A legal challenge allowed patients to seek assisted suicide even if their death was not imminent, opening floodgates to a wide array of non-lethal chronic pain conditions that are a quandary for doctors to assess, whether everything possible has been tried, and whether that's even important if the suffering is too terrible.
Monday, June 30, 2025
Medical assistance in Dying goes further in Canada
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/magazine/maid-medical-assistance-dying-canada.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Backing into parking spaces
I back in to parking spaces because
1) the rear bumper is higher and not as likely to get damaged by a high curb than the front spoiler.
2) you have much better situational awareness of other traffic as you enter, when you're in traffic instead of entering traffic, and so better able to avoid an accident
3) as you leave, you have a much wider field of view when entering a parking spot than when you're leaving, and since you're often more tired when you're leaving, or often there's condensation or frost on the window, you have a much better chance of seeing approaching cars if you're facing the road and driving forwards when leaving.
"How infrastructure works" by Deb Chachra
The cost of light per lumen hour has gone down by a factor of 10,000 in the last two centuries.
"How infrastructure works" by Deb Chachra
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Incredible aluminum catamaran time-lapse
https://youtu.be/XmChG1GyjlU?si=9DGa2EV6bzYGmoie
This build clearly took a lot of planning, ordering the CNC cutting of all the parts. At 6:24 they fill the hill with water to check for leaks. He explains at 7:45 that the interior is made of lightweight honeycomb covered with fiberglass that's much lighter than marine plywood.
Thursday, June 26, 2025
How submarines prevent cavitation from their propellers
How submarines prevent cavitation at the propellers - the injection of gas in front of the propellers seems counterintuitive to me, since that would lower the density of the water and reduce power. But the rubber membrane on the front of the propellers makes sense:
More methods than I had expected:
Reduced Propeller Speed: Operating the propellers at lower rotational speeds helps to reduce the pressure differences in the water, thus decreasing the likelihood of cavitation. However, this can impact the submarine's speed.
* Increased Operating Depth: Cavitation is less likely to occur at greater depths due to the higher ambient pressure of the water. Submarines often operate at depths where cavitation is minimized.
* Air Injection/Masking: Some submarines have systems that release small amounts of compressed air near the propeller. This air fills the vacuum bubbles as they form, preventing them from collapsing violently and creating noise. This is mentioned as a standard technique in the US Navy and possibly other navies.
* Degassing Water: Research has shown that releasing degassed water near the propeller's low-pressure side can prevent cavitation without altering blade speed or pitch. This method is highlighted as simple and cheap to implement.
* Nozzle Systems: Some designs use nozzles that spray compressed air in front of the propeller to create a large bubble, known as a "macro bubble," which helps reduce hull vibrations caused by cavitation.
* Air-filled Rubber Membranes: An alternative to nozzle systems involves placing an air-filled rubber membrane directly behind the propeller. This also creates a pocket of air to prevent cavitation without the need for compressors.
Toroidal propellers provide more surface area that reduces the amount of cavitation for a given amount of thrust.
Monday, June 23, 2025
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Black hole has fastest moving star
https://youtu.be/TF8THY5spmo?si=JnlpbSQ3c03o9ZeP
20-year time lapse of stars being flung around a black hole.
In the comments: The closest one, S4716 is moving at about 8% speed of light at a distance of about12.6 AU at perigee to the black hole. It has an orbital period of 4 years.
Our galaxy's center features the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, as massive as 4 million suns. It has hundreds of stars pulled closely into its orbit, experiencing a gravitational boost from this proximity. The fastest of these stars, S4714, orbits around Sgr A* at more than 8% of light speed, or 15,000 miles per second, faster than any other known star.
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Big brother is watching you.
Washington State Patrol bought anonymous cellphone data that reveals where drivers are speeding and texting while driving so that they can target their surveillance to those areas.
"Cellphone data from more than 1 million cellphone users in Washington in 2023 helped the state identify where to look for dangerous drivers...
The commission used state funding to purchase telematic data gathered by Michelin Mobility Intelligence to show when and where drivers were speeding, braking, and talking and texting while driving."
If you don't know the reference to "Big Brother," it's from George Orwell.
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Did predictions about heat waves
https://youtu.be/7hBMbQ9de1g?si=nK-PcgY6I76rJIgt
There a temperature-humidity combination above which humans cannot cool themselves and need external cooling. When AC fails because of power outages, great-related deaths are inevitable.
Friday, June 13, 2025
Aluminum recycling
https://youtu.be/uyi2RT3Kak4?si=SfINddo9CWkadZDQ
5:01 removing paint at a temperature will below the melting point improves the grade of aluminum produced
8:12 recycling aluminum takes 95% less energy than producing new aluminum from ore.
Why do similar shops cluster together e.g. selling from carts on beach
https://youtu.be/jILgxeNBK_8?si=quTHEO55U7o99Xcz
3:10 "Ultimately, there's nowhere you can move that will improve your situation."
