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There are these things called "mules." They're quiet, can carry about 200lbs., and can refuel themselves as they go by eating grass and drinking water...
by homerowilson 11y ago
There are these things called "mules." They're quiet, can carry about 200lbs., and can refuel themselves as they go by eating grass and drinking water...
- lazypenguin 11y agoAnd they don't cost $40+mm
- Thriptic 11y agoAnd you can eat them in times of scarcity. The robotic ones aren't nearly as tasty.
- hellofunk 11y agoSpeak for yourself. Diets motivated by iron deficiency are a real thing.
- OldSchoolJohnny 11y agoAlthough in modern times it's almost ridiculously hard to avoid added iron in food these days due to enforced fortification based on outdated ideas from the 1940's.
- mapt 11y agoper http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/a-host-of-ills-when-irons-out-of-balance/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/a-host-of-ills-when... , iron deficiency prevalence is 3% and iron excess intake prevalence is 12%.
- cetacea 11y ago> $40+mm 40 million million dollars?
- neiled 11y agohttp://www.accountingcoach.com/blog/what-does-m-and-mm-stand-for http://www.accountingcoach.com/blog/what-does-m-and-mm-stand...
- cetacea 11y agoI think most other people use a single M to mean million, and k for thousand. Can't we just use SI prefixes or spell the numbers out instead of using some random alternate convention?
- greglindahl 11y agoThis is not a "random alternate convention", it's a highly used convention that you aren't familiar with. I wasn't familiar with it, either, until I moved to the Silicon Valley. Now I see it all the time.
- wavefunction 11y agoIt's a ridiculous "convention" and it's dubious what you mean by "highly used." Using Roman numerals for anything is a waste of everyone's time.
- nitrogen 11y agoI don't think it's necessarily actually Roman numerals, but perhaps "mille", which means thousand. So thousand thousand means million.
- jonathankoren 11y agoI strongly suspect that the page's etymology is wrong -- or more precisely -- not entirely correct. The Latin word for "thousand" is mille, which why the numeral for a thousand is M. No one would be so asinine to mix numeral systems. Same thing with percent, which originally was rendered as "per-cent", as in "per hundred".
- 11y ago
- lmm 11y agoThe logistics of keeping them fed and watered, having trained handlers, and treating them for injuries are nontrivial. And they're prone to unhelpful reactions in a firefight. There are good reasons they've largely been displaced by motor vehicles. Combining the go-anywhere ability of legged propulsion with the advantages of motor transport seems like a good enough idea to merit study.
- JabavuAdams 11y agoMuch easier than the logistics of keeping a robot operational in the field. You don't care whether the Taliban captures your flesh and blood mule, but you really don't want them capturing your world's-most-advanced robotic mule.
- jonmrodriguez 11y agoIs it common for military electronics to have a self-destruct feature to protect technology secrets? E.g., when damaged beyond repair or abandoned in a hasty retreat, the hardware could ignite a little thermite to incinerate the electronics boards.
- nitrogen 11y agoOne of the stealth helicopters used in the assassination of bin Laden was so destroyed, but a part of the tail was left behind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Osama_bin_Laden#Helicopter_stealth_technology_revelations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Osama_bin_Laden#Helic...
- Gracana 11y agoI used to have some old (tube-based) test equipment that included instructions on exploding it with a grenade in the event that it had to be left behind. The grenade was not built in, however.
- grogenaut 11y agoWhy? What are they going to do with it?
- melling 11y agoYeah, but they get all nervous around gunfire and explosions. They don't handle helicopters and the airdrop well either. Packing several dozen of them to fit into a C130 for the 12 hour overseas trip is also a bit difficult.
- eliteraspberrie 11y agoYaks and camels too, depending on the environment.
- dredmorbius 11y agoAnd if you ever run out of things to do, you can shave your yak.
- dingaling 11y ago> and can refuel themselves as they go by eating grass and drinking water... Try finding 30 litres of water and 8 kg of grass ( plus a portion of salt ) per mule per day, minimum, in the mountains of Afghanistan. To move 90 kg of payload? There are many more efficient methods.
- AndrewKemendo 11y agoActually they work great. We (Air Force Special Operation) used them and horses to great effect in 2001 and the ANA have been using them before and ever since. http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/operation-enduring-freedom-the-first-49-days-4/ http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/operation-endurin... https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/for-afghan-troops-donkeys-are-the-new-helicopters/2012/11/08/d221c2de-28bd-11e2-aaa5-ac786110c486_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/for-afghan...
- gozur88 11y ago>Try finding 30 litres of water and 8 kg of grass ( plus a portion of salt ) per mule per day, minimum, in the mountains of Afghanistan. Is it any easier than finding diesel fuel?
- 1024core 11y agoThough sometimes the tables are turned: http://imgfave-herokuapp-com.global.ssl.fastly.net/image_cache/1325126065137511.jpg http://imgfave-herokuapp-com.global.ssl.fastly.net/image_cac...