Monday, January 30, 2023
Tesla Reveals NEW Semi Gigafactory
The current Nevada gigafactory is about 30% the size of the eventual, long-promised gigafactory.
Sunday, January 29, 2023
What It’s Like To Deliver For Amazon In New Rivian Vans
Amazon contracts to delivery service providers to deliver packages.
5:12 They have a mere 15 minutes to load their van.
7:45 Driver surveillance and real-time warnings of distracted driving or falling to wear seat belts has decreased accidents by 50%.
12:36 They deliver 350-450 packages per shift
14:44 One Amazon driver moved to a job at USPS to gain stability, union, retirement, more benefits, and annual pay increases.
Friday, January 27, 2023
BMW i7 Cinema on Wheels
Why Most Indians Live Above This Line
Stickiest Non-Sticky Substance
Rammed earth as an insulating wall material
Measuring The Tiniest Forces In The Universe
5:11 standard weight is now referenced to an electrical property, rather than a standard weight, which can (surprisingly) vary over time.
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
The Points Guy: How aircraft de-icing works
Distinction between de-icing (removes what's there) and anti-icing (prevents further buildup.) "ice on the wings akin to coarse sandpaper can reduce wing lift by as much as 30% and increase drag by 40%...There are two parts to the process: de-icing and anti-icing... "propylene glycol heated to around 140-150 degrees Fahrenheit and sprayed under pressure to blast off “contaminants.” "In colder weather and heavier snow or icing conditions, anti-icing [a preventative step] is also deployed after de-icing...anti-icing fluid is to prevent frozen or freezing precipitation or expected frost adhering to the aeroplane’s cleaned or de-iced surfaces...The fluid... is more viscous...[allowing] it to adhere to the aircraft surface for a longer period of time...A common misconception, Herrick said, is that anti-icing fluid will help the aircraft avoid icing at cruise altitude. In fact, the majority of it will have sloughed off during the takeoff roll, with all of it gone by the time the aircraft is 700 feet to 1,000 ft above the ground."
Imitating a dog nose helps sniff for chemicals
What happens in the NIST lab?
2:35 The rapid exhale-inhale sequence 5 times a second enhances the intake of odors and their detection; doing this in the fake nose extended its reach by a factor of 18.
9:36 we all emit a "human thermal plume" consisting of shedded skin cells
15:22 surveillance of a suspected drug manufacturing site - much safer to send in a drone, whose prop wash stirs up particles that are sensed indicating risk.
18:26 a video of coding with and withouta mask on
19:52 ""flow visualization" is a critical tool to understand what's happening."
This fake dog nose made chemical sensors 18x better
How anatomy is encoded in our cells
2:13 It's much more complicated than you think. In an experiment, they rearranged cells in an embryo, but cells found their path to the correct place to create a very normal looking frog. "All of the pieces move in novel paths to create a normal structure." 12:59 we would call this "collective intelligence."
Where is anatomy encoded in living systems
Fires spontaneously break out in a landfill in India
9:14 "every day, Americans throw out 8x as much garbage as the average Indian"
How people live on a flaming garage dump.
Histotripsy therapeutic ultrasound for tumors
Histotripsy -high energy ultrasound that destroys microscopic tumors particularly in the liver.
It also enhances the immune response to the tumor.
Could this new ultrasound change the way cancer is treated?
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
An ancient carmine dye from cactus pests in Mexico
Monday, January 23, 2023
Bike helmets: what the science really says about an American safety obsession.
"helmets are simply not the road-safety panacea we want them to be."
Interesting article that elaborates on how difficult it is to protect cyclists from high-speed vehicles. And some surprising arguments for not wearing a helmet.
Sunday, January 22, 2023
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Alexa, open the pod bay doors!
This is very funny, if you know the original movie. https://www.facebook.com/marcus.york.16/videos/10157639194891008/?sfnsn=wa&mibextid=2Rb1fB In the original movie, it's the eerie point where the computer decides to override the human command to get rid of him. It was the first pop culture reference to what could happen if sentient computers figured out humans are dispensable. Here's the original: https://www.facebook.com/bob.giantomas/videos/584382286549942/?mibextid=NnVzG8
Thursday, January 19, 2023
The Insane Biology of Humans
6:54 as part of the dive reflex, the spleen contracts to release a store of oxygenated blood cells
Milkshake Duck - how viral fame leads to viral shame
A random 2016 post evolved into permanent internet slang for evanescent fame bringing character assassins out of the closet...
"The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist"
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Taking Atlas From Sim to Scaffold
A really interesting pair of videos. The second, "making of" video goes into more detail than usual, and explains a lot of the constraints and boundaries they're working within - e.g. when the robot picks up an object that weighs a lot, it has to know how that will change its combined center of gravity when jumping and turning.
Building an artificial sun that looks unbelievably realistic
I'm impressed the lengths this innovator went to in order to achieve parallel rays of bright light, covering a satellite antenna with reflective vinyl.
He doesn't stop there, but adds a layer of soapy water to scatter the blue rays so as to better imitate sunlight.
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Persuasion - Hidden Brain
This is a very useful podcast because it teaches you the tried-and-true techniques that salespeople use to convince you to buy someone now.
