This is crazy, cool, and a little terrifying.
Sunday, October 13, 2024
The early days of gas cars
We talk about how there's no infrastructure for electric car charging and that's a sort of deal breaker in terms of convenience.
But (a) for most people, the ability to charge at home and perhaps somewhere like work is enough to meet everyday use. The "mental model" of having to get gas and worry about charging shouldn't be a consideration. The infrastructure as it exists today should be enough for general usage.
And then (b) is this article about how early cars were either electric(!) or were powered by kerosene that you purchased at a store and taken out in an early version of a jerrican. (Fun side note: the word Jerri is slang for German, as the Germans invented the current design of the can during WWII and it was replicated by the allies)
People were fine with that - because they now had the ability to drive somewhere. We have become so car centric, looking for convenience, that we couldn't imagine such a thing.
But note that the story below has a little more subtext - kerosene was inefficient as a fuel source, and the gasoline that was a byproduct of kerosene production was simply discarded. But it was much more efficient as a fuel source, and thus was sold to consumers (a win-win for the refiners because they had no byproducts to dispose of and could make lots more money!)
But it still took rather a long time to develop a method for distribution that is still in use today. It just took time to build a network and people only fairly recently in that history started thinking about much longer trips in their cars.
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Part of the roof came off the Polynesian village
Oops. It's intriguing to me that Disney developed the Epcot building code… and then proceeded to not use it for cost reasons.
https://blogmickey.com/2024/10/photos-high-winds-from-hurricane-milton-peel-off-roof-from-disneys-polynesian-village-resort-buildings/
https://blogmickey.com/2024/10/photos-high-winds-from-hurricane-milton-peel-off-roof-from-disneys-polynesian-village-resort-buildings/
The benefits of organic farming
A group of researchers studied the benefits of organic farming on the soil itself.
After comparing their results, the researchers concluded that soil treated with manure or compost fertilizer stores more carbon than soil treated with chemical fertilizers or no fertilizer.
I realize that with the global population such as it is, organic farming can not feed the world. At least, not yet. But maybe this will prompt companies to look at alternatives to harsh chemicals that can produce similar results.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Woah. A black hole in a lab! Science rules
The notion of reconciling quantum mechanics and relativity has been a dream for some time.
But it looks like some researchers who essentially created a simulated black hole by moving electrons between atoms to see what might happen have stumbled onto something interesting.
That simulation could possibly reconcile the two theorems. They are showing how quantum states react while creating an event horizon that produces light and so it glows. That may be just the right thing to match this all up.
https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-simulated-a-black-hole-in-the-lab-and-then-it-began-to-glow
https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-simulated-a-black-hole-in-the-lab-and-then-it-began-to-glow
Its cool.
Space junk: COLLISIONS ARE NOT A QUESTION OF IF BUT WHEN.
With all the debris that we continue to send into orbit, it's important to keep in mind that this could become a very big problem, very soon.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/space-junk-disaster-inevitable
https://futurism.com/the-byte/space-junk-disaster-inevitable
Toyota and hydrogen fuel rods
What a great idea! Let's make little devices that could be turned into bombs!
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