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

December 2012

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November 19th, 2008

unixronin: Galen the technomage, from Babylon 5: Crusade (Default)
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 04:09 pm

I just heard it reported on NPR that Al-Qaeda has already begun vilifying Barack Obama.  AlQ's second-in-command apparently released a recording calling Obama "a traitor to the blacks and Muslims of the world", and "a house slave", among other epithets.

This is probably not an auspicious start to his foreign-policy career.  But at least maybe it'll silence the wingnuts who say he's secretly in league with the jihadists.

unixronin: A somewhat Borg-ish high-tech avatar (Techno/geekdom)
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 07:03 pm

No problem!

In developing the design, the Wisconsin team studied other airless tires, like the Michelin "Tweel," but in the end settled on lessons learned from nature.

The patent-pending design mimics the precise, six-sided cell pattern found in a honeycomb and best duplicates the "ride feel" of pneumatic tires, according to the developers.

"The goal was to reduce the variation in the stiffness of the tire, to make it transmit loads uniformly and become more homogenous," said mechanical engineering professor Tim Osswald.  "And the best design, as nature gives it to us, is really the honeycomb."

This particular geometry also does a great job of reducing noise and heat levels while rolling — two common problems with past models.

Costs per tire are expected to be the same or less than current units.  Delivery is anticipated for 2011.

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