A store with no price tags that is surely losing money

I went into the Amazon bricks-and-mortar store in Seattle recently, finding the experience raised more questions than it answered. Here's an insightful article:
http://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/7-reasons-amazons-bricks-and-mortar-store-isnt-really-a-bookstore.html

"It may be selling books, but that is not its true purpose..."
The books all face outwards..."the store has about 6,000 titles whereas an average Barnes & Noble might stock more than three times that many."
No price tags - "The way to find out the price of a book...scan the book with your smartphone using the Amazon shopping app...this is clearly one major purpose of the store-"-to make sure all shoppers have an up-to-date version of the app."
"- Amazon received a patent for a system that would actually identify a customer (possibly by facial recognition) and charge that customer for an item at the moment he or she carries it out of the store--eliminating the need for checkout altogether.
"-This store is well-maintained, neat, has lots of staff, and is sitting in some very expensive real estate. Which means you can be sure the Seattle Amazon Books is operating at a loss.

"Be a part of the Verbier Festival Orchestra"

This is a summer orchestra in Switzerland where musicians are fully supported, and where the backdrop of the camp looks like the opening scenes of the Sound of Music.

Very funny photo (mis)alterations

James Fridman (@fjamie013) • Instagram photos and videos

https://www.instagram.com/fjamie013/?hl=en

Cool tech

The Blackbird - a car that can become any car through CGI.

Big arm - haptic control from your arm to a huge robotic strong arm.

Road printer - insert bricks and it arranges and lays them down on the road.

Tunnel-boring arm can be steered and manipulated into the rock face.

Introducing PhotoScan by Google Photos

Because a snapshot of an old photo from your phone has reflections of the flash, this software combined several snapshots of the old photo into one image.

https://youtu.be/MEyDt0DNjWU

Timelapse: Building the world's biggest ship

I'm watching a show about building the world's biggest ship.

https://youtu.be/vxeREd3s_UE

The steel as described by the naval architect, is the same thickness as a beer can if you scale it down. It's designed to flex as waves pass under it. 

The steel, in places 100mm thick, is described here:

http://www.worldsteel.org/media-centre/Steel-news/Triple-E-Container-Ships.html

It has since been surpassed by a yet bigger ship, though these ships are approaching an absolute maximum - "About 22,500 seems to be the size that people believe is the ultimate. Lack of port access becomes a problem after that stage."

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30696685

Haptic Controller for Backhoe

I don't know why this has taken so long to develop. It's seems so intuitive to me. No need to relearn all the joysticks on a different machine.

https://youtu.be/_R0W0ATEuCM

The concept is explained a little more here.

https://youtu.be/oQ5HzV4doXY

And the engineering beginner it all is explained here

https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/4980/frankel_joseph_g_200405_mast.pdf

Interactive Dynamic Video

Making objects come to life so you can manipulate them with your mouse.  All based on just a few seconds of video.

https://youtu.be/4f09VdXex3A

World's largest container port.

I was watching a show about the world's largest ship, and they mentioned this port. It's built 30km offshore from Shanghai in order to accommodate the deeper draft of these massive vessels. Have a look at this link with the satellite view. Massive!

https://goo.gl/maps/7NTdk46sEpQ2

Here's a video describing the massive construction project
https://youtu.be/GvK7utRInww

World's largest container port.

I was watching a show about the world's largest ship, and they mentioned this port. It's built 30km offshore from Shanghai in order to accommodate the deeper draft of these massive vessels. Have a look at this link with the satellite view. Massive! I count 65 of those massive gantry cranes.

https://goo.gl/maps/7NTdk46sEpQ2

Here's a documentary about the massive construction project to make it:
https://youtu.be/GvK7utRInww

What Does A.I. Have To Do With This Selfie?

Very cool!! Using neutral networks to transfer these style of a painting to a photo.

https://youtu.be/WHmp26bh0tI

Doubts About the Promised Bounty of Genetically Modified Crops

What a terrible and dismaying conclusion about genetically modified crops - "an extensive examination by The New York Times indicates that the debate has missed a more basic problem — genetic modification in the United States and Canada has not accelerated increases in crop yields or led to an overall reduction in the use of chemical pesticides."

I'm really surprised by that result. That was how GMOs were heralded at their introduction, as a means to help saves the planet. 

