Scientist develops game-changing new compound that solves major issue with plastics: 'People told me I was wasting my time'

Sometimes you just have to ignore the voices that tell you no, or that you are wasting your time. 

Enter a professor at Boise state who had never worked with polymers before, but who decided that plastic waste was a problem he could help with in some way. 

So over the course of several years, he self taught about polymers and their reactions. 

And he came up with an engineered form of a polymer that's stable under most conditions, but can be easily broken down into its base elements for re-use. 

Sure, it's nowhere close to be a commercial product, but it could (and probably will) be at some point. 

It's pretty cool what a little ingenuity and some commitment can do. 

https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/closed-loop-recycling-plastic-waste-sustainable/

Transparent solar windows hit Chinese homes — Energy everywhere you see

This is pretty cool. A thin, clear coating is placed on a window to collect solar radiation. This radiation is then transferred to photovoltaic cells on the edge of the window. 

And … voila. Energy is easily stored and can be used in the building that has the windows. 

https://www.ecoportal.net/en/transparent-solar-windows-chinese-homes/13594/

Japan to Beam Energy Down to Earth From Space in First Real Test of Orbital Power Transmission

While no launch date has been announced, the plan is still to launch a washing machine sized object into space. This device will collect the suns rays and then beam the energy that is collected down to an earth station using microwaves.  Then, this microwave energy will be used to provide power, like a power station. 

So it quite literally is beaming energy from space. Something Arthur C Clarke had hypothesized about more than 50 years ago. 

How cool!

https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/10/japan-to-beam-energy-down-to-earth-from-space-in-first-real-test-of-orbital-power-transmission/

Watch "What Happened to Walt Disney’s Weird Cinema Lens?" on YouTube

This is a well thought out story about the CinemaScope lens - the same one that Walt Disney used while filming 20,000 leagues under the sea. 

Your host not only tells the story, he got his hands on a lens, and was able to test it out … and in short it was amazing!

This story covers cinematic history in a fun way. It's worth 15 minutes of your time. 

https://youtu.be/Vg0ftclnwzI?si=iVGGyhdeU5k8T8Co

Wireless EV Charging Inches Closer as Breakthroughs Emerge - Autoblog

Here's an article about how different companies are taking on the idea of wireless ev charging - and how they're having great success in their laboratory environments. 

Now the real test will come in deploying it to the real world and ensuring cars manage to connect to them "right" or if somehow the devices can adjust to the receiver. 

But it is another cool leap forward. 

Imagine charging without having to plug in, in under 20 minutes. 

https://www.autoblog.com/news/wireless-ev-charging-inches-closer-as-breakthroughs-emerge

Soarin’ Round 2

I had a weird notion to restart a quest to top the soarin' game again 

So I started writing some code. And this time, I decided to capture the questions and answers in a database and use that to help up the percentage of correct answers. 

The game is "quirky" in the way it works, and there is some weird spacing that happens on some questions, but not others. 

So I had to write some additional functions to account for that. 

And the early results are good. It didn't take me long to get to a million and a half points. 

But with the top being at 13.6 million, it'll take some time to catch up; and no telling if that person will start playing as I catch up. 

well there's that

Maybe its just me, but calling it the "free state of Florida" is funny.  Florida was most definitely a slave state in the antebellum period.  

And while its nice that the gub-nor setup a commission (with our taxpayer dollars) to honor America's history, the results are kind of what you'd expect.  A lot of "history" distilled down to a sentence or two, with no hint of context, or any details.  And its very whitewashed.

For example, they note that Chief Osceola was the Indian chief known for his tactics in the second Seminole war, as he tried to protect his land; he was captured by trickery.  But they of course note the western name he was born with, and give no hint that the tribes were being brutally attacked and driven into reservations, so that settlers could move in ... And its done that way intentionally,

How about if we embrace actual history and move on?