BrandToBeDetermined

Relativity Drive - I hope it works!

From the New Scientist magazine there is an article worth reading. The headline is a bit of an over-the-top tease but the concept is real. It is about a scientist named Roger Shawyer in the UK.

Relativity drive: The end of wings and wheels?

(snip) Key is the fact that the diameter of a tubular cavity alters the path - and hence the effective velocity - of the microwaves travelling through it.

The short version is microwaves are shot into a tube. The tube is shaped like a cone with one end smaller than the other. This causes more force to be directed against the large end of the cone than the smaller end. That force difference creates propulsion which can be used for space craft. If it works....

Visual of the relativity drive here.

The only thing people fight about more than energy is God. Increases in efficiency and alternatives are a good thing. Via digg.

The Long Now - a 10k year clock

From a friend at SolarTurbines, I too find this clock strangely appealing.  Excerpt:

SOMETIMES, WHEN THINGS GET SUFFICIENTLY WEIRD, SUBTLETY NO longer works, so i'll be blunt:  The gleaming device I am staring at in the corner of a machine shop in San Rafael, California, is the most audacious machine ever built. It is a clock, but it is designed to do something no clock has ever been conceived to do—run with perfect accuracy for 10,000 years.