Does E = mc² or mc³? The Science in Bond Films Thread

RichardTheBruce

Thunderfinger wrote: »

Scandinavian flick? What, because it gets slippery here, perhaps?

Scandinavian flick

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_flick

The Scandinavian flick, Finnish flick, pendulum turn, or Scandi flick is a technique used in ice racing and rallying. The technique induces oversteer using weight transfer to carry a vehicle through a turn while simultaneously reducing speed.

Origin of the name
Beginning in the 1960s, Scandinavian rally-car drivers popularized the technique. The "flick" part comes from the technique of "flicking" the wheel in a direction opposite of the turn to build up angular momentum.

Technique
Scandinavian flick mechanics
Approaching along the inside of an upcoming turn, the driver steers sharply towards the outside of the turn, then lifts off the throttle and lightly applies the brakes. This causes weight transfer that rotates the car toward the outside of the turn. Then, steering into the turn and releasing the brake pedal while applying full throttle will cause the car to rotate into the corner. Towards the corner exit, the driver may countersteer to control the oversteer. When properly executed this technique neatly lines the car up for the exit while maintaining momentum.

Contemporary usage
Since the 1990s, most cars produced have been front-wheel drive which are prone to understeer. This makes a vehicle stable at high speed but requires larger steering inputs near the limits of adhesion, especially on low-grip surfaces. Skilled drivers are able to use a maneuver similar to the Scandinavian flick, though with less steering input and control the possible slide by using opposite lock.

The ability of a vehicle to handle sudden changes in direction at high speeds without sliding or rolling over is assessed through the so-called moose test. This scenario occurs when the driver is trying to avoid an obstacle (ostensibly a moose, or any other large animal that may appear on the road) in his or her lane and then returning to the lane to avoid oncoming traffic. The succession of sharp turns in opposite directions combined with lifting off the throttle is exactly how the Scandinavian flick is performed. Since the technique is used at race speeds, it's not normal for a vehicle to start a slide while driving at road speeds.

This technique is commonly used in ice-racing in North America and Europe (e.g. the Andros Trophy). On loose surfaces, contemporary rally drivers tend to rely more on left-foot braking for directional control in cornering FWD cars.

Official usage
This technique is taught by some countries in the Scandinavian/Nordic regions during basic driver training. It may also be taught in the UK for professional drivers (e.g. police, emergency medical response, military) who may be required to drive on snow tires in ice/snow conditions, as a vehicle can behave differently and require different driver skills in winter conditions.[citation needed]

Cultural references
It is frequently used by former racing driver Tiff Needell on the motoring programme Fifth Gear and previously during his time as a presenter on the television show Top Gear.

It was also used in the reboot of Top Gear, in which Richard Hammond tried to achieve the Scandinavian flick whilst cornering in his "lightweight, mid-engined" Suzuki Super Carry. The result was a less than spectacular roll-over to its side. Additionally, it is featured on Top Gear in an episode in which James May hones his rally skills with Mika Häkkinen in the woods and snowy landscape of Finland.

Scandinavian flick mechanics

Scandinavian flick, showing a car
entering at the bottom of the image

See also:
Drifting (motorsport)
Left-foot braking
Moose test
Opposite lock

CommanderRoss

Thunderfinger wrote: »

Scandinavian flick? What, because it gets slippery here, perhaps?

Because they're known to be excellent rally drivers.

edti: ah, there's another page. Well, see the above.

Thunderfinger

CommanderRoss wrote: »

Thunderfinger wrote: »

Scandinavian flick? What, because it gets slippery here, perhaps?

Because they're known to be excellent rally drivers.

edti: ah, there's another page. Well, see the above.

Thanks. The two are related.

RichardTheBruce

Yes, racing maneuvers and history I wasn't aware of. They have T-shirts about the Scandinavian Flick.

CommanderRoss

Well, if you want to know why scandinavian rally drivers are legendary, check out this one:

RichardTheBruce

Ski (driving stunt)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_(driving_stunt)

A Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution doing a ski stunt

Skiing is an automotive driving stunt where the car is driven while balanced only on two wheels, either the pair on the driver side or on the passenger side.

The stunt is generally performed by driving one pair of wheels up on a ramp to lift one side of the car. Alternately, the stunt can be done in a vehicle with a high center of gravity (such as a 4x4 or SUV) by turning sharply or at speed. This technique is more dangerous because there is a strong possibility of the vehicle tipping completely over. Another technique is to let some air out of the tires that will be on the ground, so that the car can tip more easily, as well as keep its balance better. Once up on two wheels, the car has to be balanced by steering (much as one would when riding a bicycle), which makes it necessary to drive more or less in a straight line. The vehicle used must also be fitted with a lockable differential (common on 4x4s). The stunt was perfected and first performed at the 1964 World Fair by Tonny Peterson of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Famous uses

The stunt has been used in many movies and television series, including Knight Rider, The Dukes of Hazzard, and two of the James Bond movies. The British stunt driver Russ Swift performs this maneuver as part of his shows and has achieved it in a wide range of vehicles including trucks. His son Paul also uses it in his displays and once rolled a Ford Fiesta whilst attempting to drive around Cardiff's Millennium Stadium at the Wales Rally GB in 2005.

0:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMBa7eJS914
In the Knight Rider series, KITT had a function button on the dashboard called "Ski Mode" which, when pressed, would cause KITT to drive on two wheels.
0:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_rsiTNCVsQ
0:36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq0u4ImelCg
The stunt was also used by the character Bumblebee in the 2007 Transformers film, in a scene just before the robot changes the exterior disguise from the 1976 Chevrolet Camaro to the 2009 Camaro. In the movie, Bumblebee's retro look is insulted by Mikaela Banes, and Bumblebee stops to eject her and Sam Witwicky from the car. Bumblebee then drives off and skis on two wheels past a 2009 Camaro that drives by and scans it. Bumblebee then returns moments later to Sam and Mikaela, surprising the two, as the newer version of the car.
1:14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhzGVFaOZLM
It is also featured in the film Transporter 3 to ski between two semi trucks in an escape bid by the film's main characters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TOFjtr7wgs
The stunt is featured prominently in M.I.A.'s music video for Bad Girls.
1:48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uYs0gJD-LE
It is also featured in the 1985 film D.A.R.Y.L. - Daryl is driving in a car chase to escape from the army.
2:36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uYs0gJD-LE

Gallery
Two wheel driving at Scott May's Daredevil Stunt Show, Musselburgh, Edinburgh
Red Bull soap box rally Stockholm Sweden July 2011
Grand Prix van Nederland, het rennersveld stuntrijden Simca, 1964
BMW E36 in competition, 2009
Toyota V6 HiLux Heroes at the Royal Easter Show, 2011

See also:
Wheelie
Sidewall Skiing

References
David Freiburger (March 2011). "How to Drive on Two Wheels - Sidewall Skiing". Hot Rod Magazine.
http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/general/hrdp_1103_how_to_drive_on_two_wheels/viewall.html
Phil Berg (January 2012). "How To: Drive a Car on Two Wheels". Car and Driver.
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-to-drive-a-car-on-two-wheels-feature

Car and Driver:

RichardTheBruce

Wheelie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelie

In vehicle acrobatics, a wheelie, or wheelstand, is a vehicle maneuver in which the front wheel or wheels come off the ground due to sufficient torque being applied to the rear wheel or wheels, or rider motion relative to the vehicle. Wheelies are usually associated with bicycles and motorcycles, but can be done with other vehicles such as cars, especially in drag racing and tractor pulling.

History
The first wheelie was done in 1890 by trick bicyclist Daniel J. Canary, shortly after modern bicycles became popular. Wheelies appear in popular culture as early as 1943, as U.S Army motorized cavalry are pictured in Life magazine performing high speed wheelies. Daredevil Evel Knievel performed motorcycle acrobatics including wheelies in his shows. Doug "The Wheelie King" Domokos has accomplished such feats as a 145-mile (233 km) wheelie.

Types
Types of wheelie can be divided into two broad categories:

1. wheelies in which the vehicle power is sufficient by itself, as described in the Physics section below. These include:

• Clutch wheelies: performed by revving the engine with the clutch disengaged, and then abruptly engaging (a.k.a. dumping) the clutch.
• Power wheelies or roll-on wheelies: performed by simply opening the throttle. If the engine has sufficient power, it will be able to lift the front wheel.

2. wheelies performed with the aid of suspension dynamics or rider motion. These include:

• Bounce wheelies or slap wheelies: performed by opening and closing the throttle in time with suspension rebounding, tire rebounding, rider motion, or any combination of the three.
• Manuals: performed without applying torque to the rear wheel at all, but instead by moving the rider's body backwards relative to the bike, and then pulling back on the handlebars near the end of available travel.

Bicycles
Wheelies are a common stunt in artistic cycling and freestyle BMX. The bike is balanced by the rider's weight and sometimes use of the rear brake. A style of bicycle, the wheelie bike, has a seating position, and thus center of mass, nearly over the rear wheel that facilitates performing wheelies.

Motorcycle
wheelie In india
A wheelie is also a common motorcycle stunt. The principle is the same as the bicycle wheelie, but the throttle and rear brakes are used to control the wheelie while a rider uses body weight and the steering to control the direction the inertia of the spinning front wheel acting as a balance.

The world's fastest motorcycle wheelie record is 307.86 km/h (191.30 mph) by Patrik Furstenhoff. April 18, 1999. The world record for the fast wheelie over 1 km (0.6 mi) is 343.388 km/h (213.371 mph), set by Egbert van Popta at Elvington airfield in Yorkshire, England.

In some countries, such as the United Kingdom and USA, motorcyclists performing a wheelie on a public road may be prosecuted for dangerous driving, an offense which can carry a large fine and a ban of a year or more.

In Pakistan, India, and some other countries, it is illegal to perform these kinds of stunts. If someone is caught performing these acts, the rider can have their motorcycle impounded and potentially face jail time.

Automobiles
Wheelies are common in auto- or motorcycle drag racing, where they represent torque wasted lifting the front end, rather than moving the vehicle forward. They also usually result in raising the center of mass, which limits the maximum acceleration. In the absence of wheelie bars, this effect is quantified in the physics section below. If wheelie bars are present then a wheelie results in a reduction of load on the rear driving wheels, along with a corresponding reduction in friction.

Snowmobiles
Wheelies are possible with some snowmobiles, whereby it is the skis that are lifted off the ground.

Wheelchairs
Some wheelchair users can learn to balance their chair on its rear wheels and do a wheelie. This enables them to climb and descend curbs and maneuver over small obstacles. Occasionally wheelchair dancers perform wheelies.

Wheelie bars
Wheelie bars help prevent a vehicle's front end from raising too high or flipping over. Wheelie bars are required for some tractor and truck pull events. Wham-O developed and sold an add-on wheelie bar for wheelie bikes.

Dougie's Wheelie
On September 25, 2016, British trials motorcyclist Dougie Lampkin successfully wheelied around the Isle of Man TT course. He completed the challenge in one hour and 35 minutes, after the attempt was postponed 24 hours because of strong winds.

Physics
A wheelie is imminent when the acceleration is sufficient to reduce the load borne by the front axle to zero. The conditions for this can be calculated with the so-called "weight transfer equation":

where is the change in load borne by the front wheels, a is the longitudinal acceleration, is the center of mass height, is the wheelbase, and is the total vehicle mass.[21][22]

An equivalent expression, which does not require knowing the load borne by the front wheels nor the total vehicle mass, is for the minimum longitudinal acceleration required for a wheelie:

where g is the acceleration due to gravity, b is the horizontal distance from the rear axle to the center of mass, and h is the vertical distance from the ground to the center of mass. Thus the minimum acceleration required is directly proportional to how far forward the center of mass is located and inversely proportional to how high it is located.

