Before I forget again: I wanted to tell you that I have changed my mind about receiving financial assistance to go back to school. My feelings about charity are different now: I see it as a social necessity under certain circumstances, but otherwise as poison for the spirit. If the whole aim of life is to create – and this means also creating wealth – then living off the substance of others is to exempt one’s self from the purpose of life for that duration. I will find my own way to completing my degree, and don’t have any worries. Your money is your own, I can have no claim on it.
As for the barysphere idea: Imagine a globe, and that the lines of latitude are curved helicopter blades. Inside, the axle and its shaft resist the crushing pressure that comes in at the points where the blades meet. As the barysphere descends, the blades must be spun faster and faster. Hydrodynamic thrust will tend to pull the blades out, while water pressure will tend to push them in. At just the right speed, the two will cancel each other out, and no pressure at all will be felt inside the barysphere, other than on the axle shaft.
I originally found this idea while trying to think of a structure that could contain a vacuum, since that would be the lightest form of air balloon. However, such a sphere, even containing a vacuum, would be too heavy. I wanted something that would “bob” up into the Earth’s exosphere, and could be used to lift shuttles to very high altitude.