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Remote-Control Giant Desert Etch-a-Sketch

 Technology just gives us bigger toys...
  (+10)(+10)
(+10) 		  [vote for,
against]

Okay - here's the setup. Somewhere in the desert, preferably in an area reguarly flown over by commercial aircraft, there's a remote control car with a sand plough attached to it. Very high up (perhaps in a strongly tethered balloon) there's a camera looking down on the scene and broadcasting the picture live to your computer. You drive the car with the cursor keys on your computer, and use it to make the biggest pictures the world has ever seen. Well, since the Nazca Indians, anyway.

Beats crop circles, I reckon. The only snag (apart from the "tethered balloon" bit, which is admittedly a bit weak - a surveillence satellite would be better, but probably a little more pricey) is that you'd have to wait for a sandstorm to "shake" the current picture off the "screen". Being a bit of an Etch-a-Sketh purist I wouldn't recommend this, but you could also have the car set up to raise and lower the plough whenever you press the space bar on your keyboard.

—lostdog, Mar 04 2003

Sorta like this, I guess http://www.stateoft...a/nazca-bird-02.jpg
[DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Far Away http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Far_20Away
by blahginger. [my face your, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Shameless self plug http://www.halfbake...ea/GiantEtchasketch
Sorry [Jinbish, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Giant crop design using maze http://www.agry.pur...bell_0926-Close.jpg
Over 300 maize mazes [pluterday, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

I fell for Rod's bait... http://www.halfbake.../idea/Escher-Sketch
[RayfordSteele, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

GPS drawing (Halfbaked) http://www.gpsdrawing.com/gallery.htm
Includes "The world's biggest IF" and "Mosquito" among others. [JackandJohn, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

I fell for the bait, too. http://www.halfbake.../Escher_27s_20Ketch
[beauxeault, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

[link]






       I like it. Can I play?
—Worldgineer, Mar 04 2003
   

       No.   

       I do mean to be negative though. I mean, if you find the right desert to do it, let me know!! I'll join ya! I really need some amusement (the Periodic Table of the halfbakers didn't do).
—Pericles, Mar 04 2003
   

       Does make you wonder if the whole Nazca Indians thing was actually what their teenagers got up to at night.
—DrCurry, Mar 04 2003
   

       I think we need a great big 'Don't Panic!" face.
—RayfordSteele, Mar 04 2003
   

       Let’s create a “Face on Earth” and show those Martians how to do it properly.
—Shz, Mar 04 2003
   

       lostdog, has anyone said "Welcome to the Halfbakery" yet? You have quite a nice collection of ideas in the few days you've been here, and somehow were even able to post a thoroughly fishboned early idea without even whining. Don't go and get a swollen head, but it's an impressive start.
—beauxeault, Mar 04 2003
   

       a regular being nice to a newbie? am i on the right site?
—sambwiches, Mar 04 2003
   

       Or this could be done in the ocean by having a ship squirting out nutrients to create an algae bloom. The pattern will be quite temporary and will disperse soon enough for the next player.
—pluterday, Mar 04 2003
   

       Cheers, beauxeault. Actually, it took me a while to realise what the whole fishbone thing meant...
—lostdog, Mar 04 2003
   

       So, which end do you put the bullets in?
—bristolz, Mar 04 2003
   

       This could be easily adapted to produce crop designs. Nice.
—waugsqueke, Mar 04 2003
   

       Sheazy, yeah, but we'd have to do it as a Martian face, in order to return the favor. Perhaps Marvin could pose?
—RayfordSteele, Mar 04 2003
   

       sounds like a Burning Man art piece to me!
—violentpunkgirl, Mar 05 2003
   

       I was once told that I have "a mind like a Maurits Escher engraving". I took that as a complement.
—8th of 7, Mar 05 2003
   

       Makes me think of the Preacher series of comics, where mad guy in desert (who had been kicked off the astronaut (cheers [Dimandja]) program) spends his existance using explosions in desert to write 'fuck-off' large enough to be seen from space.
—Zircon, Mar 05 2003
   

       Re Zircon's annotation: The Great Wall of China is not actually just a single jagged line, but has multiple branches and discontinuities. I don't know enough about ancient Chinese writing to be sure that's not what they were actually up to.
—beauxeault, Mar 05 2003
   

       Maybe you could set up some sort of earth-quaking device below the desert, to trigger a small earthquake to erase the picture (or to wreak havoc in local settlements).
—Parvenu, Mar 05 2003
   

       A great extension to something there is already an underground movement for.. Half-baked ;)   

       [link] GPS drawing
—JackandJohn, Mar 05 2003
   

       At a small beach where we sometimes go surfing the beach is surrounded by cliffs people regularly draw things in the sand and write messages like "its shit go home" or "fuck off blowins" you just need to walk in the sand in a shuffling sort of way and run up to the top of the cliff to admire your handy work.
—Gulherme, Mar 06 2003
   

       I recall some beach in southern California has giant rollers that they pull around to smooth it out. This might be a way to clear your desert etch-a-sketch.
—Worldgineer, Mar 06 2003
   

       Methinks you may have found a use for the Mars rovers once the experiments are complete (or perhaps during Mission Control's Lunch Break).   

       "Frank, can you zoom in on Meridiani Planum? I'm not sure if I'm reading this correctly, but I think it says...MARS NEEDS WOMEN!"   

       +
—richp, May 10 2004
   
      
[annotate]
   


 

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