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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Max More via extropy-chat<br><br><b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b>>…</b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>It's fun and can draw on creative thinking.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> <span style='color:black'>If you dismiss this activity, you will never get to play with answer questions such as: <o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>…</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>>…<span style='color:black'>Tesla or Edison? (Fist fight, not patent fight.) </span><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>--Max<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><hr size=2 width="98%" align=center></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>What a cool idea Max! Fist fights, eh too caveman for my taste. But that patent fight business, that sounds like it has real potential for a great game. Actual patents cost money, but we aughta be able to come up with some kind of game based on thinking of new ideas.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>For instance…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I just got back from Stanford. The main road going in there has houses with short driveways. A good example is 1079 Embarcadero Road, shown below and you can see the guy’s gray minvan there. There’s a huge tree you see there, partially obscuring his view to the east and the westbounders view of him. His view to the west down the Embarcadero eastbound lanes isn’t great either. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>If that feller wants to go anywhere, such as the freeway which is right there, he hasta back out across westbound Embarcadero into the eastbound lanes, turn his wheel to his left to get pointed out the way he wants to go. I witnessed this maneuver from a stoplight just off the right side of the photo below just today.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Problem: Wildwood Lane doesn’t have a stoplight there. Some drug-crazed yahoo could tear around that corner on two wheels trying to get back to Palo Alto High before her lunch break is over, and BOOM that guy’s troubles would be over forever. I witnessed some crazy yahoo come tearing around that corner about 10 seconds after Mister 1079 Embarc backed out. OK. A miss is as good as a mile, he gets to live another day. But his luck is going to run out eventually I fear.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img width=587 height=527 style='width:6.1145in;height:5.4895in' id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D7A721.CECE60B0"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Idea: there is sufficient room in that short driveway to build a turntable. We know at car shows there are such things, but that isn’t really what I have in mind, for that would be expensive and would be too easy anyway. A caveman could hire people to install that. But I thought of a way to build a homebrew turntable nearly flush with the ground using stuff ordinary proles could find easily: a truck wheel hub assembly. The conic bearings on those rigs would easily bear the load both in thrust and torque that an ordinary passenger car would deliver to it. The whole assembly is already weather sealed, and already has a grease zerk for easy periodic maintenance. Cool!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>That whole notion would require sinking a hole about 20 cm down and about 50 cm across, the hub assembly could go down there, welded to a base plate, then the turntable could be made of channel iron (C-section) beams in an H configuration. I know how to do all the necessary sizing calculations. A coupla fellers with a welder could build something like that for a coupla thousand bucks methinks. That’s play money for anyone who lives in Palo Alto.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I digress however, for that has little or nothing to do with patents. But Max’s patent fight comment brings up another kinda related idea: we could have fist fights where the pugilists are dressed up as cavemen. Sounds like fun, however I digress even further into the abysss of absurdity. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I have half a mind to sketch up the idea and mail it, addressed to: Feller who lives at 1079 Embarcadero, Palo Alto CA.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Adrian, isn’t Palo Alto in your neighborhood? You and I could start a side biz making low-cost turntables for proles living on Embarcadero Road. You could use the earnings from that to support your rocket science habit. I have a welder.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>