doodlebugging

Congratulations to those who have worked so hard to make this happen. I wish you continued success. It is great that they have realized both mission targets on their second flight attempt.

I think the more options there are for access to space, the more likely we are as a species to launch useful payloads that will help us understand how we fit in and how we can better manage our own situation. It is disconcerting to see the night sky fill with constellations of satellites but there is hope that they will be used for productive purposes.

A better target would be the oil and gas industry. When you look at this diamond situation it looks like in approximately one generation, demand for natural diamonds dropped low enough that the effort to mine new diamonds became uneconomical.

This happened because the ease of obtaining lab-grown diamonds that could be much higher quality, made lab-grown diamonds more attractive because buyers, who may already have been squeezed by other unfavorable economic realities found no reason to purchase natural diamonds at a higher price point.

If we could see a shift like that in energy source preference from one generation then perhaps we could destroy the incentive to produce more oil and gas or make it so uneconomical for use a motor vehicle fuel that it became a specialty product that was produced only to supply a niche product line.

We have a similar opportunity now with electric vehicles, solar panels, battery storage, etc that we can make a large dent in the volume of crude oil and natural gas required to power our economies. Developing nations have an advantage in a way because they have less legacy infrastructure to support that requires oil and gas. They can adopt the new big thing and just roll with that saving their citizens lots of money and environmental consequences associated with use of hydrocarbons fuels.

More than 35 years in the oil and gas industry. This is what I learned.

We should invest in developing nations to bring them up to speed with best available technologies. If we waste too much time we will see continents like Africa with 56 (?) nations become a flash-point for the next round of resource wars (oil and gas conflicts) that will be pushed on them by foreign operators attempting to make as much of the O&G money as possible before the world gets the message and abandons their destructive products permanently. We are already seeing some of this today. Millions of lives are in the crossfire. We have an opportunity to make a difference and we should take it. Old and young in developed nations should adopt next-gen tech ASAP so that kill these dino-corps before they kill too many more of us.

I agree with other posters that kids need to learn critical thinking skills at an early age. I hope we don't see Texas educators trying to take the opposite side of the coin and mandating AI teachers at all (or any) levels just to try to own some more libs in NYC. This state has enough problems.

With less legacy infrastructure to connect to and to support, solar makes sense in developing markets, especially as prices continue to decrease.

This leaves the oil and gas industry with a clear disadvantage and begins to tie their survival to maintenance of local advantages. That means they are incentivized to spend lots of money to preserve the status quo where they could be spending that money to pivot to a better world for all. As the market for their product condenses to a few developed nations with compliant leaders they will soak users even more so that profits can be maintained while they fund propaganda campaigns to improve their public image.

All subsidies currently designated for energy infrastructure should be focused on sustainable sources of energy and any monies currently dispersed to the oil and gas industry should be clawed back so that the damages already done and in progress can be partly remediated by the ones who caused it.

Someone should've been more thorough when they prepped this for release.

I read all of that text. When I got to the part about their mouthwash (rinse) I found xylitol hyped as part of the disinfection regime. Xylitol was just tagged, again, in the literature as a source of cardiac issues and notes were that it was a common ingredient in chewing gum and mouthwash. The risks have been known for several years as documented here [0]. A recent article is this one [1]

After reading all of this I feel like Dyson should consider modifying the composition of their mouthwash to reduce the risk of users ingesting xylitol during or after this process. There are other synthetic sweeteners, each with its own set of problems but xylitol was commonly employed because it had antibacterial effects on bacteria that are known to cause gingivitis. Its use in chewing gum and in some foods probably caused most of the exposure events for people looking at healthier options for common items. Most people don't swallow mouthwash or toothpaste but there will always be some remaining in the mouth that is flushed into the system after brushing.

I checked their "Caveats and Sources" section at the end of the article. If you notice, there are 10 items in that list. When you read the article, there are only 8 tags linking to the Caveat list. Numbers 9 and 10, both related to MyDyson app (9) and claims associated with Dyson mouthwash and how the comparison was made (10) are not found in the text.

I find the whole device intriguing. Anything to simplify the tooth maintenance process and improve it works for me. I like that they attacked the tooth gap issue in an effort to minimize the need for mechanical flossing. I'm not sold on cameras on a toothbrush but if it works, I could be though I do not want a device like this to be connected to any other device that could have access to outside networks. It all needs to work in a self-contained system at point-of-use with data leakage, ever. Dyson doesn't need to learn to improve their devices by aggregating my teeth-brushing activity with that from millions (or thousands, or hundreds if it ever happens) of users. Pay people to participate. Use that data.

[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38842092/

[1] https://www.escardio.org/news/press/press-releases/xylitol-m...

