolly never build.
I awoke at approx. 1630 local time. Start work, security as 1830 Get home 0700 Play Wow Realise I don't have enough rest XP built up:P Logout and check/. Ooooh, something about WoW:D
Maybe not use a net per se, but use the concept of it, if you used a polymer mesh with fine enough holes that allowed water to pass through sufficiently and small enough to prevent any possible tangling of peopleit would serve a dual use for rescueing people and easily lifting debris. A motive system could also be constructed so that the "net" constantly moved along the bottom and thus constantly cleaning it.
Depends on your point of view. As mentioned yesterday under the topic of pumping out New Orleans, Most of the Netherlands are below sea level and prone to flooding. In such cases I would consider myself to be surrounded by water:P
AFAIK, Chernobyl was purely human error. There were several safeguards in place and they were trying to test another one, in order to test it, it was apparently necessary to disable the other ones. Unfortunately the new safety failed and thus everything went up the proverbial creek. I know it is wrong, but I cannot help but laugh at the irony of the whole incident being caused because they were testing a feature that was supposed to prevent such a thing from happening.
I said that wars helped the development of tech, I didn't say that it wasn't to the detriment of anything else.
In hindsite, the stupid mod that modded me troll must be wiser than I had credited them for, my post may not have been a troll, but a lot of idiots who read it and didn't fully understand what I was saying are taking it that way.
I will probably be modded to hell for this, but I have always said that as a geek, I 3 War. It is the only guaranteed way of getting large amounts of money invested in useful tech. Considering WW2 alone, there were many developments in many many fields.
While on the issue of the mod system being up the proverbial creek. What is the go with the current poll? It says it has been archived and no new posts can be made. WTF?
Agreed, my last drive to Melbourne had me cracking up several times. The first one was over the swimming pool and the second was over the Penny Arcade Hairdressing Salon.
Slashdot Mirror
This being the former Federal Science Minister that refuses to accept that Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) pose any possible problem to us and thus cut all funding for catalogueing and studying such objects in the Southern Hemisphere.
The name of the concept, utilising Alfvén waves to accelerate ionised matter for propulsive purposes, is MOA - Magnetic field Oscillating Amplified thruster.
Interesting that it shares its name with a large extinct flightless bird. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa
In multidimensional Russia there are alternate spellings for you.
Personally I found the play-dough to be much more tastier.
I do remember one kid getting into trouble in first grade at the end of year for pulling his sandwich apart and adding 1/4" of play-dough.
No it is the reason for smelly geeks, no more free showers.
(Prolly way too below the belt for some people but you can blame my mate Jim Beam who has helped me for the afternoon mowing the lawn and pruning the garden)
Such a scheme isn't really revolutionary to be honest, several people have come up with similar things however it seems there is still a problem of stairs, non-level terrain and the fact that a really big sphere is needed for a flat 'floor'.
:P. This also solves the issue of inclines.
:( the flexible sphere. Any chemical engineers care to comment on materials/construction of the sphere?
Howver if we made the ball flexible enough to sit on a flat platform we have one problem nixed.
The biggest problem is the stairs, we can cover this by making the 'flat' platform consist of multiple elements of variable height. It will feel strange like walking up/down the down/up escalator in your local store
Another issue is that of walls and simulating running into them, forget simulating them, we can place 'brakes' around the sphere. Due to the flexibility of the sphere, the floor will have a slight amount of stretch in it so when the user wants to change direction away from the 'wall' the brakes will let go.
To be honest most of the system is open to homebrew attempts, it is just the major componenet that isn't
Actual porperties of sphere will determine how to construct the hole to enter/leave the sphere.
An optical mouse can be easily cannibalised for an adequate sensor to determine movement.
Brakes are easy, solenoids or hydraulic.
The floor elements will be the costly part, a simple tilting floor can be used to simulate inclines, but individual elements are wanted for stairs. Solenoids could be used, variable height done by using a variable current rather than just on/off.
Hrm, I spend way too much time brainstorming useless stuff I will prolly never build.
Whoooosh!
Frost Cicktail!!!!
Admitttedly the joke doesn't stand out that well, but great job Angwe.
Or used an old ID in order to capitalise on the sympathies of others.
I awoke at approx. 1630 local time. :P /. :D
Start work, security as 1830
Get home 0700
Play Wow
Realise I don't have enough rest XP built up
Logout and check
Ooooh, something about WoW
Check the link given by a descendant post:
g es.html
http://ocid.nacse.org/research/cordyceps/html/ima
Maybe not use a net per se, but use the concept of it, if you used a polymer mesh with fine enough holes that allowed water to pass through sufficiently and small enough to prevent any possible tangling of peopleit would serve a dual use for rescueing people and easily lifting debris.
A motive system could also be constructed so that the "net" constantly moved along the bottom and thus constantly cleaning it.
Depends on your point of view. As mentioned yesterday under the topic of pumping out New Orleans, Most of the Netherlands are below sea level and prone to flooding. In such cases I would consider myself to be surrounded by water :P
just my 0.02AUD
Simple, in order to create intelligence, we must first understand and be able to define what intelligence is.
The pepper isn't so much another barrier as a knee high fence, all it can do is slow an attacker down marginally.
Come to think of it, I have seen several ATMs with braille on the keypads and also a headphone jack
AFAIK, Chernobyl was purely human error.
There were several safeguards in place and they were trying to test another one, in order to test it, it was apparently necessary to disable the other ones.
Unfortunately the new safety failed and thus everything went up the proverbial creek.
I know it is wrong, but I cannot help but laugh at the irony of the whole incident being caused because they were testing a feature that was supposed to prevent such a thing from happening.
To address some of the other responses.
I said that wars helped the development of tech, I didn't say that it wasn't to the detriment of anything else.
In hindsite, the stupid mod that modded me troll must be wiser than I had credited them for, my post may not have been a troll, but a lot of idiots who read it and didn't fully understand what I was saying are taking it that way.
Yay! How did I guess that?
Do you useless mods need examples then?
Rocketry
Cryptography
Computing
Jet Engines
Practical Nuclear reactions
Aeronautics
Petrochemicals
Telemetry
RADAR
That is just the list of fields that I am aware of, I'm sure the true list is much greater, heck, look at the tech tree of Hearts of Iron FFS.
I will probably be modded to hell for this, but I have always said that as a geek, I 3 War.
It is the only guaranteed way of getting large amounts of money invested in useful tech.
Considering WW2 alone, there were many developments in many many fields.
It isn't all that bad.
BOOBIES!
Excuse me, it has been a long weekend. BTW, I'm a bouncer.
While on the issue of the mod system being up the proverbial creek. What is the go with the current poll? It says it has been archived and no new posts can be made. WTF?
A whole series of articles?
You must be new here, they only need to do one and let the dupes take care of the rest.
Hrm, I read that last one as grover mints.
Would they be mints kept in a blue pocket and covered in fluff?
Somebody please mod this up.
Agreed, my last drive to Melbourne had me cracking up several times. The first one was over the swimming pool and the second was over the Penny Arcade Hairdressing Salon.