Saturday, September 12, 2026
Friday, September 11, 2026
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Cerebellum
80% of the total #neurons in the brain are in the cerebellum. It is not purely a motor system - many insufficiently with the entire neocortex. It is now thought to coordinate and "smooth" the output of all brain regions - regulating emotion, or planning a smooth sentence/conversation.
Episode "Song of the cerebellum" Radiolab.
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
60 Words
https://radiolab.org/podcast/ea1c84b585e58d5befeefebf
Really interesting podcast that studies the actual meaning of declaring war after 9/11, and how the words declaring war have been used and misused.
Monday, September 7, 2026
Panthalassa wave generator - now I get it.
https://youtu.be/VcmDN4T90Fw?is=cjjwMY3zysF-Uv2E
These untethered wave generators incorporate AI data centers, so they float across the ocean sending AI compute results to the web, and use ocean water for passive cooling of the computer chips.
This eliminates traditional electrical distribution entirely. The electricity generated by the ocean's waves is consumed entirely on-site by modular AI data centers housed right inside the generator nodes.
1:58 "Panthalassa" is the name of the mega-ocean that once surrounded the conglomerate continent Pangea.
Huge N Korean scam of fake IT jobs and ID theft.
https://youtu.be/RUhdmIFpb-w?is=tu1CXtWXeSNoFl_4
This is a thorough investigation by the Wall Street Journal into an extensive scheme of raising money for the North Korean government by enslaving workers who apply for US jobs using either stolen identities or actual US middlemen criminals who share the salary for the work done remotely online. Hundreds of millions of dollars. Incredibly elaborate.
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Breakthrough 36 passenger electric passenger plane for short-haul 2hr flights
https://youtu.be/nM86DBOqgPM?si=nPszTyfr-EOOde_n
2:53 Jet engines are far more complex - take the turbine blades, for example which must be grown as a single crystal of a nickel super-alloy to withstand the heat and physical forces.
https://youtu.be/QtxVdC7pBQM?is=SCbLua2xNvguGoTK
5:30 they built a 400kW electric motor. (Standard Tesla motors are 137 - 200 kW.)
7:45 actuators: Boeing aircraft have 2 or more backup systems to drive hydraulic systems (electric pump, ram-air turbine in case of total engine failure) — what backup systems will this aircraft have for flight control systems? Maybe a hydraulic pump run by the hybrid engine.
9:45 hardest design challenge was dealing with a diverted flight destination: 1 in every 1000 flights is diverted. That's why they needed a hybrid engine design.
12:55 first flight
Myriad detection uses of fiberoptic cable
https://youtu.be/8939X_kFwG4?is=jGBXjUpU9_xcxLFn
So intriguing. Detecting back-scatter reflections that occur at temperature or pressure points in fiberoptic cable can be used to efficiently monitor oil boreholes, seismic activity, elephants walking onto Indian railroads, whales singing in the ocean, and tankers or submarines. Telecom companies often lay down excess cable capacity, and these as-yet unused fibers can be used for such monitoring.
Saturday, September 5, 2026
Tesla ramps up production
https://youtu.be/MvLQ0ygZoqM?is=CNria5Z1NT3uFMfT
Lofty goals to increase production rates to unheard-of rates. "Unboxed production," which really just means parallel manufacturing assembly lines, is explained at 12:32.
Best explanation of JPEG
https://youtu.be/0me3guauqOU?is=K4Bpw4XNWvZMtrfl
Very clear detailed description of how compression happens mathematically.
Best explanation of MP3 music compression
https://youtu.be/jFjDoELxonU?is=iC_N0zX5G_9o8f38
There are a lot of videos out there, but this poorly-edited one is actually one of the better ones.
Also, useful to view this description of how human hearing functions, at 1:31 in this video.
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