From The New York Times:

Doubts About the Promised Bounty of Genetically Modified Crops

Higher yields with less pesticides was the sales pitch for genetically modified seeds. But that has not proved to be the outcome in the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/business/gmo-promise-falls-short.html

Autonomous driving in action.

No driver input... And watch the car self-park at the end at 2:34. Checks the entire parking lot for space, then continues out to the street and parallel parks there. 

https://youtu.be/WKrOC5rM4Ok

Sodium acetate crystal ball - beautiful chemistry

https://youtu.be/pzHiVGeevZE

Sodium acetate crystal ball - beautiful chemistry

https://youtu.be/pzHiVGeevZE

The Musical idiot savant

And here's the savant that inspired the movie "Rain Man."


And a documentary on several geniuses - Akiane (art,) Kim Peek (memory,) Inan (chemistry,) and an unemployed number memorizer.

Pumpkin Buns ☆

Cooking as art.

https://youtu.be/tiJQrn2icvQ

Youth Is Wasted on the Young

Most likely George Bernard Shaw.
Though it could be related to Robert Louis Stevenson's "If youth only knew and age only could."
https://www.google.ca/amp/quoteinvestigator.com/2015/09/07/young/amp/ - An exhaustive blog post on the origin of the phrase.

Youth Is Wasted on the Young

Most likely George Bernard Shaw.
Though it could be related to Robert Louis Stevenson's
"If youth only knew and age only could."
https://www.google.ca/amp/quoteinvestigator.com/2015/09/07/young/amp/ - An exhaustive blog post on the origin of the phrase.

Amazing Physics Teacher (You will tear up)

Wow, what an inspiring teacher in a tough neighborhood.

https://youtu.be/cfW_2tzusyI

Fails of the Week 2 October 2016 || Fail Army

Acorns stuffed into wall at 4:25

https://youtu.be/ofvTTqNaRQQ

Fails of the Week 2 October 2016 || Fail Army

Acorns stuffed into wall at 4:25

https://youtu.be/ofvTTqNaRQQ

Massive data usage worldwide

Smartphone traffic will exceed PC traffic by 2020.

Consumer video-on-demand (VoD) traffic will nearly double by 2020

It would take more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2020. 

IP traffic is growing fastest in the Middle East and Africa, followed by Asia Pacific.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/vni-hyperconnectivity-wp.html

Personal aerial photography

I am utterly amazed at the kind of footage people are getting from the latest drone, or quadcopter, cameras that are now coming down in price to under US $1000. They are incredibly smooth, detailed, beautiful aerial shots that were once only the domain of ridiculously expensive helicopter-mounted stabilized cameras. Here are a few recent examples:

Beautiful shots of a cruise ship, and this guy tests the maximum range of the remote control up to about 8 km.

https://youtu.be/Yy_7OkaVPow

https://youtu.be/uZ4dkL-VzrU

Fan Wing

https://youtu.be/kgOAwzG9Fd0


https://youtu.be/QlXNEefLXz8

Drone - setting a predetermined flight path that follows terrain elevation.

This is a rather tedious video but shows how to set up a flight path and maintain a constant elevation over the terrain.

https://youtu.be/4nEhjHukM3k

Reversing a double trailer

He starts there interesting maneuver starting at 4:10

https://youtu.be/udwquuBwCkk

Robin Williams Hilarious FULL Interview on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show ...

Wow, Robin at his peak. You can tell just how intelligent and quick he is.

https://youtu.be/iqdSagycCWc

Programmable self-assembly in a thousand-robot swarm

https://youtu.be/xK54Bu9HFRw

TED Talks - FACEBOOK And GOOGLE customize what search results you see.

Point: automated filtering of results by websites can severely limit your view of the world.

https://youtu.be/p6vM4dhI9I8

DJI Phantom 4 Obstacle Avoidance: Trees

https://youtu.be/ngTHTbX4fls

F-15 lands with one wing

Wow! Footage of actually managing to land a plane with one wing missing.

https://youtu.be/M359poNjvVA

Drone App - Follow / Tracking

I thought this would interest you. These little drone remote control helicopters are becoming very popular despite the $1000-and-up price tag. This video illustrates how clever they are becoming. With a single click, the helicopter can visually identify you, determine its position relative to you, and follow you. This video is a little tedious but shows you some glitches when it loses "capture" of the target. The helicopter has sensors to avoid obstacles along the way.

https://youtu.be/FDkWAVs791U

Here is a smoother video showing the end result of a tracking video.

https://youtu.be/WG9wNNX1O9U

When the controller loses communication with the helicopter, it returns to its starting point. It even avoids obstacles as it flies autonomously to its starting point, as this videos demonstrates. 