How do salespeople persuade us to buy something we don't really need?
Scarcity: you will forego this bargain unless you seize this opportunity. Loss aversion is installed in us. "These photo prints of your beautiful children will be burned next week, because we don't have room to store them."
Mutual concessions: I'll throw in this extra, and are you able to come up a bit in price?
Likeable - point to similarities between you and them.
A compliment that gives you a reputation to live up to: it's too bad this happened to such a nice, generous guy
Reciprocity: "you can have this flower for free - I insist. And would you like to donate to our organization?"
Sunday, January 15, 2023
Trucking 400-ton retired generators over 800 miles
The Art of the Impossible: MC Escher and Me
What a fascinating confluence of mathematics and graphic art, presented by the mathematician colleague of Stephen Hawking who challenged Escher with novel ideas.
Why divergent thinkers beat geniuses in the real world | David Epstein
Child prodigies result from "kind" (predictable) learning environments, but a lot of the world is a "wicked" learning environment.
Generalists are needed who can take skills from one area and apply them to a totally unexpected different area.
Saturday, January 14, 2023
The AeroPress
I didn't realize quite the phenomenon the Aeropress is. Here's the best way to use the Aeropress coffee maker: use water at 80 degrees Celsius.
Also demonstrated (and narrated) at 3:28 in the next video, which is a
very detailed look at the history of the Aeropress coffee maker. Invented in 2005, it has acquired a niche following and even a world-series competition of techniques. 7:15 "very difficult to master"
Friday, January 13, 2023
Electric Car Tires
Need stiffness, low rolling resistance, noise reduction, and help to handle the immense torque.
7:22 the foam insert can reduce noise by 9 decibels
Alcohol on the rise
"From 1999 to 2017, the number of alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. doubled, to more than 70,000 a year—making alcohol one of the leading drivers of the decline in American life expectancy."
"Media coverage, meanwhile, has swung from cheerfully overselling the (now disputed) health benefits of wine to screeching that no amount of alcohol is safe, ever."
"Natural selection has endowed humans with the ability to drink most other mammals under the table...about 10 million years ago, a genetic mutation left our ancestors with a souped-up enzyme that increased alcohol metabolism 40-fold"
"... those who regularly visit pubs are happier and more fulfilled than those who don't—not because they drink, but because they have more friends. "
" Stunningly, the health toll of social disconnection is estimated to be equivalent to the toll of smoking 15 cigarettes a day."
Getting yourself to do burdensome stuff - Katy Milkman, Hidden Brain
temptation bundling: When you're having trouble motivating yourself, try bundling a reward together with the thing that's hard to force yourself to do. [Like only watching reality TV when you're on the exercise machine.]
"Present self" is only concerned with immediate reward. "Future self" is concerned about long term goals, and is often hampered by what "present self" has indulged in...we have two selves and that they are in conflict, and this is a challenge we need to resolve, but some of us go through life without paying a lot of attention to this fact or trying to find ways to overcome it... Defaults are this amazing tool. What defaults do also is they harness our natural laziness, but actually turn it into an asset rather than a liability... e.g. [employees] can elect to be part of the retirement savings plan or not. It's just that, in one case, you have to elect to join the plan. In the other case, the default is that you're enrolled in the plan automatically and you have to elect to be out of the plan. In both cases, what you find is that people are reluctant, even to take the effort to check the box, of actually changing whatever the default is.
...for an individual who wants to improve their own outcomes, that if we can set defaults in our own lives and take advantage of our own tendency to go with the default, it will help us make better decisions... cash commitment devices are tools that research has proven can be really valuable to prevent future me from falling prey to present me's whims, because now the price tag is too high and we persist longer, we stick to our goals at a higher rate when it's too costly to fail... there is a 30% higher success rate among those who had access to this kind of a cash commitment device.
"tendency we have to overweigh whatever will provide instant gratification when we're doing a calculation and choosing between options, and to undervalue anything that will give us long-term rewards."
breaking big targets into a series of smaller goals: bite size invitation to do a small part of the big thing.
benefits of real-time feedback - for water use of all things, and they gave different groups shower faucets that either displayed how much water you were using in real time or simply tracked water use...As you might expect, it was incredibly valuable to be able to see in real-time just how much water you are using...when you're seeing it in real time, it's more salient, it's more vivid, and people cut back.
we saw spikes in the frequency of pursuing [new] goals at "chapter-breaks" - the start of a new week, the start of a new month, following people's birthdays, following holidays that we associate with new beginnings...Labor Day or New Year's, and less holidays like Valentine's Day.
this experience of hitting an important milestone on your birthday, or even moving to a new city, or a new country, and feeling like in some ways, you can wipe the slate clean... - an identity break - we feel like we're further from our past self...last year I couldn't quit smoking or get an exercise routine going, but that was the old me. The new me can do it...
figuring out how to encourage people to get a vaccine... the best performing message everywhere was a simple message reminding you to go get the vaccine and saying it's been reserved for you, or it's waiting for you... What we think is going on there is that, when someone tells you this vaccine has your name on it, it's first, it gives you the sense of ownership. We know from research on something called the endowment effect, that when you feel like something belongs to you, you're much more likely to want it.
