Does a slow surgeon risk increased complications?

This is hard to study because forcing a surgeon to go slower would be unethical. The problem with these analyses is that "sicker" patients are more likely to take longer during surgery, and sicker patients are inherently more likely to suffer complications. It's hard, even with statistical manipulation, to remove that strong association so you can correlate longer surgery alone. This is known as logistic regression analysis. 

Operative duration as an independent risk factor for postoperative complications in single-level
lumbar fusion: an analysis of 4588 surgical cases.

“...multivariate risk-adjusted regression models demonstrated that
increasing operative time was associated with step-wise
increase in risk for overall complications (odds ratio [OR], 2.09-5.73),
medical complications (OR, 2.18-6.21),
surgical complications (OR, 1.65-2.90),
superficial surgical site infection (OR, 2.65-3.97), and
postoperative transfusions (OR, 3.25-12.19).
Operative duration of 5 hours or more was also associated with
increased risk of
reoperation (OR, 2.17),
organ/space surgical site infection (OR, 9.72),
sepsis/septic shock (OR, 4.41),
wound dehiscence (OR, 10.98), and
deep vein thrombosis (OR, 17.22).”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24365901

General surgical operative duration is associated with increased risk-adjusted infectious
complication rates and length of hospital stay.

“...Multivariable regression adjusted for 38 patient risk variables...
unadjusted infectious complication rates increased linearly with operative duration
at a rate of close to 2.5% per half hour (...p < 0.001).
After adjustment, infectious complication risk increased...
almost doubling at [greater than 2 hours versus less than 1 hour]
(odds ratio = 1.92; 95% CI, 1.82 to 2.03; p < 0.001).”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20123333

How slow is too slow? Correlation of operative time to complications:
an analysis from the Tennessee Surgical Quality Collaborative.

“104,632 general and vascular cases..."Long" cases had increased rates of
[UTI, SSI, sepsis, prolonged intubation, and pneumonia]
and also deep venous thrombosis, deep incisional infection, and wound disruption...
The highest marginal time risk was for sepsis,
occurring 16.6 times per additional hour of operative time over standard.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25728140

Surgical duration and risk of venous thromboembolism.

“Retrospective...the longest procedures experienced a
1.27-fold (95% CI, 1.21-1.34; adjusted risk difference [ARD], 0.23%)
increase in the odds of developing a VTE...
The robustness of these results was substantiated with several
sensitivity analyses attempting to minimize the effect of
outliers, concurrent complications, procedural differences, and unmeasured confounding variables.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25472485

Creating water from fog in the desert

They use biochar (carbon) to store the water because
1) it holds water like a sponge
2) it allows growth of helpful microorganisms
3) stores and releases nutrients


At 0:42 - a single net 13 feet log and 33 feet high can colect 60 gallons a day.

UFO hydrofoil sailboat

https://youtu.be/xPSxoot4H2U

A hydrofoil day-sailer, designed by the guy who designed the Laser. It looks very fast, and a little unnerving to sail when it falls backwards towards the wind when coming down off the hydrofoil.

Airbus and Boeing congratulate each other

https://youtu.be/xWaTjYpczKQ

https://youtu.be/5j3ob0CfH9I

How "night sight" works.

https://youtu.be/iDn5HXMQNzE

This hints at the incredible and fast processing of multiple images in short succession to get one higher resolution image.

This video raises some interesting questions. How does water get up to the top of a tree?

"evaporation creates a negative water vapor pressure in the surrounding cells of the leaf...water is pulled into the leaf from the vascular tissue, the xylem, to replace the water that has transpired from the leaf. This pulling of water...will extend all the way down...into the xylem of the roots due to the cohesive forces holding together the water molecules along the sides of the xylem tubing...The loss of water from a leaf (negative water pressure, or a vacuum) is comparable to placing suction to the end of a straw. If the vacuum or suction thus created is great enough, water will rise up through the straw. If you had a very large diameter straw, you would need more suction to lift the water. Likewise, if you had a very narrow straw, less suction would be required. This correlation occurs as a result of the cohesive nature of water along the sides of the straw (the sides of the xylem). Because of the narrow diameter of the xylem tubing, the degree of water tension, (vacuum) required to drive water up through the xylem can be easily attained through normal transpiration rates.