Amazing technology. 

Introducing Google Trips

Cool idea - offline access to destination maps and sights. Other apps have approximated this, but I think this one nails it.

https://youtu.be/ign2GmVEflw

What Happens When You Put a Hummingbird in a Wind Tunnel? | Deep Look

https://youtu.be/JyqY64ovjfY

Kevin Delaney Makes a Cloud

Cool science! Sodium hexafluoride! Making a mushroom cloud!

https://youtu.be/iQWtZd8jM3g

Spot mini robot

Hilarious, especially at 1:29. Amazing what this robot can do, including crouching, dancing, dropping objects from a height.

https://youtu.be/tf7IEVTDjng

Earth Overshoot Day

Interesting concept, and worrisome.
It represents the day of the year in which humanity enters an ecological deficit spending for that year. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Overshoot_Day

I suppose the curve would move to the right if crop yields could be increased, or vertical farms proliferated near cities, or deserts were farmed and so on.

Kit Kat flavors in Japan

Look at all the wacky flavors of Kit Kat in Japan! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Kats_in_Japan

Factory of the World - Documentary

Tens of thousands of employees live and work on the factory premises where appliances are made.

Factory of the World - Documentary

Tens of thousands of employees live and work on the factory premises where appliances are made.

https://youtu.be/WlSHo61nRWw

Winter RV Living in Alaska

Wood stove, carry your water, wash your dishes before they freeze, crack the cupboard doors open at night. All great advice and practical.

http://tinyhouseblog.com/yourstory/winter-rv-living-alaska/

Cloudy with a chance of joy

https://youtu.be/lhP52caGW6s

Gavin Pretor-Pinney

Ba Bar Restaurant

Get the oxtail pho!


Ba Bar Restaurant
550 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122, USA
+1 206-328-2030
https://goo.gl/maps/zYnKFwNZrgB2

Slate Coffee Bar

All their dairy is sourced from a single farm.
Best lattés ever. Adrian

Slate Coffee Bar
5413 6th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107, USA
https://goo.gl/maps/fretbtHRenD2

Keep Car Windows from Steaming Up with shaving cream

https://youtu.be/8Vj9avZxuwI

Traffic Timelapse Visualisation

Interesting watching the daily pulse of traffic in time lapse.

https://youtu.be/Vug9GqxaVxQ

Thought it would look better in a large north American city, but it's not as interesting.

https://youtu.be/f8CMnyXqM2A

However, the spread of interstate highways is. I didn't realize it wasn't until 1999 that interstate highways spanned the northern US.

https://youtu.be/VYKwldzgRA8

Icewind

Rugged wind turbine generates power in low wind and doesn't get damaged by high wind.

https://youtu.be/Wlxz-KzebbQ

Cyr

Cyr, a Scrabble word: hadn't heard of it before but I'd seen it in Cirque de Soleil.
Look at the grace of this street performer,

https://youtu.be/dKL6hlhTojQ
and then how this performer takes it to the next level:

https://youtu.be/Hb8ipPl7iLs

Straw wattles, gabion nets, coir mats for erosion control

http://www.asphaltsupply.net/erosion-control.php
An interesting set of words.

Drone videos

Nice to watch when you're stuck lying on your back.

https://youtu.be/AoPiLg8DZ3A

I especially like the done launched by the skier at 1:57
And the music theme from the movie "Inception."

The "Wear Sunscreen" Speech - By Mary Schmich

https://youtu.be/bwVVpwBKUp0

Where the speech came from:
"On June 1, 1997, Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune columnist and Brenda Starr cartoonist, wrote a column entitled “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young.”"
http://www.openculture.com/2013/11/wear-sunscreen-the-story-behind-the-commencement-speech-that-kurt-vonnegut-never-wrote.html

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young

Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker dying to get out, some world-weary pundit eager to pontificate on life to young people who'd rather be Rollerblading. Most of us, alas, will never be invited to sow our words of wisdom among an audience of caps and gowns, but there's no reason we can't entertain ourselves by composing a Guide to Life for Graduates.

