Here’s another step forward in the development of solar cells. Thin, transparent cells that can cover a surface and still be clear enough to see through is an intriguing use case.
Monday, May 18, 2026
Nasa Beamed 484 Gigabytes From The Moon, And It Could Redefine How Humans Experience Deep Space Forever
I noted on a previous post that nasa was using a laser to send compressed data back to earth. It had less lag than a traditional radio broadcast (as we used in Apollo), and contained way more data in the stream. They were able to broadcast near HD video from the spacecraft.
Here some additional details on how this worked, and what they learned.
Scientists “bottle the sun” with a liquid battery that stores solar energy | ScienceDaily
The intent here is:
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara believe they may have found an answer that avoids the need for massive battery systems or reliance on the electrical grid. Writing in the journal Science, Associate Professor Grace Han and her research team describe a new material capable of absorbing sunlight, storing that energy in chemical bonds, and later releasing it as heat whenever needed. The material is based on a modified organic molecule called pyrimidone and represents a new step forward in Molecular Solar Thermal (MOST) energy storage technology.
Now that’s an advancement in a clean energy storage system.
The DOJ Is Demanding Apple And Google Identify Over 100,000 Users Of This Car App
This can’t end well. The DOJ asking for a list of everyone who downloaded an app sets a dangerous precedent for surveillance. These people may not have done anything wrong, or perhaps downloaded it in error.
And yet their names will appear on a list that will surely lead to enforcement.
World’s largest operating tokamak restarts with 8-meter coils upgrade
Europe and Asia continue to lead in finding alternative fuel sources. Here’s a story about a tokamak that is being tested.
A tokamak is an experimental device that uses powerful magnetic fields to confine a superheated plasma in the shape of a donut (torus). It is the leading design for harnessing nuclear fusion—the process that powers the sun—to create clean, limitless, and on-demand energy on Earth.
California farmer prepares to rip up 9-year-old peach trees worth $12,500/acre after largest buyer collapsed
This is the story of fallout from sweeping changes by this administration. However it’s framed, Delmonte closed a packing plant, laid off workers, and now the effects are being felt by the growers who supplied produce.
And of course, we’ll feel it at the grocery stores when we are unable to get fresh produce.
FAFO indeed.
Saturday, May 16, 2026
Soarin over the USA
In case you missed the memo, the Soarin’ attraction at Epcot made a change this week to temporarily go from “Soarin around the world” to “Soarin over the USA” in honor of our nations 250th anniversary (or as Patrick refers to it: the Semiquincentennial; And yes, his opening bit is cute)
Some kind soul recorded it and put it online. And my honest opinion is that it sucks.
It’s a lot of CGI and things don’t look “right”… plus the things they chose to show aren’t really representative of America. What of our historical places, landmarks that really define the country, our great national parks (and the redwoods maybe?), or a sense of how vast our country is?
It’s just underwhelming. I am disappointed that Disney whiffed on this opportunity. Especially given how good they often are at such things.
You can watch it here:
To be fair, I opted to write some code which reads the question and gives the right answer most of the time, within milliseconds. But it was always fun to see my player on the leaderboard.
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