Fear of our mortality
Fear of disease
Fear of pathogens
Mate selection
Undermining our identity
Violating human norms
Cognitive dissonance perceiving abnormal movement
Threat to identity
Friday, March 31, 2023
Real-Time Facial Model Animation | Unreal 2023
These motion-capture capabilities amaze me - recording facial expressions with a phone camera, and moments later several animated characters reproduce the same expressions with lifelike precision and no uncanny valley.
Making suitcases in Japan
So many questions.
Why so many processes done by hand?
Why are so many temporary protective layers carefully placed near the beginning, instead of having softer rollers on the conveyor lines?
Why a protective layer over the foam interior pieces when they're being cut? Why are they removed one by one by hand?
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Birthday party videos
Some crazy birthday parties - imagine how much work it was to prepare for these!
Jayne's 10th
Sarah's 16th
Part 2:
Jayne's 14th
Also, silly singing sisters
And, couldn't resist, snowy treetops birdseye
The Reason Tesla Developed The Giga Press
3:59 "casting is a very finely balanced thermodynamic process done under high pressure - molten aluminum is pressed into a die mold at high speed and that liquid metal has to fill the mold perfectly and evenly before cooling into a single strong component. The larger and more complex the mold, the further the metal needs to travel and the greater the chance that something will go wrong."
Ricardo Ferrario saw the writing on the wall that the transition to electric vehicles would obviate the casting of engine blocks; he literally had a dream:
3:19 - he wanted to make the most powerful, efficient, and sustainable casting machine ever built, but he also wanted it to look beautiful... pops of red... stylized look... 3:43 he wanted to make the Ferrari of casting machines.
4:53 the molten aluminum is purified by pumping argon gas through, then filtered at 25 micrometers, the die mold is slathered with soybean oil for easy de-molding,
5:54 the molten metal inside the mold exerts pressure to push the mold halves apart, so immense pressure is needed to push the halves together - much more pressure than was used to inject the metal. 7:08 For instance, in a smaller press, 241 tons of pressure inject the liquid metal, but 4000 tons of force hold the die halves together.
The ingenious micro mechanisms inside your phone
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Zipline Drone Will Change Everything
Mark Rober tells a good story.
1:40 "how clever people are using engineering to change the world"
8:37 the advent of fixed-wing Zipline drones that travel 70 miles in Rwanda has slashed maternal mortality by 88%. Incredible.
11:46 the cover story - delivery drones that stay afloat at 400' and precision-drop cargo by a tether line.
Why Retailers Are Spending Billions On Anti-Theft Technology
Makes a good argument that special interest groups are hyping a supposed recent increase in theft, which in fact may actually be decreasing rather than everyone's perception it's increasing.
This allows special interest groups to promote laws that access more information from customers and sellers.
Military Drone Cameras
Tesla FSD V11 is NEXT LEVEL
This guy produces a lot of (long) videos about how the Tesla (beta) full self-driving performs. This, however, is a significant one.
The NHTSA made a newsworthy condemnation of Tesla's dangerous performance like rolling stops at red lights, or turning right from a left turning lane, that mandated a massive recall.
However, the recall is a non-issue since the correction is an over-the-air update. Nonetheless, this negative announcement dropped the stock price sharply 6%.
However, in the latest update (which I haven't received yet) he has some high praise for the "smoothness" of this latest iteration in software improvement, as follows.
8:25 the path planner is a lot smoother
9:53 did a really nice job of planning a path through that intersection
11:30 dramatic improvement ... hugging the inside of the turn
13:14 the steering wheel inputs were smooth and the acceleration and braking were smooth - there just seemed to be an extra layer of polish on top
13:45 a focus on the overall smoothness and feel
15:06 actually pretty complex behavior
16:27 goes to the outside and inside of the turns [much like a human would]
18:06 it's actually starting to get an idea of traffic flow, which in turn makes it more confident
23:18 how smooth the steering is throughout this maneuver, it's almost like it did these 3 lane chances as one single maneuver
Squint method - Once I Learned THIS, It Made My Photos Much Better
I was surprised how effective this technique sounds, for something so simple. Can't wait to try it out.
Friday, March 17, 2023
Using Bees as Digital Sensors.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Krazy glue Cyanoacrylate glues for wilderness and remote travel medical care.
