BigDog: Big deal or big waste of time and money?

[Centman]

Carrying 125lbs, you wouldn't last long, also in a covert situation you wouldn't want that thing trailing along behind you.

A wheeled or tracked support load carrier, would be far preferable, but for the ordinary PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry) an APC with some good fire support is far preferable, especially if it has a Boiling Vessel for the obligatory brew.

As an experiment, design concept fine, but the Technical support it would require would be vast.

Technology is fine, but when it goes wrong, especially under fire, with no alternative, the only thing to do is dig a slit trench.

[bisley45]

Straying off topic a bit, what this also serves to illustrate is how much, over the span of a century, things have changed in regards to working with animals. A century ago, large animals were a part of everyone's lives, even if they didn't work with them directly. If a person did nothing other than have home delivery of ice or milk, a draft animal was stopping by frequently. Huge numbers of people had employments that involved animals. Even people in my town occupation used horses a great deal, in that line of work, to ride circuits and what not, in the 19th Century. Now all this is mostly lost. And with it, something more than that is lost really. I don't mean to sound overly nostalgic or romantic about it, and a person shouldn't, but a complete severance from the natural world, including the natural world of animals, is an experiment humans have never before engaged in, and there's a lot of reason to believe that the results of that are not entirely good.

Indeed - in our town ( Lawrence, KS ) there is an old park with lots of the usual old park accoutrements like a gazebo/bandstand, etc. One of the old staples is a large two level fountain that was constructed by the efforts of boys and girls collecting change some 100+ years ago, to provide a fresh water supply for the draft animals that were plying the streets at the time. I'll have to dig up a photo of it - very interesting upper bowl for the 'display' aspect, and a low series of surrounding basins on the side for the animals to drink at their normal height.


In those days, they took up a collection to provide for the animals. Today, they would take up a petition to fine anyoneforcing an animal to work and ban them from the town.

Really interesting stuff. If you could find a photo of that founatin I'd love to see a photo of it!

The actress Lotta Crabtree funded such a fountain in San Francisco; the basin has been removed, but the central structure still exists. I believe it's up on Nob Hill. My girlfriend had made a study of Lotta Crabtree, and somewhere we have some photos of the fountain, taken by amy on her last trip to SF.

I have recently spoken with children who don't make the connection between hogs and bacon, and others who make that connection, but consider meat farming to be immoral. Argument #1,741 for home schooling, I suppose.

[Centman]

http://cyberneticzoo.com/?p=4885

I have added this link to show Nellie a Mechanical Elephant that used to be at a holiday park, Sandy Bay near Exmouth Devon in the 70's, perhaps resurrected it would be preferable to Big Dog.

[Couvi]

http://cyberneticzoo.com/?p=4885

I have added this link to show Nellie a Mechanical Elephant that used to be at a holiday park, Sandy Bay near Exmouth Devon in the 70's, perhaps resurrected it would be preferable to Big Dog.

Where is Brower and his mechanimal-rights activists when you need them?

[Steve Haupt]

[quote="Long Riders Guild"]namely the growing cultural disconnect between the average young American recruit and large animals, especially horses and mules.
Greetings,
This is also seen in the declining number of students in large animal and food production at American Veterinary Universities. Remember it's a USDA Vet that is inspecting our meat.
Cheers,
Steve Haupt

[Trooper]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LITHOGRAPH-OF-T ... 2574f3a54d