Yep. If we're dependent on SF tech-bros to build useful robots we're already screwed. The Chinese robots can literally run circles around anything I've seen come out of the US. Maybe ours are not public. Don't count on that because in SV if you have an idea that might work, like this one, you're publicizing it if only to slurp up VC money before your company fails.

Private actors are inevitably part of groups. Those groups need to hold the individual members accountable. That obviously doesn't work any more in SV among wealth-obsessed tech-bros. It still works in other parts of the economy though.

Evidently not in that industry.

That video at the refrigerator suggest that you might be able to get Nori to pose as you described as he passes and raise a Heineken in the other hand.

Based on the video evidence with the eyes widening down the page I suspect that this robot can do that for you. I think if it rotated that wrist-cam around to be on top that it can even simulate flipping them off with the other hand. Legendary!

We can fix this by holding each other accountable. Peer pressure and community sanctions of bad actors will result in the changes we need.

Proctologists agree on this one thing that smart glasses can never conceal.

I noticed the linked blog mentions birds and bats. I thought bat chirps required higher sample rates than the microphones normally use. I have an Audiomoth and to set it up for bats you need to use the highest sample rate for proper ID.

I like this project. I have been using security cams around my place to keep track of animals meandering across the property. It's the best use for an outdoor solar-powered webcam if you ask me. You can get a feel for which animal to expect based on time of day or other characteristics. You also recognize those who regularly visit. I have a one-eyed raccoon that has been showing up for almost two years now. It's a female and the last time she visited the monitored fountain she had 5 rambunctious raccoonlets.

I agree with your summary. Greed has won out over everything else.

Unusual. Nice concept. I ran the demo. How does it select the vehicle used in the demo? Is that something that I can change? Overall I ran it on my old workstation desktop under LibreWolf with no issues.

Money does fix those problems.

The problem is that the money that could be used is being applied to the wrong problem or is being siphoned off by those whose only goal is accumulation of money since that accumulation might guarantee more power in the process of selecting how to direct the next cash infusion, which they also hope to accumulate.

I have thought about this and I have to disagree since the figure of the man is centered between the two leopards and is scaled similarly to them. I feel like the work here was incomplete. Perhaps all the wives followed them to the site, were appalled when they stormed inside, and drug their husbands home by the ears while banishing them from the site forever. Or, maybe a stronger rival group they were looking to join in order to strengthen their community sent members to a gathering of their clans. During the rival group's visit, there was a big show-and-tell session where stories were told and libations passed around for all to enjoy before the closing presentation unveiled all the cat and weenie stuff. Upon being optically blessed with the wondrousness of the new group, those new guys returned to their villages and described what they had seen. After reporting back to other members of their group it was unanimously agreed that those guys were perverts and no one wanted to associate with them.

A few years later, before the cat/pecker group could complete their service yourself station, the stronger group herded them out of the area forcing them on the road to new lands, new experiences and opportunities for personal growth - of the whole body instead of just parts.

And now you know why I am not much of an archaeologist. I get a little tired of every polished rock being something someone worshiped though it looks like for these people that probably fits.

I was trying to say that with the anthropological and archaeological data that we have available right now the best we can do is say that they pre-date the groups that are peopling the region today whose histories we understand. It is possible that some of those groups resident today share ancestry with those who built the sites but it is also possible that the original builder groups moved on due to environmental, societal, or other pressures we are not currently able to document.

Maybe the ones who built this site went to the Spanish/French border and are the ancestors of the Basques, who have a unique language. I'm not the guy to answer that question.

If I wanted to identify this group's descendants among modern people I would look for people who have a deep connection to cats like the ones depicted in their monuments.

And now you know why I am not much of an archaeologist. I get a little tired of every polished rock being something someone worshiped though it looks like for these people that probably fits.

If they do I hope they leave Deep Elum alone. Some nice venues there for local, regional, and much more well-known bands. Also a few good restaurants in the area.

If you find yourself weak and near death out in the wilderness but in a situation where you know there is hope for rescue and you must try to avoid being eaten by the wild animals there is one thing to remember about how wild animals exploit vulnerabilities.

The first scavengers or predators on the scene will evaluate your condition and attack the softer parts of your body. That includes your anus and genital area, your stomach/gut area, your eyes and neck. It is in your best interest to cover those areas as best as possible. Those animals will try to create injuries that are serious enough that you will not survive so they go for the soft parts.

Buzzards are known to start at the anus/genital area and move into the gut area. when they are cleaning a carcass. Same with larger prey animals. Use your resources and energy to protect the soft parts and you will improve your chances of survival. Duck and cover by assuming a fetal position can work if you can maneuver your backside into a sheltered position where it is less accessible. Cover your ass in other words. When fighting back you should remain facing the threat with your rear covered.

After looking at the 3D relief of the guy with his pecker in his hand I feel like this was carved in the period immediately preceding the abandonment of the site in pre-history. I base that on the definition of the outlines of the leopards. It appears that initial work had started on giving each of them a 3D view as they are cut in along the margins of the belly and back. Maybe the entire panel would've been a 3D relief had the people been around to complete it.

