Raytheon (Kinetic Energy) Rods

Raytheon has an interesting idea for removing landmines from battlefields, rice fields, and the village minefield. It really is an original and potentially effective approach to this particular problem.

Each rod has a flared rear end, like the feathers of an arrow, and hundreds can be packed into a single cylindrical shell. This shell can be lobbed into a mined area and just before impact a charge behind the arrows will fire them downwards. The metal flights will keep the arrows on a straight course so that they pepper the area at high velocity and at regular spaces.

Tests show that a shell containing hundreds of arrows can wipe out every mine in an area several metres square, even when the mines are buried under sand or under nearly a metre of water. GPS can also be used to guide the shells into overlapping patches in order to safely clear a wide area.

Now then, who thinks that this could be an extremely bad idea? Think about it. Embedding hundreds of metal arrows in the ground in small areas would never pose problems that are essentially the same as the minefield itself. I think that the only detail is that there wouldn’t be any explosive dismemberment, just tetanus and lock-jaw.

Link

Sidewalk Equation

I was walking back from lunch today, and I noticed something. People, like ideal gases, have the tendency to expand to fill a given container or sidewalk in this case. Upon further consideration, I realized that inconsideration and the number of people were not the sole determinants in the percentage of the width of the sidewalk that the group occupies. There are other factors at work, such as temperature, pressure, and the relationship coefficient.

Thus, I came up with an equation. The general form is as follows



Where W, the percentage of the sidewalk, is equal to the average width of the members of the group, w, times the number of people, n, times the air temperature, T, in Kelvin divided by 294 Kelvin (that is the minimum temperature to be comfortable at). That quantity divided by the quantity P, pressure (defined as urgency or stress which is time of day in seconds, to (hour*3600 + minutes*60), plus one, divided by the time they are supposed to be somewhere in seconds, t (hour*3600 + minutes*60) plus one. Times the relationship coefficient (defined as the number of people in the group, n, divided by the number of people in the group involved with each other, n sub r, plus one)

Thus, the specific form is:



This formula only applies to temperatures greater than zero, because there is no good reason to be outside if it is absolute zero.

How to interpret the results:
• If W is greater than 1, then the group will take up the entire sidewalk and be forced to split into rows.
• If W is less than .2, then they are likely to be in a hurry, alone, or nice, and will thus not pose much of an obstacle.
• If W is less than or equal to zero, then you’re an idiot and used negative people, time, or said people were infinitely thin or alive at absolute zero.

Concurrent Resolution 0001

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
STATING PERSONAL FINDINGS AND CONDEMMING JARED AND JERUSHA HESS AND THE CITY OF PRESTON FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE MOVIE "NAPOLEON DYNAMITE."

WHEREAS, I hate Napoleon Dynamite. I hate Mormonism; and
WHEREAS, this Concurrent Resolution of the State of Idaho provokes the desire for violence and bloodshed;
WHEREAS, I'm in shock that a legislative body has enough time to waste on such a resolution; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the entire legislature of IDAHO should be dragged into the street and shot.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all those invovled in the production of the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" suffer a similar fate.

The Legend of...

Today in Programming Aaron suggested this cool idea for my hall's logo. It makes me extremely happy. I miss having random projects like this to work on. Theoretically, we will print this up on t-shirts for everyone (plus Lynn and Aaron).

Explanation: I live on the Zerbe (campus heath clinic) side of the Memorial dorm on the second floor. The logo is clearly a rip off of the Legend of Zelda.