The next manned lunar landing should consider taking with them a flock of my Long-life Solar Reflecting Moon Sheep.
Each sheep is made from an ultra light, mirror surfaced, gossamer thin material and is packed away in a small container.
Once on the moon a very small amount of gas is admitted to the sheep which in the zero pressure atmosphere then inflate like a balloon to giant proportions. I'm thinking about each one being at least a tenth of a mile in length when fully filled.
Once deployed, each sheep is individually tethered on a long leash and positioned randomly across a large area, but everyone has a tiny low powered engine, which makes it move about randomly, by periodically emitting a little puff of gas.
When viewed from the earth the flock of sheep should be visible glinting the sun's rays on the surface of the moon, as they gently rove around their new barren pasture forever looking for the fresh grass that never comes.-- xenzag, Nov 29 2006 Man on Moon https://www.youtube...watch?v=wuz2ILq4UeAat last, a shepherd to tend to the sheep [xenzag, Nov 15 2015] list of ideas by xenzag or MaxwellBuchanan, sorted by date https://www.halfbak...ged_3e_3c_2fu_3e:t=no similar ideas by xenzag prior to N-prize [Loris, Feb 23 2024] Willem de Haan's website https://www.willemdehaan.be/ [Loris, Feb 24 2024] I don't think a jet engine would work on the moon. How about a solar powered electric motor.-- xaviergisz, Nov 29 2006 Baad idea. It won't stop with sheep. Once you allow sheep on the moon, it won't be long before someone else will put some cows there, then other people will add other animals... soon you'll have a whole moonagerie. +-- imaginality, Nov 29 2006 That pun could actually relieve constipation.-- shapu, Nov 29 2006 DEATH TO THE AUTOBONER
Who could possibly bone this?-- Custardguts, Nov 29 2006 Cute idea... how about we inject good ole US capitalism and competition into this. The US offers the first drug company to come up with an economical proven cure for ______ (insert disease/disorder here), the advertising rights for ten years and those sheep will create when inflated the logo/name/emblem of that drug company. Every ten years we could be curing diseases like cancers, juvenile diabetes, auto-immune diseases, multiple sclerosis, etc. Or car companies could be offered that space if they can create a car that get 80 miles per gallon, etc. They pay billions for the naming rights of silly little football stadiums, so why not??-- Alysonwonderland, Nov 29 2006 the world is too much with us late and soon wordsworth-- bulb, Nov 29 2006 edit - new engines fitted to sheep following xaviergisz's anno-- xenzag, Nov 29 2006 Bone to advertising. Bun to sheep.-- squeak, Nov 29 2006 Do sheep eat cheese?-- skinflaps, Nov 29 2006 Shawn does-- squeak, Nov 29 2006 An electic motor would not work on the moon as there is no air for a propellor to push. A puff of gas would work but would run out, I suggest something along the lines of the jumping mechanism found in those annoying yapping toy dogs that do a backflip. The sheep would be solar powered and a spring would be wound during th daylight hours, then when fully tensioned it would leap into the sky. With 1/6 earth gravity it should be able to travel a decent distance.
alternatively, the sheep could fire out an anchor line and then winch it's way to the anchor.-- marklar, Nov 29 2006 I think I'll go invest in a telescope company. Sales are bound to skyrocket as soon as this idea is fully baked.
