Otherwise known as travel-vouchers-for-Carville...
Posted on 11/23/2010 11:08:59 AM PST by markomalley
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Defense is funding research to discover how species of Asian snakes are able to glide long distances through the air, researchers say.
Researchers at Virginia Tech are studying how snakes of the genus Chrysopelea, found in Southeast Asia, India and southern China, glide without the benefit of any wings or wing-like parts, The Washington Post reported Monday.
The snakes undulate from side to side, almost as if slithering through the air, to glide from the tops of 200-foot tall trees to land almost 800 feet away.
"Basically ... they become one long wing," John Socha, a Virginia Tech researcher who has studied and filmed the snake in Asia, says.
"The snake is very active in the air, and you can kind of envision it as having multiple segments that become multiple wings," he says. "The leading edge becomes the trailer and then the trailer become the leading edge."
The National Geographic Society initially sponsored Socha's research, but his most recent work and paper were funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The agency researchers advanced military technologies of all kinds, and the physical dynamics of snake flight is of great interest to the agency, Socha says.
Why? So they can get the TSA goons to frisk the snakes before they fly?!?!
Utter insanity - the article pretty much describes how the snakes glide from a tree, but our tax dollars are needed.
Sorry, i could barely keep a straight face typing that.
Otherwise known as travel-vouchers-for-Carville...
Is that the ones that reside in this Congress or this Regime?
Flying snakes like Pelosi? She is flying all the time.
Flying in first class or coach?
Mike
The DARPA is funding this research. Apparently, they see potential practical applications. IMHO, they’re right.
"The m@$%^#$#@$@$ snakes can glide now? M!#@@#$ $%@$%$%!"
Gotta spend the entire budget... no matter how stupid.
This is like pay for the military. Everything held under the umbrella of “supporting the troops”. No looking for corruption allowed. Oh no. You can trust us.....
Well, should be easier now. Pelosi is flying commercial...
Saw it on Discovery Channel. Already been solved.
Why are they funding a study on something that is not a question?
Good grief. We already know this. Their undersides form a curve to hold the air so they can float longer. Now, can I have my tax dollars back?
Earn money by working.
Pay taxes to government.
Watch government flush money.
Down the toilet.
Since the ‘how’ has been long established, I believe DARPA is paying for an integrated, computerized analysis of the high-speed photography to design a comparable self-modulating aerofoil for testing and evaluation.
(you made that all up, didn’t you?)
(yeah.... but it sure sounded good)
Why aren’t they studying flying cockroaches? Why let the Chi-Coms get the advantage on us?!!!
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