I had assumed it was a Valve game. It's an actual steam engine. Damn you internets!

That machine seriously needs a miniature steam engine to run it.

Fantastic. Reminds me of my wife's granddad, so is very moving for me. I'm going to tell you about him because I can, you don't have to read this, it's just that I think he deserves a mention.

He retired at 65 from a career as an engineer and went on to be a tinkerer and inventor. He had a love of steam engines and built a scale model of Stephenson's Rocket in very much the same way as the gentleman in this video, but he made absolutely everything from scratch, including the nuts bolts and washers. It's about 12inches long and runs around a track when connected to compressed air. It still fascinates me to this day. He finished making it when he was 93. He said he'd sometimes drop a piece on his study floor and it would take him most of the day to find it again with his bad eyesight and loss of feeling in his fingers. I can't imagine having the skill to make one now while I'm in my prime. Seeing things like this make me feel awfully humble.

His crowning achievement was making the world's first ever road-legal solar powered car. He liked tinkering with solar power and realised that if he made a solar powered car it would be fun and he wouldn't have to pay road tax (he built and drove an electric sports car to work and back in the 50s for the same reason). So he built it. He wasn't the first to use solar power, he was just the first to make it road legal. I don't think he knew at the time he was the first, and it didn't seem that important to him. It was just something interesting to do. I swear he could have lived to 200 and not run out of ideas or things to do. He makes me realise how little I've done with my life.

If anyone's still reading and is still interested, this is him:

http://www.search.windowsonwarwickshire.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=6940

Yes he is, cute lil' aviators!
The steam engine is too! I love how those sound.
In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
The pilot is rather cute:

http://videosift.com/video/Radio-Controlled-Steam-Trike

>> ^quantumushroom:

I notice the flames aren't made out of glass. FAIL.


"Flames of Glass" is now my band name...YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!!!

Your video, Working Model of Stephenson's STEAM ENGINE made of all glass, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^luxury_pie:

I got the weirdest boner right now...


Is it made of glass too?

That thing looks like it needs more wood, brass and a steam engine attached to it.

Vertical farming is the answer. Skyscrapers filled with hydroponics, using all kinds of light and surface area tricks (stuff growing on every surface, four seasons in every building). Requires far less energy and water than conventional soil based agriculture.

And as for fresh water, you can kill two birds and get "free" energy plus fresh water through the use of hybrid solar steam engine\distiller fields. The dominant vertical farming concept will probably incorporate these two functions as well, meaning they will generate their own power and gather\convert their own fresh water.

From: http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm

Transcript:

President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen:

I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assure you that my first lecture will be very brief.

I am delighted to be here, and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion.

We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.

Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation¹s own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension.

No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man¹s recorded history in a time span of but a half-century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power.

Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.

This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward.

So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward--and so will space.

William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.

If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.

Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it--we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.

Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.

In the last 24 hours we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where the F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48 story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two lengths of this field.

Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were "made in the United States of America" and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union.

The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the the 40-yard lines.

Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs.

We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.

To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.

The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains.

And finally, the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great number of new companies, and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and skilled personnel, and this city and this State, and this region, will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space. Houston, your City of Houston, with its Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering community. During the next 5 years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area, to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to $60 million a year; to invest some $200 million in plant and laboratory facilities; and to direct or contract for new space efforts over $1 billion from this Center in this City.

To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year¹s space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million a year--a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. Space expenditures will soon rise some more, from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman and child in the United Stated, for we have given this program a high national priority--even though I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us.

But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold.

I'm the one who is doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute. [laughter]

However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the sixties. It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. It will be done during the term of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this decade.

I am delighted that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of the United States of America.

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there."

Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

Thank you.

jonny,

I think the part you are missing is the possibility of changes of order of magnitude. For example, what if I could just default to having a videocamera built into the edge of my eyeglasses and simply record everything I do 24/7 in beyond HD detail? Right now that would require far more memory than I can afford, but it would also eliminate much current note taking, minutes of meetings, even allow you to "go back in time" for snapshots.

What if I wanted to transmit that data over my cell phone to someone else to watch at the same time? What if 10 Billion people on Earth wanted to do the same thing?

I know squat about the memristor, but I do believe that the possibilities for computing technologies in particular are still ripe for orders of magnitude changes. It may be that vacuum tube computers were like the water wheel and transistors the steam engine. If so we still have a lot of room for improvement in efficiency and convenience.

I think risk is the primary deterrent. It is the same logic behind becoming a scientist, doctor, or lawyer.

It is a fact we make a lot of money, but not everyone does it. There are more factors than simply 'this is in my best financial interests'. You are presenting things as they are absolute black and white, which they are decidedly not.

>> ^imstellar28:
^tell me this. why do you need incentive for people to enter a $1,000,000,000,000 industry? you don't think the sheer profit available is enough?


A good example of this would be:

MRI Industry
Microwave Industry
Cellular Communication Industry
Nuclear Energy Industry
Computer Industry(By way of the transistor, substrates, etc.)
Genetic Engineering Industry

Basically anything except Railroad and Oil...

Hey wait... Those had incentives... Carnot is basically the founder of thermodynamics. And the British Government gave him tons of money to research steam engines. And research into the science of mining for oil is supported by the government, too. So yeah, I guess your question is silly. Regardless of the profits to be made governments have always provided incentives in one form or another to support industry, because ensuring a good economy is in their best interests.

Can I get an amen?

In his defense, the cool thing when he was young was steam engines, so it's understandable if he's not excited about the whole "information age."

I do care about science, but i studied maths, physics AND art, and i see the similarities between them, and their respective weaknesses.

I think it's great that we have science to make computers so we can talk to each other at a great distance. I think penicillin was probably a good thing to invent. The steam engine turned out to be quite useful.

But, just because the scientific method has been so successful in so many areas, that doesn't mean that it can or should be applied to God.

spoco, i don't think everyone shares your tolerant and sensible attitude... many people are "shitty" to me here without even knowing what I believe, they just hear the word god and shout "IT FITS IN YOUR BUTT!". That's what pisses me off about atheists, they are wrong AND they love rubbing it in everyone's face... just like religious fundamentalists... you become what you fight. So I will continue to diss Pat Condell, Dawkins, and these clowns, because they are taking a good thing to extremes and turning it into a bad thing... mostly because they get off on it.

the advantage of being expat is i can choose the bits i am proud of and claim them as my own (cricket, politeness, an ability to turn up to meetings on time, the steam engine, the beatles)

but i can totally disown the other shit because i don't live in that stinking country with all those crazy assholes

and i don't really watch many movies so i guess it will be a while before i get round to one called "eurotrip" ! i kinda been there, done that.



In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
http://www.videosift.com/video/How-the-English-are-Perceived-Around-the-World