Who Were the Boskops
This sounds like a science fiction story, but apparently it’s true. It’s all the more amazing because whenever we hear of extinct variations of human beings, they are always neanderthals.
Boskops?
Apparently they were a a species of human being that died out 10,000 years ago at the latest. There’s that old familiar number 10,000 again.
And they had some odd features some of us would immediately recognize: small “childlike” faces and huge “melon” heads, allegedly 30 percent larger than our own, which has led to speculation in a new book about their superior intelligence.
A number of people are already wondering if the Boskops did indeed die out, and if the Grays are actually Boskops.
I am most amazed by the fact they have been kept secret while neanderthals got all the press.
You can find different reviews of the new book here and here. Very interesting.
UPDATE: You can read an excellent and eloquent excerpt from Immense Journey, by Loren Eiseley, about these strange humanoids, here.
Crane Stability Against Overturning for Non-Fixed Cranes
For cranes that can overturn, pretty much any crane aside from bridge-type cranes, stability is the main concepts controlling load ratings and the ability of the machine or useful work. Therefore, elements that contribute to the stability of a Crane and actions that diminish stability are things that we must know and consider. This knowledge, both in the general and in the mathematical sense, will enhance our ability to evaluate and choose between Crane types needed for a particular job site task. It will also help us to establish jobsite policy and procedures to improve crane productivity and safety.
We were once called upon to conduct a stability test of a telescopic truck Crane at a contractor’s operations yard. The Crane operator had never done test work before but was experience with this particular Crane. For the test, a carefully weighed load was assembled, lifted just clear of the ground at close radius over the side of the Crane, and slowly boomed out. When one outrigger floats lifted free of the support surface, booming out was continued at a still lower rate. As the second outrigger floats broke free, booming out was stopped, the load was eased to the ground, and the load radius was measured as the tipping radius for that load.
The test team took a lunch break at this point. Because of the slow, gentle procedures used, the operator had not felt the Crane approached tipping; without that seat-of-the-pants indication of tipping familiar to many mobile Crane operators, he was convinced that we had not yet reached the tipping radius. At the end of the lunch break, the operator decided that he would check his intuition by trying to take the load out a little bit further. When the test engineer got to the scene, he started frantically waving his arms and shouting stop! The load was being hoisted, but the load wasn’t lifting; instead the outrigger floats had risen to about 2 feet clear of the ground.
This anecdote underscores a point pressed by mobile Crane manufacturers, such as Crane-Tec, for a number of years. Do not test a load on the job by bringing the Crane to the point of tipping!
Coupled with improved controls that permit very smooth starts and stops to motions, telescopic booms and long latticed booms, which are heavy and take up a large part of the tipping moment, can go from a stable to an unstable equilibrium state with no marked change in the operator’s perception of machine condition. In the past with old-school cranes, seat-of-the-pants operation was not very dangerous. But today, an understanding of the weight of the lifted load and the proper way to operate the Crane based on that knowledge are absolutely essential to the safe operation of a Crane.
