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unixronin: Galen the technomage, from Babylon 5: Crusade (Default)
Unixronin

December 2012

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March 15th, 2005

unixronin: A somewhat Borg-ish high-tech avatar (Techno/geekdom)
Tuesday, March 15th, 2005 06:01 pm

A pair of British engineers have come up with an instant, permanent, inflatable building in a bag that they call Concrete Canvas -- just add air and water.  (Well, OK, not really instant, it takes 12 hours to cure.)  A 500lb package turns into a 16m2 (172ft2) building, for around $2,100, about twice the cost of a tent the same size ($1,150) or a quarter of the cost of a comparable rigid shelter such as a Portakabin or Nissen hut (almost $8,000).  It can be erected by unskilled labor, can be hydrated using non-potable water, and can even be delivered sterile for use as a field OR.  A relief mission can arrive at a disaster site in the afternoon, have buildings erected and curing by sundown, and have a field hospital ready to start accepting patients the next morning.