Starship Asterisk*

The people at M.I.T. are smart. They invented what's on this video, whatever it is, a couple of years ago.

How engineers are beating nature.

Why are scientists trying to stop light from moving?

The Physicists Deck of Cards.
By Penn & Teller

I've never seen a tree explode before.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/wonder/l ... spartandhp

This is not a rainbow.

Eagle Vs Drone (Eagle Taking Out a Drone)
Published on Feb 1, 2016

Dutch police have uploaded a video
showing an eagle taking out a drone.

Wouldn't the drone's propellers hurt the eagle's feet?

geckzilla wrote:Wouldn't the drone's propellers hurt the eagle's feet?

It's a small drone. I've been clipped by the rotors of similar ones, and while it stings, that's about it. And an eagle's talons are a lot tougher than my hands.

Given that this was a staged experiment, I would hope that consideration was given to possible damage, and ruled out.

Depending on the materials and speed at which they rotate I could see some merely stinging while others might potentially sever digits. Last year near here some guy was hit in the neck or head with a model helicopter prop and bled out right there in a freak accident.

Edit: Corrected a detail and link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/nyreg ... -park.html

geckzilla wrote:Depending on the materials and speed at which they rotate I could see some merely stinging while others might potentially sever digits. Last year near here some guy was hit in the neck or head with a model helicopter prop and bled out right there in a freak accident.

Sure, the bigger drones are increasingly dangerous. But the one in the video is pretty small, with fairly flimsy plastic rotors and fairly low torque motors. I'm not surprised that it represents little threat to an eagle.

Yeah, but if the idea is to train the eagle to take out drones operated in the "wild" then it could easily encounter one of the bigger ones and not just the flimsy little one in the testing arena.

geckzilla wrote:Yeah, but if the idea is to train the eagle to take out drones operated in the "wild" then it could easily encounter one of the bigger ones and not just the flimsy little one in the testing arena.

Was that the idea? It wasn't clear to me what the idea was. I'm pretty sure that law enforcement already is perfectly capable of disabling drones via much more effective (electronic countermeasure) techniques. This experiment seems more useful for studying eagle behavior than for managing drones.

Apparently: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor ... ice-video/

geckzilla wrote:Apparently: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor ... ice-video/

Seems pretty crazy. I'm going to guess this approach isn't going to be widely adopted.

Chris Peterson wrote:

geckzilla wrote:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor ... ice-video/

Seems pretty crazy. I'm going to guess this approach isn't going to be widely adopted.

I would think that an eagle would, instinctively, not attack flying prey larger than itself.

This is training though, not instinct. Do X, get food.

Of course they could always use a Swiss version that's safer and easier for the eagle to grab.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/wonder/a ... spartandhp

Ever wonder why the Leaning Tower of Pisa is askew?

Here's why.
Ann

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolog ... spartandhp

Has anyone ever theorized fusion in space? Our sun has and it seems to work fine. Guess we will have to wait and see.

Maybe dark energy or plasma physics will get us over the wall.