the possibly accurate nowWed, 03 Aug 2005
[16:18] Damn Hickorydacks
Date: 8/4/05 at 12:18PM
Well, maybe it isn't my wooden underwear so much as my inability to read - the installaton is this FRIDAY....here is an interim post:
- My Make magazine rocked up today - YAY! This quarters issue includes such scintilating topics as : VCR Cat Feeder, Stunning Spud Gun and Mr Jaloppy Teaches Welding. I look forward to getting into this tonight!
- My National Insurance card turned up today! I can now officially be taxed (rather than unofficially on the "Emergency Tax Rate" of 50%).
- I bring up the next topic as it appeared in the Metro this morning:
The Space Elevator! The idea is simple, string a cable between the moon (or some other orbiting object) and tie it to the Earth. All travel problems solved as all you need to do is climb up the "rope". Now, I don't intend to take credit for this idea but I did think of it all by myself some years ago. I then discussed the idea with a reasonably knowledgable friend who pointed out to me that if, for some reason, the cable were to become dissacociated with the base station then you would have a cable dangling over the earth attached to an object moving at a relative speed of 1 kilometer per second (0.6 miles per scond). Since we're talking about a "cable" that would be some considerable diameter you're talking about a VERY destructive object (watch the start of Ghost Ship for a brief introduction to the destructive magic of high speed cables). He also pointed out a phenomenon I like to call the "wacky smacky string effect". I'm sure you're all passingly familliar with the Tennis ball on a string on a stick game (I forget the trade name) whereby you hit the tennis ball and it goes up the spiral piece of metal whilst your partner attempts to push it to the bottom by hitting in the opposite direction. Once someone wins and the string reaches either the top or bottom of the coil it can no longer rotate around the stick, at this point the cable begins to wrap around the stick until it runs out at which point the ball thumps into the pole. With the whole MoonEarth setup I see a possibility (I'm not sure how exactly you'd kick of such an event) of a similar but intensely more catastrophic outcome.
I'm assuming these guys have thought of all of this but I wll do some reading and make sure :)
- My efforts to bring Bug 252 to the attention of someone at ModBlog are not faring well :(
OK, I've used up all my free time this morning.....time to get to work.
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