Study Finds Bacterial Toxin May Trigger Multiple Sclerosis Onset and Relapse | Newsroom | Weill Cornell Medicine
"Clostridium perfringens in unusually high abundance within the gut microbiome of people with MS...epsilon toxin opens the blood vessels of the brain allowing inflammatory cells to gain access to the central nervous system and cause demyelination characteristic of MS."
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Housing the unhoused decreases public costs.
New data shows that King County's Health Through Housing program helps residents maintain stable housing and improve health.
95% of supportive housing residents maintained a stable home.
Residents had 33% shorter hospital stays, 22% fewer hospital stays and a 17% decrease in ER visits.
Health Through Housing combines housing with onsite services like workforce training, financial planning, health care, food programs and case management.
https://dchsblog.com/?p=8837&preview=1&_ppp=ba7fb1680c
95% of supportive housing residents maintained a stable home.
Residents had 33% shorter hospital stays, 22% fewer hospital stays and a 17% decrease in ER visits.
Health Through Housing combines housing with onsite services like workforce training, financial planning, health care, food programs and case management.
https://dchsblog.com/?p=8837&preview=1&_ppp=ba7fb1680c
Landfill design
Leachate and off-gassing have to be carefully managed and monitored.
12:12 The landfill for L.A., now closed, generates enough methane to produce electricity for 70,000 homes.
Roundabout / rotary
I delivered food to find out - can food delivery apps survive?
10:50 "I'm definitely re-thinking how I make the door dash deliverer come up to my apartment...rethinking every time I didn't tip when the order was late, because that's (mostly) out of the delivery person's control."
Regenerative seawater agriculture
So many advantages
-1:20 halophyte plants naturally actively exclude salt
-2:26 very resilient plants
-2:13 high yield per acre
-3:16 no fertilizer or pesticide
-3:12 no plowing or tilling the soil
-yields 1:38 carbon capture, fiberboard, a succulent animal feed, and oil.
-3:02 it can be harvested several times a year with new cross growing from the remaining root system.
-12:55 agriculture that enhances, rather than disrupts, the existing natural processes and biodiversity
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Synthetic pineapple leather
https://youtu.be/Ustm5PQpl5Q?si=uDpejevt3tzEyJRy
Pinatex uses waste leaves from pineapples to make synthetic leather.
Flight turnaround delays
https://youtu.be/v2C7w0RfMaw?si=iVcAPw61XkKQgM3s
6 teams' generic scramble to turn a flight around in 55 minutes. A $9 billion investment has improved their on-time departure rate, and employs AI to shuffle planes around to minimize delays.
Moths
https://youtu.be/mIr-jy0nJg0?si=ypc2BXT-CkufquR_
Months has to evolve countermeasures relatively quickly once bats evolved. Some make ultrasonic "jamming" signals to confuse bats.
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Asotin to Enterprise
Great drive - Avants member
Shared route
From Asotin, Washington to Enterprise, Oregon 97828 via WA-129 S and OR-3 S.
1 hr 40 min (79 mi)
1 hr 40 min in current traffic
1. Head west toward Washington St
2. Turn left onto WA-129 S
3. Arrive at location: Enterprise
For the best route in current traffic visit https://maps.app.goo.gl/jVo4Zi11vfsx5YJA6?g_st=ac
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16gCCBcD9M/
Also check out
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16kAbjS8nT/
Monday, June 9, 2025
Podcast about being both assertive and warm
To be assertive and warm, use a skill you have to help others.
Brag-thank: when you mention your accomplishment, in the same breath thank others who helped achieve it.
Humor-bragging - use (non-self-deprecating) humor to soften something you brag about.
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Pothole repair automation
There has been a lot of innvation in pothole repair - here are some examples listed in decreasing levels of automation.
Robotic arm on from of truck
Expand hole to fit pre-formed patches
Multiple heads on backhoe-type machine
Injection patching handheld hose
Patch sheets laid down by hand
Shake from bag, paved by traffic
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Show traffic waves
https://youtu.be/6ZC9h8jgSj4?si=QmII1yHByyrfq10K
So annoying when this peristaltic motion causes waves of stopped traffic during congestion.
Lion lights
https://youtu.be/3bPlu0StTUE?si=J0EwaY0qDRmLraJq
A tinkering 12 yo invented random-flashing perimeter lights which protect a homestead by giving the appearance of human activity surrounding their encampment and cattle.
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Christopher Burkett | Green Veratrum, 1993
This beautiful print now hangs in our bedroom.
Sunday, June 1, 2025
Using Lidar to gauge the terrain ahead and adjust the suspension.
"Results of field tests showed the vertical acceleration of the vehicle body was reduced by 54%, when passing the bump at 5 km/h and axle displacement was reduced by 51% when travelling an even road at 5 km/h."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240589631831190X
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