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And that "greybeard" was Carl Sagan
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can you imagine the QA on that build?
captcha: damn um
sums it up
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Oh man, the mental image of watching engine blocks FLY through the air in a beautifully orchestrated game of robot catch gave me a good laugh. Oh if only one of them had a camera to record it, it would be an instant hit on youtube!
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I think I made this in Garry's Mod once.
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An instant classic and one of my all time favorites!
Beautiful lead into some meeting for why we need OSHA.
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I call 100% BS. Tossing an engine block 100'? No way. Reliably catching said engine block? No way. Having a robot strong enough to hurl an engine block 100'? No way. Having a robot strong enough to absorb the kinetic energy of an engine block hurled 100'? No way. Having an unqualified operator figure all this out on the fly as a correction to a broken conveyor belt problem? Not bloody likely. Sheesh.
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This guy must've been poached by Aperture Science.
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I call shenanigans
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Yeah, I don't buy this for one second.
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Still a cool story, even if very likely fabricated.
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Cave Johnson here. I see no problem with this solution. Science isn't about why, it's about why not. You ask: why is so much of our science dangerous? I say: why not marry safe science if you love it so much.
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I was waiting for the part where he ties her to the wall and aims the throwing robot at her, and letting the line run again for a while. Not every story can have a happy ending, I suppose.Naturally, he would have achieved release by way of her body - whether you want to image before or after is up to you. Before would be nice because then he could thoroughly violate her before she died and she'd be there to experience it, kind of like raping her soul. But if he did it after, it would be like raping her memory; difficult choice.
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The real WTF is your link to Penguicon is a 404...
lk: Thanks for the spot. I blame the robots.
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You had me at, "ties her to the wall."
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Indeed.
Going back to first principles of ballistics, assuming a perfect 45 degree launch angle (required to achieve maximum range) and a vacuum in the factory (to remove air resistance from consideration), the minimum launch speed on the Earth's surface is a smidgeon under 39 mph. Dealing with practicalities like the 50'-high arc this implies and the presence of air will significantly increase the necessary speed, and you can quite easily end up with the blocks having to be thrown at around 80 mph.
(Air resistance is significant, more so as the speed increases - a baseball hit at the perfect angle so it just clears the back wall of Vacuum Park will fall short by something like 40-45 feet in normal sea-level air.)
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There is no doubt the story was furiously anonymized, to prevent the identification of the "innocents". Throwing engine blocks 100' seems far fetched ... or is it?
From what I've seen from factory floors, and from what we see here in factory code, there is no limit to human ingenuity. Sure, most of the time it's total garbage, but we believe in 0x5f3759df, so why not in a robotic Greg Maddux?
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I will buy this is a legit story as they don't say "what" engine block. It could be for small planes or even motorcycles. Factor in a small engine block for such items could be a mere 5lbs-50lbs I don't see why not. Also, that weight would only ding a industrial robot arm. Considering he was smart enough to think of a crazy idea like that. I would go with he probably undershot to start with.
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Who could actually believe something like this after the age of 7 ? Publishing something like this..... here ? What happened to you, TDWTF guys ?
Since Lorne Kates semmed quite sane* and intelligent person, the only likely scenario I can imagine is blackmail : do you have ennemies, Lorne ? I guess they have a heavy "file" on you...
Addendum (2011-10-04 09:47): addendum : some assume that the engine is a small one. It doesn't explain how a robot could 1) "catch" it right 2) catch it without damaging it. An engine is not just a stone. It's precision equipment.
Bull-shit.
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look like how car motor factries in america are runing now-a-days
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Anonymized and hyperbolized, but an EPIC story.
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Maybe the engine blocks are for model airplane engines and weigh a few ounces.
Still need to toss them high and fast to make it 100 feet though.
So now I'm thinking, maybe it was 100' in 12" scale, so just 8 or 9 feet or so. And maybe Amalie and the greybeard are really Barbie and Ken Dolls.
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You meke very good point. Me think Lornay Kats is watching too many cartons on TV shows.
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Ye cannae change the laws of physics!
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Edit: Looks like several other people had the same idea while I was busy googling '0x5f3759df'
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Though I would doubt small parts would make a clang sound that could be heard loudly in adjacent rooms...
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Sometimes the editing for anonymity is applied so gratuitously that it ruins the entire story. This is one of those times.
Lorne, you've got a solid writing style, but the details of this story don't pass the sniff test, and if you do the math on them, they're even worse. I hope you'll exercise a little more restraint in the future.
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Now...stop using haked acount, madderhron!
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Tata motor now own landrower and jagar car companies. Which tata are you buying?
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Sucker.
It isn't so much "heavy" as it is "dense". Quality, not quantity.
Ummm-- I mean, I categorically deny this post.
FWIW, these are engine block casings, not engine blocks.
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Yet another reason why union labor is the best choice for building cars.
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Don't tatas come in pairs? That's how they did it when I was a boy...
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Not only is the premise completely unbelieveable (as already noted), the setup read like a really bad campfire ghost story. I was waiting the Viper to come and Vash and Vipe the Vindows.
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Yeah, vid or didn't happen
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The Roman Rule The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAtdsDTt__s
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Video or it didn't happen.
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Tell that to CERN.
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http://www.tatamotors.com/
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I was so totally there during that panel. I feel so special. Woot!
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True or not, it was still a good story to start off my morning.
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In the story that was told at the panel, the blocks were being thrown a great distance. I don't remember if it was 20', 50', or 100', but it was a very large distance, and we were almost questioning how the arms of the robots could fling them so far.
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Annnd another comment, if I remember correctly they were car blocks, weighed somewhere between 50 and 200 lbs (this was months ago, details get fuzzy), and the arms were rated for around two tonnes. So you can do the math if you wish.
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Why this fixation on distance as the accurate part in this "names are changed to protect the guilty" story.
instead of "how fast does a engine block need to be thrown to reach 100 feet?" ask "given the size robot needed to inspect engine blocks, how far can it throw it?"
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