"Within this paper we critically examine the published therapeutic risks and benefits of both pharmaceutical and hardware grade cyanoacrylate glues when applied in acute care situations.
“...possibility of a severe exothermic reaction with risk of fire and burns if the glue comes in contact with cotton or wool...Within the laboratory setting, the lower homologs have been shown to cause localized inflammation, release toxic metabolites more quickly, and possess inferior physical properties for tissue adhesion...The avid outdoorsman, whose pack is as light as his wallet, might prefer a tube of Super Glue for commonly encountered field equipment repairs and infrequent therapeutic use.”
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Why Japanese Calligraphy Ink Is So Expensive
Hair Ice
A rare phenomenon, captured by photographer Mathew Nichols
...Hair Ice is caused by a fungus that lives within the decaying wood, and this fungus "breathes" or releases its spores through the night pushing the moisture harnessed within the wood out of the woods pores, causing it to immediately freeze with contact of the below freezing temperatures. The small hole from which the moisture is released is as thin as a strand of hair, causing the hair-like ice to form.
I... began to take note of the conditions. I wrote in my journal the temperatures, wind-spead, humidity level, and cloud cover present in the hours leading up to my search.
... I also wanted to see it grow.
Equipped with only my cellphone at the time I went out at night when the conditions were projected to be within the "Golden zone" and set up my phone pointed at a fallen alder branch that I had seen it grow on previously, and began to take a timelapse of this incredible phenomenon.
I ran into so many problems with this plan. My phone would get too cold and shut off, the battery would drain too fast, and the lighting was very difficult to make work. So I taped hand warmers to my phone and plugged it into a battery pack, and then used a few lanterns to provide the proper lighting. It took at least a dozen attempts to finally work through all my issues and achieve my goal of a timelapse from start to finish of the formation of hair ice.
Here's a time lapse of the ice forming.
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Yellow Crazy Ants Kill Red Crab | Planet Earth II
Monday, March 6, 2023
Epigenetics and Aging: The effects of DNA breakage and repair
Do bees really die if they sting you? | Live Science
"In a word, no. While some bees undoubtedly do die, others don't. "
"Honeybees will most often die as a consequence of stinging [humans or other mammals]," Ray said. "This is due to the anatomy of their stinger. It is barbed, which catches within the skin, allowing the stinger to remain in place..."
"Honeybees do not tend to die when stinging other insects or spiders, which tends to happen only if the bee thinks its hive is being invaded. This is because the stinger is generally able to pierce an insect's relatively thin exoskeleton and can be extracted without incurring damage..."
"Human skin, however, is much thicker than most insects' exoskeletons, meaning "the stingers become lodged... When the bee flies away after stinging a person, the stinger remains, and the organs of its gut are pulled and detached, effectively disemboweling the individual [bee]"
Saturday, March 4, 2023
How many CEO's are named John?
"Fewer large companies are run by women than by men named John, a sure indicator that the glass ceiling remains firmly in place in corporate America."
The lazy reason NYC Is Always Covered In Scaffolding, green awning
2:16 buildings taller than 6 storeys need their facade inspected every 5 years. It's cheaper for owners just to keep the scaffolding for facade repairs in place, rather than rebuild it every 5 years. In fact, it's easier to not repair the facade and pay a fine than to actually repair it.
4:07 the Bloomberg administration decided all sidewalk sheds should be painted the same Hunter Green color.
"There have been cases of building owners refusing to do the work, as renting the sidewalk sheds indefinitely and paying small fines is cheaper than a massive construction project."
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Why is Steam coming out of the ground everywhere in NYC?
1:20 the largest steam system in the world, larger than the next 9 steam systems combined.
5:23 steam plant supplies 3.2M people with heat, electricity, and AC
6:00 the NYC steam plant converts 125,000 gallons of water into steam every hour9:00 if an ancient valve leaks deep underground, a street-level stack keeps danger away from public. (Assumably, cheaper to divert the steam than dig up and replace the pipe.) Eventually they assemble the machinery, parts, and labor to fix the leak.
Here's EXACTLY What to Do When an Earthquake Hits: Cascadia Subduction Zone
-get under a sturdy object if inside a building made after 1990
Many regions are earthquake-prone
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