Saturday, October 26, 2002

It turns out the US Patent Office intends to destroy a huge amount of original patent art. http://www.edisonsark.org/index.htm The digital reproductions they intend to use are lame. This would be a huge artistic and historical loss. 9:21:55 AM     A few days ago the challenge of imaging a lunar module from the Earth was implied. Gregg commented that a 100 meter telescope might do the trick and a back of the envelope calculation suggests that such a monster, assuming it had state of the art active atmospheric distortion correction, would be just sufficient. If you were interested in lesser game - say the shadow of the lander at local dawn or dusk - a much smaller telescope would do. That brings up an interesting question. What can be imaged in close proximity - low Earth orbit for example? The objects are often very bright, but tend to move at very high angular velocities. It turns out that a few amateur astronomers are heavily into this challenge. Some nice images of large game (ISS, Mir) can be found at http://www.bullhammer.com/satphotos.htm Some remarkable hand guided images have been made. These are amazing http://www.djcash.demon.co.uk/astro/webcam/spacecraft.htm 7:59:03 AM     A month ago I spent some time with one of the principals of Cyrano Sciences, Guess what they make:) Cyrano is a spin-off of Cal Tech that has come up with a fairly amazing tool for measuring smells. It has a limited domain compared with animal noses, but might be just the ticket for applications ranging from homeland defense to industrial control. http://cyranosciences.com Biological noses are a bit more sophisticated:-) Figuring out how they are wired is interesting and there is a new result. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=0004E938-FE5B-1DB6-94E2809EC5880108 The links are worth exploring. 6:45:42 AM     So here is what the famous sniper used http://www.bushmaster.com/ There is a convenient on-line catalog containing even more macho weapons that are much more accurate than the little 16 inch barrel that was used. I'm sure their sales are going to receive a big boost now that the quality of the firearm has been so well demonstrated. It is interesting to note that the CEO was campaign chair for GW Bush in Maine during the last election, but had to eject when it was learned that he was involved in illegal sales of assault weapons. I'm sure that George will make it up to him and the NRA. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/25/national/25GUN.html It is a strange world where a company tightly linked to the NRA would be called BUSHmaster when Bush presides over a party that takes marching orders from the NRA. It seems reasonable to find some information on the real namesake of Bushmaster - the snake. http://www.searchoutdoortravel.com/WildFile_BUSHMASTER_SNAKE.htm So it inflicts the highest mortality rate of any snake in the Western Hemisphere and relies on stealth and camouflage. Lovely choice of name, although I think the tie-in to a famous politician is even better. 6:45:22 AM

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