"The xylem is also composed of elongated cells. Once the cells are formed, they die. But the cell walls still remain intact, and serve as an excellent pipeline to transport water from the roots to the leaves...All xylem cells that carry water are dead, so they act as a pipe. Xylem tissue is found in all growth rings (wood) of the tree. Not all tree species have the same number of annual growth rings that are active in the movement of water and mineral nutrients. For example, conifer trees and some hardwood species may have several growth rings that are active conductors, whereas in other species, such as the oaks, only the current years' growth ring is functional...It's amazing that a 200 year-old living oak tree can survive and grow using only the support of a very thin layer of tissue beneath the bark. The rest of the 199 growth rings are mostly inactive. 
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-large-trees-such-a/?redirect=1

4:29 Why do trees transport so much water if they only use 5% of what they transport? 
The leaves have to have openings to let CO2 in, which also allows water to escape by evaporation, and leaves have to remain moist to transport nutrients and sugars, so the price they pay for survival is to transpire huge amounts of water they never use. 
"To make sugars, plants must absorb CO2 from the atmosphere through small pores in their leaves called stomata. However, when stomata open, water is lost to the atmosphere at a prolific rate relative to the small amount of CO2 absorbed; across plant species an average of 400 water molecules are lost for each CO2 molecule gained. The balance between transpiration and photosynthesis forms an essential compromise in the existence of plants; stomata must remain open to build sugars but risk dehydration in the process...The amount of water lost via transpiration can be incredibly high; a single irrigated corn plant growing in Kansas can use 200 L of water during a typical summer, while some large rainforest trees can use nearly 1200 L of water in a single day!"
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/water-uptake-and-transport-in-vascular-plants-103016037

 Why does an air pocket not kill the tree?
"Water moving through plants is considered meta-stable because at a certain point the water column breaks when tension becomes excessive — a phenomenon referred to as cavitation. After cavitation occurs, a gas bubble (i.e., embolism) can form and fill the conduit, effectively blocking water movement. Both sub-zero temperatures and drought can cause embolisms...An air seed creates a void in the water...Failure to re-establish flow in embolized conduits reduces hydraulic capacity, limits photosynthesis, and results in plant death in extreme cases. Plants can cope with emboli by diverting water around blockages via pits connecting adjacent functional conduits, and by growing new xylem to replace lost hydraulic capacity. Some plants possess the ability to repair breaks in the water columns...Brodersen et al. (2010) recently visualized and quantified the refilling process in live grapevines using...a type of CAT scan...Successful vessel refilling was dependent on water influx from living cells surrounding the xylem conduits, where individual water droplets expanded over time, filled vessels, and forced the dissolution of entrapped gas.
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/water-uptake-and-transport-in-vascular-plants-103016037

Tesla advantages that make you crave owning a Tesla

Tesla
-autopilot with auto-follow, even resumes after braking to a stop, smoothly.
-autopilot reduces the stress of driving
-autopilot wakes you up if sleepy
-autopilot engages evasive maneuvers if a crash is imminent, even when autopilot is not on.
-will soon be able to stop at red lights on own.
-self-parking
-over-the-air software updates remotely and automatically
-keyless entry and startup
-auto summon feature
-auto-raising suspension system, by location
-traction control
-map always updated showing current charging stations within range
-shows you how full the nearest charging station is.
-precise control - no lag
-smooth quiet ride, especially with the 19-inch tires.
-unmatched safety profile
-designed from the ground up as an electric vehicle
-a whole bunch of Easter eggs

Also, minimal problems compared to other cars.