I encourage anyone over 26 to try this and thank you for indulging my attempt.Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

'I wrote it in four hours': the woman responsible for the wisdom of Baz Luhrmann's Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen, 20 years on.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/wrote-four-hours-woman-responsible-wisdom-baz-luhrmanns-wear/

Such a good movie

Jiro dreams of sushi

A documentary about a perfectionist sushi chef. To see it, you learn about Japanese culture - the desire to strive for perfection, honor, integrity, and continuous improvement. And you learn how much attention to detail goes into making the perfect sushi. This chef is in the Guinness book of records for being the oldest chef to ever be awarded 3 Michelin stars. 

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1772925/

Squircle illusion - you'll love this.

How on earth does this work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=15&v=oWfFco7K9v8

This clever guy reverse-engineered and 3-D printed the solution.

https://youtu.be/SKpOKXAVjGo

He calls it a "squircle" 

How Gold Leaf Is Made

Fascinating. First, how gold leaf is painstakingly made, and then how it is worked with (including picking up static electricity from your cheek!)

https://youtu.be/w5ZxX_GjkxM

Too bad the picture frame he's making is so ugly!

Do driver training programs reduce crashes?

Do driver training programs reduce crashes and traffic violations?

Conventional driver training programs in the U.S. (30 hr classroom and 6 hr on-the-road) probably reduce per licensed driver crash rates by as little as 5% over the first 6–12 months of driving. The possibility of an effect closer to 0 cannot be dismissed.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0386111211000021

The Mixed Bag of Driver Education. NY Times

"in 16 states drivers who complete education courses can sidestep some graduated licensing restrictions, including the age limit to receive a learner's permit, requirements for hours practicing behind the wheel, and passenger and night-driving limitations...The Oregon curriculum includes classroom training, substantial supervised driving instruction and parental involvement. It focuses on risk assessment to help young drivers anticipate problems. The state also trains and certifies instructors, an area that has received little oversight....Since it overhauled driver training about a decade ago, Oregon has had a reduction of more than 55 percent in the number of 16-year-olds behind the wheel when someone is killed or injured in a crash and a drop of almost 40 percent for 17-year-olds" 

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/automobiles/the-mixed-bag-of-driver-education.html?referer=

Sent from my iPhone

Smirk of art: Dallas museum prankster's satirical display

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/apr/09/dallas-museum-prank-sunglasses-watch

Advances in robotics

A better-than-usual account of advances in robotics over the last few decades. 

https://youtu.be/6zpuHr7t8xI

Why are humans so intelligent?

Interesting essay in this week's Economist about an evolutionary theory of why humans are so much more intelligent than their close evolutionary counterparts. They argue there's a feedback loop in evolution of more helpless babies, born earlier in their gestation before their head becomes prohibitively large, require ever more intelligent parents to look after them because they are so helpless when born. And the requirement for intelligence makes human heads ever larger. 

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21699433-babies-are-born-helpless-which-might-explain-why-humans-are-so-clever-bairns

Computer learning illustrated

Here is a beautifully illustrated explanation of how computers are taught to examine data. I think you'll like it. 

Follow the link to the interactive display at

http://www.popsci.com/how-machine-learning-works-interactive

Here's a TED talk illustrating how computers learn to make a simple statement about an image. Years of work, billions of images.

https://youtu.be/40riCqvRoMs

Computers using "deep learning" algorithms can search for new drugs, understand and translate language, and diagnose pathology specimens.

https://youtu.be/t4kyRyKyOpo

I love his example of teaching a computer to recognize parts of a car, starting at 13:00

thermosolar hive healthy bees

Solar hive heats beehive to eliminate mite parasites
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/thermosolar-hive-healthy-bees-healthy-honey--5#/

http://youtu.be/qZI6lGSq1gU

Recumbent Australia Rotovelo Carbon | Trisled

http://trisled.com.au/hpv/rotovelo-carbon/

https://youtu.be/N6f8CizHmYM

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2z36u6

Why helicopters don't fall out of the sky - autorotation explained.

Whoosh bottle - cool!

Made with isopropyl alcohol.

A song made with just bass strings.

