Author: shaned

Categories
science

NASA’s Earth Observatory

Picked this up from Justin Mason’s wonderful taint.org. NASA’s earthobservatory is a collection of topographic maps of the world showing details such as elevation, geoloogical and geographical information about countries, continents and landmasses in general. Here’s the link to my own country of Ireland.

Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on Feb. 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth’s surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) of the U.S. Department of Defense and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C.

Continue reading “NASA’s Earth Observatory”
Categories
technology

Building in a bag

Pulled this from wired news. The difficulty of providing accomodation quickly and cheaply under arduous circumstances such as wars & natural disasters is a serious issue for governments, armies and aid agencies. According to Wired a solution could be at hand.

A pair of engineers in London have come up with a “building in a bag” — a sack of cement-impregnated fabric. To erect the structure, all you have to do is add water to the bag and inflate it with air. Twelve hours later the Nissen-shaped shelter is dried out and ready for use.

The inventors are students completing their Masters Degrees in Industrial Design & Engineering at the Royal College of Art in London. They got the idea when they heard about inflatable structures used in the repair of broken gas pipes.

The inventors filed a patent, which covers the concept of creating structures using a cement-impregnated cloth bonded to an inflatable inner surface. Full-scale production is planned and could take off soon, as Concrete Canvas is short-listed for the New Business Challenge run by Imperial College London and the Tanaka Business School. The winner of the £25,000 ($48,000) prize will be announced next week.

I like the quote from the program head of Medicins San Frontieres in Uganda who would like to buy 10 as soon as they become available. The advantages over flimsy tents and the transportation issues of prefab buildings mean that many more buildings could be constructed this way in the future. Perhaps even houses?

Categories
politics

The italian legal system is terminally stupid

I doubt if Cicero would be impressed. OK, maybe the post title is a little OTT but I’ve posted in the past about the many weird and whacky rulings of Italian judges, most particularly relating to rape and sexual harassment. Well I picked this up from Reuters recently and it’s the mind-alterning icing on the italian legal hash cake. It transpires that a man who wishes to collect a pre-agreed payout of around 450,000 Euros from his insurance company has been told to come back in 14 months to determine the result of his case. The catch? He has 6 months to live and wants to use the money to ease his final days.. If this wasn’t bad enough it turns out that his claim goes back over a decade

when he was left paralyzed by a motorcycle accident. Confined to a wheelchair, he subsequently developed a lethal infection of the spine…

If this was a freak incident of italian legal woe then it would be more tolerable. However, in Italy it takes on average 3,041 days to obtain a definitive sentence in a civil case.

Categories
philosophy

Thoughts for the day

Three quotes from the emminently quotable and deeply insightful Richard Bach today. Very pertinent to my life at the moment.

  • “Avoid problems, and you’ll never be the one who overcame them.”
  • “It’s okay is a cosmic truth.”
  • “Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.”

Thank you R 🙂