Since mechanical power can be defined as force times velocity, in one dimension, and force is equivalent to mass times acceleration, then the minimum power required for a wheelie can be expressed as the product of mass, velocity, and the minimum acceleration required for a wheelie:

Thus the minimum power required is directly proportional to the mass of the vehicle and to its velocity. The slower a vehicle is moving, the less power is required to perform a wheelie, and that is without even considering the power required to overcome air drag, which increases with the cube of velocity. Therefore, the least amount of power required is when the vehicle begins accelerating from rest.

In the case of tractor and truck pulling, the force to the pull the load is applied above the ground, and so it also acts to lift the front wheels and thus reduces the forward acceleration necessary to lift the front wheels.

The total power P required during a wheel, neglecting air drag can be shown to be:

where m is vehicle with mass, k is the vehicle radius of gyration, and are distance from rear wheel contact patch to center of mass, is horizontal acceleration, is horizontal velocity, is angle of vehicle from horizontal, is angular velocity of vehicle rotation, and is angular acceleration of vehicle rotation. This can be separated into components necessary only for horizontal acceleration

and components necessary only for raising and rotating the vehicle

A factor M can be calculated as the ratio of the power required to raise and rotate the vehicle and the power required only for horizontal acceleration.

See also:
Bicycle and motorcycle dynamics
Ski (driving stunt)
Stoppie
Weight transfer

RichardTheBruce

https://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Stunty-Driving-Revised-4.jpg

CommanderRoss

Has it ever been done with normal, not reinforced cars? Ilaways think my own wouldn't even get up on the first part, with the impact of the wheels on the upcoming road. And if that would go ok, those landings look like they either take the front bumper off, or the exhaust from underneath. Thos shock absorbers must be made stronger.

RichardTheBruce

Ramp Jump

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RampJump

Evel Knievel demonstrating the trope in Real Life.

[Graphic description, failed jump.]

" So one afternoon, he set out to jump ten milk
trucks. He nailed the take-off, but when he landed,
something terrible happened. His front tire exploded
like a cannonball, and his handle bars went straight
through his head. Blood was everywhere. His teeth
were ground down to a powder, and the front of his
face exploded out the back of his skull. He died
instantly... the next day."

— Rod Kimble, Hot Rod

This is when somebody dramatically jumps over a ravine, river, pit, or other gap by driving a vehicle very fast up a ramp (or something vaguely ramp-like). Often, it's part of a car chase of some sort, with the jumpers either trying to escape somebody, or trying to pursue somebody who took an easier route that's now blocked somehow. People just love to scream "you/we are not going to make it" when that happens. Bonus points if somebody else (especially Lemming Cops) then tries the same jump but fails. If there isn't a ramp handy, you may need to use Ramprovisation.

Unfortunately (as proven by MythBusters), a Ramp Jump is nowhere near as easy to execute as it looks in fiction: The car should ideally land with all four wheels hitting the ground simultaneously, but in Real Life, the vehicle will tend to pitch downwards in flight, causing it to hit the ground nose first (instead of on all fours) with an impact force similar to any other head-on impact: Severe damage to the car's engine and frame (doubly so for sports cars, whose frames are specifically designed to crumple on impact note ), which leaves the car in a more or less inoperable state.

Motorcycles have it a bit easier in this department, as the bike's relatively lighter weight means the rider can shift their center of gravity enough to help avoid the bike tipping over in midair, to ensure a clean two-wheel landing. The professional practice of "loading" helps too — compressing the front springs before takeoff helps keep the bike from tipping over to begin with. However, the risk of landing unbalanced is still very real: Keep in mind just how often professional motocross racers crash, even when they specifically train to make jumps off specifically designed ramps (definitely Don't Try This at Home).

So how do they accomplish such scenes in action movies? With the vehicular equivalent of a Stunt Double, of course! Launch a sacrificial car (even just an empty hull) off the ramp, then quickly cut to a different scene that depicts the heroes (having been launched from a much smaller, safer ramp) making their landing. Nevermind what happens to the stunt car after the cut. If a long shot of the vehicle flying triumphantly through the air is desired, that can also be filmed separately using a third vehicle (launched from a separate ramp under specific conditions). Hollywood movie magic at its finest!

In any case, it's technically possible to set up ramps in such a way that the vehicle can take off and land without tipping over in the process, but this requires some specially contrived setups that you're not likely to see in action-movie scenes involving explosions and high-speed improvisation. But at least it looks undeniably cool, right? Expect to see Slo-Mo Big Air added in for all it's worth.

A Sister Trope to Jump Physics. It can also be tried with horses, as they presumably don't need ramps.

Examples
Anime
Comic Books
Film

The Blues Brothers: Elwood shows off his new car, a retired police cruiser, to Jake by jumping the gap between two halves of a raised drawbridge. Since the car landed on a slope, this one is at least plausible, if still incredibly dangerous.

James Bond does this a fair bit:
In The Man with the Golden Gun, there was a visually impressive corkscrew jump across a river, although for some reason they decided that it just had to be accompanied by a stupid cartoon-style slide whistle sound effect.
Perhaps on purpose, because the originator of the Jump, who refused to ever reveal how it's done, never wanted anyone else to try it. Thus the addition of the slide-whistle would make it seem simply impossible to do.
In A View to a Kill, Bond managed a drawbridge jump in a fire truck while being chased by the cops.
In The Living Daylights, there's a car jump to escape some pursuing Czech guards, some of whom try and fail to emulate the jump in order to follow him.
In Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond jumps from one building to another on a motorcycle... over a helicopter full of bad guys with guns which is hovering in the street... while he's handcuffed to a Chinese secret agent. There is a nod towards reality when Bond asks said agent to move further back to balance the bike. Not much, but...

In Speed, the bus ends up on an unfinished elevated freeway and has to jump across a missing section of it.
The Batmobile they introduce in Batman Begins is an example. Or maybe a subversion. Or exaggeration... it's hard to say. Anyway, its entrance into the Batcave is by jumping across a small chasm through a waterfall, and it has several scenes where it jumps and drives across rooftops. When they first show it, it's explained that it was designed to make a no-ramp jump for crossing rivers with a cable in order to build temporary bridges.
Smokey and the Bandit was the source of the "Reynolds Ramp" phrase. The Bandit jumped over a lake in that movie.
Two cases of ramp jumps demonstrating how badly it screws up cars include Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) (where the car just barely limps in) and Road Trip, where the car doesn't survive the landing. IIRC, the shocks go through the hood of the car.

The movie Spice World has a bus jump across Tower Bridge as it opens.
As does the movie Brannigan.
Im Juli scores extra points for having the jump attempted by a physics teacher who was previously seen putting this exact problem on the blackboard as an exercise. He still fails, because he has only an estimate of the width of the river to go on.
Van Helsing does this with a freaking CARRIAGE. And without even a ramp. But then, it's that sort of film...
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World begins with Jimmy Durante careening along a mountain highway in a '57 Ford and then just...sailing out there. Didn't land well.
The good guys in Der Clown – Payday pull a Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)-style Ramp Jump over a Road Block of police cars. In slow motion, of course. In contrast to most other movies, including Gone in 60 Seconds, their car does a corkscrew in mid-air. In contrast to most cars flying corkscrews, it still runs afterwards! The ramp, by the way, is a piece of helicopter scrap that doesn't budge when a minivan races over it.
In True Lies, the Big Bad motorcycle jumped across from a taller building to a swimming pool of a shorter building to escape from Arnold's character on a horse.
In a variant, the Lamborgini in Cannonball Run III does a ramp jump onto a lake and skips across the surface. Ironically, MythBusters tested this stunt, and discovered that it could work ... but only if you dispense with the ramp, ensuring that the car strikes the water at a very low angle.
The climax of The Soldier (1982) has Ken Wahl leaping the Berlin Wall in a Porsche via a ramp set up by the Israeli Secret Service in a Time for Plan B (he was originally just supposed to drive through Checkpoint Charlie, but got recognized and pursued by a guard). Earlier in the film there's a ski chase where the Soldier uses a snow bank for a jump, then turns in mid-air and machine-guns his pursuer.
The courageous motorbike jump in The Cabin in the Woods fails with fatal consequences when the bike rider hits a Beehive Barrier forcefield sealing off the cabin from the outside world.
Plays a big part in the 1971 Biopic and drive-in classic starring George Hamilton, Evel Knievel, for obvious reasons.
After causing a commotion in a pub, the cast of Happy Birthday to Me hop into their vehicles and drive over a drawbridge that is opening, leading to a series of these. The main character freaks out when the car she is in makes the jump, since it's almost totaled by the drop.
In Razorback, the road to Benny and Dicko's place incorporates a ramp jump. Benny and Dicko, it should be pointed out, are crazy.

Literature
Live Action TV
Pinball
Radio
Theme Parks
Video Games
Webcomics
Western Animation
Real Life

CommanderRoss

At least in TLD the car crashes after the jump, which makes it realistic enough. IIRC the corkscrew was done by perfect math and a driver sitting in the middle. It's amazng they pulled the scene off.

RichardTheBruce

How to Grow Your Own Christmas Tree

https://www.wikihow.com/Grow-Your-Own-Christmas-Tree
Co-authored by Maggie Moran, Horticulturist
Updated: June 20, 2019

A Christmas tree can take a long time to grow - often over a decade. Growing your own Christmas tree can take time but in the end, you will have a greener and more fragrant tree than one purchased at a Christmas tree vendor. Planted Christmas trees are good for the wildlife around the planting site, keep the soil stable, and can be used as mulch once the holidays are over.

Part 1- Selecting and Starting Your Seedling

1 Know when to choose a fir transplant. Firs are popular Christmas trees, as they have a fragrant scent, rich coloring and retain their needles well. Firs grow best on northern or eastern slopes in areas that have cooler climates or higher elevation. There are several types of firs, all with their applicable zone growth areas.[2]

• Fraser Fir: Found in the Appalachians Mountains at high elevations (zones 4-7)
• Douglas Fir: The most popular Christmas tree species in the U.S. (zones 4-6)
• Concolor Fir: Also known as the White Fir (zones 4-7)
• Balsam Fir: This is the best fir for colder climates (zones 3-6)
• Noble Fir: This is the largest native fir in North America (zones 4-5)

2 Go for a pine seedling. Pines tend to grow quickly and can reach a height of 6 to 7 feet within six years as long as they have good growing conditions. They grow best on southern or western slopes. There are several types of pines, including:[3]

• White Pine: This is the tallest native pine species in North America (zones 3-8)
• Virginia Pine: This pine does well in poor soil and has sharp cones (zones 4-8)
• Scotch Pine: This pine has a high reseeding ability and can thrive in poor soil (zone 3-7)
• Sand Pine: This pine is ideal for hot climates (zones 7-10)

3 Consider a spruce transplant. Spruce trees are bright and colorful, but they have prickly needles and tend to lose their needles after a week or two once they are harvested. Spruces grow well on northern or eastern slopes in areas with cooler climates. There are two main types of spruce:[4]

• Norway Spruce: This spruce can be found throughout North America but is native to Europe (zones 2-7)
• Colorado Blue Spruce: This spruce type is known for its blue-green needles (zone 4 to 7a)

4 Go for a Leyland cypress. A non-traditional tree species like the Leyland cypress can create a unique Christmas tree for your home. Leyland cypresses also require very little shaping and can reach 6 to 7 feet tall in four years.[5]

5 Grow the seedling in a pot first. To grow a Christmas tree successfully in the ground, you will need to plant the seedling in a pot in a greenhouse. You can also buy a young seedling at a tree nursery. You will then transplant the tree to the planting site so it grow tall and strong in the ground. You usually want a 2-2 ratio for a tree, which means it spent two years in a seedbed and two years in a transplant.[6]

• You will need to plant the seedling in a potting mixture in a pot. The potting mixture should be made of equal parts peat, vermiculite, and perlite. Add 1/4 tsp lime per gallon of potting mixture but make sure the pH of the soil is around 7 (or neutral). Once the seedling is in the mixture, add fertilizer to the mixture to help the seedling grow. You will also need a fluorescent lamp to heat the seeds. Use a white bulb made for plants so you do not burn the plants with the light.

