not nanobots ,but still small machines to start in a line at one end of a zen garden and move along in a formation,modifying their path around obstacles,such as rocks.-- technobadger, Sep 18 2001 Robot Lawnmower http://www.friendly...tics.com/index2.htmTIPUET: Remove mower, add rake. [rmutt, Sep 18 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004] FFFFFFR-RRRRRRC... http://www.st3f.com...adcone_cartoon2.gif...well, some of those letters anyway. For Starchaser. Steamrollers indeed. [st3f, Sep 18 2001, last modified Jul 05 2015] What happens when they get to the bottom of the garden? Do they just escape into the wild?-- DrBob, Sep 18 2001 brilliant! When the flocking road cones are not near a pothole, avoiding pedestrians, or exhibiting their other primary behaviors, they can be attracted to gravel to produce zen gardens. When construction work starts up, they will regretfully leave their gardens to perform their road cone duties, like warrior monks coming down from their peaceful temples.-- wiml, Sep 18 2001 If I had not already deemed this a worthy idea, wiml's fantastic anno would have convinced me.-- Dog Ed, Sep 18 2001 This is just the kind of thing we'll need, in a wartime economy: compact, efficient, stress-relieving little things that can serve in more than one line of duty (road work, Zen garden).
technobadger, croissant for you -- and one for wiml, too. Let's see how many (Active and Reserve) Flocking Road Cones we can call up.-- 1percent, Sep 19 2001 If there is no lawn, they don't mow it.-- angel, Sep 19 2001 Didn't we use all the FRCs on the Stairway to Heaven? I guess we'll have to build (or is that breed?) more. This is another example of 1/2b ingenuity. I'm all for it as long as the FRCs don't start tipping over gravel trucks to create a zen-garden-on-the-go.-- Canuck, Sep 19 2001 Perhaps some form of simple moth-like tropism could be built into them so that they would circle large rocks, just as moths circle a light source, thus producing the concentric ripple effect found in many dry zen gardens.-- Guy Fox, Sep 19 2001 wiml: so are these machines reincarnated from monks? could they have koans for cones?-- technobadger, Sep 19 2001 I thought part of the point of a sand garden was to rake it yourself, the action of the raking being part of the zenny goodness? Sounds like it'd be easier to do one big steamroller with a pattern in its drum to do it all at once.-- StarChaser, Sep 21 2001 Ever the dissident, eh SC?
UB, I have heard the sound of one cylinder firing, and it is the joy of money being ripped from my wallet.-- absterge, Sep 21 2001 I think somebody once asked if the flocking road cones could be covered in a soft fuzzy material, making them flocked flocking road cones. I was thinking if we also made them red instead of orange, taught them how to swear and curse, and made their fur spotted, dalmatian-like, they would then be flecked, flocked, flocking, rude, red, road cones. (FFFRRRC)-- Canuck, Sep 21 2001 I heard the sound of one cylinder *not* firing when the piston welded itself to the liner and smashed the connecting rod. 341,000 miles in sixteen years. Oh, well.-- angel, Sep 21 2001 canuck: could we also put the cones in horizontal lines, give them Farrah Fawcett hair and dresses, seats for pillaging Viking invaders, make them appealing to skateboarders, and construct them from biodegradable bullrushes?
Yup, flanked, flicked, frocked, flecked, flocked, flocking, raid-ride, rad, reed, rude, red, road cones.
I take it the answer is no.-- pottedstu, Sep 21 2001 ...maybe-- st3f, Sep 21 2001 eggs e-eye, killing with your nose-- technobadger, Sep 22 2001 Uhrm, purple?-- jester, Sep 22 2001 Maybe it's best if we just leave the little guys (gals?) alone.
(Critters! They're definitely critters. Rocking Code Flones? Clocking Foad Rones?)
I think I'll just flock off. (Sorry!)-- Canuck, Sep 22 2001 Water proof? Do they know feng shui? (+)-- futurebird, Mar 26 2003 I bet you could mod a Roomba to do this! +-- paix120, Mar 28 2009 random, halfbakery