Europe goes green at desperate speed — France is creating WindTrees growing 36 artificial leaves

Now here's a clever and innovative idea for power production. Instead of a solar array or a wind turbine, a European group has invented a wind tree. It's a system that uses 36 mini turbines in branches of what look like a tree. 

That is a nice leap forward for economical and environmentally friendly means of creating energy that can be used on a local scale. 

https://www.ecoportal.net/en/europe-goes-green-windtree-home/14419/

NASA’s TESS Spacecraft Triples Size of Pleiades Star Cluster - NASA Science

Utterly fascinating.

One of the key things that I took away is that these were known as "3 stars" at some point. Then were known as 3 clusters of stars. And now they have been identified as over 1,000 stars making up this object!

And that's culled from the nearly 10,000 that are near enough by the clusters to have been possibly part of it. 

10,000 stars we can see in one location! That just boggles the mind.  

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/tess/nasas-tess-spacecraft-triples-size-of-pleiades-star-cluster/

November: AI and 5G unite bringing sports fans closer to the action than ever before | News and features | University of Bristol

The problem they identified was that at football matches, where many people converge, there is a strain on the cellular network and most fans experience latency. 

So they employed an AI solution - and for the record, this seems like an appropriate use of the technology - to best manage the network. 

In their testing, fans were able to get real time match data and stream video without buffering. And media outlets were able to communicate out information. 

It's actually pretty cool. 

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/november/new-technology-for-stadiums.html

Living cement: scientists turn bacteria-infused cement into energy-storing supercapacitors

In short, a group of Danish researchers found a way to infuse bacteria into cement, so that the bacteria can be "fed" electricity and that can be stored in the cement kind of like a battery. 

The applications would be that anything made of cement - your home, a roadway, whatever - could store energy at a low cost. And then that energy could be extracted and used. 

And all this without having to extract metals from the earth. 

https://bce.au.dk/en/currently/news/show/artikel/living-cement-scientists-turn-bacteria-infused-cement-into-energy-storing-supercapacitors

Disneyland's new plan to get everyone off their phones

This story mildly amused me. Disney wants people's heads out of their phones so they can interact with loved ones who are with them, and enjoy the moment. 

And of course the plan is to change nothing about how technology must be used. But rather to try and employ *more technology* 

Their aim is to make the use of whichever brand of connected glasses so you can look up. While watching something else and not paying any attention to those around you. 

But you can look like you are!

Such weird times we live in. 

https://www.sfgate.com/disneyland/article/disneyland-new-plan-get-everyone-off-phones-21212611.php

Final Skating penguins

 Ultimately, after a few hours (or so) of cutting and gluing, I was done. And they look pretty good!

I fixed a few parts that broke, but otherwise it was just a matter of re-covering them.  

Sometime later, I may update them in a more detailed way. 

Stay tuned.

Skating Penguins

A few years ago, I worked on some skating penguins. You can read about my DIY approach here:

https://bitchindave.blogspot.com/2019/01/diy-penguin-decorations.html

I pulled them out for this holiday season and … well … they looked pretty ratty. 

My papier maiche had completely worn off. They looked terrible. 

I decided they needed an upgrade. I had a few ideas, and saw some videos that had some creative ideas. 

But, I pulled these guys out just after Halloween, and updating them with more sophistication was going to take time. 

So I came up with a very simple plan B. Something I could make work in a short amount of time and which would cost very little. 

I went to Walmart and bought 3 plastic table covers, one each of orange, white, and black. And I purchased some wood glue because it should work with the plastic. 

And I set about cleaning these guys and recovering them. 

I will also note that originally I had 4 penguins. There was another one that turned out bigger than I had planned and he looked like he was slipping on the ice. His arms stuck out far … and after a couple of uses, he started to really deteriorate and I had no good place to store him. 

So I sadly dismantled that one and moved on having just 3. I potentially could re-make him later. But for now, I’m happy with these.