Self-Assembling Robots

by

I’ve been a fan of Science Fiction since Grandma Berger gave me a Tom Swift Jr. book in grade school.  I think it was an impulse purchase on her part as I can’t imagine her as a sci-fi fan.  That first Tom Swift book was an old book when I read it.  Part of the fascination with it was reading what the book presented as fantasy juxtaposed against those same things coming to life in the real world in which I was living.  In any case, I was hooked.

It seems to me that most scientists would be fans of science fiction as well.  Look at Sheldon, Leonard, Raj & Howard on the Big Bang Theory…  Ha!  But on the more sober side, do you think scientists ever think about the cautionary science fiction tales as they strive to bring those fantasies to life?

This article by Judy Schriener titled “Will Self-Assembling Robots Slide into the Construction Industry?” makes me wonder.  Isaac Asimov first presented The Three Laws of Robots in a 1942 short story titled, “Run Around”.  Some of you may be familiar with them from the recent Will Smith movie version of another of Asimov’s books, “I, Robot”.  For those of you unfamiliar, here they are in their original form:

  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

* Laws and timelines taken from a wikipedia article title Three Laws of Robotics.

Read more

Thank you Veterans

by

It’s Veteran’s Day and all of us at Easterday Construction Co., Inc. would like to thank all the veterans that served our country honorably.  And as always, a thank you to our current service men and women that are away from their families defending our country.  Your efforts make our way of life possible.

I am reusing the picture of the eagle on the tombstone from a previous post.  The picture was taken at Fort Snelling by Frank Glick.  I think it is a beautiful and moving picture.  I was contacted earlier this year from the photographer and I have included the credit below.  Several people contacted me asking me where they could obtain a copy of this picture, so now I have that information available.

Image © 2011 Frank Glick, used with permission, all rights reserved. www.liketophoto.com

More WECS’s

by

Definition of a WECS per the Culver Zoning Ordinance – 2010-007:

Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) – Equipment that converts and then stores or transfers energy from the wind into usable forms of energy and includes any base, blade, foundation, generator, nacelle, rotor, wind tower, transformer, turbine, vane, wind farm collection system, wire, or other component used in the system.

Below are some WECS’s that are not traditional wind farm turbines that could fall under a WECS ban.

Read more

Down with DST

by

Well, here we are suffering through DST (Daylight Savings Time) again.  While “Falling Back” isn’t a traumatic as “Springing Forward”,  I still prefer leaving things alone.  I used to think Indiana was progressive for not participating.  That was confirmed when I lived under DST for a few years in Georgia that pretty much confirmed my feelings, so I was pretty vocally against the change when it happened.

I ran across an article by an economist, Allison Schrager, titled:  “The US needs to retire daylight savings and just have two time zones—one hour apart”  I learned a few things including how little of the world observes DST.  The cool map above is from her site.  The Wikipedia link to Daylight Savings Time above shows a map that indicates large portions of the globe that did observe DST no longer do so.

Read more