"An unusual breed of Asian snakes can glide long distances in the air, and the Department of Defense is funding research at Virginia Tech to find out why...
...As video of the reptiles show, they undulate from side to side, in almost an air-slithering, to create an aerodynamic system. It allows them to travel from the top of the biggest trees in the region (almost 200 feet high) to a spot about 780 feet away from the tree's trunk...
'The snake is very active in the air, and you can kind of envision it as having multiple segments that become multiple wings,' he said. 'The leading edge becomes the trailer and then the trailer become the leading edge.'
It gets stranger. During a technique not yet understood, some of the snakes can actually turn in air. What's more, they all take a flying leap off their perch to get airborne, then drop for a while to pick up speed before starting the motion that keeps them aloft much longer than they would otherwise.
Socha's initial research was sponsored by the National Geographic Society, but his most recent work and paper were funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The agency is involved in advanced military technologies of all kinds, and Socha said the physical dynamics of snake flight (and how other creatures stay in the air) is of great interest to the agency
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DARPA did not respond to an e-mail asking for more information. However, Socha's upcoming paper on the dynamics of gliding snakes in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics does list DARPA as its financial sponsor..."
Source.
...everything is a resource to capital, and to its enforcement organs. Everything. When they've militarized snake flight, it will be to militarize more of the human mind. Unless, of course, your mind flowers from a body which happens to have been stupid enough to be born underneath capital's bombs...
Crow's Eye: Maintaining a commitment to Pointless Acrimony™ and Hate Filled Invective™! Also available in corvid mischief and traditional sly dog's mistrust.
5 comments:
An army of flying snakes? Oh that's just spiffy! The pinheads in the Pentagon have become comic book super villains. Who's the head of our Joint Chiefs these days? Doctor Octopus?
Well, at least the snakes are really, really cool.
Sounds like DARPA scientists asked a group of 7-year-old boys what would scare girls the best.
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word verification: plessi
Oxtrot connection: Plessy v Ferguson
Who knew that Snakes on a Plane was a documentary.
If they're going the supervillain route, wouldn't it be easier to simply outfit our special forces with a Green Goblin flying doodad and a bunch of pumpkin bombs?
nice posting.Eye
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