Imaginative - lots of different sounds.

Dramatic Sinkhole formation Caught On Camera

It is rather funny that, in human nature, people walk right to the edge of the hole to see what's inside, in almost every instance. Which is the most dangerous place you could ever be.

Coldplay time-lapse

Perhaps inspired by this video,

https://youtu.be/fyMhvkC3A84
This guy spent 5 years making this time-lapse stop-motion video:

https://youtu.be/1__kh0iQ3io

Pretty interesting to watch.

Save the bees

An intriguing solution to the bee population under attack - warm them up. With solar energy.

Learning how to edit a film

A revealing look at the art of movie editing.


This same guy talks about what makes Jackie chan so good, in great detail. Very interesting.

 

https://youtu.be/Z1PCtIaM_GQ

Lovepop | Pop Up Greeting Cards

Beautiful, intricate, precision-cut cards.
http://www.lovepopcards.com/

Travelling by container ship: Costs and Questions

"Travel by freighter usually runs between $65-$125 U.S. per day. The average of a voyage is just about $100.00 US per day, for a single person traveling in a single cabin. It is always more expensive for a single to book a double cabin and always cheaper per person for double occupancy of a double cabin." 

http://www.gonomad.com/1560-freighter-travel-faqs

Fort McMurray: Escaping the Fire

What amazes me is how orderly this evacuation is. A testament to how polite Canadians are.
Look at this motorcyclist, patiently waiting in line as flames lick 40 feet tall beside him; averting his face from the searing heat several times before finally driving down the road the wrong direction at 1:38. Why didn't he do that ten minutes earlier?

https://youtu.be/PCc1FvZ3g0Q

And in this time-lapse sequence, it amazes me that everyone patiently waits about 40 minutes in traffic moving less than walking speed, and very few people panic or cross to the wrong side of the road or drive across lawns and backstreets to escape. 

https://youtu.be/gy-_GEg7JIw

This could be that they were in shock, or underestimating the magnitude of the fire, or they are used to danger living in Fort Mcmurray, or they are just polite and know that an orderly evacuation is fastest for all.

How Cultured Diamonds are made

Takes two weeks. They're grown on a sliver of real diamond, using methane gas and hydrogen, under extreme heat and pressure.

GeekMyTree 2.0 Prototype

Light patterns like crazy on your Christmas tree.


Update after shark tank - video starts at 3:29

Drones vs Humans

If you're wondering whether flying drones invades people's privacy, have a look at this compilation. Funny!

https://youtu.be/SB37PUkIT-s

Heat makes us angry

This clever researcher analyzed language and emoticons in billions of tweets and correlated it with ambient temperature. 

He also found we feel blue on Mondays. 

http://patrickbaylis.com/files/Baylis_JMP.pdf

Reminds me of a New York Times story where rising heat was linked to murder crimes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/nyregion/19murder.html

The Jazz of Physics

Very uplifting and interesting TED talk of a career inspired by a high school teacher that bridged jazz music and astrophysics.

The Ooze: a documentary on the Alberta tar sands

Incredible political and environmental blunders.

http://youtu.be/-07sfg0m9io

Dinan Rebuilt Turbos for BMW E82 1M 135i (N54)

Dinan replacement turbos for BMW 135
Expensive! And all because of an original part that wasn't substantial enough:
"heavy duty wastegate pivot unlike the wear-prone stock wastegate pivot that commonly resulted in wastegate rattle."

http://www.dinancars.com/product/rebuilt-turbos-n54-e82-1m-135i/

Apparently there's an extended warranty covering this up to 80000 mi, but only if nothing has been modified anywhere near the turbo or air intake.
http://www.e90post.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=733570&d=1344705341

What is the underlying problem? "Usual it's not the turbo itself that fails...but the actuator arms for the wastegates fail.  They will not hold open and just dump the extra boost trying to be built up. They will rattle like crazy is a usual sign of them starting to go. Luckily each turbo is now only about 800 for the manifold and turbo assembled from BMW."
http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=375357

Building the world's largest ship

Massive. 


