Can't use it where there's freezing weather...
http://youtu.be/LWiq0NbJmaw
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Time lapse Doppler Radar: 2010 to 2012
Mesmerizing video. I think it rains more at night, which is why you see a pattern flash regularly from right to left. Interesting how certain areas are particularly hard-hit repeatedly.
http://youtu.be/C65qRbD0xTo
http://youtu.be/C65qRbD0xTo
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Monica Lewinsky: The price of shame
Monica Lewinsky on Cyberbullying
at 12:47: "Cruelty to others is nothing new. But online, technologically-enhanced shaming is amplified, uncontained, and permanently accessible."http://youtu.be/H_8y0WLm78U
Nasogastric tube fixed with a loop placed with magnets
When NG tubes come out they are difficult and uncomfortable to replace. This innovation would really prevent a lot of that. AMT Bridle Pro (R)
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Micro-lending WSJ
Micro-lending WSJ
The uber -ization of money
Lending Club and Prosper, SeedInvest and Fundable
Loyal3 aims to connect public companies to loyal customers who want to buy shares as early as the IPO, while EquityZen and others do the same for private companies.
ZestFinance, founded by former Google executives and flush with venture capital, uses big data to offset the inherent risks.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-uberization-of-finance-1446835102?vh=9c3112ace7e71bbdaed10dcdbf16de6a150f2c66&ts=1446905828
The uber -ization of money
Lending Club and Prosper, SeedInvest and Fundable
Loyal3 aims to connect public companies to loyal customers who want to buy shares as early as the IPO, while EquityZen and others do the same for private companies.
ZestFinance, founded by former Google executives and flush with venture capital, uses big data to offset the inherent risks.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-uberization-of-finance-1446835102?vh=9c3112ace7e71bbdaed10dcdbf16de6a150f2c66&ts=1446905828
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Indoor farms, where the weather is perfect every day
"turn a run-down steel factory into a 69,000-square-foot farm. It will be capable of turning out 2 million pounds of produce annually...use 95 percent less water than a field farm, and like others offer more productivity per square acre, and save energy costs such as tractor fuel"
http://www.popsci.com/farms-grow-up-thanks-to-technology
http://www.popsci.com/farms-grow-up-thanks-to-technology
Scale of the solar system distances
"Now the first thing you will realize is that space is extremely well named and rather dismayingly uneventful...
On a diagram of the solar system to scale, with the Earth reduced to about the diameter of a pea, Jupiter would be over 300 meters away, and Pluto would be two and a half kilometers away (and about the size of a bacterium, so you wouldn't be able to see it anyway.) On the same scale, Proxima Centauri, our nearest star, would be 16,000 km away." p.34
A Short History of Nearly Everything. Bill Bryson.
On a diagram of the solar system to scale, with the Earth reduced to about the diameter of a pea, Jupiter would be over 300 meters away, and Pluto would be two and a half kilometers away (and about the size of a bacterium, so you wouldn't be able to see it anyway.) On the same scale, Proxima Centauri, our nearest star, would be 16,000 km away." p.34
A Short History of Nearly Everything. Bill Bryson.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Pump Up the Bass to Douse a Blaze: Mason Students' Invention Fights Fires
Very cool! Using sound waves to displace air and dissipate the heat to extinguish a fire.
http://youtu.be/uPVQMZ4ikvM
http://youtu.be/uPVQMZ4ikvM
The concept of using sound to suppress fire is not new. Pressure waves push away the oxygen a fire needs and spread the flames over a larger area, reducing heat and weakening the blaze. In 2011, DARPA released a video showing two massive speakers extinguishing a fire placed between them. Robertson and Tran were convinced they could develop this idea into a practical, handheld device.
The trick was finding the right frequency. The students tried for eight months before finally identifying the acoustic sweet spot: low-frequency rumblings in the 30- to 60-hertz range. "When we first put out a cigarette lighter, we were pretty excited," Robertson says. Later they were able to snuff a frying-pan fire in a matter of seconds.
Unlike sprinkler systems or traditional fire extinguishers, the pair's backpack-size Wave Extinguisher leaves behind no chemicals, powder, or water. Eventually, Tran imagines fleets of drones using sound to beat back flames from buildings or forests. This would keep firefighters out of danger and alleviate the need for thousands of gallons of water.
The concept of using sound to suppress fire is not new. Pressure waves push away the oxygen a fire needs and spread the flames over a larger area, reducing heat and weakening the blaze. In 2011, DARPA released a video showing two massive speakers extinguishing a fire placed between them. Robertson and Tran were convinced they could develop this idea into a practical, handheld device.
The trick was finding the right frequency. The students tried for eight months before finally identifying the acoustic sweet spot: low-frequency rumblings in the 30- to 60-hertz range. "When we first put out a cigarette lighter, we were pretty excited," Robertson says. Later they were able to snuff a frying-pan fire in a matter of seconds.
