Monthly Archives: June 2016

Post-Brexit: out of the ashes, a Kingdom of Londinium?

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badge - county of londonPost-Brexit, could London become a separate kingdom within the United Kingdom?

londiniumThe UK and its federated daughter states – former colonies such as Australia and Canada – may not be much different. Canada is a collection of independent provinces, each with its own powers, conjoined as a federation for shared purpose.

The UK is a united kingdom of different kingdoms.

With mechanisms, for centuries, to add or remove territories, change the laws, and change common custom.

Could some of the United Kingdom’s constituent kingdoms stay in the EU, and some parts leave, without damage to the unified UK?

Could the capital of England move back to Winchester? or go Birmingham? or to England’s geographic centre? Even as the Parliament of Great Britain and office of Prime Minister continues in London?

Precedents: coats-of-arms-image

 

Images:

Coat of Arms of the London County Council: By Notscott ((Source: R. Crosley, London’s Coats of Arms (1928)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACountyLondon.svg
Seal of the Brussels Capital-Region: By SVG by SiBr4 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFlag_of_the_Brussels-Capital_Region.svg
Seal of the District of Columbia: By District of Columbia – http://www.vectorslike.com/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32918640
Coat of Arms of Berlin: Ottfried Neubecker (1908–1992), [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_arms_of_Berlin.svg
Coat of Arms of Lübeck: By SVG by David Liuzzo [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWappen_L%C3%BCbeck_(Alt).svg

Parasuits – uplifting humanity, uplifting industry

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Parasuit R&D – a competitive edge?

julian-garnier-codepen

The amazingly good CSS 3D Solar System coding at codepen.io is by@JulianGarnier. Click the picture to see the code in action! Use the controls at right to change display options.

When reading about IIT Madras graduate Naga Naresh Karutura, I do not see a “double amputee”. Instead, high potential to be an ISRO astronaut flight specialist candidate.

naresh-karutura-parasuit* Software engineer at Alphabet (aka Google).
* Professional problem-solver.
* Eternally dogged optimist.
* Amputean°

In micro-gravity, Parasuit°-enabled Amputean° and Paraplegian° Astronauts may have the competitive edge. Industries and cultures embracing the perspective shift gain competitive edge, too.

parasuits - enabling r&d

° I’ve coined these words, having noticed they somehow convey a sense of uplifting. Everyone needs an uplift, now and then.

Images:

Codepen.io image by Julian Gardner: http://davehuer.com/bcitfolio/innoprojects/inno-shieldship.html – The basis of this proposal of mine from 1993/4? NEO delta-V is a technically and profitably-usable resource.

Constellation EVA Spacesuit: NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/246726main_ConstellationSpaceSuitSystemBriefing.pdf
(Image modified with removal of lower extremities)

Mr. Naga Naresh Karutura: http://social.yourstory.com/2015/11/naga-naresh-karutura/

Astronaut Double Amputeans and Paraplegians?

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It’s all about perspective.

And tenacity.

And determination.

And character.

tom-reaching-for-lab-umbilicals-sts098-330-0071After NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos got home from a year in space this past spring, the US Congress began examining whether to provide lifetime health benefits to astronauts. Many are ex-military and get benefits that way. NASA will monitor recipients for long-duration mission health planning.
 
At industrial design school, one of my human factors projects was a spider-like astrogeology exoskeleton, designed so geologists could move along a cliff face looking at strata. And the thinking fed into iteration #1 of my design thesis: one of the first social web wearables; a performance tool for whitewater slalom athletes. But a bigger aspect of the thinking keeps coming back to me: A question that might help address the dilemma of bone loss. A question that keeps coming back after doing WarriorHealth CombatCare and finding out about the fine work done at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethseda, MD.

USMC Cororal Todd LoveIs a veteran with paraplegia or no legs the natural spacecraft driver?

Since bone density loss is a key barrier to long-term low gravity living…aren’t technically-trained veteran paraplegians and double amputees great candidates for the astronaut corps? Does a fighter pilot have the discipline, skill and temperament to be a launch driver? Does an armored division tanker have the skills to be an in-flight systems specialist?

Does USMC Corporal Todd Love (an incredibly inspirational guy! seen here) really need legs to operate in micro-gravity, when he might only need wheels on the ground? (As you can see, he does not need legs whatsoever).

I ask you…

Constellation_spacesuitConstellation_spacesuit-paraplegian2

Could this approach create uplifting new opportunities to serve and thrive in a way that makes the unavoidable SCI injury extraordinarily valuable?

Aren’t two-legged people naturally less abled in the spaceflight environment?

Who is the more-natural space-athlete?

Who is the more-natural astronaut?

David Huer

Numbers

US veterans with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) as of 2008: 26,000 veterans
http://www.military.com/benefits/veterans-health-care/veterans-with-spinal-cord-injury-disorders.html

US citizens with SCI: 240,000 and 337,000 people
New injuries per year, as of 2015: 12,500 people
http://www.sci-info-pages.com/facts.html

Latest EVA suit made by Oceaneering Inc. (Houston, TX):
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/246726main_ConstellationSpaceSuitSystemBriefing.pdf

Interesting aspects of design/safety aspects
* Effect to bone mass/density and to body functions
* Pant legs + boots: removed – aperture and material needs cut by ~40%, with 5 apertures (head, left & right arm, left & right leg) reduced to 3.
* Electronic components & new designs for torso & new “thighboots”
* “Thighboots” reduce the dangers of entanglement & provide push-off tasking as needed
* External prosthetics designed to attach to thighboots

Healthcare research outcome:
Could NASA, the VA and DoD assess impact on SCI to help society groundside?

Images:

US Astronaut Tom Jones (STS-129): https://skywalking1.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/tom-reaching-for-lab-umbilicals-sts098-330-0071.jpg

USMC Corporal Todd Love and Team X-T.R.E.M.E. competing in The Spartan Race, Leesburg, VA, 2012: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2195897/Triple-amputee-veteran-completes-grueling-10-5-mile-endurance-race-called-The-Beast-hours-honor-fallen-U-S-soldiers.html

Constellation EVA Spacesuit: NASA http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/246726main_ConstellationSpaceSuitSystemBriefing.pdf
(Image modified with removal of lower extremities in image)