This arrived in my junk mail, but it looks genuine. Some contests are.
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Do you have ideas for new products that could create jobs, improve our health, or make the world a safer, greener place? We have a contest for you!

Enter your best ideas in the 2013 “Create the Future” Design Contest – sponsored by COMSOL, SAE International, and Tech Briefs Media – for a chance to win a $20,000 grand prize, computers, and more. The 11th annual contest is open to engineers, entrepreneurs and students worldwide. There is no cost to enter. Visit www.createthefuturecontest.com to get started.

Individuals and teams are invited to submit entries in eight categories:
Aerospace & Defense (NEW this year)
Consumer Products
Electronics
Machinery & Equipment
Medical
Safety & Security
Sustainable Technologies
Transportation & Automotive
The top entry in each category will receive a workstation computer from Hewlett Packard. Prizes also will be awarded for the ten most popular entries as voted on by site registrants. Best of all, your winning entry will receive a wealth of publicity to business and technology leaders who could help bring your idea to market.

All entries must be received by July 1, 2013.

For complete information and the official entry form, go to: www.createthefuturecontest.com.

Questions? Contact us at createthefuture@techbriefs.com.

Is it like some photography competitions where you sign away your copyright ( or IP) in the entry form?

I suppose I could throw my travellator idea in to the pot but that’s probably been thought about ages ago

the other one was creating rafting courses for the transport system, you would catch a raft to work in the morning and step off at work, refreshed after battling the rapids wild for half an hour

the idea is that you create a huge rafting course 30 kilometres long that acts as a conduit into the city

solar panels are used to power huge pumps that pump water back up the “hill” at each section

the raft sits on a travelator to take it up and that’s when you board

the only downside I reckon would be drunks falling in and drowning

wookiemeister said:

the idea is that you create a huge rafting course 30 kilometres long that acts as a conduit into the city

solar panels are used to power huge pumps that pump water back up the “hill” at each section

the raft sits on a travelator to take it up and that’s when you board

the only downside I reckon would be drunks falling in and drowning

What makes you see that as a downside? Paperwork?

now it sounds crazy but consider this

the real estate adjacent to this course would soar as people travelling into the course would want to hop on that sweet ride

the rafts would be floating down all the time, you’d jump on where you could, if you fell out you could be hauled back in by another raft

various spots would be set up for passerbys to fire water cannons at the rafters

hours of fun

captain_spalding said:

wookiemeister said:

the idea is that you create a huge rafting course 30 kilometres long that acts as a conduit into the city

solar panels are used to power huge pumps that pump water back up the “hill” at each section

the raft sits on a travelator to take it up and that’s when you board

the only downside I reckon would be drunks falling in and drowning

What makes you see that as a downside? Paperwork?

being sued

BUT

what you could do is have a breathalysers to allow people onto the course

given the choice wouldn’t you rather raft into the city instead of catch a bus or train

you don’t need any drivers or mechanics

all you’d have is swipe cards and breathalysers

each day to and from work would become an adventure

you could have special drop points where the raft might get dumped if you go the wrong way

in the end you’d get people becoming expert rafters

people from across the world would come to ride this course all day long

I’ve got other crazy ideas I’ve never entertained here , maybe I should use them for MY entry?

wookiemeister said:

the idea is that you create a huge rafting course 30 kilometres long that acts as a conduit into the city

solar panels are used to power huge pumps that pump water back up the “hill” at each section

the raft sits on a travelator to take it up and that’s when you board

the only downside I reckon would be drunks falling in and drowning

I’ve got you beat. For a long time I’ve been working on another mass transit option. It rides on rails. I call it a train.

wookiemeister said:

captain_spalding said:

wookiemeister said:

the idea is that you create a huge rafting course 30 kilometres long that acts as a conduit into the city

solar panels are used to power huge pumps that pump water back up the “hill” at each section

the raft sits on a travelator to take it up and that’s when you board

the only downside I reckon would be drunks falling in and drowning

What makes you see that as a downside? Paperwork?

being sued

BUT

what you could do is have a breathalysers to allow people onto the course

given the choice wouldn’t you rather raft into the city instead of catch a bus or train

you don’t need any drivers or mechanics

all you’d have is swipe cards and breathalysers

each day to and from work would become an adventure

you could have special drop points where the raft might get dumped if you go the wrong way

in the end you’d get people becoming expert rafters

people from across the world would come to ride this course all day long

I suspect you’d need rescue boats somewhere out near the Heads for the people who didn’t jump off at Circular Quay.

