Category: Uncategorized

Freebird or Stairway to Heaven
I'm talking originals here. No covers.

(got this off a myspace group coz I couldn't write a good description)

Folding@Home is a Stanford University developed program that uses idle computers and PS3s all over the world to compute complex "protein folds". I won't go in depth about this, because you can find all of this info on the main website, http://folding.stanford.edu/

Basically, when your computer or PS3 is idle (not doing anything, yet still on) this program will run and start to simulate proteins as they change during thier lifetime. Sometimes an atom will mis-fold, and cause a disease. Your computer or PS3 records all of the data that it is finding, and when the program ends it will send all of the info to Stanford's servers, where scientists look through all of the data and conduct tests based on it. Before, all they did was do tests, and it took forever to find anything substantial. But now your computer can do the hard, and time-consuming part.

so anyone else doing this?
I'm thinking maybe putting a broth team (a team is a bunch of people contributing to the folding@home project putting their "scores" together for friendly competion) together (but thats up to the admins)

who would win in a fight between a pirate and a ninja.
I'd say the pirate.

One of the most weird and wonderful aircraft of all time the Flying Pancake is kinda unknown to the public at large. I mean nearly everyone knows about the Spitfire and the Mustang and righty so (though I would like to see the Hurricane given more of a mention) but little is known about this plane which was kind of the last gasp of air for the propeller generation.

So heres bit about it gained from various sources.

Vought XF5U-1
General characteristics
Crew: One, pilot
Length: 28 ft 7 in (8.73 m)
Wingspan: 32 ft 6 in (9.91 m)
Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)
Wing area: 475 ft² (44.2 m²)
Empty weight: 13,107 lb (5,958 kg)
Loaded weight: 16,722 lb (7,600 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 18,772 lb (8,533 kg)
Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney R-2000-7 radial engine, 1,350 hp (1,007 kW each) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 425 mph (775 km/h)
Range: 1,064 miles (1,703 km)
Service ceiling: 34,492 ft (10,516 m)
Rate of climb: 718 ft/min (219 m/min)
Wing loading: 35 lb/ft² (172 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.16 hp/lb (0.27 kW/kg)
Armament
6x .50 machine guns or
4x 20 mm machine guns or
2x 1000 lb. bombs

The aircraft was the brainchild of Charles Zimmerman and was one of the first STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) in the world.
Designed for aircraft carriers, the protoype V-173 made its first flight in November 23, 1942 by Charles Lindbergh, who said was easy to fly.

The XF5U-1 was ground tested but the vibration caused by the gearbox which was partily made out of silver (pointed out by GO-GO) made it expensive. The final nail in the coffin for the XF5U-1 was the arrival of jet aircraft and the United States Navy finally canceled the promising project on March 17, 1947.

The prototype V-173 was transferred to the Smithsonian Museum for display while the only complete XF5U-1 was destroyed by wrecking ball because the airfrme was so strong (also pointed out by GO-GO) and sold for scrap to a compony who became embroiled in a government investigation when it attempted to resell the recovered silver.

Before he died in 1996, Charles Zimmerman's lifetime achievements were recognized when he was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; he was also awarded the Wright Bothers Medal.