Every pedal-powered generator I ever saw used a fixed gear ratio so you couldn’t turn the generator efficiently. Why the heck couldn’t they have added even a 3-speed bicycle gearshift?
You know, the best pedal powered generator would be designed like the Toyota hybrid transmission, so that one generator would control the gear ratio for the other generator while also contributing some power output itself.
One of my buddies has a corrugated (flexible) metal pipe attached to his generator’s muffler. He runs it into a big metal wash tub filled with water to reduce the exhaust noise. (One day, he’s going to suck water back into the exhaust manifold, but that’s a story for another day.) It works very well. He’s often commented that he could probably cook dinner by sealing the food in plastic and submerging it in the water heated by the exhaust. Creeps me out, but I can’t disagree. Seems like the water could also be circulated to some sort of radiator or heating system. (N.B.: The system better be sealed very well because the water is fragrant.)
Apparently Fox tried this a decade or so ago on hockey broadcasts, and the viewers hated it. Nevertheless, at least one half of the technology already exists to create the:
Where The Fuck Is The Ball Button?
Watching a soccer game and your old yes are having a hard time seeing the ball because a) it’s crowded amongst the players’ bodies, b) it’s moving quickly, and c) you’re old and you can’t see for shit? Press the Where The Fuck Is The Ball? button on the side of your remote, and now it’s flashing and highlighted green. One click to stop the flashing but keep it highlighted, two so go back to normal.
Get on it, broadcast networks.
I’d like an airtight space suit for when being out in subzero weather isn’t an option. Wearing a big bulky parka, and not being able to fully zip it up lest sweat accumulate is bull shit. It needs to be light weight with rechargeable batteries for the heating elements and the fan for circulation. The fan would carry hot crotch heat to the extremities. There would be pockets for removeable moisture absorbing crystal packets. The helmet would have a flip up fog resistant face shield and bluetooth.
Just a graphics button would be nice. I would like to watch a game without all the crap that they feel they need to put on the field. I want to watch a game, not a video game.
Really it sounds like 99% of the problem would be solved by moisture absorption. If you had that then the parka could stay fully zipped up. If you have normal circulation than if your body core isn’t chilled it will send heat to the extremities (again, it isn’t that your groin is too hot, it’s that it’s too sweaty).
I know that in actual airtight spacesuits they start with a cooling undergarment because in space heat dispersion is more of a problem than heat retention (extended periods in shadow being the exception). I wonder how they handle the problem that our skins leak water vapor even when we’re shivering.
My space suit would be light weight and non restrictive, so you wouldn’t go out looking like Ralphie’s little brother.
That’s not like any space suit I’ve ever heard of.
In fact we really don’t have much experience with space suits in actual cold environments. Vacuum isn’t inherently hot or cold, and most of the time we’ve arranged for EVA’s to be in sunlight as much as possible; about the only times we haven’t are ~45 minutes at a time in nightside half of Earth orbit. Extended operations in lunar nighttime would be more challenging. Saturn’s moon Titan, with a dense atmosphere chilled nearly to liquid methane temperature and with ethane rain, sounds like it would be the highest heat loss rate of anywhere in the solar system.
I don’t mean NASA space suits. I’m thinking of more like coveralls where the helmet would be attached, so no scarfs and face masks and wind coming in your collar. It wouldn’t look like the Michelin man.
I love it.
Now add a McGuffin mode for when you’re watching a caper!
I had that and at first I didn’t know what it was - even if I had small amounts of blood drawn for a test, I would feel my hands buzzing and get tunnel vision and have to lie down before I fell down. Never got it if I saw my own blood from a cut or injury, only with a needle.
I desensitised myself to it, with the kind help of the blood donation service - first time, I looked away just to make sure it wasn’t a physical reaction to the feel of the needle - I was fine. Next time, I just allowed myself to glance over briefly at the tube after the blood had started being drawn - I was fine. Next time, I looked a bit longer etc, until eventually I could watch the whole process without any reaction.
I have paricipated in medical trials, where I had a long-term catheter inserted into my right arm, which did not bother me. (Three weeks)
But blood… my blood. Other people’s blood doesnt bother me, I can give basic first aid, but my blood is apparently special. Or at least, special to me!
Yeah, it’s weird because a lot of people I mentioned it to, assumed it was a fear thing but it just wasn’t - or at least not at any conscious level - in fact I was curious about watching the blood drawn, but my brain was just like ‘nope’.