Witty Rejoinder said:

wookiemeister said:

the idea is that you create a huge rafting course 30 kilometres long that acts as a conduit into the city

solar panels are used to power huge pumps that pump water back up the “hill” at each section

the raft sits on a travelator to take it up and that’s when you board

the only downside I reckon would be drunks falling in and drowning

I’ve got you beat. For a long time I’ve been working on another mass transit option. It rides on rails. I call it a train.

Hey – that’s my idea!

wookiemeister said:

I’ve got other crazy ideas I’ve never entertained here , maybe I should use them for MY entry?

Go for it. It’s called brainstorming.

In Canada they were looking for ways to clear snow from power lines and in a brainstorming session someone suggested flying helicopter along them to blow it all off…. yep that’s what they did

pommiejohn said:

wookiemeister said:

I’ve got other crazy ideas I’ve never entertained here , maybe I should use them for MY entry?

Go for it. It’s called brainstorming.

In Canada they were looking for ways to clear snow from power lines and in a brainstorming session someone suggested flying helicopter along them to blow it all off…. yep that’s what they did

don’t put powerlines above ground in cold climates

put them in specially designed weatherproof conduits resistant to the the cold and deformation

wookiemeister said:

don’t put powerlines above ground in cold climates

put them in specially designed weatherproof conduits resistant to the the cold and deformation

I guess it’s expensive.

wookiemeister said:

pommiejohn said:

wookiemeister said:

I’ve got other crazy ideas I’ve never entertained here , maybe I should use them for MY entry?

Go for it. It’s called brainstorming.

In Canada they were looking for ways to clear snow from power lines and in a brainstorming session someone suggested flying helicopter along them to blow it all off…. yep that’s what they did

don’t put powerlines above ground in cold climates

put them in specially designed weatherproof conduits resistant to the the cold and deformation

of course you could always just have huge compressed air lines going across the country

the end user simply hooks the air to a turbine to create electricity

wookiemeister said:

don’t put powerlines above ground in cold climates

put them in specially designed weatherproof conduits resistant to the the cold and deformation

that should be standard anywhere

wookiemeister said:

wookiemeister said:

pommiejohn said:

Go for it. It’s called brainstorming.

In Canada they were looking for ways to clear snow from power lines and in a brainstorming session someone suggested flying helicopter along them to blow it all off…. yep that’s what they did

don’t put powerlines above ground in cold climates

put them in specially designed weatherproof conduits resistant to the the cold and deformation

of course you could always just have huge compressed air lines going across the country

the end user simply hooks the air to a turbine to create electricity

if you used wind and wave power to compress the air, then you don’t need fancy electronics to have system frequency

you have a system pressure

the pressure would be fairly high and be transported through recycled metal pipelines underground

a windturbine would only be pumping air into the pipelines and local reservoirs

whenever wind, wave and sun were present the entire system would be continuously pressurised

spare energy would be stored as pressure to cope with peak demand

compressed air would be used to fuel cars

because it was so prevalent the compressed air system would be tapped into to fuel the car for your ride home

no pollutants in the air

no fancy electrical system with fancy gear to control it

trains of the future will be like cash pots used at the supermarket

compressed air will drive them down tubes, compressed air will drive compressors to evacuate the air ahead of the container (carriage)

the post will be connected to peoples houses by you guessed it, compressed air – all mail will be transported by these compressed air tubes

the beauty is that if you order fast food you don’t need couriers, the container will have an “address” on it that will see it rerouted through the system to the final destination

your power compressed lines would simply feed into the mail compressed lines

its starting to make sense isn’t it?..

at the moment we have gas, electricity, oil, coal to do the same job that compressed air could do and be transported in ONE pipe

at the moment power produced of a night becomes wasted because the demand isn’t there, you can’t store the power easily

if you used compressed air all power produced of a night simply gets stored as pressure

how do I use a compressed air supply to shine a light or cook a meal?

party_pants said:

how do I use a compressed air supply to shine a light or cook a meal?

