PXL illustrations Exhibit

I have pointed out that the idea for Pneumatic Xtal Lattice began in the late 60's. During the 50 years since, I have made several generations of prototypes, which proved very successful. Over the last 20 years, I have also made many illustrations of structures made with this technique. I recently found a large collection of these illustrations, on a flash drive, and make them available here, for those making new pictures for the PXL photo contest.

Notes on this estimate the structure weighs about 109 pounds and displaces 10 tons

236 lb., floats 17 tons

That's me, in a bubble, with a PXL structure

Island sections are spaced to allow light through to sea life

Large sphere structure

Delivering a farm section

Ready for planting

Farm with fresh water pond

Farm with fresh and sea water areas

Farming clusters

A neighborhood

2 floors

Mixed building elements

For more illustration, go to "Exhibit Part 2"

EverWing

   Recently at club Cutlass, we had a big Dj spinning tunes. By big we mean, he was a huge dragon, named Geerkil, that could barely fit in the club. Sha told Geerkil that Katzu had recently done an article about dragon sims, in the Newser.
   Geerkil asked her to extend his invitation to Katzu to come visit and report on his own favorite, new dragon realm, Ever Wing, on the Commune sim in the far NW corner of the grid. On hearing the news, Katzu buffed all his claws and horns, picked up and rubbed a local bunny under each arm, and flew off to Ever Wing. His report follows.

   The landing point at EverWing is a large, flying, three level platform, which is known as the Lounge. This is also where the dragons have their big social gatherings. The Lounge can hold many dragons, much larger than myself and it even has a set-up for DJs. I noticed the sim was playing Geerkil's music channel and that added to the pleasure of the adventure.
   In the center of what I called the dance floor, there is a teleport with five destinations on the sim. I tried all of them and was amazed at how big one sim can look. Each destination is at a different altitude on the sim. Each area is rich in mountains, trees, waterfalls and lakes, but thanks to "off sim" backgrounds, look like the scenery continues in eight sims surrounding you. So far, the music and scenery alone are making this a great place for a dragon to stretch his wings.

   At one level I spotted a pair of large dragons, stretched out by a lake. Being new here, I approached with caution. They welcomed me and, when informed I was writing about the sim, were open to answering my questions about the local dragon life. The dragons each have a human size, which they use when being more efficient, building things. What do they like to do, in their spare time? The shiny metal dragon explained that they all liked tweaking their dragon av mods. This fits right in with all the furries, back home. As we talked, he worked on his latest head. It was kind of like watching Sha, building at her workshop. I seem to have beem there at dragon dinner time, as each of them excused themselves in pursuit. I took off to view every bit of the place that I could. One of the things I've observed in my dragon adventures leads me to a new theory. We have all noticed that time seems to run at a different speed in SL, from that of RL. I think dragons have a whole different speed of time. I'm not sure if it's faster or slower, but.....dragons.....do.....not.......scurry.....very..........fast.

   Every area I visited was beautiful. Rather than repeat the same list of superlatives, I will warn of the one, minor mishap that I encountered there. I was flying in one of the lower areas and turned flight off to land. My aim was off and I landed in water. After seeing how nice everything looked, above water, I decided to walk about below the surface, to see if the designers carried the details there. I found a cave entrance and decided it was only natural to explore inside. Well, it turned out to be closed to the public and a security orb sent me back home. Lesson learned, I went back to EverWing and explored some more.

   You don't have to be a dragon to enjoy EverWing. The atmosphere is very relaxing and the scenery provides countless backdrops for photos. This is one LM that I will use many times.

Your scaly friend,

Katzu

3-7-16 House

This floating house was made in sections and assembled at Sunny Beach. The three point sections have glass floors, for viewing below. If filled in with PXLs, the house could support almost 50 tons. I am looking forward to seeing designs by others. We'll run the contest until June, to give everybody time to learn to build assemblies and new uses for PXLs.

PXL Photo Contest

This type of construction is new and will take time for people to start using it. No amount of words and pictures can accurately communicate  how impressive PXL construction is. As soon as you begin connecting these cells together, you'll be saying all that and more.
As a preview of their usefulness, I have made available, in Second Life, a free PXL cell kit. The kit contains single triangle cells, instructions and some pre-fab assemblies. Along with this, we will have a contest, lasting 3 months, in the SL Newser, for the best photograph/picture of a large, floating structure, built from PXLs. Prize is L$5,000. As pictures come into  the Newser, new ones could be posted weekly. In June, the staff votes for the best of and awards the prize. The Kits are full perm, so can be copied and made any color. I'm looking forward to what other peoples imaginations come up with. The pictures will also aid in promoting PXL technology in the real world.

I wonder, maps of all ages have N-S-E-W, 4 arrow keys on the keyboard. After living on a PXL island, would people give triangle coordinates, instead of squares?

PXL Houses

Now that we have a rigid floating base, the same PXLs are used to build houses. This assembly supports over 64 tons and has an upper level.

Window areas are filled with larger size PXLs, either clear or opaque. As PXL cells, they add to the overall strength of the house.

PXLs can be any color. These clear ones allow you to see the inner triangles, giving the whole structure  a diamond look.You can see the octahedron and tetrahedron chambers, inside, that form a 3D honeycomb. One can also see why these assemblies can also be used in making cities that fly.

PXL Windows

Atop PXL rafts, the same inflated cells are used in columns, beams, walls and ceilings. Where required, large, stable openings can be included in structures, for passages and windows. Window panels are also made from inflated cells, either one large cell or an assembly of smaller ones, assembled in a flat plane. Opaque panels are used like tent walls. These variations of PXL technology allow construction of structures that are of undreamed of scale. Ocean and aircraft could be measured in miles.

The really amazing thing is......even a child could design and build a good PXL structure. Get out your sketch pads and see what kinds of structures you can dream up.

PXL, world gift

OK, here it is, my gift to the world. Relatively weak, soft, light weight materials, when joined in a crystal assembly become a greater being, whose strength is far greater than the sum of it's parts. The above triangle raft is made up of hundreds of one meter triangle balloon cells. The raft, if placed on three columns, would be a roof that is rigid enough to stand on. Two people could carry it to the water. When fully inflated, you can carry over 16 tons on it.

An important part in developing PXL construction was to get it down to a simple principle, that anybody could make use of. In school, we were taught about how all tools used only a handful of principles, including levers, pulleys, incline plane, etc. Well here is a new tool principle that makes diamonds from balloons. Many different materials could be used for PXL cells. Even primitive people could make them from local materials. Triangle mats, laced together to form 4 and eight sided chambers, which get stuffed with things that float. So now, ANYBODY in the world can make their own island, place it in the open ocean and live by their own rules.

So, here I am, retired, not rich. How do I buy my own island? I think PXL technology will work here too. I make pretty illustrations, with fairy tale backgrounds and a cute white bunny/lingerie model my chief sales model. Sha is all about Great Adventures and soon all her readers are building islands of their own. They form a committee and decide to build a floating home for Sha, in the middle of their growing nation. In return for life time free rent, Sha's home/workshop is open to the public and kids of all ages come to learn new science tricks. Be sure to attend Sha's "How to walk on water" class.

Yes, this does sound like a fairy tale, but I'm trying to prove that, if you imagine something clearly, it will become manifested in the world of form.