After Corbu

Chris Bowers presents an inspiring argument for space travel and I wanted to provide my own.
Engineers are often (justifiably) stereotyped as asking ‘what is the right tool?’ but never ‘why build?’  And, indeed, the pure technical challenges of space travel excite me no end.  My dream job would be Martian Structural Engineer — I want […]

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So, it’s possible this system isn’t viable. Thankfully YouTube has a better idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvRzWYCZ2e0

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We have the waterfalls.
We have the technology–>
So how about we just solve this whole energy crisis right now?

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Photo from Docent X. Thanks!
i-eclectica brings news of the RMF radio station in Poland, which, though terrestrial, perfectly represents the space colony archtype: modular construction, domes, shiny steel, glass, and concrete, airlock-like entrances, exposed mechanical systems, etc. It makes the Trekkie in me squeal. However, I’m thankful they built it on Earth […]

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Not to be confused with Centipetal Forces, the militia units of the the Centipede army.
This xkcd got me thinking:  High school physics, where most kids are told about the fictitious status of centrifugal forces, generally sticks to Newtonian physics.  This makes sense because pre-modern, F=ma primitivism are the most useful sort of physics to those […]

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No, not Mike Meginnis’s alternatively acerbic and jocular blog (I recently found my thesaurus), but literally How to destroy the Earth (!!!):

3. Sucked into a microscopic black hole
You will need: a microscopic black hole.
Note that black holes are not eternal, they evaporate due to Hawking radiation. For your average black hole this takes an unimaginable […]

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By linking to this Robert Fisk article about questioning the 9/11 explanations, LitBrit produced quite a bit of commenter angst over at the House that Klein Built. As an engineer, I find the discussions of 9/11 steel collapse fascinating, and at the risk of revealing ignorance within my own field I want to wade […]

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From the brilliant folk at MIT, City Cars:
One of the proposed designs for dense urban areas is a stackable car for two passengers. Vehicle Stacks are located throughout the city to create an urban transportation network that takes advantage of existing infrastructure such as subway and bus lines.
From the nearly-as-brilliant folks at DMC, Time Machines:

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A family member, knowing of my eternal love for all things spacey, showed me this excellent hymn, which I preceded to sing in my painful, monotone way.  Beyond its awesomeness, I see it as someone’s small step towards integrating God into science and celebrating them both.  A happy effort.  Enjoy:
God of Earth and Outer Space
God of earth […]

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Posting from now until Friday the 24th will be irregular, as I’m traveling to see people I love more than you, my (possibly imagined) readers. In the meantime, read Green Mars. Don’t let the genre and cover art fool you, it’s an amazing piece of literature.
And if you’ve already read said masterpiece, check out the […]

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The Alvarez Hypothesis claims that sixty million years ago an asteroid 80 miles across hit the Yucatec peninsula in Central America. It threw up fifty trillion tons of dust and ashes into the air (note: speculative statistic), blotting out the sun and causing a worldwide mass extinction.
People, those of us who think about the […]

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Things you learn in engineering school:
All systems have a resonance frequency. If you push on them at the right interval, the amount they displace skyrockets. This is why soldiers break step when crossing a bridge. This is why certain frequencies of light cause our cells damage. This is why you push […]

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