AIUI, your concern is the astronauts are on a one-way trip to deep space as they fly past the conic base
My concern is they get ketchuped by the G-forces as their ship makes the square corners necessary to have a closed orbit along the conic base.
Two very different reasons for astronaut recruiting to be difficult. But both equally difficult.
Who’s to say which of us is right? Or perhaps there’s a third interpretation?
You are, of course. There is no spoon base.
“Some people argue that the tension and compression in the human skeleton is technically tensegrity, but it’s missing the defining characteristic: making people say ‘wtf, how is that thing floating?’ when they see it.”
Just to save everyone their googling:
so, it’s like one of those floating table designs? Is that it?
Exactly
Neat! I’ve never seen one of these before.
First time I saw one, I certainly said “WTF? How is that thing floating?”
It does look rather like one of these.
It’s a little-appreciated fact that tensegrity is almost completely what supports our spines; the vertebrae do not simply load onto the ones below them in compression like a stack of blocks. Rather, the muscles, tendons and ligaments attached to the processes of the vertebrae convert the vertical load into tension; the discs between the vertebrae primarily are cushioning. A highly stylized view of how it works is shown here:
That’s eye-opening. Largely for what it suggests about core body muscular strength and spinal health. Yowza! Get weak and get f**ked.
Thank you!
Yes! Thank you. Now, I understand why my orthopedist recommended yoga, and why my back is doing much better.
That is remarkably more wholesome than where my mind was immediately drawn.
Not long ago I stumbled across a medieval torture device I’d never heard of before: the Scavenger’s Daughter. It’s essentially the opposite of the rack; instead of stretching you apart, it folds you into a ball until you squish.
Just glancing at that simplified graphic of the spine makes me wince, involuntarily thinking of both of those devices.
was it REALLY a medival torture device?
As far as I understand, a lot of those (e.g. the Iron Maiden) were never used and what we see today are historic reproductions (sorry no quote, might have been debated on the SDMB)
“It’s important to teach yourself to feel responsible for random events, because with great responsibility comes great power. That’s what my wise Uncle Ben told me right before he died; he might still be alive today if only I’d said rabbit rabbit that year!”
“We’re going to need to modify the surface to mount it on the test stand. Which ocean basin do you like the least?”
“I wanted to make the world’s fastest yawl, so I made the aft sail bigger, but apparently that means it’s not a yawl anymore! It’s a real ketch-22.”
Surely he wrote the alt-text first, and then drew a comic to lead into it.
I’m not sure precisely where he goes off the rails on that one, but kite rig is a real thing. Except not like that: It’s usually one really big kite.
And surprised rotating cylinder and fixed sails aren’t there as interesting forms.
The Flettner rig is a rotating cylander
Yep, and is mentioned in explain XKCD (along with the “realness” of each one)
Brian
anti ninja?