6 Care for the seedling until it is ready for the planting site. Christmas tree species do not need a lot of water after their first year of growth. Make sure you water the seedling from late spring to early fall once a week during its first year of growth.[7]

• 2-2 transplants are best for spruce and fir seedlings. This means the seedling spends two years in a seedbed and two years in the transplant site. 2-0, where the seedling grows for two years in a seedbed, is best for pine seedlings.

Part 2 - Preparing the Planting Site

1 Get the soil tested. The first step in preparing the planting site is to get the soil tested. You need soil that drains well and that does not contain heavy clay. The soil test will dictate if the site is good for a specific seedling.[8]

• The soil test will also give you a pH for the soil. Some species do well in certain soil pHs, such as Fraser firs, which grow best in well-drained soil with a pH of 6.5 to 6.8.

2 Make sure the planting site has a slope. Christmas tree species do not do well with wet feet or excess moisture in the soil. Having a planting site with a 5% to 20% slope will ensure there is good water drainage and good air for growth.[9]

• You should also ensure the site gets full sun. Some seedling types, such as pines, grow well on south and west slopes. Spruces and firs do well on north and east slopes.

3 Mow the area before planting. Prepare the soil for the seedling by removing any existing vegetation with a mower.[10]

• You may also need to take out any stumps or rocks in the soil with a pickaxe or a shovel. The planting site should be smooth, with no excess vegetation, stumps, or rocks.

4 Plant the transplant seedling on the planting site. Once the planting site is ready, you can plant the transplant seedling on the planting site. Hand plant the seedling using a shovel or an auger.[11][12]

• Dig a hole that is the same depth as the hole the seedling was grown in at the nursery or in the greenhouse. To determine the correct depth, check the trunk of the tree for a noticeable color shift, as this will make the surface level where the seedling was originally grown.
• Place the seedling in the hole and spread the roots carefully and gently. Avoid twisting or screwing the seedling into the hole as this will tangle up the roots, which can kill the tree. Cover up the hole with soil. Give the tree a good watering after the planting.
• If you are planting more than one transplant seedling at a time, make sure the trees are planted in rows eight feet apart, with seven to eight feet between each seedling. This will ensure the trees are not at risk of disease or pest issues.

Part 3 - Cultivating and Harvesting the Tree

1 Water the tree during the dry months or during a drought. Christmas trees require relatively low maintenance after the first year of growth. After the first year of growth, the tree will become established and only require watering during dry months or drought.

2 Maintain the planting site so there are no weeds or grasses. You will need to use a mower to remove any weeds around the tree. You will also need to do careful weed-eating techniques around the trees. Weeds and grasses around the tree can starve the tree of water and nutrients.[13]

• You may want to invest in a weed-killing solution to spread on the soil around the tree. You can use organic weed killers or chemical pesticides.

3 Prune and shear the tree when the needles are ¾-1 inch (1.9cm-2.5cm) long. Pruning and shearing the tree is very important. Do this every year, around mid-summer, after the tree has flushed out its new growth.[14]

• Use pruners or garden shears to shape the tree. Remove any imperfections, such as double tops and any misshapen branches.
• You should limit any pruning during the year you are planning to harvest the tree, as you want to avoid any visible cuts to the exterior branches of the tree.

4 Check if the tree sheds its needles excessively. It is normal for Christmas tree species to shed their needles, usually about 30 percent of their needles every year. But if you notice excessive needle shedding or yellowing needles, these may be signs of a disease or a pest issue.[15]

• You will then need to take steps to eliminate pests that are eating the tree or treat diseases on the tree before you harvest the tree, as you do not want these pests to kill the tree or to enter your home once the tree is harvested. Though it is rare for pests to appear on Christmas trees species, it can happen. The most common pests found on Christmas tree species are the Cinara aphid, the spruce spider mite, and the praying mantis.[16]

5 Harvest the tree within six to nine years. Most Christmas tree species will reach six to seven feet within six to nine years, depending on the growing conditions. You can harvest the tree by cutting it down with a chainsaw or a handsaw.[17]

• For more information on how to cut down or fell a tree, see: How to Fell a Tree https://www.wikihow.com/Fell-a-Tree

6 Cut the tree down during the late fall. You should cut the tree when it is full of moisture, usually during the late fall, so the needles stay green and supple when the tree is displayed indoors.[18]

7 Place the tree in a container with water as soon as it is cut. Make sure you place the tree in water once it is cut to prevent the cut from resealing. If the cut reseals, the tree will not be able to take in water and may not have a very long lifespan.[19]

• You can also harvest the tree early, before Christmas, and then cut a thin slice off the trunk and stick it in water when you are ready to display it for Christmas.

RichardTheBruce

Robbie Gonzalez
Science
12.10.2018 09:00 AM

The Science of Growing a Perfect Christmas
Tree

Is your tree robust to cold? Do its needles cling to their branches? Christmas tree scientists ask
these questions so we don't have to.


Every winter, millions of Americans descend on farms and lots across the country with the express purpose of inspecting, and ultimately choosing from, their local selection of coniferous evergreen trees. I'm talking, of course, about Christmas tree shopping—the widely practiced pastime of publicly scrutinizing spruces, pines, and firs in search of the ideal yuletide centerpiece.

Many people are practiced at picking the perfect tree. They'll judge on things like color, size, shape, needle quality, and bushiness. But behind the annual selection of a coniferous house guest—some 30 million of them a year, in the US—is a ton of science.

To Bert Cregg, identifying exactly what makes a tree perfect is more than a holiday tradition, it's a major part of his job. He's a forest researcher at Michigan State University and a renowned expert on Christmas tree production. His work covers two main areas: genetics and culture techniques. "Basically, how can we identify species and seed sources that are going to lead to better Christmas trees, and how can growers manage their farms to produce better trees," he says.

The research Cregg and his colleagues are conducting today will likely influence what type of Christmas tree you buy from your local lot a decade from now.

Consider Cregg's cold-hardiness experiments, one of which he's currently performing inside a chest freezer in the basement of MSU's Plant and Soil Sciences Building. "We collect a bunch of shoots from the trees we want to study, stick them in the freezer, and program it to decrease 3 degrees Celsius every hour," Cregg says. Every 60 minutes, he and his team retrieve some shoots—at minus 3, minus 6, minus 9, minus 12—until the freezer reaches minus 45 degrees Celsius, which is as cold as it goes. Then they incubate the samples.

A week later, they inspect the shoots to see which ones have begun to brown—a sign of damage—and at what temperature. The thinking goes that the colder a given species of tree can get before browning, the more resilient it will be in frigid climates. And the more resilient a tree is, the more likely it is to endure multiple winters and still come out looking living-room ready. "So, if we're thinking of selecting a new species or seed source, we can screen [that species] rapidly, rather than waiting for that 1-in-20 winter to determine if a tree is hardy enough for a given location," Cregg says.

Hardiness is but one of many coniferous characteristics Cregg studies in pursuit of increasingly perfect Christmas trees. There’s also size and color, for starters. Farmers see to both by fertilizing often; regular mulches keep trees verdant and growing at a rate of roughly one foot per year. But historically, growers overdid it. Old guidelines prescribed around 300 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer per acre—way more than the trees needed. Microbes in the soil would convert the excess nitrogen into nitrate, which would work its way past the tree's roots, deep into the soil, and infiltrate the ground water. Cregg's lab showed that farmers could reduce their fertilizer requirements by two-thirds if they applied it on a per-tree basis, according to the size, species, and age of their trees. The result was greener trees, less nitrogen runoff, and more money in farmers' pockets.

There's also things like needle retention—literally, how many needles stay stuck to the branch, and how many rain down on the presents underneath? Cregg and his colleagues assess this by plucking sprigs from a variety of fir species and displaying them in rows at a horticultural farm on campus. Once a week, a researcher will swing through, give each sprig a gentle tug along its length, and tally how many needles fall off. "We simply go through, give a pull, and we have a rating scale based on how many needles drop," Cregg says. "We can display a Fraser fir for six weeks, and it won't drop any needles. Noble fir, same thing. And that's one reason people in the Northwest like noble firs."

And then there are issues like coning, and how to deal with it. Coning as in pinecones, which, in this context, are a bad thing. "Anybody on the outside looking in would probably say: Why's that an issue?" Cregg says. "I get it. It's a little out there. But cones are probably the single biggest problem our growers face here in the Midwest."

Take Fraser firs, for example. It's the tree of choice for farmers in Michigan and North Carolina, the country's third- and second-biggest growers of Christmas trees, respectively, behind Oregon. In nature, most firs don't produce cones until they're 15 years old, but on farms—most of which harvest trees no later than their tenth season—they'll appear after only a few years. They bud in the spring and develop through the summer, robbing the trees of resources. (From an evolutionary perspective, reproduction comes first, so the trees sink their energy into producing cones.) But the cones don't stick around. Come fall they disintegrate, showering the tree in unsightly fragments.

So in the springtime, growers pick the cones. By hand. It's not difficult, exactly; if you time it right, a bud the size of your little finger will pop right off, with a twist. But it takes forever: An individual tree can carry hundreds of cones. On a big one you might pluck a thousand. With millions of firs growing across the US, and most of them experiencing some kind of coning, we're talking about billions of cones.

Cregg thinks plant growth regulators, which nerf the cone-promoting hormone in firs, could help curb the problem. For the past few years, he's been working to identify the ideal regulator, and how best to apply it. His latest approach isn't perfect, he says, but it can reduce coning by about half. It also has the desirable side effect of keeping trees nice and dense. The main hangup: Applying growth regulators doesn't yet make financial sense. "Biologically it works, but it's not quite to the point of being cost effective," Cregg says.

Perhaps the most ambitious Christmas tree science happening today is a multi-institutional endeavor called CoFirGE. Short for Collaborative Fir Germplasm Evaluation Project, CoFirGE is a nationwide effort whose goals include identifying new species of fir for Christmas trees. There are between 30 and 40 species of firs worldwide, a small handful of which are currently grown for the North American Christmas tree market. Two of today's most popular trees—the Fraser and noble fir—both struggle with a condition called root rot. Caused by the water-mold genus Phytophthora, a tree stricken with it can die in a matter of days. It's currently a huge problem in America's biggest tree-growing states, but in Turkey, fir trees are resistant to root rot. So today, through the CoFirGE project, there are species of Turkish fir growing in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, North Carolina, Washington, and Oregon, to see how adaptable they are to US climates.

All things to keep in mind, the next time you find yourself wandering the rows of evergreens at your local lot. Remember: Long before you arrived to judge the local stock on things like color, shape, and freshness, scientists like Cregg were stashing firs in freezers and pulling at pine needles, all in pursuit of a more perfect Christmas tree.

RichardTheBruce

Mixing explosives with gravity – the controlled
science behind implosions

https://whyy.org/segments/mixing-explosives-with-gravity-the-controlled-science-behind-implosions/
By Aaron Moselle | September 18, 2014

City Councilwoman Cindy Bass applauds after pushing the 'detonator' that sent the Queen Lane Apartment demolition in motion on Saturday. (Bas Slabbers/for NewsWorks)
In just 15 seconds on Saturday, Queen Lane Apartments vanished from the sky.

A nearly 60-year stay in Philadelphia over in less time than it takes to wash and dry your hands.

Only an implosion – an uncommon, but highly precise form of demolition – could fell a 16-story high-rise so fast, or provide a more visually stunning demise.

Nearby, neighbors cheered as a khaki-colored cloud of dust briefly billowed over a Germantown intersection before revealing a four-story high pile of bricks and concrete.

The short spectacle was the end result of a carefully engineered process built around two main ingredients: explosives and gravity.

The interplay of that combination enables blasters to rig a building to collapse into itself and almost entirely within its own footprint, to make it look as if a building is melting to the ground.

“We do not blow buildings up,” said Jim Santoro, project manager for Controlled Demolition Inc., the Maryland-based company hired to raze Queen Lane Apartments.

“What we do is use a very, very small quantity of explosives to disrupt a column’s ability to support the building. If we remove those in a sequence, and in a form marching back through the building, we can actually control the timing and the rate of failure and the direction of the fall.”

Gravity does “99.9 percent” of the work.

The prep work

Before Santoro’s crew gets to work, a building must be completely gutted. Its bones are otherwise left intact. Nothing is pre-weakened before the implosion.

Then, a day or two before the main event, a series of holes are drilled into carefully selected columns throughout the building.

Sticks of dynamite – think those red links you’ve seen in all the old Roadrunner cartoons – are then concealed inside the openings to sever specific columns.

At Queen Lane, less than a pound of explosives were placed at each of the roughly 426 locations, or charges, throughout the tower.

That total was dictated by, of course, science.

“You use a certain quantity of explosives in order to disrupt a certain quantity of concrete. We can go through and estimate how much we’re going to use based on our experience and the rebar configuration in the building and the hardness of the concrete, we’ll adjust that load to make it either a bit heavier or a bit lighter,” said Santoro.

Most of the dynamite is loaded on the lower levels, especially the first floor. That’s where the greatest amount of drop happens during an implosion.

Once the foundation goes, gravity takes over and the rest follows.

The lower levels are also detonated first so that there’s a debris pile to cushion the tower’s top floors when they fall toward the ground.

Or put more simply, the bottom goes down first. The top rides down over it.

During the implosion, dynamite is detonated at split-second intervals thanks to a series of pre-programmed delays.

Muffled booms –about a third to a half a second apart – sound as columns break apart and the building races to the ground.

“The timing of the detonation is to allow for the building to start to fail and drop and allow the beam connection between columns to start tugging on the column behind it so that when it goes off it keeps pulling the building in a continuous motion in the direction you want it to,” said Santoro.

Minimizing impact

But there’s another part of the equation that Santoro has to account for: the impact of all this debris hitting the ground.

“It’s coming down as hundreds of thousands or millions of small pieces of debris, each striking the ground at a different moment,” he said.

That means building implosions don’t cause much vibration. In most cases, not even enough to knock a secured picture off a wall.

The process is so precise, that only neighbors within a roughly one-block radius of Queen Lane had to evacuate their homes the day of the implosion.

The evolution of implosions

It’s all the product of another pair of ingredients: time and technology. The science behind building implosions really started developing in earnest in the decades leading up to World War II, and really took off after it.

Blasters started refining the technique while taking down bombed out buildings in towns across Germany and Europe – buildings that had to be removed without compromising other structures.

Brent Blanchard, director of operations for Protec Documentation Services, Inc, a South Jersey-based vibration consulting company, said back then, there were two reasons for using explosives to knock down buildings.

“One was you’re blowing up a structure that you can’t reach otherwise, that there’s really no other way to do it. And the other is to bring down a large number of structures in a timely manner,” said Blanchard, perhaps one of the only people who has a working knowledge of structural demolition history.

“It’s just more expeditious to perform building implosions than it is to run around and piecemeal demolish hundreds of structures after WW II,” he added.

Those building implosions in the 1940s and 1950s were effective, but a bit clumsier than what’s seen today.

“You didn’t have explosives placed in the same precise places that you do now. You also had different construction materials back then. You’re blasting columns that were made of brick. There wasn’t reinforced concrete back then. There were no steel beams in many cases back then. So you were more pulverizing and obliterating columns than you were trying to defeat a few columns to get a controlled collapse,” said Blanchard.

Over the next few decades, though, building implosions became more refined as commercial companies got into the blasting biz.

The military made that private industry possible by showing city governments that building implosions could be done safely in tight quarters.

That comfort level has grown still thanks to advances in technology.

“You started having a lot more control over what you’re detonating and over how the structure reacts. Now, there’s non-electric technologies. Now there’s wireless technologies. So now you don’t have to have wires running through the building. It’s all remote control,” said Blanchard.

Other demolition options
Still, these days, an implosion is not the only way to take down a tall building.

Using what’s known as a High Reach for example, a type of crane equipped with a pulverizing arm, a building can be safely deconstructed floor by floor.

That, said Blanchard, means there are fewer implosions being done today than even a decade ago.

But don’t expect to see the building implosion industry become rubble anytime soon.

It’ll always be the fastest – and most fun – gun in the West.

The demolition video featured at the top of this page was provided by Controlled Demolition, Inc.

RichardTheBruce

Various Reasons of Buildings Collapse you need to Know!

https://gharpedia.com/blog/various-reasons-of-buildings-collapse/
This post is also available in: hiहिन्दी (Hindi)

Whenever a building collapses in any part of world, either old or under construction or under repair or during natural hazards like earthquake, or cyclone, it sends waves of tremors in minds of many common people around the world. People start thinking, can such a disaster happen with them and their family. Of course, there is no reason to be panicky as the rate of collapse of building to surviving buildings is negligible, but you cannot remain negligent, as it proves fatal and devastating for you and your entire family.

Hence this is right time to know and understand the reasons for collapse of building and to take precautionary and remedial measures if at all it is applicable to you. Here we give a series of articles explaining reasons for collapse of buildings. In this article we are just listing 12 important reasons in brief. In a series to follow, all such topics have been dealt in details.

Homogeneity and the integrity of either a structural or load bearing elements are most vital features of the building, which deals with the capability of building to survive against load without failure or collapse. There are various factors which reduce the load carrying capacity of building components due to the effect of ageing, wear and tear and environmental effects, etc. It may results into the loss of homogeneity and integrity of the building components and also it may lead to the partial or full collapse of building. Overloading also results in failure /collapse.

Building collapse Due to Use of Inferior Materials

Here we are dealing only with RCC framed buildings and not other framed structure or load bearing structure. Here are the reasons of building collapse which invites collapse either simply or mostly due to combination of more than one reason. Generally, collapse will not occur due to only one reason unless there is a gross error. Failure is a result of multiple reasons activating together.

01. Defects in Design and Drawings:

The sound architectural as well as structural design is very crucial for the most excellent performance and low maintenance of the buildings. Many times it is observed that the building collapses due to the error in design. The improper design decision will lower the quality of construction and lead to defects during the service life of the building. Violating codal provisions in name of economical or cheap design ignoring its long term effects is a faulty design and not an economical design. It will definitely invite problems.

Sometimes the drawing with printing mistake or without marking the dimension in drawing or incorrect line, level or due to frequent revisions also lead to the poor quality of construction work which increases the probability of failure of the building or in defects.

Read in detail how the building collapse due to defects in design and drawings.
https://gharpedia.com/blog/collapse-building-defects-in-design-drawings/

02. Use of Inferior Materials:

Inferior materials are those construction materials which do not meet the specification i.e. they lack in size or physical properties (weight, density, etc.), lack of chemical properties, or substandard specifications. The use of inferior materials reduces the load-bearing capacity, i.e. the strength of building. In many parts of the world, particularly developing countries the major cause of the collapse of building is due to the use of inferior materials.

Read in detail how the building collapse due to the use of inferior materials.
https://gharpedia.com/blog/building-collapse-due-to-use-of-inferior-materials

03. Faulty Execution & Inadequate Supervision:

The execution errors by the engineer onsite contractor, wrong decisions and supervision lapses of construction head, the stupidity of workers, and the lack of knowledge of standard construction materials and construction processes lead to the low quality of construction work. These deficiencies reduce the load-bearing capacity of the building in terms of strength and also reduce life and durability of the building, which may result in the collapse of building fully or partially due to lack of integrity and homogeneity.

Read in detail how the buildings collapse due to faulty execution and inadequate supervision.
https://gharpedia.com/blog/building-collapse-faulty-execution-inadequate-supervision/

04. Repairing or Restoration/Renovation:

The building may collapse fully or partially when unthoughtful alteration or unauthorised construction is carried out at the time repairing or restoration/renovation. During repairing or restoration or renovation, you are subjecting the building to additional load or are trying to change load path of the building or making certain elements under repair, redundant, I.e. they do not participate in resisting load). The change in load path causes excessive stress in structural elements which may be a reason for the collapse of building.

Read in detail how the buildings collapse during repairing or restoration/renovation.
https://gharpedia.com/blog/building-collapse-repairing-restoration-renovation/

05. Early Ageing:

All buildings are designed for the certain life, but sometimes they deteriorate early due to poor quality construction materials, defective construction techniques, substandard workmanship at the time of construction, violation of codal provisions, and inappropriate and unintended use of the building. Deteriorations result in the poor strength of the building component and hence it becomes the reasons for the collapse of building partially or totally.

Read in detail how the buildings collapse due to their early ageing.
https://gharpedia.com/blog/building-failure-due-to-ageing/

06. Lack of Maintenance:

Water leakages, structural or non-structural cracks, spalling of concrete or the honeycombed concrete, loose plaster are the damages of the building which deteriorates the structure. Deterioration of concrete or structural components results in the poor stability of the building due to loss of its proportions i.e. strength. If the buildings are not repaired intime or not maintained regularly, the damages will continue to increase and it may be the reason for the collapse of building fully or partially. Poor maintenance invites corrosion of metal item or carbonation of concrete or degradation due to sun’s heat or UV rays, all leading to cascading deterioration.

Read in detail how the buildings collapse due to the lack of maintenance.
https://gharpedia.com/blog/building-failures-due-lack-maintenance/

07. Foundation Failures:

Properly designed foundation resting on well-compacted soil at adequate depth increase the stability of the building for lifetime and reduce the risk of the building collapse. But sometimes the foundations of the building become critical due to resting the foundations on poor soil, or at an inadequate depth, or on the reclaimed soil. The foundation may also fail when the soil of footing base is not investigated properly, or they are placed in corrosive soil. Foundations of the building are also affected due to soil liquefaction during Earthquake. The error while designing the foundation also leads to the poor stability of the building. It is in this way that the building may collapse due to the failure of the foundation.

Read in detail how the failure of foundations become the reason for collapse of building.
https://gharpedia.com/blog/building-collapse-due-to-foundation-failures/

08. Excavation near Adjoining Property:

Sometimes excavation for the foundation in just adjoining building/property causes the movement of the foundation of existing building. In most of the cases, the excavation near adjoining property causes the movements or sliding of the soil near or below the foundation of adjoining property and thus the footing of existing building may settle/sink/tilt immediately. It may lead to the collapse of building fully or partially sometimes immediately without giving warning.

