Thursday, January 22, 2026

Dutch students unveil an electric car you can diagnose and repair yourself | Euronews

This is cool. The students found a simple way to interface with an electric car via USB, in order to get diagnostic information about what's going on, and provide a visual for how to repair what might be wrong. 

Car companies are unlikely to implement something like this. But I like the idea, and surely there will be some after market solutions in the future. 

A New York startup says it can already make gasoline from air on a rooftop, and it demonstrated the process in Manhattan with a machine about the size of a refrigerator

Hmmm. Is this idea BS, or is there something to it?

The idea is that a startup who has created a machine which captures carbon from the air, and then they cause a chemical reaction with water to produce a carbon-hydrogen bond. The result is a liquid, which they are saying is gasoline that can be used in a typical engine. 

Gasoline is, in fact, a carbon-hydrogen bond, which averages around C8H18. So it's not complete hokum. 

It just doesn't feel quite right to be able to create gasoline from the air in such a simple way, on a rooftop in Manhattan. 

But who knows? Maybe there's something to this.  


Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Original Star Wars Trilogy Coming to Galaxy's Edge

At the end of last year, Disney announced that "The Rise of The Resistance" attraction at Disneyland would be closing January for a significant refurbishment. It's a fairly new ride, so this was surprising. But it's fairly technical, so maybe not. 

And then, early in the year, they announced a sort of re-theming of the Star Wars themed land in Disneyland (only). 

A little context: Disney created an immersive themed land called Batuu (as a planet in the Star Wars universe, which includes a storyline as to how it fits into the lore). It has shops, and things going on, and a couple of rides. 

The original intent was create different lands, that fit into different time periods, in Disneyland and Disney world. But they ultimately decided to make them pretty much exact duplicates…

One of the key problems was that Disney was confusing the lore and timeline and it became messy. The land was supposed to fit in somewhere in the timeline near episode 7, but they include elements from the original trilogy, and even some from the prequel. And they mix up what things might happen in these timelines. 

So the change they announced was that they're going to try and break up the area in Disneyland into different time periods, as a means to rectify this. They have said the storyline of the "Rise" attraction will remain the same, but I have heard some rumors that it may change when it re-opens.but, we'll have to wait and see. 

Disney world will remain the mish-mash it is for now. I suppose while they figure out whether this works or not. 

Inside's Disney's search for a CEO to replace Bob Iger - Los Angeles Times

The search for a CEO successor at the Walt disney company is ongoing. 

Bob Igers contract runs through the end of 2026, so the clock is definitely ticking. And the goal, from the company's standpoint, is to get it right this time (and avoid the cluster that was the 2020 appointment of Bob Chapek).

So the company now has hired some outside help to run the search, and has a committee to oversee the process. 

Which all sounds nice, and it reportedly down to four candidates, but time is definitely an issue if you want to make it a smooth transition. 

We'll see how it goes….