Its the end of the world as we know it. Or perhaps not. As physics is an abiding interest of mine I thought I would post this while the Earth still exists!
Fed up buying the kids new sandals this summer?
Look no further:
Reprap - self-replicating machine
I love the idea of just bunging in another milk bottle:
The RepRap needs to get much faster before it can even begin to realise its potential, but it is still early days for a device - even though it has been dreamt of since the dawn of the enlightenment - and Bowyer is not done yet. Soon, he plans to design a shredder for the machine, so old items created on the RepRap can be returned to granules of plastic to be reused. Think about it, he says: "You could shred your milk bottles and make a pair of sandals. What's more, when the child grows out of the shoes, you shred them, add another milk bottle, rescale the design and you have a new pair." If nothing else, the RepRap could be the ultimate recycling machine.
Sadly I will have to work from home for another day as my Multipla languishes in the garage awaiting a replacement engine mount.
I am on my second Fiat Multipla now and all have had their problems but then if you treat them the way we do perhaps this is not so unreasonable. With five passengers, five bikes and enough clothes, toys, gluten free food and "stuff" for two weeks in Aviemore I think we must be close to the record for how much stuff can you cram in a Multipla.
With some 90,000 miles on the clock we made it to Aviemore and back but on setting out from Musselburgh yesterday to make the drive to St Andrews there was a rather fatal sounding bang and a lot of juddering and, sadly, Multi was seriously injured.
Magnus of course immediately started running through alternative ways to make the meeting in Aberdeen, this included hime thinking aloud with phrases such as ... "My mothers car is in Shetland" and "I don't suppose you can fix it here".
I on the other hand was trying to work out how I could use the Google maps linked with the GPS device on my phone to provide a location whilst at the same time use the same device to make a call to the AA recovery service. This resulted in one call being aborted as I tried to task switch with the same button as drops a call. Perhaps there was something to be said for disparate devices. In the end I wrote the location on the back of a business card.
I must compliment the AA on the service provided. They were at the car within 30 minutes of my second call (yes the GPS location did work) and i' was on tow to lauder within a further 30 minutes only after they has ascertained that the required part was not available from any of three main suppliers in Edinburgh and so a road side repair was not possible.
I am assured the part will arrive tomorrow and I look forward to many more miles in this ever-so family ever-so-not executive vehicle.
