A polar bears' skin is black, oh it's true, and its fur isn't white it's clear.This allows the solar radiation to be absorbed by the black skin and be trapped by the insulating properties of densely packed fur.
Why could this same technique not be applied to the southward facing walls of our homes to heat them in winter just the same way?
Insulated fiber optic panels could be inserted between the standard 16 inch wall-stud gaps during initial construction with the cost of normal insulation saved to offset the extra material cost.
Wall surfaces in the home could still be painted any desired colour without losing heating properties as long as the convective inner layer remained black.
Over the course of a few Canadian winters this system would pay for itself many times over.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 26 2013 Churchill, Manitoba http://en.m.wikiped...Churchill,_ManitobaThe Polar Bear Capital of the World (allegedly) [8th of 7, Dec 26 2013] polar bear fur trivia http://www.polarbea...ntials/fur-and-skin [Voice, Dec 26 2013] Trombe wall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trombe_wallConceptually similar. [spidermother, Dec 27 2013] So, using pantomine horses to lure polar bears towards the trap.. Arctic_20explorer_2..._20horse_20costumes [not_morrison_rm, Dec 27 2013] Very large triple-glazed argon-filled sealed units made with "K" glass would work just as well, shirley ?
Then again, for the ecologically conscious, emptying out polar bears and nailing them to your house does avoid the energy use and pollution associated with manufacturing window glass.-- 8th of 7, Dec 26 2013 Exactly.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 26 2013 This would probably work well in Churchill, Manitoba.
<link>-- 8th of 7, Dec 26 2013 Naw, they like their igloos too much.
Cool little tidbit at the end of that trivia link which kind of blows the premise for this idea out of the water, yet I can't help but wonder if it would work nonetheless.
Here's an arctic fact you might never have heard;eating the polar bears' liver can kill you from an overdose of vitamin A.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 27 2013 We knew that … ditto for eating sled dogs. Fat-soluble vitamins like A concentrate in the liver.
Polar bears are also frequently riddled with planaria worms throughout their tissues.-- 8th of 7, Dec 27 2013 //eating the polar bears' liver can kill you
Presumably more people die in the attempt to extract the liver, polar bears take a dim view of that kind of thing.
Suggest some surgery to put the liver on the outside,and held on with velcro. Could be that new winter olympics event at Sochi they've been talking about.-- not_morrison_rm, Dec 27 2013 // polar bears take a dim view of that kind of thing //
Au contraire, all they want is a level playing field … they are quite happy to extract human livers, given the chance.-- 8th of 7, Dec 27 2013 //all they want is a level playing field
What the heck for? Not like they play croquet or whatever.
However Man United vs the Polar bears would definitely be my idea of entertainment....-- not_morrison_rm, Dec 27 2013 // Not like they play croquet //
Don't be silly. You can't knock the hoops into ice.
They play bowls.-- 8th of 7, Dec 27 2013 Curling, that I could believe.-- not_morrison_rm, Dec 27 2013 Don't be silly. Where would they get the brushes ?-- 8th of 7, Dec 27 2013 // I can't help but wonder if it would work nonetheless. //
So go kill a bunch of polar bears and hang them on the south wall of your house. Please report results after you are released from prison.-- Alterother, Dec 27 2013 // after you are released from prison //
Hmmm. We are not convinced that, in many jurisdictions, it is illegal to shoot polar bears.
After an extensive and expensive research programme into polar bear deterrence, carried out over several years, the Canadian government determined that the ONLY effective way of dealing with a polar bear in the open was to shoot it on sight - otherwise, it WILL kill you. Nothing deters them; smell, smoke, noise, pepper spray, they were all tried, and they all failed.-- 8th of 7, Dec 27 2013 Shooting them is legal. Hunting them for pelts is not. The obvious loophole is covered by not allowing people to keep any part of the bear they shoot in self-defense. I'm pretty sure that's how it works.-- Alterother, Dec 27 2013 Ah; yes, that would make sense.-- 8th of 7, Dec 27 2013 I just want to mimic the effect using fiber optics not the whole bear... although a polar bear hide tee-pee bears (n'yuck) consideration.
We had visitors over for Christmas dinner and somehow the topic became an intense conversation about the dominance of cats vs. bears across either side of the temporary ice bridge between North America and Asia.Tigers live and dominate at Canadian-ish latitudes in Asia and Russia, why not here?
There; cats are huge and bears are small-ish.Here; bears are huge and cats are small-ish.
We never did come to an agreeable consensus of why this is so, but we all agreed that if either species were pack animals we'd probably have never made it down from the trees in the first place.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 27 2013 //Don't be silly. Where would they get the brushes ?
Seagulls, or longer lasting would be seals.-- not_morrison_rm, Dec 27 2013 Trombe sure sounds French, I wonder if the bears are French ?-- popbottle, Dec 28 2013 Right, you had fair warning...-- not_morrison_rm, Dec 28 2013 random, halfbakery