Unlike sprinkler systems or traditional fire extinguishers, the pair's backpack-size Wave Extinguisher leaves behind no chemicals, powder, or water. Eventually, Tran imagines fleets of drones using sound to beat back flames from buildings or forests. This would keep firefighters out of danger and alleviate the need for thousands of gallons of water.
Birds encased in glass.
Isn't this the strangest thing you've ever heard of?
"During Wisconsin's Peshtigo fire of 1871, for example, a cold front and twisting winds combined to form a fire tornado... It burned so hot, silica in the soil evaporated. When the thunderheads rained, the mineral fell in molten form. Survivors found birds—suffocated midflight by the fire's insatiable appetite for oxygen—encased in glass."
How Science Is Fighting Wilder Wildfires Than Ever Before | Popular Science, Nov 2015.
http://www.popsci.com/year-wildfire
Sent from my iPhone
"During Wisconsin's Peshtigo fire of 1871, for example, a cold front and twisting winds combined to form a fire tornado... It burned so hot, silica in the soil evaporated. When the thunderheads rained, the mineral fell in molten form. Survivors found birds—suffocated midflight by the fire's insatiable appetite for oxygen—encased in glass."
How Science Is Fighting Wilder Wildfires Than Ever Before | Popular Science, Nov 2015.
http://www.popsci.com/year-wildfire
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Glue With More Mussel | Popular Science
Using biomimicry to create better surgical adhesives. Pretty cool research.
Unlike Gorilla Glue and Super Glue, which become useless when wet, Wilker's formulas are based on the super-sticking power of mussels. And they're some of the strongest glues ever made.
Inspiration
Wilker drew inspiration from mollusks that cling to rocks in stormy seas. The secret to their adhesion is the cross-linking of special proteins, which he tweaked for even greater effectiveness. "In biomimicry, you don't usually beat out nature," Wilker says, "but we made some stuff that's crazy strong."
Application
Wilker thinks his glues could eliminate the need for surgical screws, plates, sutures, or staples—fixtures he says belong in carpentry or a medieval torture chamber, not modern medicine. Mussel-inspired glues could mend arteries, seal wounds, and serve in airplane and car manufacture too.
Impact
Today, about 99 percent of adhesives are made from petroleum or emit formaldehyde (or both). Wilker's glues provide a more sustainable, nontoxic replacement. "I don't know of anything else out there with this kind of potential," he says, "but I'm biased."
http://www.popsci.com/glue-with-more-mussel
From Wilker's home page:
"The underwater adhesion and high bonding strengths of marine biological materials bring to mind many applications ranging from wet-setting biomedical adhesives to new materials with tailored moduli. Current materials engineering efforts rely on our abilities to alter the polymer compositions and carry out the syntheses on large scales. As we incorporate more advanced functionalities into the polymers we are tailoring the materials for specific uses. Perhaps most in demand are new adhesive materials for biomedical procedures and devices. At the moment there are no adhesives available that are simultaneously wet setting, strong bonding, and non-toxic. Marine biology may have already solved this problem, hence our exploration of these materials"
From Wilker's home page:
"The underwater adhesion and high bonding strengths of marine biological materials bring to mind many applications ranging from wet-setting biomedical adhesives to new materials with tailored moduli. Current materials engineering efforts rely on our abilities to alter the polymer compositions and carry out the syntheses on large scales. As we incorporate more advanced functionalities into the polymers we are tailoring the materials for specific uses. Perhaps most in demand are new adhesive materials for biomedical procedures and devices. At the moment there are no adhesives available that are simultaneously wet setting, strong bonding, and non-toxic. Marine biology may have already solved this problem, hence our exploration of these materials"
https://www.chem.purdue.edu/people/directory/faculty/details/69
Also, Here's another glue that's elastic, biodegradable, nontoxic, and cure when you shine a light on it.
http://time.com/4037531/maria-pereira/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter
Also, Here's another glue that's elastic, biodegradable, nontoxic, and cure when you shine a light on it.
http://time.com/4037531/maria-pereira/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter
"...Pereira’s goal was to develop a glue that could stick in the body’s harshest environment: the heart, which pumps what she describes as “a hurricane of blood” 60 times a minute. An adhesive that could attach under such wet and dynamic conditions must be elastic enough to expand and contract with each beat of the heart, and be hydrophobic (to repel blood away from the surface), biodegradable and nontoxic..."
Here's her product:
Hobbesian (selfishness)
Hobbesian theory that people have a fundamental right to self-preservation and to pursue selfish aims but will relinquish these rights to an absolute monarch in the interest of common safety and happiness
Sent from my iPhone
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)