Time-lapse

Yesong Sophie Lee, 12, USA

Amazing young violinist

http://youtu.be/srcXVi9yyxI

Inside the World's First $1 Million Drone Race

Yet another expensive pastime for guys. Very cool, but looks very easy to ruin your drone.

http://youtu.be/pZ0viMxYDA4

How millennials can get rich slowly

https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf

Avalanche transceivers

A friend and colleague who skis in remote areas was telling me about recent advances in avalanche transceivers. These are handheld devices that can transmit a person's location if they have been buried by an avalanche. 

They all transmit on the same wavelength. Each transmitter cycles through a succession of slow to fast beeps, so that a receiver can distinguish different transmitters all broadcasting on the same frequency by the pattern of beeps. 

The long telescopic probe that is used to find victims under the snow now has an emitter on the end that can silence a transponder once a victim had been located by probe, so that other victim's signals can be more easily located. 

Fascinating technology. 

Avalanche transceivers - see the section on types of beacons to see how they are able to indicate the  direction of multiple transmitters. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalanche_transceiver

Avy Snacks: Avalanche Beacons from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.

How to Remove Scratches from Car

Well made instructional video

http://youtu.be/2nYF46P7B2c

A truck 64 times bigger than normal

http://youtu.be/e8GdadQzMeo

If you can get past the swearing and the teenspeak ("That's totally baller, man!") you can see the rainbow sheik and his massive car collection.

Listen to records with your teeth.

Hilarious. I had no idea you could do this 

http://www.popsci.com/listen-to-records-with-your-teeth?image=4

The First Makerspace In A Hospital | Popular Science

Facilitating better jerry-rigging and repurposing of medical devices. 

http://www.popsci.com/first-makerspace-in-hospital

http://www.makerhealth.co/

Quadcopter drone

Have you seen what these personal flying cameras can do? Quadcopter drones can orbit around you, follow you as you go, or navigate around obstacles autonomously. 

Simple to use

http://youtu.be/JJPSSqMQajA

Here's video of Iceland taken with a drone. Pretty incredible. 

Here's NYC 

http://youtu.be/pbNEeAAiIKk

In sports 

http://youtu.be/30eAEx4ESIM

Environmental Factoids

• Waste Prevention
• Recycling
• Recycled Products
• General Links

WasteWise has collected the following environmental factoids to help you understand the impacts of waste prevention and recycling.

Aluminum

• Aluminum can be recycled using less than 5 percent of the energy used to make the original product.
• Recycling one aluminum beverage can save enough energy to run a 14 watt CFL bulb (60 watt incandescent equivalent) for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.

Plastic

• Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials.
• Plastics require 100 to 400 years to break down at the landfill.
• Five 2-liter recycled PET bottles produce enough fiberfill to make a ski jacket.

Glass

• Producing glass from virgin materials requires 30 percent more energy than producing it from crushed, used glass.
• The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will operate a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.
• It takes approximately 1 million years for a glass bottle to break down at the landfill.

Steel

• Tin cans contain 99 percent steel.
• Recycling steel and tin cans saves between 60 and 74 percent of the energy used to produce them from raw materials.
• According to the Steel Recycling Institute, steel recycling in the United States saves the energy equivalent to electrical power for about one-fifth of American households for one year.
• One ton of recycled steel saves the energy equivalent of 3.6 barrels of oil and 1.49 tons of iron ore over the production of new steel.

Paper

• Producing recycled paper requires about 60 percent of the energy used to make paper from virgin wood pulp.
• Manufacturing one ton of office and computer paper with recycled paper stock can save between 3,000 and 4,000 kilowatt hours over the same ton of paper made with virgin wood products.
• Preventing 1 ton of paper waste saves between 15 and 17 mature trees.

https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/smm/wastewise/web/html/factoid.html

Movie recommendation

Cool, funny, engaging. 

It's not often I feel a movie is worth recommending, but this one you might miss because it gets very average reviews, and would appear to be a generic action flick but it's not. 

American Ultra (http://m.imdb.com/title/tt3316948/) is a takeoff on the Bourne series, with a man who has no idea that he has been programmed with skills by the CIA. 

It is well-acted, has an unusual and cool vibe, it has heart, and a story that draws you in. Being an action movie, it is full of foul language of course, so not a good movie for the kids. 