Something came along and compelled these people to abandon the site or they were killed off by a different group. Very interesting anyway why a group would put so much effort into constructing these sites without the sites being places where they lived. I think I read somewhere that there is no evidence to suggest that anyone ever lived there. They were places where people gathered. I could be wrong though.

I'm not sure I would call that riding. With all the poses I suspect this was some odd-ball cult practice. I'm sure the archaeologist who had to polish that knob on that anthropomorphic figure in that one panel #3 has some good stories. Probably significant that its the smoothest part of that figure.

The old joke about what they call a chicken fucker in Oklahoma comes to mind here except I think those pre-Turks were cavorting with leopards.

For the author, I really like the way it turned out. Your choice of the larger windows does change the game for a space like that. You gained useful space on your property that can be reconfigured later if conditions change.

I did notice that you mentioned soffit vents. From the photos I am having a hard time picturing how those vents were installed on that shed since they are designed to allow airflow from the soffit to the ridge. Knowing that you had a ridge vent cut in it makes it likely to me that you used baffles to allow the airflow between soffit and ridge and then insulated between the baffles and the interior space. I don't see that in the photos though so I apologize if this makes no sense.

I like the way that you finished it all out. It looks very functional. I have often considered something similar for our property but have been tied up in so many other projects that it never seems to happen.

Good job for having a plan and making it happen.

True. Depending on how heavily they compressed it to fit between those studs it will likely be less than R13. No matter whether you use fiberglass or rockwool, you should make sure you buy insulation sized to the depth of the cavity it will insulate. Then use an insulation knife to cut in for obstacles within the cavities.

It's only water. It'll wash off.

I read the article looking for any mention of how they classified the recorded events as bomb blasts versus impulses from seismic surveying for oil and gas. That region has been very active since at least 2015 with seismic surveys and in 2023, the period covered by the article there were several crews operating.

I know that seismic survey acquisition should be easily identifiable because those shots occur at precise intervals during the survey and continue all day long with no breaks unless there is an equipment failure or other reason to shut down. A 10 second interval would be one common example.

The damages from activities like this are terrible. Using explosives as a seismic sources was banned in the late 1970's I think due to harms done to marine mammals and organisms and the environment in general. Since then, airguns firing compressed air have been the dominant marine seismic source. Depending on the bandwidth of the bubble created and the volume of the airgun array they can also be extremely destructive to marine mammals like whales and porpoises so crews employ biologists as whale watchers in those areas where activity can be expected so that the effects on whales can be minimized.

It is still a serious issue in offshore exploration though.

Bomb fishing is something I would expect to hear about from some redneck coon-ass from Lousyana. I guess that people everywhere figured out how to stun fish to improve catch quantities and some use that as the primary method now. Maybe if deeper waters weren't fished out they could just go further offshore. Once you have foreign fleets dragging up everything in their paths then the only fish left are around the reefs.

Sounds like some of Trump's people are double-dipping Uncle Sam and the Ayatollah.

>If we “use nature as a guide to understand how that happens naturally,” she says, “then we can probably find ways to put it into human cells.”

Oh boy! Please hurry up with this. I want brains in all my appendages so I can adapt in real time to all the environmental conditions that I am encountering moment to moment.

Test it first though, maybe on a rat or a planarian. Your choice.

EDIT: I know this is great research. Understanding how evolution has allowed other species to adapt to their environments and overcome conditions that would be dangerous helps us assemble the pieces of the puzzle of the origin of life. I just don't think that the first thing we should be considering when we find something that makes an organism unique is the question of how we can insert genetic change into the human genome. If humans had ever needed it the mutation would already be present through natural selection.

If the end game is always to modify the human genome then there is no reason to do the research on other organisms.

Set up the conditions with humans and run a few generations through. The ones who make it likely have some genetic difference that predisposes them to winning that part of life. No need to rush things. Do it once, do it right.

I posted what I posted because, as I'm sure you are smart enough to understand, tools like this can be used for good purposes and for evil purposes. Going down this road only greases the skids for those who already have an evil use case in mind and zero moral qualms about employing it to serve their purposes no matter how much harm it causes.

We can all see how it can be used for good but we should never blind ourselves to the reality that it will also be used for evil without firm guardrails and tight controls.

It's probably best in the current environment if you refrain from making any more of the "think of the children" type of arguments. We all understand where that leads.

I'm not interested in seeing this technology progress any further. The ability to read someone's inner, unspoken thoughts is too easy to weaponize against them.

I wonder whether a subject could poison the process by consciously thinking about something unrelated in the same way that public speakers used to get past stage-fright. As you look out across the audience picture something funny, like your boss in a pink tutu.