Comments for shOutlet

Comment on Solar Oven Fun by dave

dave — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:34:24 +0000

The ribs are half-parabolas (half a “solar trough” basically) 64 where cut out of cardboard measuring about 9×15 I think and arranged inside a large cardboard tube structure to create a full circular dish.

Then packing tape was applied to the top. At this point there weren’t many gaps so it laid down ok, then vinyl was cut into strips and laid on top of that. The lack of a firm substrate means the surface is a little irregular, but it works

We could have cut petals, but A. didn’t think of it and b. the vinyl didn’t all come at once and was in irregular shapes. (scraps)

Comment on Solar Oven Fun by SolReka

SolReka — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:29:41 +0000

Hi
Could you elaborate more on:
“These ribs where cut from cardboard but it could be done in wood also.”

Where are the ribs?, What does the cooker look like without the vinyl in place?

It’s a great cooker you’ve built, it works and it’s a simple design, from what I can see. Just wondering how you assembled it, ref ribs, and how vinyl retains the semi-parabolic shape. Is vinyl housed/sitting on ribs underneath, is vinyl cut into parabolic petals?

Regards
Sol

Comment on Solar Oven Fun by dhymers

dhymers — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:44:54 +0000

Yeah, we tried covering the pan with foil and it did make a small difference, especially since it was pretty windy.
We also want to try having a cooking container with a black or some other reflectance reduced outer coating so it absorbs more energy.

I don’t know exactly how to make the parabola, but it has to be a perfect one to make dish shape, you should be able to look up the math on Wikipedia or something. (google parabola math, I bet a few results show and apparently the math is quite simple…
These ribs where cut from cardboard but it could be done in wood also.
Outside ambient was probably about 95-97F, something like that. Fairly cool in the shade.

Comment on Solar Oven Fun by SolReka

SolReka — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:23:26 +0000

Could you provide more information on how you made the parabolic shape.

It looks like a great dish you guys have built.

What was the outside ambient temperature. Did you try covering cooking container in order to optimize cooking times.

Comment on District 9 by Megan

Megan — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:30:25 +0000

Definitely was a crazy movie…good and gruesome all at the same time. I think the next movie we watch in theaters needs to be something funny…like Shorts (still sci-fi ish right?)

Comment on We truely are making a big damn mess. by dave

dave — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:36:40 +0000

Thats true, it will affect the food sources and health of poorer nations first. I saw a lot of photos of larger birds mistaking larger peices of plastic for food, regurgetating it for thier chicks and them dying as a result of a stomach filled with pastic bottle caps and random crap.
That alone is pretty horific, but yeah until a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand people in the US or somewhere close die of plasticiser caused cancers, it won’t be a ‘real problem’

I don’t know the facts but I’m pretty sure that plasticisers in the food chain could causer cancer, and maybe already are. And not just from the pacific ocean; certain plastics approved for making say childrens feeding bottles mean that the youngest members of our society recieve the highest PPM of plastics in thier food, nobody really has any idea what this will do in the long term. (this could just be alarmist, as I only heard this from the movie “The Story of Stuff”)

Comment on We truely are making a big damn mess. by Mike Smith

Mike Smith — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:38:57 +0000

Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest it wasn’t a problem. More that I don’t understand what effect microscopic bits of plastic do. Besides stop animals finding real food. I assume that having huge quantities of polymer fragments – possibly sub-cellular in size – scattered throughout a creature’s body would have bad effects. I just don’t know what they are. Does anyone? I wonder how much plastic we’ve got in /us/? If anything will make a difference to policy it’s the health of /wealthy/ /westerners/. (note that environmental issues that predominantly affect the poorest people – eg climate change, leaded fuel, etc are often sidelined).

Comment on We truely are making a big damn mess. by dave

dave — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:37:13 +0000

thats 6 platic to 1 plankton ! sorry. didnt make that clear.

Comment on We truely are making a big damn mess. by dave

dave — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:23:34 +0000

The Algalita found that the ratio of plankton to plastic was about 6:1
And also that birds are mistaking the tan colored plastic peieces for krill. They studied the amount of tan plastics compared to everything else, and I think in bird feeding areas it was much less.

Theres a good video on youtube by the chief scientist onboard, will probably come up under Algalita.

Comment on Plasma Arc Gassification by Mike

Mike — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:14:07 +0000

There’s a newscientist article a couple of months ago I read about it, can’t remember what it concluded: I think it was, needs more research

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227051.500-could-your-trashcan-solve-the-energy-crisis.html

(you might need to log in via a university to read the article – or have your own subscription, sorry ^_^)