• ReiVaX18 (unregistered) in reply to Veinor
    Veinor:
    snoofle:
    SilverEyes:
    I always wonder why people are insistent that magnetic and infrared fields everywhere can be everything but bad for them?!

    Frist! (well... secnod).

    Um, wait a sec, isn't the Earth enveloped in a magnetic field.... uh oh!

    The earth's magnetic field is 30-60 microteslas. That's pretty weak; a modern high-strength neodymium magnet is about 1 tesla.

    You give a 1T magnet to a kid and wait 10 seconds for an accident to occur. Although it may be worse to give it to an engineer.

  • (cs) in reply to SilverEyes
    SilverEyes:
    I always wonder why people are insistent that magnetic and infrared fields everywhere can be everything but bad for them?!

    Frist! (well... secnod).

    yep, freakin wackos. Go live under some high power electrical lines for 20 years and let me know how that leukemia is working out for your kids!

  • (cs) in reply to A Troll With a Cause
    A Troll With a Cause:
    Zecc:
    Unfortunately, it's available for US shipping only, because in Europe we use incompatible metric helium.
    The metric system is not used only in Europe. The metric system is used EVERYWHERE ON EARTH except in the US.
    Ignoring good old Burma and Liberia, this isn't quite true either: here in Britain, we use an unholy mix. But, just to make things more interesting for people comparing petrol/gas mileage, we use Imperial measures rather than Yank measures. (We sell petrol in litres, but most people my age still convert the result to Imperial gallons.) I'm surprised we don't still use Roman miles, really.

    So, Imperial helium is even more incompatible than metric helium. Anyone who wants to know what Imperial helium might be has clearly never gone to a kiddie party where Darth Vader does his hilarious "Bugs Bunny" impression.

    On a different tack, the headline adverts on this site are getting to be even sillier than the captchas. I've got four: three on quack asthma remedies, and one on magnets. The first asthma remedy states: "What triggers asthma? Beating your head against a wall ..."

    Well, there's a nice simple solution, then. The teddy bear's cute, though.

  • AdT (unregistered) in reply to Veinor
    Veinor:
    The earth's magnetic field is 30-60 microteslas. That's pretty weak; a modern high-strength neodymium magnet is about 1 tesla.

    1 tesla where? At the surface of one of the magnet's poles, I guess, but obviously if the magnet is 4000 miles away, the magnetic flux density will be somewhat lower...

  • James (unregistered)

    One thing nobody mentioned: I didn't even have to look at the bottom of the bear pic to know it was going to be priced in pounds. Only in the UK could they get away with selling magic-talisman bears for kids claiming to protect from all those technological evils. What is it about UK society that allows all these wingnuts to run around proclaiming that they're "sensitive" to EMF/WiFi/power lines/etc, while we here in the US are largely immune?

    For my CAPTCHA bonus, I'm not going to tell you what it was, but simply observe bemusedly that every CAPTCHA I've gotten here for the past month has been cached in my Firefox forms manager already. Heh, I guess I do spend too much time here.

  • Kemp (unregistered) in reply to James

    [quote user="James"]One thing nobody mentioned: I didn't even have to look at the bottom of the bear pic to know it was going to be priced in pounds. Only in the UK could they get away with selling magic-talisman bears for kids claiming to protect from all those technological evils. What is it about UK society that allows all these wingnuts to run around proclaiming that they're "sensitive" to EMF/WiFi/power lines/etc, while we here in the US are largely immune?[quote]

    We get the wierd technology nuts, you get the wierd religious nuts

  • rwessel (unregistered) in reply to Alan
    Alan:

    Re: An Asthmatic in the Amazon 2007-07-24 03:56 • by Alan

    Jon:
    I have a great idea: vacuum bubblewrap. It weighs even less than the helium and hydrogen stuff!

    It's not a totally crazy idea. If you can get a structure strong enough to contain a vacuum without collapsing, yet light enough so the total volume displaces enough air - then you have an airship. In fact, it may be easier to do on a smaller scale, what with nanotechnology and all, so vacuum bubblewrap may be feasible.

    Damn, I have said too much - races to patent office

    Unfortunately there's prior art. Francesco Lana de Terzi designed an airship using that principal in 1670...

    [image]
  • Alan (unregistered) in reply to rwessel
    rwessel:
    Alan:

    Damn, I have said too much - races to patent office

    Unfortunately there's prior art. Francesco Lana de Terzi designed an airship using that principal in 1670...

    Yes, but I am Scottish, and we are really good at bribing patent officials.

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