Next meeting changed to Thursday May 29th

Since this Friday was short notice, AND is the kickoff to the Memorial Day weekend, how 'bout we shoot for the following week? Also, since Friday's might be more of a relaxation type of day, how about Thursday night, May 29th?

Next Meeting This Friday?

How about if we meet this Friday, 5-22-08? My house?

Would you prefer an evite as done previously, or is a posting like this sufficient?

Feel free to leave comments, or suggest another date.

New Energy

What do you all think of this website? I heard about it last night on Coast to Coast AM, and it seems to detail quite a few new and groundbreaking energy creation techniques.
http://newenergymovement.org/

The show last night was mostly about Nikola Tesla. I particularly liked the part about his "free energy car" that used a box with vacuum tubes to tap into some sort of energy:
http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1062

Sounds a bit like legend, the sort of thing one might fantasize about seeing at, say the Maker Faire or something...

Lifter Links

Here are some of the best links on Lifters that I've found, that seek to scientifically explore, experiment with, and explain Lifter propulsion.

NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics lab seems to have the best official study about Lifters and what makes them function.

Jean-Louise Naudin in France is also one of the main amateur proponents in the world.

New Idea - Google Earth / Wikipedia World History Globe

After watching some history shows about ancient Greece, then playing with Google Earth to figure out where they took place, then looking at Wikipedia to learn more about the events, I suddenly had this idea:

How about a module for Google Earth where you can scroll through history, with a timeline scrollbar on one side, where you can select the start and end dates, and then Google Earth will show you how the Earth looked at the time you scroll to (and change as you scroll).

You could then get the relevant articles in layers from the relevant time period and location. That would really make history come alive! Especially if you could incorporate all the 3-D reconstructions of ancient sites into Google Earth's 3-D buildings feature (or whatever they call it).

Let's Vote On Our Next Meeting Details

Hey guys,

As you can see, the blog's up, with the videos posted and everything.

When you get a chance, take a vote on the next topic - what and when (I guess we can get together at my place again).

For additional comments or suggestion, leave a comment on this post.

Thanks!
-airman

Brain Bash 2 - More Lifter Action

(2/22/08)
On our second meeting, we revisited the lifters, and this time our attendees were:
* Giles
* Josh
* Cliff
* Aaron
* (no Lincoln)

In addition to flying the lifter that had successfully flown previously, we built new ones. Josh built a sturdy one with reinforced corners, Aaron built one entirely out of soda straws, and Cliff experimented with a cylindrical design. Giles explained the workings of his high power amplifier.

Video:


Notable changes from previous flights
One notable change occurred with Giles' power supply; the mosfet was replaced with one that pulsed. This seemed to increase the thrust dramatically, as we had seen mentioned on other websites, but without the capability to measure thrust, we do not yet know quantitatively to what degree this made a difference.

We also tried doubling the length of the tethers, but at this greater height, flight became unstable, and the lifter shorted against either itself or the guitar-stand crane rig (see video), and this blew out the power supply. As a result, no further flights were performed for the evening.

Other Ideas
Other ideas that were talked about included:
* My retro-MIDI box with Roland LAPC-1 and SCD-15 DB cards
BTW, Cliff's suggestion to swap the PS with a more powerful one worked!
* Cliff's Google website project (I'd like to know more!)
* The original project Orion nuclear propulsion concept