Water From Wind 411
ghostcorps recommends a writeup in The Australian by columnist Phillip Adams about a new windmill design that extracts water from air. The article gives few details of how it works, because patent protection is not yet in place, but what is revealed sounds promising. "[Max] Whisson's design has many blades, each as aerodynamic as an aircraft wing, and each employing 'lift' to get the device spinning... They don't face into the wind like a conventional windmill; they're arranged vertically, within an elegant column, and take the wind from any direction... The secret of Max's design is how his windmills, whirring away in the merest hint of a wind, cool the air as it passes by... With three or four of Max's magical machines on hills at our farm we could fill the tanks and troughs, and weather the drought. One small Whisson windmill on the roof of a suburban house could keep your taps flowing. Biggies on office buildings, whoppers on skyscrapers, could give independence from the city's water supply. And plonk a few hundred in marginal outback land — specifically to water tree-lots — and you could start to improve local rainfall."
Dune (Score:5, Funny)
Next thing you know, we'll be harvesting spice.
Calling Uncle Owen and Luke Skywalker (Score:4, Funny)
it's a competition (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but you know Schick is just going to add one more blade and totally steal his marketshare.
Windmills do not work that way! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Dune (Score:4, Funny)
yeah, then we'll knock it up another notch, and give it a big blast from our spice weasel [geocities.com]! BAM!
Useful, but . . . (Score:2, Funny)
Where's the need come from? (Score:5, Funny)
Forgive me for being unaware of this impending catatrophe, but is there really an urgent issue? Is this mainly happening in Australia? I thought floods were going to be the next big problem, due to global warming.
What should I be bracing myself for? Floods or droughts? I need to know what I should panic about. Thanks.
vaporware (Score:3, Funny)
Re:sum zero gain (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Interested.... (Score:5, Funny)
So, what you're trying to say is:
[Morbo]
"Windmills do not work that way!"
[/Morbo]
Chris Mattern
Re:Hand out the Moisturizer (Score:5, Funny)
We have a widespread system of asphalt-covered concrete which collect the copious moisture, extracted from the nearby lake due to atmospheric pressure differentials, in the form of a thick residue. We then dissolve large amounts of highly soluble compounds into this residue to prevent it from freezing solid, and then the mixture is processed by repeatedly compressing it under several hundred pounds of weight.
We use the resulting product to support both the automobile and landscaping industries, by using it to rust out car underbodies and kill treelawn grass.
Re:Interested.... (Score:5, Funny)
"Weather" the drought (Score:2, Funny)
No pun intended?
Re:Hand out the Moisturizer (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Interested.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Interested.... (Score:1, Funny)
Well, you'd better have those units in the South Ridge repaired by midday, or there'll be hell to pay.
Re:Interested.... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Interested.... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Interested.... (Score:3, Funny)
oh wait...
Alert the patent trolls (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Interested.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Interested.... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:But why not? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nice catch, but (Score:3, Funny)