Read in detail how the excavation near adjoining property becomes the reason for the collapse of building.
https://gharpedia.com/blog/collapse-of-building-excavation-near-adjoining-property/

09. Excessive Forces Due to Natural Disaster:

Buildings are always designed to resist the forces due to natural disasters like earthquake, cyclone, flood or fire but sometimes when the forces of natural disasters exceeds the designed limits, or if the structure is not designed to resist the excessive forces due to natural disasters then the building may collapse partially or fully and sometimes immediately without warning.

Read in detail how the excessive forces of natural disasters become the reason for the collapse of building.
https://gharpedia.com/blog/building-collapse-due-force-natural-disasters

10. Overloading:

Buildings are designed for pre-designed loads due to construction materials, loads due to occupants, furniture and loads that may come due to natural disasters like earthquake and wind etc. But the placement of heavy building materials, machineries, etc. at the time of construction or additional loads during the service life of the building causes the overloading which may cause the failure of the building. This may also happen when additional stories are built without assessing the strength of existing building. Any horizontal or vertical expansion not considered in original design may lead to overloading.

Read in detail how the overloading causes the collapse of the building.
https://gharpedia.com/blog/building-collapse-due-overloading/

11. Change in Structural Configuration:

Change in structural configurations i.e. basic vertical and horizontal load path like the horizontal diaphragm or vertical elements leads to deviation of the load path from the shortest load path. Sometimes such changes in load path increase the stress in the component, and which ultimately may fail. Sometime people remove column, beam or structural wall without considering its consequence and meet a disaster.

12. Unsymmetrical Architecture Configuration (Earthquake):

During earthquake, the forces developed at different floor level are not transferred to the ground by the shortest load path due to the unsymmetrical configuration of building like unsymmetrical horizontal and vertical layout, irregular size etc. These unsymmetrical configurations of the building change the load path which results in the poor stability of the building. Thus the building may fail during the earthquake due to the unsymmetrical architecture configuration even though the structural design is otherwise good but for expansion joint, as it results in huge torsion. To avoid unsymmetrical configuration expansion joints should be provided.

Read in detail how the buildings collapse during earthquake due to the unsymmetrical architecture configuration.
https://gharpedia.com/buildings-collapse-due-to-unsymmetrycal-architectural-configuration/

Hence, whenever you see any sign of the distress/cracks or sign of instability in structure, immediately contact the competent and experienced structural engineer for the immediate remedial measures to prevent failure of the building. And of course always do regular maintenance.

RichardTheBruce

The Great Escape Jump

https://www.budanddaveekins.com/the-great-escape-jump/
By admin-ekins | Posted May 26, 2015 In stories-and-photos

Bud’s story- The Filming Of The Great Escape
The man who introduced Steve McQueen to off road motorcycles was Bud Ekins. As Bud tells the story, he sort of taught Steve to ride bikes, and when he was offered a part in The Great Escape, Steve persuaded director John Sturgis to write a bike chase into the script. At the same time, Steve insisted that he would only work with his friend, Bud Ekins. Sturgis promised Bud $100.00 a day, including expenses for his work on the film. That was good money then. A new Triumph 650 would cost $600.00.

The motorcycle chase sequences were being filmed in Fussen, Southern Germany. A German production manager had hired a couple of pre-war German road racers to fill in as German SS Soldiers. Whenever Steve would take off for the chase scenes they couldn’t keep up with him. Steve and Bud even tried using a side car in place of the preferred Triumph 650 but the director wasn’t happy. Those scenes had to be scrapped.

Bud brought Tim Gibbes, the Australian moto-cross champion, on the set. Tim and Bud met up at the ISDT (International Six Day Trials) in Garmisch-Partenkerchen where they were both competing during a break in the filming. It was there that Bud extended the invitation for Tim to join him and help with some of the stunt work.

Tim played a Nazi SS Soldier who crashed to the ground after hitting some wire. In the film, Steve killed the Nazi SS Soldier (Tim Gibbes), stripped off his clothes, and stole the German army bike which was actually the Triumph 650 painted and modified overnight for the film. As for the chase sequences, the three racers – Tim, Bud, and Steve – took turns chasing one another as German soldiers. The director was finally happy. The special effects manager worked out the final scene, where Steve has to get through the fence to escape to Switzerland. Bud, Tim, and Steve were left to figure out how to do the jump. Bud recalls: “Tim and I went out early one Sunday with the 650 Triumph we were using that was supposed to be a side-valve Wehrmacht BMW.

We laid out the fence a couple of feet high. Then we dug a ramp out with shovels, about nine or ten feet long, and I hit the ramp in third gear at about 50mph and cleared the fence. We dug it out a little more and raised the fence to eight feet and I cleared that too. Then I hit the ramp at 60mph in fourth and jumped 12 feet high and 65 feet down. Then I said to Sturgis: ‘Okay, let’sdo it!” “When I took off, I throttled right back and it was silent. You know, everything was just silent- the whole crew and everything was just silent. And then when I landed they cheered like crazy.

They did just one take and afterwards the assistant director came to me and said, ‘Well, that’s a $1,000.00 jump if I ever saw one.’ I knew nothing about negotiating fees so I said ‘okay’ and that was that. Two days’ work, one jump, and we were finished.” And the rest is history…

Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015

Spoiler: action from No Time To Die, 2020

RichardTheBruce

THE MATHS BEHIND GUY
MARTIN'S GREAT ESCAPE

https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/news/the-maths-behind-guy-martins-great-escape/
Published date: December 05, 2019

It’s probably one of the most famous Second World War films.

The Great Escape revels in crafty PoWs outwitting their captors, the menace of Nazi Germany, and war-time spirit of derring-do – captured brilliantly by Steve McQueen’s character Lieutenant Hilts, who fails in his attempt to jump a barbed wire border fence on a stolen motorbike.

Hopefully, twenty-first century daredevil Guy Martin will avoid the same fate – with the expert advice of Trinity’s Dr Hugh Hunt, Reader in Engineering Dynamics and Vibration at Cambridge.

All will be revealed on Channel 4 this Sunday in Guy Martin’s Great Escape.

Guy Martin on a Triumph Scrambler 1200 in the same
field in Germany where Steve McQueen made the
original jump.

The documentary sees Guy visit Poland to learn about the original escape from Stalag Luft III, where a secret tunneling team used kitchen cutlery and bed boards to excavate three tunnels – known as Tom, Dick and Harry – intended to get 200 PoWs out. In the 1963 film, Lieutenant Hilts, a fictional character, is one of those escapees, who then tries to jump the border fences to safety in Switzerland.

Guy Martin spent months preparing with a stuntman after coming to Trinity to meet Dr Hunt and get to grips with the maths behind jumping a motorbike – a modern version of the original Triumph ridden by Steve McQueen in the iconic scene.

The documentary features the pair on Trinity’s Backs experimenting with tennis balls, a remote controlled car, and Guy riding a bicycle over ramps of different sizes.

Dr Hugh Hunt and Guy Martin at Trinity

Dr Hunt said:

It was fabulous to host Guy Martin at Trinity and run through a series of experiments. It was all about understanding how speed, height and the angle of take-off interact. Guy was really interested – hopefully he took away something useful for what is a big feat. Of course the maths is one thing – on the ground in Germany Guy will have to use his experience of riding motorbikes to take into account local conditions.

Can Guy achieve what McQueen’s Hilts could not? Find out this Sunday, Channel 4, 9pm, in
Guy Martin’s Great Escape
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/guy-martins-great-escape
and beforehand watch
When Guy Martin came to Cambridge.
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/guy-martins-great-escape

The Science of The Great Escape Jump | Guy Martin Proper

Guy sets out to recreate the iconic motorcycle movie stunt at the climax of The Great Escape. But unlike Steve McQueen's film character, he aims to successfully clear both fences. In this clip learns the science needed for a successful jump. To watch the full documentary, head over to All4 - https://bit.ly/35ffPZX

Guy Martin's Great Escape Trailer | Guy Martin Proper

RichardTheBruce

No Mr Bond, I expect you to RECYCLE!
James Bond faces 'eco-friendly villain'
hiding in a giant green algae farm in
007's 25th big screen adventure

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7615695/James-Bond-faces-eco-conscious-nemesis-25th-outing-007.html

• Daniel Craig, 51, plays James Bond in 007's 25th big screen adventure
• No Time To Die will feature Rami Malek as Bond's eco-conscious nemesis
• The movie, which is being shot in Pinewood Studios will be released in April

By Darren Boyle for MailOnline
Published: 21:02 EST, 25 October 2019 | Updated: 00:10 EST, 26 October 2019

James Bond will face an eco-friendly villain living in a giant algae farm in the latest movie titled No Time To Die.

The movie, which is 007's 25th big screen outing, will be the last appearance by Daniel Craig, 51.

Many of the details of the script and storyline are being kept top secret.

Daniel Craig plays James Bond in 007's 25th big screen outing which will be released in April

However, a source closed to the production told The Sun: 'The baddie's lair apparently has a giant algae farm. Something like thiat would look very sinister and green so will look great on the screen.

'Quite how it will impact Bond only the scriptwriters can know but fans will be keen to find out.'

In the film, Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help.

A mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading the spy onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.

Filming has been taking place in Jamaica and at Pinewood Studios in the UK, as well as in London.

It is claimed the big villain will be an eco-warrior living in a giant algae farm

The cast of Bond 25 was announced during a live event in Jamaica in April, with Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch and Ana De Armas joining the line-up.

The movie, which is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, has been beset by issues in recent months, with a 'controlled explosion' damaging the outside of the famous 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, leaving a crew member injured.

No-one working inside the studio was hurt, but one crew member outside suffered a 'minor injury'.

In May, Craig was injured while filming in Jamaica, forcing the actor, 51, to undergo 'minor ankle surgery'.

However, the cast appeared in good spirits when they were visited on set by the Prince of Wales in June.

Responding to the newly-revealed title, a statement from The James Bond International Fan Club said: 'Not culled from any Fleming phraseology, the title continues the trend of the poetic yet deadly phrase. More prosaic than recent Bond titles, Skyfall and Spectre, the phrase would fit well in a song sung over moody main titles.

'The moniker fits with previous Bond titles with the word 'die' in: Live And Let Die, Tomorrow Never Dies, Die Another Day, all of which had famous theme songs. Craig's first two Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace, were taken from Fleming's first novel and a short story respectively.

'The title feels as Bondian as a bejewelled hand stroking a Persian cat with a chilled flute of Bollinger champagne on the dresser beside it and a silenced Walther PPK on the desk in front.'

A better way to farm algae

https://phys.org/news/2017-01-farm-algae.html

January 30, 2017
by Matt Wheeler, Syracuse University

Algae in tubes. Credit: Syracuse University

Scientists have long known of the potential of microalgae to aid in the production of biofuels and other valuable chemicals. However, the difficulty and significant cost of growing microalgae have in some ways stalled further development of this promising technology. Bendy Estime, a biomedical and chemical engineering Ph.D. candidate, has devoted his research to this area, and developed a new technology for energy efficient cultivation and harvesting of microalgae.

Estime's research has been published as a peer-reviewed article in Scientific Reports on Jan. 19. He and his research advisors, Distinguished Professor Radhakrishna Sureshkumar, chair of the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, and Professor Dacheng Ren, have secured a provisional patent for the technology.