Tesla Unveils Model 3

Model 3, under $35000, 215 mile range, autopilot in base model, front and rear trunks, and by time of unveiling had 115,000 orders placed already.
If you can't stand all the talk, you can skip to the big unveiling at 18 minutes into video.

http://youtu.be/Q4VGQPk2Dl8

Justin Trudeau is pretty sure you won't move to Canada

I thought this was just silly at first, but it had some good messages, and a real conversation with Trudeau.

http://youtu.be/JWI5-vWqcGc

How to Cold Start a Frozen D6 Cat Russian-Style with FIRE

Hilarious! Start a fire under the engine to warm it up when it's -28 degrees.

http://youtu.be/Y3tXAuFxGQk

Grass-free mutton

People are working on growing meat in the lab because growing an entire animal to make meat is incredibly inefficient compared to stringing proteins together in a lab. Here's an article from Popular Science. (The first half is about making mock meat from vegetable products, which has a long way to go yet before getting a palatable product.)  And the second half is about using an extruder machine to make meat products from protein. 

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/can-artificial-meat-save-world

But this article is closer to making meat from chemicals, using a 3-D printer to manufacture meat layer by layer from the proteins. 

http://www.popsci.com/push-button-dinner

Popular science has also had articles about growing vegetables on giant vertical hydroponic farms in buildings close to cities, with advantages of hermetically-sealed insect-free buildings and low transportation costs to market. 

http://www.popsci.com/farms-grow-up-thanks-to-technology

-------
From my Dad -

I grew up in sheep country - as you travelled through Ulster mountain country you would see hundreds of sheep quietly grazing. Grazing where their forbears had grazed since those mediaeval times when the farmers built those stone walls to contain them. Huge areas amongst the ranges of mountains.  And we were a mutton-eating people: every Sunday we had a special dinner with all the family sitting down after Morning Service, to a delicious roast.
Now those vast ranges were obviously covered with soil, and I never heard of the soil being replenished with fertilizer or manure. So the grass could contain, only, elements provided by the soil.  And the woolly creatures ate,  only, elements provided by the soil.
You recall Shut-In Island  near the cottage growing up. The legend is that local farmers, in days gone by, would ferry to it, the sheep and the lambs born in Spring, and would let them graze and fatten there, until market time in the Fall.  Graze on grass sprung from soil that had never been replenished since geological times.
So, what I'm leading to is this, Why doesn't an enterprising chemist take some soil, put it in a test-tube and produce, say grass.  And then, after thinking about it, by-pass the grass, and make ersatz mutton and feed the world's hungry?

From a Pile of Dirt, Researchers Discover New Antibiotic

Cool, they grow bacteria in a chip stuck in the mud. I think the microdiffusion chip is just a means to isolate an organism. I'm surprised they say that less than 1% of soil bacteria can be grown in the lab.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/533966/from-a-pile-of-dirt-researchers-discover-new-antibiotic/

Fail Compilation July 2015 - February 2016

These fail videos are usually a waste of video, but this one is particularly good. I like the people tumbling off the see saw like dominoes.

http://youtu.be/ad-Kp4Lu6UI

How noisy is your food?

The sounds of eating may reduce how much you eat: New study shows food sound is an important sensory cue -- ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160315131902.htm

There's another experiment with a bottomless bowl of soup that keeps refilling magically from underneath the table, and people eat 50% more soup until they realize what's happening. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15761167/

Sadly, the lesson is we are so unaware of our satiety and we'll eat ourselves into oblivion without self control. 

Tetra Pak documentary

Staggering numbers of containers. The six layers of the tetra pak are illustrated at 5:00.

https://youtu.be/vItaF69SoNI

Failed intubation and human factors training

Blunder that killed my wife | Daily Mail Online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-421989/Blunder-killed-wife.html

Bridge of Spies and the U2-spy plane

I was reading about the U2 spy plane while watching the movie, and was stunned to read what their pilots went through. Under the section "design" on the wiki page, they describe pilots' requirement to denitrogenate their blood breathing 100% O2 for an hour, then take off in a lightweight plane that even jettisons part of its landing gear during takeoff and fly a plane with very stiff, difficult controls that is hard to fly at low altitudes, then maintain their ultra high altitude during the mission within an incredibly narrow range of 10 knots of airspeed between the fuselage falling apart or the aircraft stalling. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2

System for building a tunnel arch quickly

Clever system to support an arch during construction with a truck covered with rollers.

