James Mays Big Ideas

[Bush Tucker Man]

Tonight
BBC2
21:00 - 22:00

This looks like an eminantly watchable series, much in the style of his '20th Century' offering last year.

The first episode appears to deal with 'Ekranoplanes', the once Top-Secret Russian creation dubbed the 'Caspian Sea Monster'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dtl3f



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7638659.stm

[Disco Matt]

That little Ekranoplan was neat, but not a patch on the huge jet "Caspian sea monster". 

There's just something terribly endearing about them with the engines on pods above the cockpit. They look like escapees from a Gerry Anderson series.

[Bush Tucker Man]

That little Ekranoplan was neat, but not a patch on the huge jet "Caspian sea monster". 

There's just something terribly endearing about them with the engines on pods above the cockpit. They look like escapees from a Gerry Anderson series.

That's just what I thought when I first heard of them quite a few years ago.

The 'CSM' is just huge & carries a heck of a payload


Looks like Robots are one of next weeks topics
http://open2.net/jamesmay/come_fly_with_me.html

[Disco Matt]

Unfortunately the original KM "CSM" version was destroyed in a crash in the 1980s after the pilot attempted to take off without full power being available, the craft broke up during salvage attempts. They seem to be down to a handful of the Orlyonuk type, a lone Lun-class, and a few of the tiny ones seen in the programme.

http://www.se-technology.com/wig/index.php has more on them

[Boddle]

 Thanks for the web link something I have been interested in since I was in Germany where a house mate brought a video about them over from england.

[strapping young lad]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpGacOmSeHc&feature=related

[Bush Tucker Man]

Sorry if this is a bit late, but there's the repeat of episode 2 on BBC2 this evening (19:00 - 20:00)

It deals with robotics & 'AI', and features the scarily child-like 'Asimo' & the quite frankly wierd 'Geminoid'

[paradigm shift]

As always it's entertaining to watch James May presenting a series but I do wish the BBC would stretch their wings a little with him. I just wonder if next year we'll see "James May's Mildly Informative Technology Series 3" or perhaps (hopefully) a slightly different topic as he's obviously an interesting chap with some intelligent views on the world.

That said I will definitely be watching the last Big Ideas programme.  :)

[Range Rover Red]

Sorry if this is a bit late, but there's the repeat of episode 2 on BBC2 this evening (19:00 - 20:00)

It deals with robotics & 'AI', and features the scarily child-like 'Asimo' & the quite frankly wierd 'Geminoid'

I thought the Asimo was quite sweet, but it was the Geminoid that got me.  It's an idea they explored in Star Trek Next Generation with Data.  It's one thing when you know that Data is an actor wearing metallic make-up, but when it's for real it is somewhat unnerving.  I know that the point of the thing is to generate a reaction to a really life-like moving model, but something just did not feel quite right.  I would not go as far as to say I found it disturbing, but  it was certainly unsettling.

[thermidorthelobster]

I was disappointed he didn't cover paramotoring when he was looking at personal aircraft.  Launch in a football field, no license needed, you can stick it in the boot of the car, 50mph+ over long distances, and under £5K to get in the air.  It's a lot more sensible than a 22 second rocket pack.