Sunday, February 17, 2008

Mensa and other stuff

RANDOM THOUGHT

Well, having a big brain does mean some exciting possibilities. I was looking at Mensa site, and I thought Mensa is looking for top 5 percent, but some figures are quoted at 98 percent. I think you need to have an IQ of 130 or something.

Actually, they accept most anything, including SAT. I know my SAT math was 99%+, so I should be in. Too bad my verbal was total zero due to my misunderstanding the problem. English is my second language, OK?

That becomes better at College level, though. I wonder if such records still exist. I may just be a member without taking a test!

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Do you know that a farm running a profit of about $300 per acre is considered doing very well? So if you want to make $100,000 per year, you need 330 acres? That's assuming good harvest, so I guess the average farm size has got to be around 500 acres or so.

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You know all these military robots they've been talking about? I find it weird that they want to build autonomous car that navigate city street when designing an autonomous warship is a much easier problem. No road, after all, and if something goes wrong, it can just float there while the human sailor takes care of things. However, traditional problems such as complexity, size, and weight that makes things very difficult to achieve in a car is largely absent on a big ship. I know that some of the more sophisticated autopilot has relieved much of a sailor's burden during solo voyages. It wouldn't take much more to make it an "intelligent mobile mine."

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I think it's telling that I'm much more excited in learning that Sherwin-Williams Resilience is waterproof (Great paint for a cartop cardboard boat) than a self portrait camera that takes pictures when your face is centered (No rule of thirds?).

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Of all the talks about alternative energy, I wonder why corn is considered a good candidate for biodiesel. I've always thought that sugar canes would be more effective.

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I don't want a car that runs 80 mpg. I want a car that runs on solar, or wind, or whatever free stuff God gives us. Does anybody know a good way to harness energy from rain? I imagine one good lighting strike can power quite a few houses. How about that? Figure out a good way to charge batteries from lightning, or static electricity, such as scrubbing plactic shoes across carpet.

And if anybody can discover how to profitable power a modern cash register with power gained from walking the treadmill, I'm sure a lot of health clubs would be interested.

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Looking at the specs for some motorcycle engines, I see that they make more power with less displacement, moving less weight than my econobox car. Somehow, though, their miles per gallon looks rather low for all of their supposed advantages.

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