"My goal was to improve the growth of microalgae," says Estime, who first studied biofuels as an engineering student in his native Haiti.

"The study is an attempt to address three 'bottlenecks' in microalgae cultivation," says Sureshkumar. "When you grow algae in suspension, they tend to stick to the walls of a container, making the container opaque. This makes it more difficult for required light to get through to the algae. The second issue is that there has to be consistent stirring of the container to ensure that light does reach all layers of the algae. A third issue is the difficulty of separating algae from the broth, which requires time and energy, and is therefore costly."

Estime developed a new medium to culture and harvest microalgae. The medium, Tris-Acetate-Phosphate-Pluronic or TAPP, can transition from solution to a gel through relatively small variations in temperature. Microalgae are seeded in the medium at 15 degrees celsius. When the temperature is increased by seven degrees, the medium becomes gelatinous. In this new medium, microalgae grow in clusters that are up to 10 times larger than those grown in the traditional medium. Once they are grown, the temperature is decreased, and the medium is returned to a solution. The algae is separated out through gravity, and can then be harvested.

The medium prevents algae from growing on the sides of a container, letting light penetrate to each level of algae. This eliminates the need for constant stirring. When the medium is converted back to a solution, algae can be more easily separated out and removed from the container.

"The industrial applications of this system are appealing," Estime says. "This system would harvest microalgae 10 times faster than traditional systems and in an energy- efficient fashion."

"This study presents a novel method to harvest algae and other cells with low cost, which has potential applications in multiple fields," says Ren, professor of biomedical and chemical engineering. "It makes it more realistic for researchers to pursue microalgae as a solution."

The World's Largest Algae Farm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__safllSNIk

Introduced Species Summary Project
Killer Algae (Caulerpa taxifolia)

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Caulerpa_taxifolia.htm

Common Name: Killer Algae (hybrid form)
Scientific Name: Caulerpa taxifolia (Photo from Makowka, J. 2000)
Classification:

• Phylum or Division: Chlorophyta
• Class: Ulrophycea
• Order: Caulerpales
• Family: Caulerpaceae

Identification: A bright green algae with feathery branches that vary in length from 5-65 cm. in tropical waters, while the hybrid form grows much larger with plants up to 10 feet.

Original Distribution: Indian Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

Current Distribution: Original locations, with hybrid form having spread throughout much of the Mediterranean Sea. Also found in the Adriatic Sea, the Southeastern coast of California (although perhaps completely eradicated there now), and the Southeastern coast of Australia.

Site and Date of Introduction: Probably introduced into the Mediterranean Sea in Monaco in 1984.

Mode(s) of Introduction: The hybrid form of Caulerpa taxifolia was most likely produced as a result of the tropical form having been captively bred for a number of years by the Saltwater Aquarium at the Wilhelmina Zoo in Stuttgart Germany. They were trying to identify a hearty breed of seaweed that could be used commercially in saltwater aquariums that was also very attractive to the eye with a form and color that would make a beautiful backdrop for exotic fish. After having been exposed to tank chemicals and ultraviolet lights over the course of several years, it is believed that, unbeknownst to the staff at the time, these abiotic stressors created the current mutant form of Caulerpa taxifolia. Samples were sent to various institutions, including the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco, where it was probably leaked into the environment. A marine biologist, Alexandre Meinsz, first discovered it under the windows of that Museum when it was first found in the sea as a small patch of about a square meter. It spread to cover more than 2.5 acres in less than five years and by 1997 it covered more than 11,000 acres along the coast of the Mediterranean, reaching North Africa.

Reason(s) Why it has Become Established: It is an extremely hearty plant that can withstand severe nutrient deprivation, in fact it can survive out of water for up to 10 days. It can thrive in even heavily polluted waters and appears able to colonize most habitats and adapt to any milieu. It has been found in habitats that are nutrient-poor such as sandy bottoms, rocky outcroppings and mud. It can live at a variety of depths, and can cover up to 100% of the sea bottom from the surface to a depth of 35 meters. It has been observed at depths up to 100 meters. Although patches are less dense at such depths, it seems to grow to the underwater limits of vegetation. It can survive in a variety of temperatures, from tropical to temperate waters. It contains a toxin that is not harmful to humans but may be lethal to certain species of fish and invertebrates and may interfere with the eggs of some marine organisms. The plant appears unpalatable to general herbivores, and seems to grow unrestrained and develop into a dense, uniform carpet that blankets an area and persists from year to year. Other marine life leaves the area, and there are even indications that it may kill off many microscopic organisms. It has displaced rich habitats like eelgrass beds that sustain a complex food chain leaving the area unable to sustain a variety of life forms.

Ecological Role: Where Caulerpa taxifolia exists, it tends to carpet the area and become the dominant form of plant life. The creation of a dense algal expanse across a sandy bottomed sea floor alters the nutrient dynamics of the sediment. Vast quantities of organic matter tend to increase oxygen consumption in the area. Caulerpa taxifolia is known to have crowded out the sea grasses in the Mediterranean that had provided food and shelter for a variety of fish and invertebrates, a nursery for new life, and protection for the coastline. Biodiversity of plants and marine life is greatly reduced as a result of its presence because it out-competes native flora and is protected from predation by toxins that make it distasteful to marine life. There is concern about a possible transfer of toxins through the food chain from those few organisms that may eat it. For example certain mollusks have been shown to have a two to threefold increase in concentrations of metabolites, and thus become toxic to predators. One study showed that sea urchins ultimately starved rather than consume it. For these reasons it has been identified as one of the 100 greatest threats to biodiversity on the planet.

Benefit(s): Due to the extremely negative ecological and economic damage that has been done by the accidental introduction of this mutation into the wild, it is actually not possible to identify any benefits associated with this species.

Threat(s): This fast-growing algae has been dubbed “killer algae” because it crowds out other plants and animals as it colonizes an area with great monotypic stands of vegetation. It displaces rich marine habitats that support a variety of fish and invertebrate life, and leave an area unable to nourish animal life. It has recently been reported to be smothering seagrass beds in Sydney Australia. The attempts by France, Italy, Monaco and Spain to control it in the Mediterranean have been unsuccessful because it is so easily spread by fragmentation. It is likely to be spread throughout the marine environment by boats that travel from infected waters and dump ballast water, as well as through the saltwater aquarium trade because the plant is still widely used commercially. If someone empties a tank that contains the plant into a sewer or lake, it can gain a foothold and spread quickly.

In addition to the profound threat to biodiversity, it is likely to cause widespread economic harm through reduction of marine fisheries yields, entanglement with fishing nets and choked access to harbors and marinas.

Control Level Diagnosis: Highest Priority. Experts believe it has established too strong a foothold in the Mediterranean to be eradicated or even effectively controlled there, but that the need to curb the spread is extremely urgent.

It has been identified by the Global Invasive Species Specialist Group as being among the 100 worst invasive alien species threatening biodiversity. The threat it poses to marine environments was acknowledged by the government of the United States when in 1999 Caulerpa taxifolia was classified as a Prohibited Species under the Federal Noxious Weed Act.

Control Method: It is generally recognized that if an outbreak is to be controlled it is critical to identify the plant at the earliest stages of arrival in a marine environment. Mechanical controls have been attempted in portions of the Mediterranean but with no long-term success. Because the plant spreads with fragmentation, small portions that inevitably break off when attempts are made to uproot the plant only serve to spread it further afield. Attempts to remove plants mechanically with pumps to pull out the plant have resulted in regeneration in the same place at an accelerated growth rate. Other methods, such as using underwater welding devices to kill the plant with heat, have thus far proved successful at eradication.

In terms of biological controls, two species of snail have been identified that attack the algae, Aplysia depilans, and Elysia subornata. However, due to the dangers the introduction of a new species can cause to an ecosystem, neither snail has been released for testing on the plant in open water.

In Carlsbad California the outbreak was successfully stopped through a two-stage process in which a heavy tarp was used to completely cover the plants, and then a herbicide was injected under the tarp to contain and focus the poison on the target species. It was decided to leave the tarp in place for the foreseeable future, and check the area repeatedly over the next five years.

References:

• Mackenzie, Debbie, The Starving Ocean, July 2001. http://www.fisherycrisis.com/seaweed.html
• Makowka, J. 2000, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Fact Sheet: Caulerpa taxifolia. Report to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. http://mbnms.nos.noaa.gov/Research/techreports/Caulerpa.html
• Madl, Pierre and Maricela Yip, Literature Review of Caulerpa taxifolia – Updated June 5, 2005. Contribution to 31st BUFUS newsletter, University of Salzburg, Molewlar Bio, Salzburg Austria. www.sbg.ac.at/ipk/avstudio/pierofun/ct/caulerpa.htm
• Simberloff, Daniel, Impacts of Introduced Species in the United States. Consequences –The Nature and Implications of Environmental Change, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1996. www.gcrio.org/Consequences/vol2no2/article2.html
• Thibaut, T. and A. Meinesz, 2002. Management Successes and Failures in the Mediterranean, Universite de Nice-Sophia Antipolis. http://sgnis.org/publicat/thibmein.htm.

Author: Karen Imparato Cotton
Last Edited: November 14, 2005

RichardTheBruce

Bold Thinkers: Creating The World's
First Helicopter Ejection Seat

https://www.boldmethod.com/blog/article/2015/03/helicopter-ejection-seat-rotor-floater/
By Colin Cutler | 04/01/2015

Jonathan Palombo Photography

Today we're excited to launch our new series: Bold Thinkers. Every month, we'll interview a company creating groundbreaking products in aviation.

Rotor Floater
Rotor Floater is an aviation startup paving the way for something that's never been done before: helicopter ejection seats.

We had the chance to speak with Rotor Floater's CEO, Sean Maday, about the pioneering technology that's making helicopters safer. We also discussed the significant challenges they've faced throughout the development process of their product, the Helicopter Ejection System (H.E.S.).

CEO Sean Maday presents the H.E.S. at Heli-Expo 2015

The Downward Ejection Problem
Ejection seat technology made incredible strides starting in the 1970s. Aircraft that had limitations for vertical ejection, like the B-52, ejected two of the crew downward through the floor of the aircraft.

The B-52's downward ejection system doesn't work for helicopters

But while that solution works well at high altitudes, it doesn't work for helicopters flying at low altitudes, especially below 500 feet AGL.


Overcoming Rotor Timing
It's obvious the most challenging part of a vertical ejection from a helicopter is getting the ejection seat through the rotors without hitting them. That's where Rotor Floater made some incredible strides.

"This is a problem that the aviation industry just hasn't been able to solve." said Maday. "We knew that timing an ejection seat through a full speed rotor blade wasn't practical, so we came up with a way to slow the rotor down."

Rotor Floater developed a specialized gear box that slows the helicopter's rotor blade to allow the ejection seat to safely pass through. And to ensure minimum exposure to the blades, the specially designed ejection seat achieves a maximum velocity of Mach 19 - fast enough to pass through the blades in 0.002 seconds. "That speed is a little hard on the pilots, but helicopter pilots are a tough bunch, so we figure they can handle it."

Success Rate Better Than The Weatherman
Rotor Floater's technology is getting safer with each test. We wanted to know what kind of success rate Rotor Floater was having with the new seat, so we asked.

"In our recent tests, we achieved a 72% successful ejection rate using crash dummies" said Maday. "The gear box timing is proving to be quite tricky, but if I was a weatherman or baseball player, a 72% success rate would be phenomenal, so I'm feeling pretty good."