(You do plan on fully baking this, right? theres no reason not to.)-- Hunter79764, Nov 29 2006 Just start with inflatable sheep, I hear they sell well in less densely populated areas.-- craigts, Nov 29 2006 Cool idea Dr. X but not practical. I'm on the fence +/- for now.-- Chefboyrbored, Nov 30 2006 [Chefboyrbored] my sheep don't like people who sit on the fence... either join the woolly crew forever ambling merrily about in the field of no grass or face the dreaded punishment of individually varnishing a thousand frantic cockroaches.-- xenzag, Nov 30 2006 Wow, such great options so little time.-- Chefboyrbored, Nov 30 2006 A non-pun solution: mylar spheres folded origami-style. shot or brought to the moon and allowed to expand with a little gas. These balls can be huge! like 40 feet in diameter. Maybe if they are big enough, you could look in a big telescope and it would look like God is playing marbles on the moon.-- twitch, Nov 30 2006 //I think I'll go invest in a telescope company. Sales are bound to skyrocket as soon as this idea is fully baked.//
see last link...-- xenzag, Nov 15 2015 Idea as now copied by Jeff Koons, except his piece is as dull and uninspiring as a bowl of frozen dishwater left at the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft.-- xenzag, Feb 23 2024 Ha - I've tried for years without success to get my idea of a grand piano into a permanent orbit. Musk was interested but that's as far as it has gotten so far. Bezos is too detestable for me to contact and Nasa never respond. If you're interested, the idea is called "In Space No One Car Hear You Playing Chopin"-- xenzag, Feb 23 2024 I did once post an idea for launching an item(s), and Max read it, then posted his own version of it called the N-prize. Look it up. He got a lot of credit for this, but the original idea was mine.-- xenzag, Feb 23 2024 //I did once post an idea for launching an item(s), and Max read it, then posted his own version of it called the N-prize. Look it up. He got a lot of credit for this, but the original idea was mine.//
Doubt.-- Loris, Feb 23 2024 Ok - doubt as much as you want. I can trawl up/repost my idea etc or you can accept what I'm telling you and leave it at that.-- xenzag, Feb 23 2024 I am willing to be convinced, if you can show me the idea (ideally in the wayback machine), it predates the N-prize post, and it's believable as a precursor to that.
I can't just accept it as true without that, because you have a history of claiming precedence which doesn't bear up to scrutiny. To be clear I don't think this is an ego thing - IIRC I saw you make a suggestion about someone else's idea. I think it's at least partly a 'small world' thing, that is, you're not accounting for the scale of the human race.-- Loris, Feb 23 2024 [xenzag] Far more than any artistic merit of Koons' piece, it was crucial that whatever was chosen pack absolutely flat and only use old air. His rabbit was a horror on terra firma but is better than his Chucky Cheese party favor that forever blemishes Luna.-- minoradjustments, Feb 23 2024 My lovely Moon Sheep pack absolutely flat - read the descriptor.-- xenzag, Feb 23 2024 //because you have a history of claiming precedence which doesn't bear up to scrutiny.// Show the history or retract your unfounded assertion.-- xenzag, Feb 23 2024 //Show the history or retract your unfounded assertion.//
Sure.
On FarmerJohn's "Double Headed Ponytail" idea, you said:
|| This is probably from where he got "his" idea - see Marina Abramovich original performance piece link. ||
You failed to produce any substantiating evidence when challenged there, and that's exactly the sort of idea I'd expect many people to come up with independently, at different times. For example:
::“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.”:: ― Plato, The Symposium
Not exactly the same - but then, Marina Abramovich's art performance wasn't the same as FarmerJohn's idea either.
Then, there's your idea, "Nosey Parters", where you recently claimed to have inspired the artist Willem De Haan, who produced a vaguely similar art piece. But when I found his website, there was attribution to various other sources - and again, it's the sort of thing I'd expect many people to have vaguely similar ideas about independently.
These are just claims which you've made within the last year that I noticed and remember off-hand. You've made similar claims multiple times previously, I don't think I need to find and list more to say my assertion is pretty well founded.-- Loris, Feb 24 2024 Loris – you clearly have used a lot of your time in your efforts to become the halfbakery humbug. Let me help you with your efforts: I'll start with de Haan. It wasn't just Nosey Parters that he harvested - take a look at 'his' High Rise Tents and also 'his' hoody garment that's covered with carrying hooks then look at my Outside Non-Pockets. There may be others, but three is more than a coincidence. With regards Max - I'm reluctant to say too much in that regard as we exchanged a lot of personal emails and these will remain private. What I will point you towards is the idea I posted titled Planet You where I proposed a method of sending a million tiny objects into space for less than 100 dollars each. Meanwhile, my advice to you [loris] is to use your time more positively by posting more of your own ideas instead of attacking me and mine. I'm suggesting this as you've been quite slack for a while. Being the halfbakery humbug is tiresome for everyone, but you enjoy it? Each to their own. This is my last response on this to bring it to an end.-- xenzag, Feb 24 2024 //Loris – you clearly have used a lot of your time in your efforts to become the halfbakery humbug.//
I don't like to see mistruths incessantly repeated in public without push-back, I think that has bad consequences. If that makes me a humbug, so be it. Better than the alternative.
