Tiny groves on the surface and a hydrophobic coating make these tubes, of 6:33 a very specific diameter, unsinkable.
Tom Elwood -best of the internet.
Here are some youtube videos, or articles that caught my eye - from the New York Times, Consumer Reports, Popular Science etc.
Saturday, July 4, 2026
Predatory loan takeovers forcing foreclosure
https://youtu.be/2U9kSz1pFhs?is=qPfphBBhi37J-h29
Predatory bankers take over loans that homeowners thought were forgiven, making 30-fold profits and devastating people's personal finances.
World-record longer drone flight
https://youtu.be/cA1Asda-jTk?is=2RG-aTvjRc5jBMJA
It takes a lot of 3D printing, tinkering, and innovation to get a some to fly for over 4 hours.
Is court evidence accurate?
https://youtu.be/mvcesPWvUIc?is=2deKEEPcEvXFxSPQ
When you actually put court-approved evidence to the test, to scientific method, most methods are woefully inaccurate.
Modular homes - barriers to adoption
https://youtu.be/2pbYafEcsbk?is=GLZ8aOzsr9Hqte_F
The broken system of "stick-built," on-site construction is favored by regulation, permitting, banks and neighbors. Changing that to the modular-friendly process popular in Sweden and China is going to take a long time.
21:43 "But if we really could build homes and apartment buildings 20 to 30% cheaper, twice as fast, make them more environmentally friendly, and make them with better materials then maybe, just maybe, one day, we could address this housing shortage"
Thursday, July 2, 2026
Horses rebuild after desertification
https://youtu.be/Hl8vErrqjKY?is=nO5pfnHNYYIOS4k_
Start at 9:02. Horses selectively trample bare ground, not the grasses they eat. Seeds in their dung germinate better after traveling through their gut, essentially providing a 11:20 "self-watering, pre-fertilized seed packet." Nitrogen levels rose, insects, then birds, and then predators started to return.
21:25 China had planted 66 billion trees in a failed attempt to thwart desertification, but 21:58 grasslands require 90% less water than trees.
By 2023, a desert that was 23:27 expanding by thousands of km² per year was now shrinking by 47 km² per year.
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Homeless
https://youtu.be/0pcDKYLIHXY?is=_kYiwedM2TkvfKhb
Such a depressing report - hard-working people sleeping in their cars, getting evicted and living in motels, surviving on food stamps. Not addicted, not avoiding hard work, just struggling.
Los Angeles has a higher homeless population per capita than Seattle. In the city of Los Angeles, the rate is roughly 1.1%, while Seattle's rate is closer to 0.9% to 1.0%
Monday, June 29, 2026
Recycling aluminum
https://youtu.be/PR5mykiFzN4?is=ROigKR6_HjFiYVIK
4:11 - recycling aluminum requires 95% less energy than harvesting it from bauxite ore.
AI end to end full self driving startup competing with Waymo, Uber and others in London.
https://youtu.be/8Nu36Rwxz_0?is=TRUD8nTYIruYuTaB
4:23 Stellantis and Nissan are partnering with them.
Friday, June 26, 2026
2026 Cars That Still Offer a Stickshift Manual Transmission
The Best New Cars That Still Offer a Stickshift Manual Transmission https://share.google/nYXNltRe2C87q9Aa6
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Gifting to grandkids
https://youtu.be/L_uRTIZKL4Y?is=fWo84cNU_vIoNswM
Gifting to relatives under 19K/yr is ok under IRS rules, but Medicaid counts this as wealth that precludes them from covering nursing care. Instead, 2:42 use 1) a Medicaid asset protection trust, taking the funds out of your name, or 2) a promissory note, lending the person the money with a payback structure.
Give grandkids money as a structured trust with a distribution staggered between age 25 and 30.
8:57 Don't put grandkids on the deed while you're alive, but leave the home to them in a 9:20 revocable living trust so they get a "stepped up basis" of the value when you die for capital gains taxes.
9:46 A trust allows you to decide when they get the money.
10:48 include a "letter of wishes" with the gift - it's not legally binding, but then their parents can substantiate "that's not what Grandma wanted you to do with that money," which is sometimes just what a 20-year-old needs to hear instead of blowing the money.
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Paying people to be creative: Ireland’s basic income for the arts scheme becomes permanent
Ireland’s basic income for the arts scheme becomes permanent. Interestingly, perhaps to avoid accuse of the system or to provide incentive to produce saleable art, "artists can receive support for three out of every six years."
Monday, June 22, 2026
100-fold difference in monetary effectiveness of charities
GiveWell found four charities that can save a child’s life for about $5,000 in donations.
The four charities that achieve this level of cost-effectiveness do quite different things. One focuses on providing vitamin A supplements to children, the second provides seasonal medicine to protect children from malaria, the third distributes bednets to protect children from malaria, and the fourth incentivizes caregivers to give children their necessary vaccinations.
Friday, June 19, 2026
OKLO combining forces with LEU in Ohio
Oklo Inc. (OKLO) and Centrus Energy Corp. (LEU) are partnered to build a localized, integrated nuclear fuel cycle hub in Piketon, Ohio.
Their collaboration aims to establish a centralized "one-stop shop" for advanced nuclear fuel services by combining uranium enrichment and deconversion services at a single geographic location.
This approach bypasses a major domestic supply chain bottleneck for the next generation of American nuclear energy.The partnership operates across several core components and strategic initiatives:Co-Located Fuel and Power HubThe Location: The operations are centered at the Centrus Piketon Site in Pike County, Ohio. This location is home to the American Centrifuge Plant—the only U.S. facility currently licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to produce High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU).
The Joint Venture: The companies finalized a joint venture to build a new commercial deconversion facility directly adjacent to Centrus's existing enrichment lines.
The Power Campus: The facility will sit next to Oklo’s planned 1.2-gigawatt advanced power campus. Notably, this power campus is backed by a landmark agreement with Meta Platforms to fund development and anchor long-term electricity demands for future data centers.
Solving the Fuel Deconversion Bottleneck
What is Deconversion?: Once uranium is enriched into a gas form (uranium hexafluoride), it must be "deconverted" into a chemical form like uranium metal or oxide before being fabricated into usable fuel rods.
Industry Efficiency: Advanced reactor technologies use diverse reactor designs, meaning companies traditionally have to build separate deconversion lines for each individual fuel fabrication plant. By centralizing deconversion next to enrichment in Ohio, Oklo and Centrus eliminate the need for redundant facilities across the U.S., simplifying logistics and drastically reducing the cost and hazards of shipping HALEU between states.
Shared Energy Off-Take Agreement
Circular Power Synergy: The agreement goes beyond fuel production. Under their expanded Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Centrus intends to purchase clean, always-on energy generated by Oklo’s upcoming Aurora Powerhouse microreactors to run its highly energy-intensive HALEU enrichment cascades.Fuel Procurement: In return, Oklo secures a stable, domestic pipeline of HALEU fuel from Centrus to power its expanding commercial reactor fleet.
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