"A whole new world..."

With the appropriately Disney image of Aladdin and Jasmin singing to each other on a magical flying carpet firmly lodged in your brains - to business!

I have come to accept that technology is cool. super cool. Uber cool. etc. And I love it. I love it like a puppy loves a sock, like a pelican loves fish, like a fat man love burgers. Fascination abounds with child-like intrigue as each new item brings a mental cry of "shiny, SHINY!".

So.

Henceforth, I shall hereby focus the entries to be found herein on the ever widening field of technology. Let the blogs begin!

With the War in Iraq going on strong, the various military departments around the globe are feverishly working to develop the next best thing. The US Department of the Navy has done just that. Straight from the pages of your favorite sci-fi novel, I give you - THE RAIL GUN!



Arnold Schwarzenegger movies aside, the Rail gun is not yet in production. This test shows the gun operating at only 1/3 power! The basic principles are these: A rail gun uses electrical power, passed through a conductive projectile to generate a magnetic field. The magnetic field generated by the projectile acts perpendicular to the field generated by the two rails on either side of it basically causing the two magnetic fields to push against each other like two champion Sumo wrestlers and accelerate the projectile several times faster than the speed of sound.

The projectile is a solid slug with no explosive or combustible materials used. The flames you see in the video are roughly equivalent to the flames you see around meteors as they enter the atmosphere (the air itself is burning due to the friction caused by the projectile moving so damn fast!). The explosion is caused by the dissipation of kinetic energy when the projectile hits its target. This test fired the 3 1/2 Kg projectile at roughly 5,640 mph or 8,270 feet per second (a little more than Mach 7, though my math could be off)!

This gun is projected to be capable of firing a projectile over 200 miles to hit a target of 5 meter diameter. Imagine being able to shoot something 66 times past the horizon (given that the horizon at sea level is 3 miles away) - that's like being in New York and shooting something in DC! Or being in London and shooting something in Paris! (finally!)

Just insane - very cool though!

More video:

Two men are in a public restroom...

There is a joke that goes something like this:

Two enlisted guys are in a public restroom, one is Army the other Navy. When they have finished at the urinals, the Army guy goes to wash his hands while the Navy guy heads for the door. The Army guy says, "In the Army they teach us to wash our hands after pissing" to which the Navy guy responds, "In the Navy they teach us not to piss on our hands".

At the risk of turning this into a blog about bathrooms, why do people not wash their hands after visiting the porcelain throne? Whether there for #1 or #2, billions of bacteria are transfered to your hands each time you visit the restroom - bacteria that you're passing on to friends and colleagues. Experiences they may not be willing to share with you will be shared regardless with no concern for people or property.

I rant on this topic after watching a fellow employee use the bathroom and leave with nary so much as a glance at the wash facilities. I know the individual as a passing acquaintance, but am dreading being officially introduced to the man... what happens if he puts out his hand? Should I avoid shaking it while desperately trying to keep my lunch from making a repeat performance? Should I shake then immediately excuse myself to wash my hands? Tough call... What would you do?