Anyone else been watching the techno games on BBC2 ? Small groups building robots to take part in an assortment of sports: sprint, sumo, tug-of-war, swimming, rope climbing, cycling, high jump, discus, long jump and the assault course.

I think it's more fun than Robot Wars, because there's more variety, both of robots and events. Watching a remote-controlled cow, painted by a seven-year old child, swimming lop-sidedly across a pool in the wake of a more efficiently designed robot with eyes on stalks, has a certain endearing charm.

Altogether, one of the finest massed displays of mad scientists anywhere.

The only thing I noticed was that Philippa Forrester seems to have gone cross-eyed. I suppose prolonged exposure to Craig Charles can do that to you.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

The bloke I go climbing with (Jimmy, if you have to ask) entered the dancing robot competition last year, and got quite far, to my never-ending amusement. One night after a few drinks we set the robot up in our local, and let it knock over everybody's pints...



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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Don't remember any dancing robot competitions.

Some good stuff in the sumo. Such a shame that bouy ant collapsed in the semis of the swimming competition - that thing went like s**t off a shovel.

anyone else remember 'The Great Egg Race' with Heinz Wolff?

Ah, happy days. I met him once, you know.

I remember the Great Egg Race. It was good fun. Teams competing to make paperclip and Meccano machines to race and throw things, all reported on by one of the finest Mad Scientists on telly.

British telly does do a fine job of finding Mad Scientists to wave their arms around and speak VERY ENTHUSIASTICALLY.
Heinz Wolff (fantastic name !)
David Bellamy (remember that Goodies episode ? Goodies on DVD soon).
Magnus Pyke (arm waver extrodinaire)
Patrick Moore (mapped the moon for NASA and plays xyplophone)
Adam Hart-Davies (enthusiastic on bicycle & in costume)

Who have I missed ?

I took part in a course whilst at school, back in 1986. It was at Durham University and it was basically a bunch of schoolkids given 'great egg race' stuff to do, in a bid to encourage them to become engineers. Our first task was to build a mcguffin to carry a full can of coke (or fizzy beverage of choice) across a swimming pool and up a ramp on the other side.

iirc, ours stopped half-way, the motor fell off and sank. Ah, happy days.

However in the second task, we were given some strips of metal, a rivet gun and told to build a tower capable of holding 50kg. Ours was last up out of 8 others. Most failed at about 150-200kg. The penultimate one got to just under 350kg, which was the limit of the test rig available.

Ours took the 350kg and didn't blink. It was later tested to destruction and finally broke at 682kg (the weight of a mini, more or less). It was the lightest tower on test too.

It still makes me smile to think of it. Heinz was v.impressed.

Engineering students from Durham also proved that Kingsgate Bridge (the very high, thin one) can also take the weight of a Mini, by dangling one off it over the river.



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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

presumably on the way home after a heavy night of drinking, one of the engineers said 'hang on lads, I've got an idea....'

Was the owner of the mini impressed?

No, they can't force you to join the Navy these days.

*momentary confusion*

ohhhh. Arf arf.

It's too early for sophisticated humour.

state of coffee machine: just fixed.
Expected state of coffee machine in 5 minutes: fubar.

Well, i make it more than 5 minutes. SNAFU?



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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

well, it's still vending liquid. I tried the cafe latte option.

User error. Reboot user.

Was it delayed then? Or is that not a typo?



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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

What's a tpyo ?

poetscientistdrinker wrote:

> Was it delayed then? Or is that not a typo?

I recognise that joke from somewhere ....



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Patrick Moore guest-starred with the Goodies, too... Remember the Moon Rabbits?

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"Some days I diet, other days they serve lasagne."

The latte was a mistake in more ways than one. I assumed (first mistake) that when it said 'latte', it was referring to milky coffee. With coffee in it.

I should have guessed it would be appallingly bad when the foam disappeared as I was walking back to my desk.

I also assumed that as it didn't mention sugar that it would come without. erm, no. It appears that sugar is included free of charge (and choice).

I love working here. Anyone got any jobs going?

Re Magnus Pyke _ Back during WWII he invented a material that was called (if I remember correctly) 'Pykrete'. This was basically ice, but with woodpulp (or something along those lines) mixed in as a strengthening agent. The plan was to use this to solve the problem of giving Allied convoys air cover vs U-boats in mid-Atlantic, where there was a gap that no shore-based planes could reach at that time... Pykrete was to be used as the basic structural material for one or more gigantic ( 1/2 mile long, or better!) aircraft carriers, that would have been slow-moving but just about unsinkable: Even if one were to be holed by a torpedo the low density of this material, combined with the sheer size of the "ship", would have kept it afloat while the water inside that hole was chilled down into a patch... However improvements in the long-range aircraft available, and the adaptation of some freighters into "escort carriers", meant that by the time this concept had been fully worked out it was no longer needed... The plan was called ""Operation Habbakuk" (or "Project Habbakuk", maybe?).

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"Some days I diet, other days they serve lasagne."



Post Edited (03-25-03 19:30)

Umm... actually that was his cousin, Geoffrey Pyke. You can read about it in Magnus Pyke's book "Butter Side Up!", pages 129-30.



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah