Project Orion: Unpublished Documents

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xeni/sets/72157594329917915/

 

When I read the book Project Orion, I amazed to read that a nuclear powered craft could lift in one shot as much mass as small battleship! Imagine what mankind could do with such a vehicle. Moon, Mars, Pluto, the stars! Too bad it’s a bit on the messy side. Ok, very messy side. That radiation thing is a tough one to beat. Anyway, it turns out that many once classified drawings and documents are now de-classified. You can see them here as well as listen to a podcast about all of it.

[via boingboing] 

Project Orion: unpublished documents – a photoset on Flickr

Ikea Pinhole Camera

Ikea pinhole cameraI love this, I had the same idea a while back but just haven’t finished the project.

Homemade 5×4 pinhole camera. Made from an Ikea plant pot. holder. The pinhole is made from a Coke can, the shutter is a tap washer. All the finihing materials found around the house. Also shown is the first 5×4 paper neg I made during the camera’s construction.

The camera’s aperture is f-256 so the images are pretty crisp and a film holder has been added to the design. Very cool what you can do with a bit of creative spirit.

[via ikea hacker] 

Pinhole – a photoset on Flickr

Invisible UAV?

Aero Single Rotor UAVOk, not 100 % invisible but it’s just going to be a whirring blur if you happen to spot one. The craft is powered by two propellers at one end and uses just a half of a wing to fly. Huh? Half a wing? Talk about cutting costs… Lift is generated by having the plane spin around its center of mass that is in space back behind the wing and between the motors. This gives an impressive amount of control to the craft while making it very hard to see. When coupled with the VeraTech proprietary panoramic camera system this will provide video surveillance within 75 feet of a target. The system is very light, only four pounds for the two foot version.

I seem to remember seeing plans for a model airplane that used a half propeller and a counter weight on it. This was in some papers that my father had from back in the 40’s and 50’s. He was pretty big into model planes back then. I don’t remember why it was made like this, perhaps it was to get higher speeds on the old ‘U-control‘ planes.

[via new scientist] 

VeraTech Aero Single Rotor Phantom Sentinel

Thailand Bans Alcohol Advertising

Thailand

Now this a bold move, first was a ban on the advertisement of alcohol and now the national drinking age has been raised from 18 to 25. I wonder if the new caretaker government that was put into place a few weeks ago might be planning on some even more drastic changes in the way things are done over there.

The legal limit for purchasing alcohol is now 25. Deputy Chief of the Disease Control Department, Narong Sahamethapat, was quoted yesterday as saying that the idea was proposed by a network of parents early this year during a public hearing of a draft bill to control alcoholic drinks. From now on, alcohol free zones include:
– Universities
– Schools (and any other places of education)
– Temples
– State Offices

Gone will be the constant reminders of the 100 Pipers that are there to give Thais a warm fuzzy feeling on a Friday night.

Metroblogging Bangkok: Public Health Minister bans all alcohol advertising