motd - 12/##/2024
-----------------
12/19/2024 Why dumb TVs should make a comeback:
https://www.makeuseof.com/reasons-why-dumb-tvs-deserve-a-comeback/
@00:42
12/18/2024 C-14 - Diamond nuclear battery:
https://www.livescience.com/technology/engineering/worlds-1st-nuclear-diamond-battery-of-its-kind-could-power-devices-for-1000s-of-years
@23:05
12/18/2024 More about the world's rarest whale:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/03/spade-tooth-rare-whale-new-zealand-scientists-dissect
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-just-dissected-the-worlds-rarest-whale-in-new-zealand-heres-what-they-found-180985678/
"One point of interest was the discovery of small vestigial teeth
in the whale's upper jaw. ... So too was the discovery of nine
stomach chambers in the spade-toothed whale[.]"
@19:17
12/18/2024 Making diamond thin films with scotch tape:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/scotch-tape-create-diamond-film
@18:22
12/18/2024 Fluorinated Graphene:
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-fluorination-strategy-graphene-potential-optoelectronic.html
@18:18
12/18/2024 10-GeV laser-wakefield accelerator:
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/183
@18:16
12/18/2024 The physics of random stacking:
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-physics-random-stacking-perspectives-stability.html
"Imagine a tower of kaplas (identical wooden planks) with each
block slightly out of alignment. As the tower rises, the
misalignment increases until an inevitable breaking point is
reached[.] ... This simple phenomenon ... raises a question of
stability: how high can the blocks be stacked before the
structure collapses?
...
The maximum height of a pile before it collapses is inversely
proportional to the square of the amplitude of the positioning
errors. Thus, small errors allow much greater heights to be
reached, while larger errors lead to rapid collapse."
@11:53
12/18/2024 The Puzzle of Radiation-Resistant Alloys:
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s156
"Refractory high-entropy alloys are materials made from multiple
high-melting-point metals in roughly equal proportions. Those
containing tungsten exhibit minimal changes in mechanical
properties when exposed to continuous radiation and could be used
to shield the crucial components of future nuclear reactors.
...
[R]esearchers found that [a] tungsten alloy's average threshold
displacement energy is much lower than that of any of the
material's constituent pure metals, suggesting that [such]
alloy[s] [are] comparatively prone to defect creation. ...
[T]hese findings suggest that the material's radiation resistance
cannot be explained by its robustness to radiation-induced defect
formation. To fully solve the mystery, scientists will need to
investigate other processes, particularly the ways in which the
created defects diffuse through the alloy."
@11:43
12/18/2024 Metallic Bonding in Close-Packed Structures
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.256401
@11:36
12/17/2024 Fossil from an extinct plant family:
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-mysterious-fossil-family-longer.html
@16:46
12/17/2024 Updated WiFi/Bluetooth for G5 Powermacs:
https://lowendmac.com/2024/low-end-mac-mailbag-add-wifi-4-draft-and-bluetooth-2-1-to-your-powerpc-mac/
@13:46
12/17/2024 Imaginary book exhibition:
https://grolierclub.omeka.net/exhibits/show/imaginary-books
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/none-of-these-books-exist-an-inventive-new-exhibition-asks-what-if-they-did-180985680/
"The books on display are classified into three categories: Lost
books are texts that once existed but were somehow misplaced,
such as Hemingway's [early writings] and Shakespeare's [Love's
Labour's Won]. Unfinished books include volumes that were
abandoned or destroyed, like Plath's Double Exposure or Lord
Byron's memoirs[.]
...
Then there are the books that are fictive, existing only within
other books[, such as] ... the driver's handbook mentioned in The
Phantom Tollbooth; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the
novel of the same name; the book of the Bene Gesserit from Dune;
The Songs of the Jabberwock, which Alice encounters in
Wonderland; and a copy of Nymphs and Their Ways, which Lucy spots
on Mr. Tumnus' shelf in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe."
@11:16
12/17/2024 Saturn's rings might be quite old:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01598-9
"Previous studies estimating [Saturn's] rings' age to be
approximately 100-400 Myr assumed a somewhat efficient accretion
of impactor material ... and a constant mass flux from
micrometeoroid bombardment[]. However, the accretion efficiency
... suggested by our study may imply that the rings' maximum age
could extend into billions of years."
@10:51
12/17/2024 Printable blank expansion card for the 13" Framework laptop:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5029009
https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards/tree/main/Mechanical
@10:46
12/17/2024 Magnetic properties of the quantum Hall effect:
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-current-generated-quantum-hall-effect.html
"The quantum Hall effect, a fundamental effect in quantum
mechanics, not only generates an electric but also a magnetic
current. It arises from the motion of electrons on an orbit
around the nuclei of atoms. This has been demonstrated by the
calculations of a team from Martin Luther University
Halle-Wittenberg[.]"
