Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Flying Cars Revisited

Troops are still fighting and dying in Afghanistan. Troops are still targets in Iraq. Health care for everyone who needs it is an idea whose time has not yet come. The economy still sucks.

But there is good news! The Toyota Yaris with the Peace and The Who stickers on the rear bumper has not been recalled. If you have seen a Toyota Yaris, one of the inexpensive cars on the market, you know why it has not been recalled for problems with the gas pedal and/or brakes.

And I don't like our tax money being spent on lasers zapping missiles, but how far off can flying cars be if we are shooting missiles with laser beams?

Flying cars. Anti-gravity.

It's really very simple. Here it is, straight from the High Field Magnetic Laboratory at the Radboud University Nijmegen:

Whether an object will or will not levitate in a magnetic field B is defined by the balance between the magnetic force F = M∇B and gravity mg = ρV g where ρ is the material density, V is the volume and g = 9.8m/s². The magnetic moment M = (χ/ µ₀)VB so that F = (χ/µ₀)BV∇B = (χ/2µ₀)V∇B². Therefore, the vertical field gradient ∇ B² required for levitation has to be larger than 2µ0ρg/χ. Molecular susceptibilities χ are typically 10^-5 for diamagnetics and 10^-3 for paramagnetic materials and, since ρ is most often a few g/cm³, their magnetic levitation requires field gradients ~1000 and 10 T²/m, respectively. Taking l = 10cm as a typical size of high-field magnets and ∇B² ~ B²/l as an estimate, we find that fields of the order of 1 and 10T are sufficient to cause levitation of para- and diamagnetics. This result should not come as a surprise because, as we know, magnetic fields of less than 0.1T can levitate a superconductor (χ= -1) and, from the formulas above, the magnetic force increases as B².

Now, get to work; and make me a flying car! My feet hurt.

Health Care in America

You probably read or heard about Anthem Blue Cross raising health insurance premiums for individual policy holders by one-third, which will drive off many of the less profitable policies, that is, the people that are using their health insurance, increasing the profits even more.

Profits? With what is being said in the great health care debate, you'd think that health insurance companies are going the way of AIG, needing government support, because of rising health care costs.

Did you know CIGNA's profits went up 384%?

There's Another Storm Coming

Here we are, right up there with Boston and New York City -- Forbes has ranked Cleveland #1, edging out Boston and New York.

And speaking of New York, we were Witnesses Saturday night.

If you are a basketball fan or have a passing interest in basketball and you have an opportunity to see LeBron James play, and I do not mean on television, you must go to the game.

Oh, the winter part -- when I was walking the dogs before the slight blast of winter over the weekend, I restrained the dogs while I caught this falcon in a doorway.

And you never have to leave your home for beer and cigarettes -- this Chinese restaurant delivers!