Obligation not to publish

It seems to me that it could be argued that there is an obligation (potentially even a moral one) not to publish if what you are publishing is not adding novel content to the sum total of human knowledge. Any publication that adds content that is not novel, increases that total amount of content, without increasing the total value of the content, and as such dilutes value in the body of human knowledge. This dilution makes it harder for people to find the right information - effectively an inefficiency in society.

I fully acknowledge that through this blog I am probably failing to fulfil this obligation.

An interesting aspect to this thought is the challenge of establishing whether any content is novel. The existing sum total of human knowledge is not readily searchable for a number of reasons: not all is digitised; not all is in a language the searcher is familiar with; much that is digitsed is behind a paywall (especially books); and, notably, an idea that is equivalent may be expressed in materially different ways that would be hard for a searcher to identify.

Modular reusable construction for adults

Kids have some great toys that harness the power of modular, reusable construction. The most obvious example is Lego, but there are many others.

But there seems to be a dearth of equivalents at a larger scale, for larger scale construction projects. And yet to produce them would be relatively easy. There is already lumber in standard sizes, the ubiquitous 2x4, amongst others. What is needed is connectors for these, for a range of joints: corners, Ts, etc.

It may be possible to have a two-step connector system. One piece of plastic is screwed permanently (or at least semi-permanently) into the ends of the piece of wood. And another piece of plastic joins those plastic fittings, with a simple clip-in and clip-out. This way, each length of wood can be quickly reused in many different configurations, as can the plastic fittings that aren't permanently fixed to the wood.

Obviously the fittings could be made out of metal rather than plastic if load is anticipated to be significant.

How many contracts?

How many contracts does an individual enter into in a lifetime?

If an extant contract is one that could have bearing on a contract decision made by a court (or other authority), how many contracts are people typically party to at one point in time?

How about organisations?

It seems to me the task of tracking contractual rights and obligations is currently an impossible task to achieve to any degree of completeness.

How could a software solution help?

Superhydrophilic coatings

Superhydrophobic coatings have received significant publicity in recent years, particularly in regard to claims of keeping surfaces clean. However, it occurs to me that superhydrophilic coatings will have numerous potential uses as well.

A superhydrophilic coating counter-acts water's surface tension property allowing a thin film of water to be maintained on a surface. In relatively moist environments a superhydrophilic coating may help keep a surface clean by maintaining a thin film of water that prevents the adhesion of "dirt" and may provide lubrication.

Washing line tension

It seems to me likely that as washing on a washing line dries, the tension on the line should reduce as the mass of the clothing on the line will be less. It may be possible for a sensor and processor to monitor the tension of the line, and hence infer when the washing is likely to be dry - the decrease in tension will have levelled off.

The line tension sensor may also be able to warn when it is raining, as the clothes will begin to increase in mass (although an integrated rain gauge or other weather sensors would probably be more accurate.

However, such an approach may be limited by the level of noise in the system due to wind causing fluctuations in tension of the line. Other methods could be: photo-spectroscopic analysis of a laser pointed as a particular (and hopefully representative) item of clothing; humidity sensor placed along the line.

Tunnelling in loose soil methods

I recently read about the difficulties encountered by the prisoners escaping from Stalag Luft III (the Great Escape) due to the looseness of the soil. When digging downwards the walls of the shaft would cave in before sufficient depth had been dug to put in place the next pieces of wall, and likewise with the horizontal shafts, both the ceiling all walls would cave in before the next pieces of ceiling and walls could be put in place.

It occurs to me that there might be a design solution that could address these problems. To my mind, the key is to have walls that move down (or extend sideways) continuously, and which are able to interlock to withstand the pressure of a cave-in.

The diagram below illustrates walls that interlock (and could actually be bolted in place) sitting inside the existing walls of the tunnel. These would be continuously advanced as the digging continues (for vertical shafts the force of gravity would be sufficient, but for horizontal shafts some other force, e.g. a spring mechanism, would be required). Once the new section of wall has cleared the old section, it is expanded and corner pieces are added to form a rigid structure (probably bolted together).

Obviously a key requirement is that the soil be loose enough that it can accommodate the force of compression to move the sections of wall outwards.

This approach should also work with other shapes. For example, to achieve a cylindrical-like tunnel, four quadrants of a circle would be expanded with straight sections.

Additionally, for horizontal shafts a rhomboid type structure may be preferable as the risk of ceiling cave-in is more significant that side wall cave in.

Using hydrogen in airships

Having read recently about the scarcity of helium has led me to give some thought to whether hydrogen should be reconsidered as the lifting gas for airships.

The advantages of hydrogen over helium are that it is less, cheaper to produce and less scarce (particularly on Earth, but also in the Universe at large). The downside is that it is flammable.

However, I think that good engineering could overcome the issues of flammability. Here are some ideas:

• Make the envelope out of flame retardant material
• Make the envelope into a cellular structure, such that one cells can be burst and catch fire without causing all of the other cells to do likewise
• Fill the outer cells of the aforementioned cellular structure with cheap inert gas (e.g. Nitrogen). This means that outer damage doesn't result in the release of flammable gas, and also means that if both an outer cell and an inner cells are burst, the burn rate is lowered as there's less oxygen in the immediate vicinity of the hydrogen
• Build in fire suppression systems
• Structure the gondola to a glider, such that it detaches from the balloon in the event of a fire and safely returns to Earth
• Add parachutes to both the gondola (as an alternative to the glider functionality) and the balloon. The latter is intended to prevent damage to people or property on the ground when, after a fire, the ballon falls to Earth
• Deploy such airships as AUVs / drone (at least until such time as a strong safety record could be established)
• Only use such airships in isolated areas / over the sea (at least until such time as a strong safety record could be established)

Would these safety features be effective? Would they be cost-effective compared with alternative lifting gases and alternative modes of transport?