Curiosities for Artists and Engineers

Augmenting the USA Health Insurance Market Universal Healthcare Supporters of Universal Healthcare understand it as the best solution to provide basic healthcare to the entirety of the population. Universal Healthcare is a great idea. It requires the political commitment of the nation as a whole -- a condition that has not been forthcoming in the United States and doesn't appear forthcoming anytime soon. This approach herein is not to replace the goal of Universal Healthcare, nor is it to replace the current private healthcare system, but to provide a means that would work in the present-day United States to provide more distribution of healthcare and healthcare security. It is an approach that can be used to encourage Universal Healthcare while allowing coverage during the transition to fullest Universal Healthcare coverage. Insurance Risk  Insurance works when you can look at risk abstractly and insure probable known risk rather than known book-keeping risk. This is the c...

Logistics-Oriented Spacecraft The project I'd like to see NASA perform is the reconstruction of an identical expedition judiciously applying efficiencies without fundamentally changing the equipment. New generations of these successful platforms could be created and deployed at a lower cost than the original. Minor improvements could be applied to to the equipment provided certain guidelines are maintained: The change increases efficiency, quality, or reduces weight. The changes are contained within constraints of interchangeable sub-assemblies, meaning changes are forward and backward compatible. This is to improve maintainability in space. Sub-assemblies are encouraged to be consistent with sub-assemblies in other projects. The planning scope would contain new projects, sure, but not all new projects would need to be "new". The planning missions could take a more modular approach with an overall equipment strategy based on a known base of designs. Example:...

Introduction I do not conclude that black holes being a mathematical singularity is the same thing as saying the black hole is a singularity. The notion of   information   being   lost   in a black hole is a necessary truism perhaps because the observer cannot tell the difference. Within the black hole, there is structure that can affect the observation from the outside. That is information within the black hole may change the shape of the black hole in such a way that information can escape. From Wikipedia: A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing—not even particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from inside it. The definition of a black hole rests on the effects of the observer to witness what is occurring within, which is that light and particles cannot escape at the time of the observation. This is not the same thing as what is in the black hole. Thought When two si...

I learned this game a while ago as a great way to break the ice. You probably know it, the Knights at King Arthur's Round Table. A game of puns. I thought I'd share for artists and engineers alike: Who are the Knights at King Arthur's Table? There are many Knights who have sat with King Arthur. Fighters, writers, doctors, and lay-abouts. There are great warriors. The one who never loses a battle is Sir Vival. Far and away a better fighter than Sir Render, though less confident then Sir Ten and less loyal than Sir Yessir. Sir Ration will only fight with a knife. Sir Cumnavigate commands the long trips in the Royal Navy. Who is the doctor at King Arthur's Round Table? It's Sir Jen. She is often assisted by Sir Lancelot specializing in boils. Also in the practice is Sir Vex who works with women. Sir Jen can't do much for Sir Peas who has had so many cold sores no one understands him over his lisp. Cooking and feasts are a major function around the round ...

Printer To Minimize Ink Costs by using the cheapest ink source Goal Much of the expense of operating printers is in the cost of the ink. The little cartridges can cost $20, $30, $40 dollars each for ink jet cartridges and more for toner cartridges. The printers are themselves are close to free in exchange for the future revenues on ink cartridges. Solution: more a micro-mechanical solution to utilize a much cheaper source of ink – standard desk pens. The user will provide the pens they have available. These may be from Staples’ in the 20 for $5 sale, or from the hotel desk, or Sharpies. Print and image quality is not required to be as high. By manual experiments, legible 8pt type is believed to be attainable. A typical Sharpie may not be able to achieve 8pt type. The calibration of the printer would recognize what printing capability is available, and adjust accordingly. High-Level Description of System The standard ink-jet printer consists of a cartridge that passes across ...

The Goals The Shadow Telescope's purpose is to improve the precision of existing land-based and orbital telescopes at measuring the sizes of stars. Greater precision in the measure of star sizes will lead to greater precision in the measurement of planets circling stars. The primary focus is on stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. The action is to construct and operate a visual occlusion target of known size and location between the object observed, and the observer. The Filter Mask Blotting out light is not a new process in astronomy. To remove the affects of bright stars in the foreground, masks are created and inserted in the line of light that is entering the telescope allowing the light from dimmer stars to be visible. The Shadow Telescope is unique in that it's purpose is not to blot out the whole star, but only a known, precise portion of the star. By subtracting of a known portion of light from the star, the size, distance, and mass ratios of the star can be calcula...