//Let me help you with your efforts: I'll start with de Haan. It wasn't just Nosey Parters that he harvested - take a look at 'his' High Rise Tents and also 'his' hoody garment that's covered with carrying hooks then look at my Outside Non-Pockets. There may be others, but three is more than a coincidence.//
Two more examples? Finally. Well, it would be unreasonable not to look carefully. High Rise Tents (xenzag, 2005) vs Highrise Campsite: Nature City (de Haan, 2023) These ideas cover the same concept in different ways. xenzag's suggestion is that they would resemble "an enlarged version of those canvas shoe holders", de Haan's physically realised structure is a set of normal tents on scaffolding.
Outside Non-Pockets (xenzag, 2006) vs ...well, I think you're talking about the final image on the "Commissioned Images For De Volkskrant (2019 — 2021)" page (de Haan, 2021). Again, the are different ideas on the same topic. xenzag's is a (presumably fabric) coat with useful items attached by bull-dog clips, de Haan's is a chainmail headpiece with numerous keys clipped on via keyrings.
So... I guess my initial judgement is that given the number of ideas posted by both creators, you'd expect to get a few touching on topics in that similar a manner. But to be rigorous, is it possible to calculate a reasonable probability estimate? I think it would be, but I can only give a proposal of an approach to estimating it here.
The basic concept is that there is a 'birthday paradox' style calculation, given the number of possible ideas, the number of ideas xenzag has posted, and the number of ideas posted by any particular creator.
Given xenzag's reading of equivalence between the ideas of vertical camping, externally clipped clothing, a human hand on a positionable stand, and sending small items to space - and given that both the potential items an idea can operate on and the number of possible modifiers is limited, the total number of distinct ideas may be lower than one would think.
So, how many 'nouns', and how many 'verbs'? To estimate both, one approach may be to look at the number of times a particular prop or function is reused to estimate the total number. Sort of like a catch, tag and release population estimate. For example, in 2022, de Haan posted "Curtain, yellow" - where a line of individual tape measures divides a space, and in 2023 xenzag posted "Mile In A Suitcase", involving a mile-long tape-measure. So either xenzag was copying de Haan in this instance, or - if we think it's distinct enough - it's a repeat use of the prop. I would argue in this instance that the 'verb' is distinct - but perhaps the fact that there are repeats means we can estimate the count for both constants.
xenzag has 1654 ideas currently posted on the HB, and de Haan has 88 topic headings, although some contain multiple ideas so let's estimate 100 concepts.
I imagine that a statistician would then be able to determine the expected number of matches.
Of course, that depends on agreement over whether two ideas are actually matches - and given that xenzag requires that ideas are as obviously distinct as "Beans on Toaster" and "Beans on Toast Printer", and yet more distinct than the xenzag/de Haan idea pairs covered above, that may prove difficult.
//With regards Max - I'm reluctant to say too much in that regard as we exchanged a lot of personal emails and these will remain private. What I will point you towards is the idea I posted titled Planet You where I proposed a method of sending a million tiny objects into space for less than 100 dollars each.//
If you have evidence you can't make public, I'm afraid it doesn't count - at least, as far as I'm concerned, frustrating as that may be. I'd say a1 has given a good account of the information available. I did look at the 'planet you' idea, and figured that it wasn't relevant - it's really quite distinct. It's essentially an uninteresting non-functional version of the cube-sat concept, which precedes it by some years.
//Meanwhile, my advice to you [loris] is to use your time more positively by posting more of your own ideas instead of attacking me and mine. I'm suggesting this as you've been quite slack for a while. Being the halfbakery humbug is tiresome for everyone, but you enjoy it? Each to their own. This is my last response on this to bring it to an end.//
In that case, I'll take the last word. Yes, I haven't posted that many ideas recently. I find I cull more for not being good enough, or sometimes because research indicates it already exists. Also, for the last few years I spent quite a bit of time talking to people about covid, vaccinations etc. Which may have cemented my reputation but wasn't generally fun to do - I saw it more as a public service. Whether that was worthwhile you can disagree, but it did sap a lot of my enjoyment out of the bakery.
But since we're giving each other advice, here's mine for you, xenzag. You routinely insult people, yet you're very thin-skinned and treat even innocuous comments as attacks. And you have an overly inflated sense of your own creativity, meaning you see other peoples ideas as connected to yours when they are essentially independent. Most of your ideas are 'flavour', and don't have mfd tags only because of the ongoing decency of other bakers. You need to work on that.-- Loris, Feb 24 2024 random, halfbakery