If the Air Force gets nano-tech, I think the preservationeers must step up
to the plate. Recent developments in brick masonry have already made this
possible:

" "We are living with more and more smart electronics all around us, but we
still live and work in fairly dumb buildings," says Chang Liu, who invented
the smart brick with his colleagues at the University of Illinois Center
for Nanoscale Science and Technology. "By making our buildings smarter, we
can improve both our comfort and safety."
The difference between a regular brick and a smart brick is a compartment
on one side of the smart brick. Inside, researchers have stuffed advanced
wireless electronics - sensors, signal processors, a wireless communication
link, and a battery, all packaged in one compact unit... " to detect
temperature, stress, impact, etc.-- from today's Christian Science Monitor

Read all about it at:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0819/p17s01-stct.html

Can smart bricks make up for dumb buildings and the dummies who design and
build them? My 100 year old house is smart enough to keep its rafters dry
and sound even when there is a leak in the roof--no nano-tech needed; thank
you, but no thanks.

Wait a minute. If you throw a smart brick at a dumb brickhead, does it
detect the impending impact quick enough to tell the dummy to duck? If the
dummy doesn't duck, does the smart brick send a report back to its creator
concluding the smart brick has fail in its mission and the smart brick idea
should be reconsidered along with its creator?

John
by hammer and hand great works do stand
by pen and thought best words are wrought

--
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