Volunteers Needed
Maday says that once they reach an 80% success rate, they'll be looking for volunteer pilots to try out the system. "I'm a little surprised that we've had such a hard time recruiting people to try this ground-breaking technology" said Maday. "I'd volunteer myself, but I need to run the slow-motion cameras."

Maday said his business partner was the first and only person to try the ejection system so far, but "his eagerness and optimism led to an unfortunate accident." "But I wouldn't worry too much about that, our success rate has improved over 13% since his ejection attempt."

Increasing Market Appeal
We asked Maday what industry leaders thought of the system, and he told us that they are "definitely warming to the idea." "They want a 99% success rate though, and that's pretty steep in my opinion."

Finally, Maday added that he's invited leaders from every major helicopter manufacturer to personally try the system for free. "Unfortunately, I haven't gotten any calls back, but I think they're just arguing over who gets to try the ejection seat first."

We asked Maday if he had any final thoughts on the future of Rotor Floater's H.E.S. system: "Yeah, April Fools."

RichardTheBruce

An item brought up by @LeonardPine, that had following discussion with @Benny.

So more seriously...

Are there any helicopters with ejection seats?

https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/43264/are-there-any-helicopters-with-ejection-seats
Are there any helicopters with ejection seats?

If so, how is the clearance problem with the rotating blades solved?

First you blow off the blades, then the canopy and last the seat.
– Peter Kämpf Aug 28 '17 at 14:17

@PeterKämpf And hope you don't get an unwanted haircut. :)
– Juan Jimenez Jun 12 '19 at 11:55

11
As others above have stated, the Kamov KA-50 family is fitted with an ejection seat. First the blades are separated from the blade sleeves, which remain attached to the mast (rotor hub). a few fractions of a second later, the conventional upwards firing ejection seat is launched, using extraction rockets tied to cables to drag the seat clear of the airframe.

This cutaway image shows it to reasonable effect. '46' indicates where the blade separates from the sleeve. The little sketch of the smoke on the lower right blade shows the separation, and the '18' and '19' show the extraction rocket.

Digital Combat Simulations's (DCS) line of computer simulations models the ka-50, including the ejection seat. I'm sure there's video from the game online somewhere.

answered Aug 29 '17 at 5:21
Nathan

37
Many years ago I read about the Kamov-50 helicopter family* being the first helicopters equipped with ejection seats. And Wikipedia verifies my memory:

It is the world's first operational helicopter with a rescue ejection system, which allows the pilot to escape at all altitudes and speeds.

In the same article for the same helicopter it is mentioned that

Before the rocket in the ejection seat deploys, the rotor blades are blown away by explosive charges in the rotor disc and the canopy is jettisoned.

Also, if you want to count experimental helicopters in, Sikorsky S-72 RSRA may be another one. Here is an interesting video, demonstrating the blades being blown away, and ejection of the pilots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLhZN7fTwQQ&feature=youtu.be&t=83

As a side note, in the article I read in an aviation magazine many years ago, it mentioned a synchronization of the seat with the blade rotation so that the seat passes between the blades. It was based on a working principle similar to the middle machine gun that some WW2 German airplanes were equipped with that fired the projectiles between the propeller blades.

Judging from the fact that I read it somewhere in the late 90s where the project was still new and developing, as PlasmaHH pointed out, that was probably more a thought rather than a fact.
* Kamov 50 and its variants/successors like Ka52

edited Aug 29 '17 at 17:37
David Richerby[/uu]
answered Aug 28 '17 at 8:24
Stelios Adamantidis
6,28011 gold badge2626 silver badges5050 bronze badges

7
The Ka-52 (the Ka-50s successor) is equipped with ejection seats too (Swesda K-37). I can't imagine that the "shoot through the blades" was more than an idea, given the necessary speed for that (which results in a probably very unhealthy acceleration). Similarly there was once the idea evaluated to reinforce the seat so that when it collides with the blades will protect the pilot(s).
– PlasmaHH Aug 28 '17 at 9:35

6
To do some math on the blade sync, getting a 1m high sitting human through blades going past at 300 RPM, twice per rotation, 10 times a second, requires a speed of only 10m/s. An acceleration calculator says a 5g acceleration would give that speed with only 1m travelled. I think there's enough margin that this could work at least in theory.
– JollyJoker Aug 28 '17 at 11:26

1
That comma in the first Wikipedia quote feels dodgy. Does a rescue ejection system in a helicopter necessarily allow escape at all altitudes and speeds? Or is this the first that had a rescue ejection system which had the property of allowing such escape? Or what? IIRC at least in fixed-wing aircraft, some (particularly earlier generation) ejection seats required a minimum altitude to be safe (for whatever definition of "safe" is in use) to use as the parachute needed time to deploy and slow the pilot to a safe landing speed, while keeping initial accelerations survivable.
– a CVn Aug 28 '17 at 11:52

3
What you need is an old-style crop-dusting helicopter. No ejection seat required - there were no doors at all, to maximize visibility sideways and down. You checked your seatbelt very carefully before takeoff! (I've flown as a passenger in one of those, doing some aerial photography - scary, when you are hanging out of the door to get a better field of view and the pilot banks 30 degrees to make a tight turn!
– alephzero Aug 28 '17 at 13:02

16

The Sikorsky S-72 Rotor Systems Research Aircraft had ejection seats, as shown on this video. https://youtu.be/jLhZN7fTwQQ?t=1m23s Like the Ka-50, it blew the rotor blades off first before ejecting.

This article mentions a crash of a Mi-28 in which one pilot died:

The Mi-28 was supposedly designed with an ejection seat system that fires its crew out the side and downward.
answered Aug 28 '17 at 8:55
- Koyovis

7
Out the side?! Surely that wasn't fully thought through... how would it not instantly break your neck? – J... Aug 28 '17 at 13:37

2
@J... Yeah man, doesn't sound right, no wonder if it was never implemented. – Koyovis Aug 28 '17 at 16:41

6
The Mi-28 doesn't actually have the ejection seats, the Mikoyan constructor bureau follows a different approach: they've created energy absorbing seats and landing gear to protect the pilot in a crash.

Kamov does install ejection seats in their helicopters, a.o. in the Ка-52. It blows off the rotor blades and shatters the upper glass windows to make the way clear for pilot ejection. One can see the white cord with explosive on the upper window of Ka-52 on the pictures (there is a white zigzag-like cord on the bottom of the pilot window):

Testing of the part of the system
edited Aug 29 '17 at 19:00
- Sietse

answered Aug 28 '17 at 21:02
- Alex Korobko

3
What is "..amortization for seats and chassis"?
– Koyovis Aug 29 '17 at 5:55

1
I would imagine he meant armor.
– Davidw Aug 29 '17 at 6:15

1
@Davidw Ah, that makes sense.
– Koyovis Aug 29 '17 at 6:54

2
Nope, it is not about armor. Check out chassis of Mi-28 in the message above, it has pretty developed amortization part : hydraulic\pneumatic cylinder is attached to each of front chassis. In publications it is stated that combined with others impact absorbing elements of construction it should reduce the impact to "physiologically acceptable" level for speeds up to 12 meters per second. Additional concerns are rise against fire safety for fuel tanks (no such separated system develped in Russian helicopters yet).
– Alex Korobko Aug 29 '17 at 21:07

1
Mi-28 is pretty good at fire safety, though, no fire happened during several pretty sever crashes: one crash another
– Alex Korobko Aug 29 '17 at 21:10

2
Heh, just realized that I use wrong term chassis for landing gear. I actually meant front landing wheels of Mi-28, not the armored capsule.
– Alex Korobko Aug 29 '17 at 21:28
The Mi-28 has no ejection seat, but the crew is equipped with parachutes and there is an inflatable slide to help them. Take a look at this.
– Rodrigo de Azevedo Nov 17 '19 at 11:35

GOLDENEYE: Eject from Helicopters?

RichardTheBruce

Not sure Bond needs this.

Gene mutation makes worms immune to alcohol

See the complete article here:

https://www.bionews.org.uk/page_94676

21 July 2014 | By Fiona Ibanichuka | Appeared in BioNews 763

Genetically mutated worms, unable to become intoxicated by alcohol, have been created by neuroscientists. The researchers say this could lead to the development of a drug to treat symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.

Scientists inserted a human gene variant into the worm C. elegans that alters 'alcohol targets' – molecules to which alcohol binds. They found that when these worms were placed in alcohol, their behaviour did not change and they were able to move around and reproduce as normal.

'This is the first example of altering a human alcohol target to prevent intoxication in an animal', said Dr Jon Pierce-Shimomura, assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin, who led the study.

The modified alcohol targets disrupted a cellular process governed by the BK channel, meaning that the biological mechanisms causing drunken behaviour were not set in motion.

The BK channel is also responsible for various other functions including regulating the activity of neurons, blood vessels and the respiratory tract. But the team were able to alter the BK channel without disrupting these other functions. 'We got pretty lucky and found a way to make the channel insensitive to alcohol without affecting its normal function', said Dr Pierce-Shimomura.

When given alcohol, C. elegans displays a number of features allowing the scientists to distinguish between sobriety and inebriation. They stop laying eggs, causing a build-up within their bodies that can be counted, and they also begin to crawl slower and wriggle less.

However, C. elegans are not an ideal model for studying the different effects of alcohol dependence such as cravings or tolerance. The team are now testing the effects if this mutation in mice, to examine whether the alcohol target affects these symptoms.

'Our findings provide exciting evidence that future pharmaceuticals might aim at this portion of the alcohol target to prevent problems in alcohol abuse disorders', said Dr Pierce-Shimomura. 'However, it remains to be seen which aspects of these disorders would benefit'.

The researchers have also said a 'James Bond' drug could someday be developed, 'which would enable a spy to drink his opponent under the table, without getting drunk himself': a seemingly more glamorous purpose for the potential drug, even though the alcohol would still affect the liver and other organs.

SOURCES & REFERENCES

Conserved Single Residue in the BK Potassium Channel Required for Activation by Alcohol and Intoxication in C. elegans
Journal of Neuroscience | 16 July 2014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0838-14.2014

Genetically engineered worms that can't get drunk could lead to a 'James Bond' sobriety pill
The Independent | 16 July 2014
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/genetically-engineered-worms-that-cant-get-drunk-could-lead-to-a-james-bond-sobriety-pill-9608939.html

Mutation Stops Worms From Getting Drunk
The University of Texas at Austin (press release) | 16 July 2014
http://www.utexas.edu/news/2014/07/16/mutant-worms-alcohol-neuroscience/

These worms could drink you under the table
Wired | 16 July 2014
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/16/drunk-worms-and-alcoholism

The worm that can NEVER get drunk: Mutant animal created by scientists in bid to treat alcoholics
Daily Mail | 16 July 2014
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2693714/The-worm-NEVER-drunk-Mutant-animal-created-scientists-bid-treat-alcoholics.html

Worm Study May Keep Drunks on the Wagon
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News | 16 July 2014
http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/worm-study-may-keep-drunks-on-the-wagon/81250111/

Genetically engineered worms that
can't get drunk could lead to a 'James
Bond' sobriety pill

Although creating drugs to help alcoholics would be far more useful

See the complete article here:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/genetically-engineered-worms-that-cant-get-drunk-could-lead-to-a-james-bond-sobriety-pill-9608939.html

James Vincent | @jjvincent | Wednesday 16 July 2014 10:34

Neuroscientists from the University of Texas have used genetic engineering to create worms incapable of getting drunk no matter how much alcohol they ingest.