"...about 5 -7% battery degradation."
"...As for the drive units, they are warrantied for infinite miles or 8 years. The earlier designed units had steel ball bearings on the rotor shafts, that caused come milling noise, due to microscopic pitting. They came up with a new design using ceramic bearings and the drive units (motor, invertor, gear reduction box) are designed to last a million miles."
"...Unlike most auto companies, Tesla reduces its parts costs as its volumes increase and their own costs go down. For example the center CPU/17" HD display used to be $4,000 and is now $1,200."
"I have 93,000 on my 2015 85D model S, Other than a set of new tires, it has not required anything. It has lost around 3% battery life."
https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/what-happens-when-tesla-reaches-100000-miles-150000-miles

Faulty solar panels

https://youtu.be/10Gnf-wvF7A

It's hard to tell if solar panels are any good, without independent testing, at 2:30. At 2:00 she says that 5000 models of solar panels lost their accreditation. I had to replay it to see if I misheard that number! At 11:22 he says that over 2 million holes have solar installed.

At 5:34 they show the fires that can start from the inverter or a water-damaged cutoff switch.

Zoox Could Beat Uber into a self driving future

https://youtu.be/OjDLwnTyybo

At 7:41 he summarizes why there are 3 detection systems:

Cameras are really good at distinguishing what's out there.

Radar is good at seeing how far away things are.

Lidar is good at telling where things are in 3D at high resolution.

Solving the planet's plastic problem.

https://youtu.be/sjOPVnCTBTY

Polyethylene depolymerization under microwave heat allows "up cycling" of colored polyethylene back to clear plastic.

https://youtu.be/US65qTsjpFI

Enzymatic breakdown of plastic - from what was originally a bacterial mutation to a more powerful enzyme by mistake/serendipity in the lab

https://youtu.be/ergwipqLwqY

This video describes plant-based replacements for plastic.

Why Amazon Is Gobbling Up Failed Malls

https://youtu.be/k53IDbtP-58

I walked around a large successful mall near home yesterday, and was shocked how many stores had closed. Clearly, online shopping is stealing business from brick-and-mortar retailers.

It seems like such a natural evolution to transition malls into Amazon warehouses, and this video explains why. An Amazon warehouse is best positioned where there's a lot of space, near a lot of major roads and near large populations, which is exactly where shopping make are.

Bombardier Beetles Squirt Boiling Anal Chemicals to Make Frogs Vomit

https://youtu.be/WKEu90Zsh4A

Ewww. The frog regurgitates it 88 minutes later, and it survives.

https://youtu.be/54h1I9ykq8k

Ideologically diverse 'Seattle is Dying' panel agrees city's actions not working

"Mackay said that for the cost of putting a person in jail for three months or in Harborview for three days, a homeless person can be housed in supportive housing for a year.

"Matthai noticed a sharp uptick in crime in her neighborhood after the city put in the Licton Springs low-barrier encampment in 2017... Seattle Police Department to research the data and found that crime in a two-block radius increased over 100 percent in just a little over a year.

"two-thirds of the homeless people who are contacted by the city’s Navigation Team refuse services...They refuse services, she said, because they know they are ineligible for many places of treatment for reasons such as having a criminal history, using drugs, wanting to keep a pet with them, or wanting to stay with a partner...“The vast majority of unsheltered, chronically homeless people do want help … they’ve sort of learned that [shelter] is not going to pan out, that it hasn’t been feasible,” she said. “So we need to make more options that would be more accessible to people so that they can learn to identify an actual meaningful offer of service.”

https://mynorthwest.com/1394683/wpc-seattle-is-dying-panel/

The panel was convened to address issues raised by this journalist's special report:

https://youtu.be/bpAi70WWBlw

Nerding out over recovering sound from an object's movement.

https://youtu.be/eUzB0L0mSCI

I remember hearing of a spy technique to recover speech in a room from outside the building by recording vibrations in the window.

This video goes to great lengths to show how difficult it is to recover sound from the movement of an object displaced by the sound waves.

At 1:59 he describes the perfect type of object to recover sound from - something very dampened, and very light, like a potato chip bag. So it moves in response to sound, but stops moving right away afterward.

At the very end is a better optimized recording of speech that is nontheless very muffled.

It works a little better with laser light - there's an audio "spy" recording at the end of this video. 

https://youtu.be/1zGU_30l6eU

Music and the brain

https://youtu.be/HRE624795zU

How music affects your brain. Near the end, he shows how improvising and creating something new requires shutting down the control-repression frontal cortex, and "letting go." The scientist explains this is a crucial element of problem-solving that makes us human. So, enjoy being totally human when you create music.