Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Monday, October 19, 2026
Making tires from dandelions
Not your regular dandelion, but rather the Russian dandelion, which grows in temperate climates and marginal soils, whose roots contain 3% to 12% rubber by dry weight of high-molecular-weight cis-1,4-polyisoprene, making it chemically identical to traditional Hevea tree rubber.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Elevator micro-adjustment when people get on board
How much micro adjustment (in mm) is needed in a 50-storey building when a dozen people get in?
In a 50-story building, an elevator car sitting at the bottom floor will stretch by approximately 51 mm (about 2 inches) when a dozen people step inside. Therefore, the elevator's micro-leveling system must winch the car upward by that exact distance to bring it flush with the building floor again.
• Added Load (P): 8,829 N (12 people averaging 75 kg each = 900 kg total mass x gravity @ 9.81m/s²
• Cable Length (L): 175,000 mm (Assuming a standard 3.5 meters per story over 50 stories, measured when the car is at the lowest level to evaluate maximum possible stretch).
• Number of Cables (n): 6 cables (A typical configuration for heavy high-rise cars).
• Metallic Cross-Sectional Area (A): ~60 mm² per cable (Based on a standard 13 mm / 0.5-inch elevator wire rope. Because cables are braided strands wrapped around a core, the actual solid metal area is roughly 45% of a solid cylinder's area): π(13/2)² x 45% = 60mm²
• Modulus of Elasticity (E): 85,000 N/mm²
AI-intensive Alpha schools
https://youtu.be/SC69VqCjRoQ?is=nR_vQN2pa-z5EpkI
Ridiculously high tuition averages $52000 a year.
AI teaching specifically tailored to the student's individual interests, tracks their engagement and alters methods accordingly
Very few teachers on site - mostly tech grads and life coaches staffing the schools
Intensive student monitoring and recording even at home and when sleeping
Large donations by the founders to politicians who control school vouchers which funnel public funding to private schools
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Save massive energy finally with straighter larger tubing in municipal systems
Here's the short version:
• About half of the world's electricity runs electric motors, and half of that motor torque drives fans and pumps.
• Friction Reduction: Narrow, twisting pipes create massive fluid friction. Straight, wide-diameter pipes cut friction by 86% or more.
• Downsized Equipment: When friction drops, the pumps and motors pushing the fluid can be shrunk significantly (often by 80–90%).
• Lower Costs: Redesigning the whole loop frequently lowers total capital costs (because smaller pumps and motors cost less) while paying for itself in under a year or instantaneously on new builds.
Weather forecasting keeps getting better
Overall, weather predictions have come a long way in recent decades.
Forecasting skill increases by roughly one extra day of accuracy per decade.
A 5-day forecast today is roughly as accurate as a 1-day forecast was in the early 1980s, and a 3-day prediction of a tropical storm or hurricane track today is more precise than a 24-hour forecast was 40 years ago.
I've often wondered how much forecasting has improved. This video emphasizes how granular or hyper-regional current predictions are getting using AI and massive amounts of data.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Avoid car break-ins
Minimize, and hide valuables in spare tire compartment.
Leave the glovebox open, turn any bags inside out to show they're empty, make it obvious you have no electronics in the car, and *put the rear seat in the flooded-down position so they can see the trunk is empty.
World's largest electric aircraft just flew
14:27 of we can [build an airplane] that is lower emissions, lower cost, better quality of life — we should do it.
3:10 jet engines are inefficient at taxiing, takeoff, and landing. For a short flight, [a jet] can burn 10% of it's fuel [load] taxiing.
3:25 the segment [of aviation] of regional flights is really badly served by the technology we have today.
3:32 half of all flights [flown today] are under 2 hours.
5:49 if you're a founder... every time you need more capital, there needs to be something material, something [one] can touch, that you've made.
8:10 [built-in redundancy] everything has to work, even if everything goes wrong
9:40 1 in 1000 flights gets diverted to another airport...you need 45 minutes of "loiter" and then [another 100 miles of range.]
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Sunday, October 11, 2026
How actors show emotion, and what directors do with masked actors do instead.
https://youtu.be/-gitexWSLlg?is=_yBEGNsI8OqIPW2Z
Excellent video with the perfect excerpt to illustrate each point. Clearly very well researched by someone knowledgeable.
3:05 the Kuleshov effect - context imparts emotion to an identically neutral face
Saturday, October 10, 2026
AI can remove pixelation pretty well
I took the first screenshot, and asked Gemini to remove pixelation. The end result was pretty close to the person's actual appearance earlier in the video. https://youtube.com/shorts/-C_WWTHN4_0?is=CrUl393CjtuviUhk
Building 4000 drones a day in Ukraine
https://youtu.be/VfzBaUPwfDQ?is=yuvIEgcA1LoDS1Ux
4:21 making 4000 a day
4:04 a waterproof drone that can take off in water
Wow - Amazon knows it's not "made in the USA" despite the label.
https://youtube.com/shorts/whHypuaLmTU?is=8pa63DNi7hObMjTR
Wow - Amazon's own AI system admits to fraud about labeling products as made in the USA.
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