I hope people take one thing away [is] the importance of thinking strategically, of recognizing...what your limitations are, what's holding you back, you can be much more successful because you can work around them.
Katy Milkman is the author of "How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be."
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Plastic Recycling Doesn't Work and Will Never Work - The Atlantic
"the reprocessing of plastic waste—when possible at all—is wasteful. Plastic is flammable, and the risk of fires at plastic-recycling facilities affects neighboring communities—many of which are located in low-income communities or communities of color." https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/single-use-plastic-chemical-recycling-disposal/661141/
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Trans athletes rules - it depends on hormones given.
trans student-athletes* undergoing hormonal treatment for gender transition: A trans male (FTM)... may compete on a men's team,
trans female (MTF)...may continue to compete on a men's team
Trans student-athletes who are not taking hormone treatment related to gender transition may participate
in sex-separated sports activities in accordance with their sex assigned at birth.
Yearbook Photo: Can It Predict Happiness, Divorce, Even Death?
"studied yearbook and childhood photos...Those who smiled least, compared to those who smiled most, were actually five times more likely to be divorced at some point in their life,"
Next, "230 photos of baseball players...Baseball players who turned a high-wattage smile on the photographer were only half as likely to die during any given year as those who smiled only partially or not at all. Those who showed a half-hearted smile lived longer than those who didn't smile at all, but not as long as their grinning teammates."
Why are certain products So Expensive?
Moroccan hand-cut tiles
0:22 Zellige Moroccan hand-cut tiles from Fez, 5:28 chiseled by hand, 6:20 arranged by hand. 9:05 Designer Kelly Wearstler is using them for their subtle interindividual shading.
Jasmine oil
21:32 jasmine oil, used in perfumery21:55 to get 1 kg of flowers requires 5000 buds; 25:12 1 kg of jasmine oil requires 1000kg of flower buds! At Guerlain in Paris, their top perfume 30:19 blends the aromas of lavender, jasmine sambach, sandalwood, and vanilla.
Indigo dye and Japanese hand-woven jeans
30:34 real, natural indigo dye from Japan, 32:32 from the indigo fera plant..They are woven on old,slower Toyota looms (yes, the car company usedd to make them) that have been superseded by "projectile" looms that are more efficient and have more consistent thread tension
Shea butter
41:29 Shea butter from East Africa is softer and melts and absorbs into the skin faster.
Marble
49:59 Carrara Calacatta marble
Cloves
1:16:13 Why cloves are so expensive - harvested, sorted, and dried by hand.
Webuye river salt, dried from the flowers of riverside reeds and reduced to a solid, takes 8 days labor to make a few tablespoons having a rich flavor. 1:16:37 pickers have to be careful not to break the blossoms, ruining the product.
River-reed salt
1:24:47 River-reed salt is laborious to produce and has an important umami flavor component. Pickers face dangers of snakes and crocodiles.
A blue gem called Benitoite
Saturday, January 7, 2023
Dogs Detecting Cancer
"Each...dog trains for up to eight months, smelling samples of breath, plasma, urine, and saliva collected by doctors and sent to the foundation. After smelling more than 300 unique samples, dogs are able to distinguish between a healthy sample and a cancerous one. They also learn to "generalize" the smell, meaning they can transfer what they know about the smell from samples already tested to new, similar samples."
"...providing early screening for firefighters in California, who are at high risk of developing cancer because of all the toxins they're exposed to in fires, including California's deadly wildfires."
"Two dogs were trained to distinguish between absorbed breath samples of lung cancer patients and healthy persons and succeeded with correct identification of patients with 9/9 and 8/9 and correct negative indications from of 8/10 and 4/10 samples from healthy individuals."
Thursday, January 5, 2023
How Linen Is Made
A process steeped in ancient traditions and words
Retting - soaking in water to loosen fibers
Scutching (beating) and hackling (combing)
Spinning, weaving, washing, dyeing.
In this video, all the steps are done by hand:
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Monday, January 2, 2023
Swatting - Wikipedia
"Swatting is a criminal harassment tactic of deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address."
Sunday, January 1, 2023
Earth's Atmosphere Stretches Beyond The Moon
Study on Potential Effects of Microplastics and Additives of Concern on Human Health
Studying the myriad effects of plastics is made difficult in part by the panoply of additives
- fillers, (wood and rock flour, clay, kaolin, graphite, glass fibers, cotton flakes, jute or linen, cellulose pulp)
-strengtheners (clays, silica, glass, chalk, talc, asbestos, alumina, rutile, carbon black, and carbon nanotubes)
-plasticizers, (organic or inorganic cadmium, barium, or lead salts)
-pigments (azo pigments, phthalocyanine pigments, anthraquinone chromophores)
antioxidants,
-UV stabilizers, (phenols and aromatic amines)
-lubricants, (calcium or magnesium stearates)
-and flame-retardants (chlorine and bromine, which release by the action of the flame; phosphorus, which favours the transformation into coal; and aluminium hydroxide)
Indonesian automated Fish farming
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