We might also note that nature did discover a rotary motor, in the form of bacterial flagellae. We even have them in some of our cells. (Trivia question: Which cells are those?) But nature never figured out how to adapt them to larger, multi-cellular organisms. Maybe on some other planet, but not on this one. Nature also discovered jet propulsion, and uses it under water but not in the air. We know how to do both of these things on a larger scale, and we have used them to solve problems in ways that the evolutionary process hasn't found.
Matter of fact, the ability to make a rotating joint lets us build flapping-wing aircraft of a size and weight that nature couldn't dream of: helicopters. Rotary flapping is much more energy-efficient than reciprocating flapping.
The flagellum (plural = flagella, BTW) doesn't scale up because it requires a lubricating environment.
As someone who has handed a package across the 'line' to my wife on the boarding side of security
My wife and I were standing in the TSA line once at LAS, when an agent came down the line selecting people for random screening. He selected my wife, not me, marked her boarding pass, and we weren't separated until several minutes later...
Back in the day when the entertainment industry believed outtakes were a Bad Thing, and the original Star Trek blooper reel was seen only on the surreptitious college circuit, it was often accompanied by some other showbiz bloopers. One, in particular, was hysterically funny...it featured Garry Moore, a Fifties game-show and variety-show host, doing his opening monologue wearing Bermuda shorts which had burst on the fashion-fad scene circa 1956. Unbeknownst to him, his fly was open -- and worse, he was commando. He did jokes for perhaps five minutes, slowly becoming more bewildered as he sensed that the audience was laughing at all the wrong times...like whenever he turned from side to side.
No, much slicker. You drop a one-euro coin in a slot to get in[1], and the first thing you notice is that the seat is circular, not oval. When you get up off the seat, the system senses that your weight has gone away and it flushes itself. Then a mechanical arm comes down holding a sprayer and a brush; the sprayer shpritzes, the brush turns, and the seat slowly rotates 360 degrees. The coin acceptor also gives you a receipt that you can use to get your euro back if you buy anything.
rj
[1] Europe has a roughly even mix of free and pay toilets. You get what you pay for.
Perhaps you're thinking of the aviation term "shooting down". A flak shell turns a flying airplane into falling junk; an antisatellite weapon turns an orbiting satellite into orbiting junk. Since the satellite seems to have taken care of that matter for itself, you're just gonna have to wait for the outer traces of the atmosphere to accomplish the junk removal.
In the 1970s-80s there was a rash of "blue ice bombs". The toilet tank on an airplane has a big hose connector that the lowest-paid guy on the ramp crew uses to empty it; a big valve with a rubber seal closes the connector off when not in use. Trouble is, people drop things in the crapper. Coins, keys, rings, OJ's knife...and some of them damage the seal on the way out. Then the airplane takes off again, and since it's pressurized up to an 8 psi differential, the toilet water -- saturated with methylene blue, an effective disinfectant and also a powerful blue dye -- leaks out. Of course it immediately hits very cold air, and freezes on the spot, making an iceball that can get as big as a basketball.
Then the airplane lets down into warm air, the ice loosens, and there's a good chance somebody on the final approach path will wind up with a ball of blue frozen shit embedded in their floor.
The FAA and the airlines worked out some design changes and an inspection routine that cut way down on this stuff, but it can still happen. Here's some advice you can take to the bank, literally: If one hits your property, note the precise time, get a baggie, and get that sucker in a freezer. Then wash up and call the FAA, not the media. There's a tidy settlement check waiting for you, and the less public notice the incident gets, the more you can negotiate.
historically these things tend to land in the ocean
Hardly surprising, since "in the ocean" means 80% of the Earth's surface...
To put this in perspective, consider that over thirty thousand meteorites have been found on the ground. There's one in Oregon that weighs sixteen tons; the rate of impacts, found and unfound, has been estimated at 500 per day worldwide.
Know anybody who's been hit?
Actually, a few people -- a very few -- have. The surface of the Earth is a big place, and not a very big fraction of it is covered by people.
"Good airmanship" would be more apropos. They recognized the problem, in time to take over from the autopilot, and had the skill to pull off a deadstick landing with a survivable impact.
In principle, the airplane could have been landed on the runway without damage, if the right variables had come together -- but low and slow, in a big heavy airplane, with full flaps and no power, you're pretty well boxed in. I don't think they could have done better.
A man does crazy things because, well duh, he's crazy. Some brains are like the engines in fuel dragsters: they can accomplish extraordinary feats, but sometimes they blow up big time. I'm not a player, but I think they have a right to remember what he was before Garner Ted Armstrong saw him coming.
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Matter of fact, the ability to make a rotating joint lets us build flapping-wing aircraft of a size and weight that nature couldn't dream of: helicopters. Rotary flapping is much more energy-efficient than reciprocating flapping.
