fun facts
Drone footage of an erupting volcano.
“Drone pilot Sigurður Þór Helgason took astonishing video of the crater collapse at the eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula.” ~ learn more
fun facts
When did people stop being drunk all the time?
“When estimating consumption from the amount of beer provided to soldiers, convicts, and workers or reconstructing consumption from tax revenues on beer we see that the average person consumed about a liter of beer a day, this is around four […]
staying thirsty
Why is desalination so difficult?
“An overview of seawater desalination: removing salt to make drinkable water from the ocean.” This is a great video from the YouTube channel Practical Engineering. ~ learn more
on the blockchain
Ripple’s partial win against the SEC.
I have not been closely following this case and also am not an attorney, so it’s surprising to me that the problem was sales to professional investors rather than consumers. But there’s some logic buried within. “Institutional sales of the […]
big ideas
Innovative small wind turbines.
“Our approach to sustainable energy is creating sleek, innovative, efficient, and aesthetic turbines, with the goal of making them a centerpiece of a worldwide renewable energy movement.” ~ learn more
big ideas
White paint to help cool a hot planet.
A professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University has created the whitest paint on record. “The paint’s properties are almost superheroic. It can make surfaces as much as eight degrees Fahrenheit cooler than ambient air temperatures at midday, and up […]
under the microscope
Computer chip with built-in human brain tissue.
“Last year, Monash University scientists created the “DishBrain” – a semi-biological computer chip with some 800,000 human and mouse brain cells lab-grown into its electrodes. Demonstrating something like sentience, it learned to play Pong within five minutes.” ~ learn more
to your health
Meet the psychedelic boom’s first responders.
“With more tripping will come more psychic terror. A new movement of volunteers will guide you through your brain melt.” ~ learn more
better doing
You suck at Excel, with Joel Spolsky.
This private presentation to an audience of engineers is now available on Youtube and its great. Joel was a program manager on the Excel team in the early ‘90s. “The way you are using Excel causes errors, creates incomprehensible spaghetti […]
better doing
Excellence is a habit, but so is failure.
“We often hear that making small incremental improvements every day can lead to great things. … But there’s another side to this story that we don’t discuss as often: how incremental neglect and small missteps can accumulate and lead to […]