you have a small turbine connected to a generator at the house which gets turned by the air to produce electricity

electricity normally has to be conditioned all the way down the line, voltage is raised and lowered all causing loss, then you have all the complicated network quirks that need to be ironed out AND people getting shocked

a small turbine connected to a generator would just produce power at 240V and not necessary to reference to earth – no more zaps

with a big reservoir in the form of pipelines and dedicated tanks all energy normally wasted gets stored as pressure until needed

its a much more mechanical system and more intuitive to repair

How much heat can you create with composting?

wookiemeister said:

party_pants said:

how do I use a compressed air supply to shine a light or cook a meal?

you have a small turbine connected to a generator at the house which gets turned by the air to produce electricity

electricity normally has to be conditioned all the way down the line, voltage is raised and lowered all causing loss, then you have all the complicated network quirks that need to be ironed out AND people getting shocked

a small turbine connected to a generator would just produce power at 240V and not necessary to reference to earth – no more zaps

I have shitty neighbours, they’d complain about the noise.

Riff-in-Thyme said:

How much heat can you create with composting?

Enough to burst the pile into flames.

Skunkworks said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

How much heat can you create with composting?

Enough to burst the pile into flames.

Hasn anyone made a composter into a generator or water heater,,, or something?

Riff-in-Thyme said:

Skunkworks said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

How much heat can you create with composting?

Enough to burst the pile into flames.

Hasn anyone made a composter into a generator or water heater,,, or something?

Probably not. Easier and more effective to dry it and burn it under a container with water in it.

Skunkworks said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

Skunkworks said:

Enough to burst the pile into flames.

Hasn anyone made a composter into a generator or water heater,,, or something?

Probably not. Easier and more effective to dry it and burn it under a container with water in it.

I’d have thought a large scale device would be productive?

> I suppose I could throw my travellator idea in to the pot but that’s probably been thought about ages ago

Every six months or so I feel the need to buy a second hand kilometre-long conveyor belt, set it up in the middle of the city and watch the commuters use it. Either that or set up zip-lines between buildings across the river.

> creating rafting courses for the transport system, you would catch a raft to work in the morning and step off at work, refreshed after battling the rapids wild for half an hour … solar panels are used to power huge pumps that pump water back up the “hill” at each section … the raft sits on a travelator to take it up and that’s when you board … the only downside I reckon would be drunks falling in and drowning

I have a similar small-scale rafting system at work. It’s 40 metres long in two 20 metre sections, each section is on a slope of 2 degrees. A pump takes the water from the bottom back up to the top. We use it for growing algal biofuels. Because the depth is shallow, only 11 mm, the light and CO2 penetration is excellent and this allows us to grow algae rapidly to much higher concentrations than is possible by any other method, making harvesting much easier. It takes a fair bit of water to replace that lost by evaporation. The whole thing is covered up or drained whenever rain is threatening because rain could easily make it overflow.

> each section is on a slope of 2 degrees

or is that 0.2 degrees, I’d better check.

> I’ve got other crazy ideas I’ve never entertained here , maybe I should use them for MY entry?

As crazy as my design for a spaceship powerplant using a nuclear reactor operating so hot that the uranium has all melted? More than twice the temperature (in Celsius) of the proposed “very high temperature reactor”.

mollwollfumble said:

> I’ve got other crazy ideas I’ve never entertained here , maybe I should use them for MY entry?

As crazy as my design for a spaceship powerplant using a nuclear reactor operating so hot that the uranium has all melted? More than twice the temperature (in Celsius) of the proposed “very high temperature reactor”.

have you read my entries at the other place recently?

billstronaut has checked in over the last few days

wookiemeister said:

I’ve got other crazy ideas I’ve never entertained here , maybe I should use them for MY entry?
have you read my entries at the other place recently?

No. Which of the three (or more) other places did you have in mind?

mollwollfumble said:

wookiemeister said:

I’ve got other crazy ideas I’ve never entertained here , maybe I should use them for MY entry?
have you read my entries at the other place recently?

No. Which of the three (or more) other places did you have in mind?

lunar place

just looking at “python” programming language

it seems a lot easier than c++

if you want to do a calculation you can just type in 5 + 6 for example, press enter and it spits out an answer

wow

by the looks of it you don’t have to spell out variables to the thing either

wookiemeister said:

just looking at “python” programming language

it seems a lot easier than c++

if you want to do a calculation you can just type in 5 + 6 for example, press enter and it spits out an answer

wow

But a calculator will do that, and a spreadsheet will do it in a much more usable form.

If you want to do any useful programming then you need to define variables.