The flagellum (plural = flagella, BTW) doesn't scale up because it requires a lubricating environment.
rj
My wife and I were standing in the TSA line once at LAS, when an agent came down the line selecting people for random screening. He selected my wife, not me, marked her boarding pass, and we weren't separated until several minutes later...
rj
Especially cowboy-style belts with a half-pound brass buckle...excellent skull cracker.
rj
Back in the day when the entertainment industry believed outtakes were a Bad Thing, and the original Star Trek blooper reel was seen only on the surreptitious college circuit, it was often accompanied by some other showbiz bloopers. One, in particular, was hysterically funny...it featured Garry Moore, a Fifties game-show and variety-show host, doing his opening monologue wearing Bermuda shorts which had burst on the fashion-fad scene circa 1956. Unbeknownst to him, his fly was open -- and worse, he was commando. He did jokes for perhaps five minutes, slowly becoming more bewildered as he sensed that the audience was laughing at all the wrong times...like whenever he turned from side to side.
rj
Ummm, that would be one of these...
http://www.robl.w1.com/pix-5/C970714.jpg
rj
If they work as well as this one
No, much slicker. You drop a one-euro coin in a slot to get in[1], and the first thing you notice is that the seat is circular, not oval. When you get up off the seat, the system senses that your weight has gone away and it flushes itself. Then a mechanical arm comes down holding a sprayer and a brush; the sprayer shpritzes, the brush turns, and the seat slowly rotates 360 degrees. The coin acceptor also gives you a receipt that you can use to get your euro back if you buy anything.
rj
[1] Europe has a roughly even mix of free and pay toilets. You get what you pay for.
Perhaps that dumbass over there checking his balance on the ATM?
rj
...when the Autobahn gas stations got robot-cleaned toilet seats, this couldn't be far behind.
rj
Salt water ruins those. Euphonium!, maybe.
rj
So, ummm, what provokes a crocodile? Being in the same body of water with him, perhaps? http://home.att.net/~crinaustin/Croc.htm
rj
Didn't notice the Fifties, did we?
rj
Then you'll be up against blowing resistance.
rj
...is to assign the documenting job to someone who can type it up in Hindi.
rj
...an engineer is capable of making more than one bomb.
rj
Perhaps you're thinking of the aviation term "shooting down". A flak shell turns a flying airplane into falling junk; an antisatellite weapon turns an orbiting satellite into orbiting junk. Since the satellite seems to have taken care of that matter for itself, you're just gonna have to wait for the outer traces of the atmosphere to accomplish the junk removal.
rj
In the 1970s-80s there was a rash of "blue ice bombs". The toilet tank on an airplane has a big hose connector that the lowest-paid guy on the ramp crew uses to empty it; a big valve with a rubber seal closes the connector off when not in use. Trouble is, people drop things in the crapper. Coins, keys, rings, OJ's knife...and some of them damage the seal on the way out. Then the airplane takes off again, and since it's pressurized up to an 8 psi differential, the toilet water -- saturated with methylene blue, an effective disinfectant and also a powerful blue dye -- leaks out. Of course it immediately hits very cold air, and freezes on the spot, making an iceball that can get as big as a basketball.
Then the airplane lets down into warm air, the ice loosens, and there's a good chance somebody on the final approach path will wind up with a ball of blue frozen shit embedded in their floor.
The FAA and the airlines worked out some design changes and an inspection routine that cut way down on this stuff, but it can still happen. Here's some advice you can take to the bank, literally: If one hits your property, note the precise time, get a baggie, and get that sucker in a freezer. Then wash up and call the FAA, not the media. There's a tidy settlement check waiting for you, and the less public notice the incident gets, the more you can negotiate.
rj
Hardly surprising, since "in the ocean" means 80% of the Earth's surface...
To put this in perspective, consider that over thirty thousand meteorites have been found on the ground. There's one in Oregon that weighs sixteen tons; the rate of impacts, found and unfound, has been estimated at 500 per day worldwide.
Know anybody who's been hit?
Actually, a few people -- a very few -- have. The surface of the Earth is a big place, and not a very big fraction of it is covered by people.
rj
Ummm, why? Are you under the impression an artificial satellite can hide from radars and telescopes?
rj
The fuel presumably came from a Chinese refinery...
rj
In principle, the airplane could have been landed on the runway without damage, if the right variables had come together -- but low and slow, in a big heavy airplane, with full flaps and no power, you're pretty well boxed in. I don't think they could have done better.
rj
You go ahead. The kick you'll get in your balls won't surprise me in the least.
rj
...SCO already went under.
rj
A man does crazy things because, well duh, he's crazy. Some brains are like the engines in fuel dragsters: they can accomplish extraordinary feats, but sometimes they blow up big time. I'm not a player, but I think they have a right to remember what he was before Garner Ted Armstrong saw him coming.
rj
...milk, bread and goatse, OK?
rj
You forgot "deposited in vacant lots and drainage ditches".
rj