May 25, 2005

Chicken-powered nukes

More tales from weird military science along the lines of Project Pigeon.

From Defence Tech comes the answer to this obscure question: "Did the Brits ever make plans for a nuclear landmine, powered by chickens?"

"Conceived during the Cold War, the seven tonne device was the size of small truck and was designed to be buried or submerged by a British Army retreating from Soviet forces. The landmine had a plutonium core surrounded by high explosive and would have been detonated by remote control or timer, causing mass destruction and contamination over a wide area to prevent subsequent enemy occupation.

Scientists working on the project realised that the bomb could fail in winter if vital components become too cold, so they explored ways of keeping the inner workings warm.

One proposal put forward consisted of filling the casing of the nuke with live chickens, who would give off sufficient heat, prior to suffocating or starving to death, to keep the delicate explosive mechanism from freezing. Despite the potential importance of chickens to the project, the mine was codenamed 'Blue Peacock'.

The mines were to be left buried or submerged by the British Army of the Rhine. They would then have been detonated by wire from up to five kilometres away or by an eight-day clockwork time."

In the end, the risk from radioactive fallout would have been "unacceptable", and hiding nuclear weapons in an allied country was deemed "politically flawed". As a result, the Ministry of Defence cancelled Blue Peacock in February 1958.

What were they thinking?

Posted by sdehaast at 08:35 AM

January 28, 2005

EULA's gone crazy

Software licensing agreement gone overboard:

HIGH RISK ACTIVITIES. The Software is not fault-tolerant and is not designed, manufactured or intended for use or resale as on-line control equipment in hazardous environments requiring fail-safe performance, such as in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communication systems, air traffic control, direct life support machines, or weapons systems, in which the failure of the Software could lead directly to death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage.

Accordingly, Licensor and its suppliers specifically disclaim any express or implied warranty of fitness for High Risk Activities.

Sigh.

This, by the way, is for a demo version of an real estate agency software app for managing properties and customer data. I have the feeling this EULA was written explicitly for a version promoted by one of SA's Sunday papers. A case of old media lawyers applying a generic catch all to all things digital. Hope the software company that wrote the app didn't have to pay for this EULA.

Posted by sdehaast at 10:51 PM

December 01, 2004

25 killed as plane skids into cemetery

How bizarre. Not sure if the copy editor meant for it to come out that way.

Reminds me a "Not the 9 o'clock news" skit...

Posted by sdehaast at 10:34 PM

November 27, 2004

Project pigeon

I kid you not.

I came across this while reading a book on design, of all things, and further information from here.

"During World War II, behavorial psychologist B.F. Skinner demonstrated an automatic homing system which would guide a bomb directly to its target.

Skinner's control system used a lens in the nose of the bomb to throw an image of the approaching target on a ground-glass screen. Inside, a pigeon trained to recognize the desired target packed at it with its beak. If the target's image moved off center, the pigeon's pecking tilted the screen, which moved the bomb's tail surfaces, which corrected the bomb's course. To improve accuracy, Skinner used three pigeons to control the bomb's direction by majority rule. According to him, the system was resistant to jamming, simply built, and needed no materials in short supply.

Despite these advantages, the military review board would not let the idea get off the ground."

Posted by sdehaast at 03:08 PM

November 25, 2004

New hobby

I have a new hobby. Collecting linguistic gems from the multitude of 419 scam emails that I get.

Here's today's from Burkina Faso (ja right):
"I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer."

I am truly amazed how many times a year this poor family that has all these unclaimed funds keep crashing into mountains and dying.

Old news but still very funny is scam-the-scammer story.

Posted by sdehaast at 12:39 PM

November 24, 2004

deadpeoplesretrogoods

Saw this today driving past through town. Had such a laugh I had to do a U-Turn and take a photo!

Excuse image quality but taken from phonecam through a dirty windscreen.

Posted by sdehaast at 08:33 AM

November 23, 2004

eBay: Virgin Mary image for sale. Includes free cheese.

UPDATE: Now Jesus in a dental X-Ray

News24 amongst others, reports: A 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich whose maker says bears the image of the Virgin Mary, was sold for $28 000 after one of the most bizarre bidding wars on the auction website eBay.

"I would like all people to know that I do believe that this is the Virgin Mary, Mother of God," Ms Duyser, a work-from-home jewellery designer.

Ms Duyser said she took a bite after making the sandwich 10 years ago and saw a face staring back at her. She put the sandwich in a clear plastic box with cotton balls and kept it on her night stand. She said the sandwich had never sprouted a spore of mold.

...Amazing. So tell me again how we know what the VM looks like?

Can you see the face? Wait and the animation will show you.

UPDATE: Fark.com had a "What if the Mac really was a cult?" photoshop contest. Someone got clever.

Posted by sdehaast at 03:00 PM