arch block excavator tunnel build

Icebreaker in action

Video gets more interesting at 4:10

My understanding is that in thick ice-breaking, the icebreaker rises up over the ice edge, then the weight of the ship resting on the ice breaks it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icebreaker

Vancouver tsunami risk areas

Blue Mountain Vineyard & Cellars

Mark Y. recommends:
Blue Mountain Vineyard & Cellars
2385 Allendale Rd, Okanagan-Similkameen D, BC V0H 1R2
https://goo.gl/maps/HBrdBqgemjk

Rube Goldberg type musical machine

https://youtu.be/IvUU8joBb1Q

Palliative care patients

Atul Gawande notes how scientific advances have turned the process of aging and dying into medical experiences, managed by a gaggle of health care professionals. Death equates to a failure of medical care, rather than an inevitability of the human journey...
[The patient] filled out the requisite papers - power of attorney and DNR. These turned out to be 'expensive and flimsy amulets' - when dementia took away his intellect and right to self-determination. An age-old faith in institutional medicine and its practitioners was not rewarded with the support the [family] needed.
- Hector Baillie MD


'Being Mortal' by Atul Gawande
'Knocking on Heaven's Door' by Katy Butler

The Revenant | A Documentary

The back story of the Revenant, and what they were trying to portray about first nations life, history, and livelihood. And it's relevance to today. Beautiful photography and interesting interviews. Much better and more involved than most "featurettes."

http://youtu.be/pJfTfsXFbLk

Cinemagraph

Cool - just a little movement in a photo. 

I bet you could have fun with this. 

http://annstreetstudio.com/2016/02/26/behind-the-scenes-amazon-fashion-cinemagraphs/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-aenQSn_4A&sns=em

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/cinemagraph-pro/id642139481?mt=8

Photos from space

The man who had spent more than a year in space had an Instagram site where he had posted an incredible collection of photos of earth from above.
https://www.instagram.com/stationcdrkelly/?hl=en

More about his mission at
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/25/science/scott-kelly-astronaut-year-in-space-numbers.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

Iceland drone footage

Amazing footage, really shows off Iceland's rugged beauty.

http://youtu.be/e-aso34xqe8

The quadcopter has a "follow me" function to capture your outdoor adventures:

BMW M235

What a ride. This is what I've been looking for. The automatic was silky smooth, and was pleasant to drive in either sport mode or eco mode. No turbo lag, tight and sticky in the corners, lovely exhaust note. And very comfortable seats, with adjustable lateral support.
The manual was so perfect to drive. Silky smooth acceleration and shifting. I would've preferred a longer throw on the stickshift. You can hear the turbo spool up but there's no troublesome turbo lag. Excellent pinpoint tracking through corners and great road feel through the steering wheel.
Very cool to drive. I

Atlas robot from Boston Technology

Untethered robot walking on slippery, uneven ground, picking up a moving object, recovering from being knocked over. Incredible.


https://youtu.be/rVlhMGQgDkY?
Also very cool - a robot that sticks to a vertical surface, and climbs over onto the top of it.

https://youtu.be/XEMlkonimvQ

And on a related note, a nice review of the latest DARPA challenge

https://youtu.be/wwWHfBS9tuw

Soap opera effect on TVs

" I just bought a new ultra high-definition TV, but movies look cheesy somehow, like daytime TV. Is there a way to fix this soap opera effect?" 

Don't worry; there's nothing wrong with your HDTV, says our TV guru Claudio Ciacci. This soap opera effect is a common problem that comes up when a feature called smooth motion is activated, causing movies to lose much of their filmic character. It's referred to as the "soap opera effect" because films end up looking hyper-realistic, almost like daytime soaps. Those shows are usually shot with cameras running at a higher 60 frames per second, or 60Hz, which naturally yields smoother motion. Movies, by contrast, are usually shot at a relatively slow 24Hz, with motion that can look a bit jerky during camera pans, but that's the "film look" we're accustomed to seeing. An easy fix for the soap opera effect is to turn off the smooth-motion feature. But with some TVs, it's tied to anti-blurring processing—which is helpful in reducing blur during motion scenes. So by turning the soap opera effect off, you also lose any blur-reduction benefits. For TVs that have sub-controls in this feature's menu, be sure to turn down the setting called anti-judder and turn up the anti-blurring processing. That should preserve the authentic film look.