Good points, Tool maker. I believe you say it all in your first paragraph. Given two opponents with equal determination and commitment, technology wins.
Rob I normally do not like to comment on references to wars, but you touched a sore spot here. For a war to be won; first tehr must be a clear cut objective and then there must be either an adversary willing to admt defeat or the total anihilation one side. I do not care if it is sticks against bombs, if the sticks are willing to wait long enough, centuries even, eventually the bombs will tire of the effort, declare victory and go away.
Guerilla tactics cannot win a war, it can merely prolong it until the other side tires of the exercise. Robert E. Lee saw that when he commanded the south to drop their weapons and go home, rather than continue to fight on a guerilla basis.
The anihilation tactic was evident in WW II. The Japanese had vowed to fight to "the last man" and the US demonstrated not only the ability, but perhaps even the willingness to kill the last man when Truman ordered the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Only then did the Japanese government call an end to hostilities.
The reason for the ineveitable outcomes in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan is because there are factions in each that are/were willing to wait as long as necessary while random bombings, suicide attacks and various similar tactics break down the will of the outsider's populace to support the activity.
My goodness, Ann. That's an impressive development. So potentially, a robotic earthworm could be created that would mimic two major aspects of an earthworm: the ability to burrow underground and the ability to process underground material into rich earth.
I'm not so sure that making topsoil from trash is a joke. A couple of different microbes have been discovered that can or have the promise to, digest plastic and make it compostable. Theoretically, armed with some kind of delivery mechanism, robotic earthworms could then make that idea a reality.
I understand, Ann. I'm just surprised the concept is getting tossed around. That proposed idea is an interesting application for robotic earthworms. I would certainly guess the notion of it making topsoil from trash is a joke. But who knows, it might show up sometime as a trash mining apparatus.
I thought you'd like these. Of course, a prediction isn't by any means a set of schematics, but it will be interesting to see if anyone takes them up on that idea and starts working on one.
That's pretty good, Ann. Forecast number four is robotic earthworms. My goodness. They take it a step further, having the robotic earthworms digest the trash to make topsoil. That's great.
OK, Rob, you got me curious. Wouldn't you know, there's a combination of predictions from the World Future Society about robotic earthworms for landfills to help with biodegradability and extracting metals and plastics (Forecast #4--the whole list is interesting):
I agree about the serendipity of Lawrence's death, a freak accident after everything he had lived through. What a tragedy. I think Korda's book is an exceptionally good read and covers a lot of history in the process. Since Lawrence was busy making that history, that's not hard to do in a biography of him.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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