Ken McE - Slashdot User

Comment More Arizona Sites. (Score 1) 363

by Ken McE on Thursday November 24, 2011 @02:08PM (#38159718) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Science Sights To See?

Biosphere II, north of Tuson Arizona. considered by the press to be kind of a giant sad failure, considered by myself to be a radical experiment in ecological engineering. The result of the test run was not what they expected, but science is not about what you were expecting. Arcosanti, outside Mayer, Arizona. Experiment by Paolo Soleri in urban engineering, arcologies.

Comment Re:there's a standard solution to this (Score 1) 339

by Ken McE on Monday January 24, 2011 @08:13PM (#34988772) Attached to: Chinese Stealth Fighter Jet May Use US Technology

My understanding is that the plane broke up in flight and came down in a number of places. Besides, blowing it up makes it smaller, but does not hide the various materials, layers, and coatings involved.

Comment Heavyweight Boxer With a Glass Jaw. (Score 1) 440

by Ken McE on Saturday December 11, 2010 @11:18AM (#34523206) Attached to: Navy Tests Mach 8 Electromagnetic Railgun

A warship is basically a large steel box filled with things that are radioactive, flammable, explosive, or covered with sharp metal edges. They can deal out a hell of a pounding, but can't take that much of a shot, kind of like a heavyweight boxer with a glass jaw. Ammunition storage and handling is is inherently dangerous. If you can remove the gunpowder from your projectiles you now have a much less explosive ship.

As regards civilian uses, this is a potential way to put bulk materials in orbit in a hurry. Nothing living or delicate could take that 100 Gs, (or whatever) but you could send up a lot of air/food/water/clothes/tools/ etc, and they would arrive in orbit in perfectly good shape.

OLED Film Could Provide Cheap Night Vision For Cars 120

Posted by timothy on Thursday April 29, 2010 @02:13PM from the want-sunglasses-like-this dept.

thecarchik writes "Night vision systems are already available in the higher-end luxury sedans from companies like Toyota, Volvo, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. It's expensive technology that few drivers can afford, and at $4,000 for the system without a display, it's a pricey upgrade. That may all change soon, as DARPA-funded scientists have developed a cheap way to turn any infrared light into visible light with a thin film."

Comment Re:Taking out capital ships? (Score 1) 618

by Ken McE on Tuesday April 27, 2010 @08:33PM (#32006904) Attached to: New Russian Weapon Hides In Shipping Container

The system operators will be fully uniformed, as per the Geneva Conventions. The weapon system will be fully camouflaged, as per universal custom.

Comment So What Happens... (Score 1) 471

by Ken McE on Friday January 22, 2010 @08:49PM (#30865706) Attached to: Electromagnetic Pulse Gun To Help In Police Chases

The first time an officer fires this at a suspect vehicle, and hits the Cadillac dealership right in back of the suspect???

Comment What if They Don't Consider it Hostility? (Score 3, Insightful) 803

by Ken McE on Sunday June 07, 2009 @08:51PM (#28245805) Attached to: How Do You Greet an Extraterrestrial?

If a civilization is advanced enough to travel here, they're probably advanced enough to not have any good reason to be hostile.

If I decide to build a vacation house in the Everglades it might get a little rough for any alligators that happen to live on "my" lot. I'm not going to care if they've been there since sometime in the Mesozoic. I'm aware that alligators have some kind of intelligence, however I'm not that interested in it. They will never understand where I came from or how I got there, or what the hell I'm doing inside that big glass box my contractor put up on their best feeding ground. Any that get in my way will be dealt with, it doesn't matter how well they plan their defense. About all they can do is hope that I'm not a predator...

A Space Junkyard 94

Posted by kdawson on Sunday March 25, 2007 @02:42PM from the one-giant-heap-for-mankind dept.

Today's Los Angeles Times has an article about a North Hollywood junkyard that stocks a huge quantity of used aerospace parts, from valves to rocket engines. Norton Sales Inc. got started in the early 1960s. The junkyard had fallen on hard times, with the collapse of the Los Angeles-area aerospace economy in the 1980s, but it's making something of a comeback now with NASA's new plans for moon and Mars missions. The customers used to be rich Hollywood types; nowadays they are as likely to be private space entrepreneurs. "It's dangerous coming to a place like this," said Dave Masten of Masten Space. "It's like shopping on an empty stomach."

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