Automated construction of lightweight, simple, field-erected structures

The feasibility of automation of construction processes which could result in mobile construction robots is examined. The construction of a large photovoltaic power plant with a peak power output of 100 MW is demonstrated. The reasons to automate the construction process, a conventional construction scenario as the reference for evaluation, and a list of potential cost benefits using robots are presented. The technical feasibility of using robots to construct SPS ground stations is addressed

Gems from Johnson\u27s Dictionary

English lexicographers, those harmless drudges as Dr. Johnson called them, go all the way back to the English Expositour (1617) and maybe farther, to lists of hard words compiled by curious logophiles. But Ursa Major himself is surely the dean of all dictionary-makers. Here are some of Dr. Johnson\u27s own definitions. His famous definition of network as any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections at least is intellibible to those who know some Latin ( I do not love Latin originals he said under ferry, but his sesquipedalian vocabulary often denies this), but see what you can do to produce the words still in current speech that the good doctor explained like this

I Have a Pet Name for You

Onomastics is the mouth-filling word for the study of names, but it can be much more interesting than that forbidding Greek-derived word suggests. Take, for example, the names of pets. All across the United States, there are millions of little creatures (and some not so little) who are part of the family circle: Al (Gator), Pussy (Cat), and generations of dogs named Rover or Spot. I knew an English professor who took his dog\u27s name from Lady Macbeth\u27s famous sleep-walking scene, so that he could cry Out, out damned Spot! I\u27m an English professor, too, but my old English sheep dog is named Randall (derived from the Old English word for house wolf, as names like Ralph and Randolph derive from the Anglo-Saxon word for wolf). An earlier dog of mine was named Lady Brett, Hemingway\u27s heroine in the novel The Sun Also Rises (her surname was Ashley, too)

It\u27s Greek to Me

The Greek grammarians and rhetoricians saddled subsequent cultures in the West with awkward and somewhat ugly terms for the discussions of speaking and writing. Take Paradiorthosis, as when we allude to a quotation that does not need to be identified but is given a new twist

There\u27s a Word for it

You may remember that people used to worry about what the word was for the fluff that one finds in the corners of one\u27s pockets. Sometimes people invent words for things that have long gone un-named: Gelett Burgess though up blurb for the self-promoting material on a book jacket; someone came up with gridlock (and pedlock, but the latter did not catch on). And some people seem to know the name for everything; the little decorative thing that screws on at the top of a lamp to hold the shade on is a finial, and it screws onto the top of the harp

Where There\u27s Smoke ...

In the August 1978 issue of Word Ways, James Rambo showed how Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to Your Health could be repeatedly anagrammed to form a cautionary tale in verse. It\u27s time, therefore, for a quiz on smoking terminology

They\u27re Using Our Lingo

In 1964 I wrote in Pageant that English (more than half of which is composed of foreign words) has reached the point where other languages are beginning to borrow rather extensively from us . Since then, I have watched with interest as our mongrel tongue has not only continued to borrow from others as usual -- we have recently acquired discotheque from the French, just as we long ago got woodchuck from the Indians -- but has increasingly received from foreign-language speakers around the globe the compliment of imitation, sometimes without acknowledgement

Political Polemics: What\u27s in a Name?

The National Committee for Honest Political Naming (L.R.N. Ashley, President and Chief Executive Officer) is a one-member, one-issue organization dedicated to exposing what The New Republic called in its 1 Sep 1986 issue viewspeak, defined as the increasingly popular trick of disguising your own self-interest in the rhetoric of public interest. The rule is the more partisan the Political Action Committee (PAC), the less partisan-sounding its name. The difference between the names of the lobbying groups and what they are up to suggested this little quiz. See if you can guess the concern of each group of lobbyists from their official name. If you do, you are eligible to join Onomastic Honesty-Observant Heroes (OH-OH)

I Hear America Talking: Now Slang

Now that it\u27s baseball season, I think I\u27ll bat out a slang quiz for you to bat around. I hope these vivid new American slang terms won\u27t drive you batty. OK, you\u27re at bat - if you bat one thousand, you are listening to America talking a very now language, and you get around among college students, druggies, truckers, cons, astronauts, and the like

Long Trails of Etymology

Sometimes, though we scarcely ever notice it, words give clear evidence of where they came from: arrive makes it obvious that Frenchmen reached the river in this way, while Greek helps one to see that harmony came from making a joint, making things fit together. See if you can name the words whos history is briefly summariezed in each of these cases. Get half of them right and you deserve a medal (originally a metal coin)