Mustaffah looked back at his line of 600 robot camel tankers with pride. The train was three days out from the well-head and had just over a day to go to the Ras-Aal-Suqh port. It had been a good trip - the loading of each robot tanker had gone smoothly, with 100 barrels in each and not a drop spilled on the fur covering of any of them.
These were the new model, virtually indestructable with their triple shell stainless steel tanks and the kevlar body moulds. Up close you could see that they were four times the size of a normal camel, but seeing them from a distance across his beloved dunes...Pushht!! Much better than the ugly devil-pipes that used to scar the landscape! Praise be to Allah for the dogs of war that destroyed the pipes.
He had been one of the first to take up the new technology, and now had interests in several trains, but this one was his pride. Two more years of this and he would seed-fund a robot caribou tanker herd in Alaska. Reaching for his cell-phone, he dialled the leader of the Inuit terrorist cell and began the planning for the destruction of the Alaskan pipe network....-- ConsulFlaminicus, Jul 30 2005 Robot Camel Riders http://www.wired.co...ve/13.11/camel.htmlSomeone saw this, changed it, and baked it. [dbmag9, Oct 28 2005] Josef peering through his binoculars suddenly punches my shoulder exclaiming, “Ishmael, check out number 239! Is that a hump or a backpack filled with explosives?””Scheiße!” I cry, “Hit the deck! It’s another suicide bomber camel.”-- FarmerJohn, Jul 30 2005 From an offshore oil rig: "Hey Gunther! Check out that line of 200 surfacing humpbacks."-- goober, Jul 30 2005 Can we MFD Mustaffah for advocacy? I do like the invention however.+-- dentworth, Jul 30 2005 how many miles to the gallon do these things do?-- po, Jul 30 2005 'mpg' is not a concept understood by the technological societies outside jesUSistan.
The petrocamecals use solar panels to electrolise water. Mustaffah bases his efficiency measures on paces per lumen.-- ConsulFlaminicus, Jul 31 2005 So these robotic oil-tanker camels are powered by fuel cells and solar panels? Perfect.-- moomintroll, Jul 31 2005 [+++]-- Basepair, Jul 31 2005 I wonder if the two-brick joke works with robot camels.-- Ling, Aug 01 2005 dromedroids [+]-- elhigh, Aug 01 2005 Yeah nice idea, but a pipeline is SO much cheaper to maintain than an intricately constructed electronic camel.
Whatever mpg, or ppl you get out of these camels, it's going to be considerably less than it would have been to allow the oil to flow along a pipe.-- zen_tom, Aug 01 2005 Oh, great. Now the price of gasoline will rise beyond the 2 dinar per liter mark! I really should trade in my old infernal combustion vehicle for one of those new Shetland robo-ponies. I hear they can reach speeds of up to 7 meters per second! Of course, that will triple my commute time, but I just can't afford full-size.-- Canuck, Aug 01 2005 Inuit terrorist cell hahahaha...-- DesertFox, Oct 28 2005 random, halfbakery