The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience this week, could be used to create drugs that treat the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal and perhaps one day block intoxication altogether in humans.

The key to the work stems from the scientists' modification of a “human alcohol target” that was implanted into a species of roundworm known as Caenorhabditis elegans. Human alcohol targets (of which there many) are molecular channels that bind alcohol in the body, triggering the whole spectrum of drunken behaviour.

For nematode worms (as for humans) this includes not being able to move as smoothly as when sober and giving up on procreation - two behavioural changes that make it easy for scientists to figure out when worms are drunk.

The researchers found that when creatures with the altered gene were dropped into petri dishes containing alcohol they simply did not display this behaviour – they just weren’t ‘getting drunk’.

An illustration from the research showing a sober and an intoxicated worm side by side.

"This is the first example of altering a human alcohol target to prevent intoxication in an animal," said research author Jon Pierce-Shimomura in a press release. "We got pretty lucky and found a way to make the channel insensitive to alcohol without affecting its normal function."

This last point is key as the molecular channel that the researchers modified (known as the BK channel SLO-1) also plays an important role elsewhere in the body, regulating the activity of neurons, blood vessels, the respiratory tract and the bladder.

Unlike other drugs such as cocaine, alcohol doesn’t have a single, specific target in the brain and instead hits a number of channels – a mechanism that causes the broad and complex effects of intoxication and alcohol addiction.

"Our findings provide exciting evidence that future pharmaceuticals might aim at this portion of the alcohol target to prevent problems in alcohol abuse disorders," says Pierce-Shimomura. "However, it remains to be seen which aspects of these disorders would benefit."

The researchers even speculated that one day they might be able to develop a “James Bond” drug that would enable spies to drink without becoming intoxicated - although its use outside of spycraft would be uncertain; if drinkers couldn't feel the effects of alcohol they might never stop.

DarthDimi

Oh my, that could be interesting. :)

Locque

Since economy is also a science:


https://fee.org/articles/how-economics-would-have-spoiled-goldfingers-sinister-plot-if-james-bond-hadnt/

Gold has been the subject of many action films. From being lost in forbidden jungles to locked away in formidable vaults, many films involve the pursuit of the precious metal. However, 1964’s Goldfinger stands particularly unique when compared to the others.

Auric Goldfinger, Bond villain and gold tycoon, had his sights set on the infamous Fort Knox. However, he did not plan to steal the gold. Stealing the gold would have required transporting 13,000 tons before authorities could arrive, a feat even Goldfinger acknowledged was impossible. So instead, Goldfinger planned to detonate a nuclear device in order to contaminate the gold with radioactivity. In effect, the $15 billion in bullion would be unusable.

Goldfinger had clearly taken note of the principles of economics. By reducing the supply of gold available, the price of existing gold would rise. Namely, the price of his gold supply would rise. Goldfinger failed to consider the stock and flow dynamics within a gold system.
Therein lies the beauty of Goldfinger’s plan. He didn’t need to fully break into Fort Knox nor transport the gold. He only needed to reduce the supply of gold available to the world by contaminating the famous Fort Knox vaults. Fortunately for the world, Goldfinger failed to check all his bases despite naming his plan “Operation Grand Slam.”

Losses in the Long Run
As Lawrence White describes in chapter two of his book The Theory of Monetary Institutions, Goldfinger failed to consider the stock and flow dynamics within a gold system. Goldfinger’s plan was designed to increase the price of his supply of gold. However, White points out entrepreneurs, mine owners, investors, and owners of jewelry would also face that same increase in price.

At the higher price of gold, hard-to-reach mines are suddenly worth the expense, investments in gold become more attractive, and grandma’s necklace does not feel so sentimental anymore. The increased mining and diversion of gold to monetary use would effectively restore the “lost” gold and reestablish the market price of gold to what it was prior to Goldfinger’s scheme.

Thus, it’s not just a matter of destroying one supply and ruling the world. Our villain would have needed to destroy the supply, then quickly sell gold holdings faster than the market could adjust yet slow enough to capitalize on desperate consumers. Even for one of the most astute of Bond villains, this is no easy feat.

Unfortunately for Goldfinger, his ignorance of market dynamics was not his only failure. In addition, he failed to understand how gold was actually used during the gold standard.

The Danger of Simplifying Assumptions
Like many lessons in a principle course, there are deeper forces at work than what a cursory understanding may suggest. As many economists of the Austrian School have emphasized, highly stylized theoretical models are illuminating, but they are not complete depictions of reality. Had Bond not thwarted his plan, Goldfinger would have been quickly confronted with this lesson.

Consider the history of money. As it evolved, banknotes began to displace gold and silver coinage due to convenience and durability. Until 1971, banknotes acted as claims to gold. This practice allowed gold to sit in vaults free from wear-and-tear, or depreciation.

With banks using gold to back their notes, it became common practice within a banking network to accept one another’s notes at par value and clear them at regular intervals. After a few clever porters stumbled (maybe literally) upon the convenience of settling bank balances in a single location, Clearing House Associations became the norm. Banks kept reserves on location so notes could be exchanged with remaining balances settled in gold on site.

With this context in mind, we can see Goldfinger’s great mistake: the gold does not need to be touched.

Society evolved to a point where citizens agreed it was more convenient to use paper backed by gold, and bankers agreed it was more convenient to keep portions of reserves together for clearing. From this, I argue that while irradiated gold cannot be touched, it does not need to be in order to perform these functions.

The irradiated gold remains durable, divisible, fusible, and uniform. Only its portability suffers from the contamination. However, this may be remedied with ease due to modern technology. Costs of containment could be reduced by utilizing a central location akin to a clearing house, and transfers between accounts could occur through robotic systems similar to those that occur in Amazon warehouses.

One Last Lesson
Were this not enough, the radiation would not be a permanent effect. Goldfinger admitted the gold would be rendered useless for “58 years.” However, this calculation was not quite correct. Due to only one isotope of gold having a nuclear half-life of more than a few days, the gold would have actually been safe within one month.

A temporary suspension of redemption similar to what was practiced historically would easily mitigate the issue of irradiated gold.

Redemption suspensions have historically occurred where interest is paid on the suspension period. Although its consumers may be wary at first glance, it is in their best interest. In the event of a bank run, a temporary suspension allows time to gather funds in what would otherwise require fire sale losses. In that event, the suspension lowers the risk of default and protects consumers and shareholders in the long run. A temporary suspension of redemption similar to what was practiced historically would easily mitigate the issue of irradiated gold, and the world would go on without concern.

Although Goldfinger’s plan incorporates economic principles in an extremely clever manner, it goes to show even the most cunning of plans requires understanding beyond the principle. Neither limitless budgets nor the power of a nuclear bomb can transform the world into a model that has been assumed away from reality. When a theory is applied, it must always be done with a robust understanding of the mechanisms at work and of what the theory was designed to shed light on.

CommanderRoss

DarthDimi wrote: »

Oh my, that could be interesting. :)

Reminds me of Dauglas Adams' Hitchhiker's guide and how the improbability drive was invented. Something about scientists not beeing invited to 'that sort of parties'. Now I hardly drink these days but when I did, the objective was to get intoxicated. This goes against the whole purpose of alcohol.

RichardTheBruce

I'll drink to that, @CommanderRoss.

IGotABrudder

A very good explanation of the economics behind Goldfinger’s plan, thank you @Locque.

I had always thought the plan was brilliant, but then my own grasp of economics is quite weak.

Locque wrote: »

Due to only one isotope of gold having a nuclear half-life more than a few days, the gold would have actually been safe within one month.

I’ll challenge this bit though, which is not about economics but about radioactivity.

The radioactivity of isotopes of gold is irrelevant. What actually matters is the radioactivity of the stuff that the gold has been irradiated with after Goldfinger has detonated his bomb. That’s stuff like caesium-137, strontium-90 and so on. These materials have different half-lives from gold itself, and so the gold might still be untouchable for a long time, at least in my understanding.

RichardTheBruce

Mentioned recently elsewhere, I wanted to record the recent damage to the Puerto Rico antenna used in GoldenEye. [In turn, also covered on Page 10.]

Famous alien-hunting telescope slashed to
pieces in mysterious midnight accident

See the complete article here:

https://www.livescience.com/arecibo-observatory-massive-damage.html

By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer | August 13, 2020

Arecibo Observatory’s main collecting dish, which is among the world’s largest
single-dish radio telescopes, was badly damaged when a cable snapped on Monday, Aug. 10.
(Image credit: University of Central Florida)

The Arecibo Observatory — a gargantuan telescope in Puerto Rico famous for scouring the cosmos for asteroids and alien life — went quiet this week, following a devastating accident that left the telescope's reflector dish in pieces.

On Monday (Aug. 10) at approximately 2:45 a.m. local time, a metal cable at the facility snapped, slashing through the radar dish and tearing open a 100-foot-long (30 meters) hole, according to a statement from the University of Central Florida, which operates the National Science Foundation-owned facility. The snapped cable also smashed through several other cables and platforms that support the dish, causing debris to rain down on the ground below and making it harder for technicians to access the site.

"We have a team of experts assessing the situation," Francisco Cordova, the director of the observatory, said in the statement. "Our focus is assuring the safety of our staff, protecting the facilities and equipment, and restoring the facility to full operations as soon as possible, so it can continue to assist scientists around the world."

Arecibo began operating in 1963 from the bottom of a natural sinkhole in Puerto Rico. At the time of its completion, Arecibo was the world's largest single-dish telescope, stretching 1,000 feet (305 m) in diameter. While you may not know the telescope by name, you might know it by sight, thanks to the 1997 movie "Contact." That film's protagonist is an astronomer working at Arecibo, who hopes to make first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. (The observatory's gargantuan reflector dish also stole the show at the end of the 1995 James Bond flick, "GoldenEye.")

Though we're still waiting for that epic first DM from aliens, Arecibo has played a central role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) since the 1970s. In 1974, astronomers used the radio telescope to transmit a binary code toward a dense cluster of stars 25,000 light-years away, hoping the message might get picked up by another technologically-advanced civilization. (It wasn't).

SETI experiments have remained a key part of the observatory's agenda — and so has planetary defense. Arecibo's Planetary Radar Project, part of NASA's Planetary Defense program, is responsible for detecting and studying near-Earth objects, such as asteroids, that could pose a threat to our planet.

That project, along with all other Arecibo projects, has been suspended due to the damage. But Arecibo has bounced back from damage before, including the fallout from earthquakes and Hurricane Maria, and this accident will hopefully be no exception. Still … it would be a lousy time for the aliens to finally return our call.

Originally published on Live Science.

CommanderRoss

Yep, pretty sad it happened. Hope they'll be able to fix it - and improve it. If so, we can have a remake! ;-)

QBranch

The Science in Bond Films: Reading Material, and Mis-reading Material


Science in Bond films. Clockwise from top-left: 'Science Digest' magazine seen on W. G. Howe's desk in AVTAK; 'New Scientist' magazine and 'Your Spaceflight Manual' from NTTD; Q's 'Biofuels for Transport' textbook and 'Worlds Within Worlds' book from SP

Thunderfinger

QBranch wrote: »

The Science in Bond Films: Reading Material, and Mis-reading Material


Science in Bond films. Clockwise from top-left: 'Science Digest' magazine seen on W. G. Howe's desk in AVTAK; 'New Scientist' magazine and 'Your Spaceflight Manual' from NTTD; Q's 'Biofuels for Transport' textbook and 'Worlds Within Worlds' book from SP

Excellent work.