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A cats' coat contains up to 130,000 hairs per square inch, and is a serious dirt magnet. Did you know that the surface area of a single cat - if you include all of its hair, which researchers did in the interests of cleaner spaceships - is roughly the same as the floor space of the average developers' cubicle, while a sea otter has the same surface area as an ice hockey rink?
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sooooo developers should start licking their cubicles to keep them clean?
(I guess not so bad as the ice hockey team licking the rink without getting their tounges stuck)
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Rather you than me: I've seen what some developers do in their cubicles...
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I have not even seen cubicles. Se let me guess...they develop something?
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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They would lick their own cubicles, after all cats lick their own backsides too.
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Do what you want, but don't try rubbing against my legs. 
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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Wouldn't it depend on how thinly you slice them?  (note the joke icon...I don't have anything against cats)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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But my cat has now something against you, and the dog (doberweiler) will help it, what else 
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I work in a cubicle because I've been doing some work with data cubes. The testers on the other hand...
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On average, isn't the surface area of a human's skin in the 16 - 21 square feet area? If a cubicle is 25 - 36 square feet, how could such a small animal's skin area be so much bigger?
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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Because they add in the surface area of each hair as well - furred animals have a "three dimensional" aspect to the surface area that is a lot smaller than in humans.
"Dirt carrying capacity" is the total surface area, not just the outer surface of the skin.
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Well, as I've always suspected, sea otters make better dusters than cats do but whether or not they provide a more economic alternative is highly debatable. We need the following information:
1) How many cubicles fit into an ice hockey rink?
2) How much does a sea otter cost?
3) How much does a cat cost?
I would expect that after all of the relevant data has been processed, we'll be left with a conclusion along the lines of "sea otters are great for the purpose but way too expensive, so use a cat instead" but I'm more than happy to be proved wrong on this.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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Ignoring cost, sea otters are likely to prove problematic for household dusting: the "sea" part gives a clue as to the preferred environment, which is difficult to arrange in a domestic bedroom.
For space stations however (which is where this research started) the preferred environment could be beneficial: not only could it provide a drinking reservoir for the crew, but properly managed it could also provide radiation shielding - it is proven to be very good at that for cosmic rays. About a 1m thick "sea" around the crew compartment would provide a good environment for the otters, and protect the crew from solar radiation.
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Good point.
But should we be slightly concerned about some of the things that the sea otters might get up to in the water?
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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Not particularly. They already recycle solid and liquid waste on the ISS so I'd expect that (plus agriculture / hydroponics) on long distance missions (which is where you'd want the best shielding) it could be even better utilized.
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I think we need to take this idea to NASA before someone beats us to the Patent Office.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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Regrettably, it's not currently feasible: you need access to Lunar (or preferably cometary) water supplies before the launch mass becomes economically viable.
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3D printing is not like printing on paper, at least not yet. The results depend very much on settings, the material you use, the working principle of the printer o even the orientation of the object to be printed.
My printer is at the lower end of the price scale. Printing quality, when compared to far more expensive printers, is digital: You can print a part or you get modern art. There is not much inbetween.
I needed something that is complicated enough to test the printer and to see ho far I can go. Off I went and searched the internet for a model with higher demands...
... and found this: Brits in Space - The Empire Strike Back [^]
I used to have one of these as a kid and this model was supposed to be 22 inches long when finished. Great!
I doubted that I would ever see the finished model. Some parts of the structure have to be printed into thin air, no natter how I turn it. As it turned out, the printer can actually do that in a limited way. Now I have a box full of parts and can slowly begin to build it. The only parts that are still missing are the engines. This chunk needs a little too much printing into thin air and results in modern art.
With the prices of online printing services this part would cost about 45 bucks, the entire model more than 200. No way! My little printer hase made it this far, I will find a way to finish the job.
Edit: Image link repaired
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
modified 22-Oct-17 5:26am.
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Quote: Access to modellboard.net was denied
You don't have authorization to view this page.
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Thanks. I have the image here and will upload it to some image hoster.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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Now it works.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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If by engines you mean the rockets at the back, can't you rotate them 90 degrees in the Z axis and print them as a tapering cone? That way there shouldn't be any "free air" printing.
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No, it's this part.[^]
The printer will print it layer by layer from the bottom up. There will always be parts that have no support from below and you can't deposit a little drop of plastic in thin air and have it hovering there until it finally is connected to the rest of the object.
Incredibly, for the bars of the structure the printer really did that trick by connecting two vertical bars with a hair thin filament and then printing on top of it and widening the profile with every layer. That works for thin bars, but the cylinders or spheres of the engines will end up as shapeless blobs of plastic.
And itÄs also a question of money. If I print it myself, it costs some electricity and about 60 Cents worth of material. The online service takes 45 bucks. Not really acceptable, even if they have far better printers.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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Break it into parts you can glue together afterwards?
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That's the plan.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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