@10:43
12/17/2024 Polar Bear Alert Hotline in Churchill, Manitoba:
https://www.bookofjoe.com/2024/12/my-entry-24.html
@10:30
12/15/2024 High velocity clouds may only comprise 0.1% of the Milky Way's mass:
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-high-velocity-clouds-comprise-milky.html
@13:46
12/13/2024 Practicing to transport antimatter:
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/antimatter-on-wheels
@13:56
12/13/2024 iPhone port cover:
https://www.macworld.com/article/2512679/how-to-stop-dust-dirt-and-lint-from-getting-into-your-iphone-charging-port.html
@13:52
12/12/2024 What your favorite music format says about you:
https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/12/favorite-music-format-says/
@17:29
12/12/2024 Turn Off Mail Categories in iOS 18.2:
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/ios-disable-apple-mail-categories/
"1. Open the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the More button (three dots) in the upper right corner of
your inbox.
3. Select List View from the pop-up menu."
12/11/2024 The vis-viva equation:
"The vis-viva equation says that for an object orbiting another
object in a Keplerian orbit[:]
v^2 = u((2/r) - (1/a))
Here v is the relative velocity of the two bodies, r is the
distance between their centers of mass, and a is the semi-major
axis of the orbit. The constant u is the standard gravitational
parameter. It equals the product of the gravitational constant G
and the combined mass M of the two bodies. In practice it is
often accurate enough to let M be the mass of the larger object[.]
...
For an object to escape the orbit of another, the ellipse of its
orbit has to become infinitely large, i.e. a -> [infinity]. This
says that if v is escape velocity, v^2 = 2u/r. For a rocket on
the surface of a planet, r is the radius of the planet. But for
an object already in a high orbit, escape velocity is less
because r is larger."
@19:44
12/11/2024 3rd gen Legacy / Outback were peak car:
https://boehs.org/node/old-tech
"This is the 2007 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Special Edition in White. It
just happens to be the pinnacle of the automobile. Sure, cars
have gotten faster. Cars have always been faster. Cars have
gotten smarter. There are cars with better MPG, and there are
cars that are undoubtably a better bang for your buck in today's
market. But there's no car that is as good as this."
@18:28
12/11/2024 Why matter is solid:
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/quantum-reason-solidity-matter/
"[W]hat happens when you bring two systems, or two objects, that
are each made of atoms into contact with one another? Sure,
there's still quantum uncertainty and there's still electrostatic
repulsion, but now there's a third critical factor at play: the
Pauli exclusion rule that applies to electrons. When you push
your thumb down onto the seat of your chair, the electrons in
your thumb are already occupying all the lowest-energy states
that are available to them. Similarly, the electrons in the chair
are already occupying all the lowest-energy states available to
them.
This means that the act of 'pushing' your thumb into the chair is
equivalent to trying to push those occupied electrons into the
same quantum state as one another: to have their energy levels
overlap. But those levels are full; you can't fit anymore
electrons in there! The chair's electrons would have to be bumped
up to greater energies in order to move into (or through) your
thumb, and your thumb's electrons would have to be bumped up to
greater energies in order to move into (or through) your chair.
No matter how strong you are, you simply don't have enough
strength in your body to overcome the Pauli Exclusion Principle
in this fashion."
@18:09
12/11/2024 The CAFC provides additional guidance on inherency:
"The question we must resolve ... is whether a claim limitation
that merely recites an inherent property of an otherwise obvious
combination requires additional analysis to demonstrate that a
person of ordinary skill in the art would have a reasonable
expectation of success. We conclude that this additional showing
is not required."
Cytiva Bioprocess R&D AB v. JSR Corp., No. 23-2075, Slip. Op. at
20 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 4, 2024), available at https://cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-orders/23-2074.OPINION.12-4-2024_2429911.pdf. [PDF]
@12:21
12/11/2024 Detecting gravitational-wave memory with existing detectors:
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s152
@12:07
12/11/2024 Gravitational waves from merging supermassive black holes:
https://www.sci.news/astronomy/gravitational-wave-background-13476.html
@11:57
12/11/2024 Proposed solution to the "sofa problem":
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.19826a [PDF]
https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/mathematics/infamous-sofa-problem-that-boggled-mathematicians-for-decades-may-finally-have-a-solution
"Jineon Baek, a postdoctoral researcher in mathematics at Yonsei
University in South Korea, has arrived at an answer [to the 'sofa
problem']. ... Baek found that for a hallway with a width of 1
unit, the imaginary sofa's maximum area can be 2.2195 units -
narrowing the answer down with precision from the previously
known range of between 2.2195 and 2.37 units."
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_sofa_problem
@11:49
12/10/2024 My First Gran Turismo:
https://www.gtplanet.net/mfgt-demo-december-6-20241204/
@11:46
12/09/2024 Finding RSS feeds:
https://lighthouseapp.io/blog/deep-dive-finding-rss-feeds
@23:29
12/09/2024 The biggest known shell programs:
https://github.com/oils-for-unix/oils/wiki/The-Biggest-Shell-Programs-in-the-World
@19:10
12/09/2024 Drinking coffee might extend one's lifespan:
https://www.sciencealert.com/giant-study-links-drinking-coffee-with-almost-2-extra-years-of-life
"[A]nalysis suggests that drinking around three cups of coffee
a day is linked with an additional 1.84 years of lifespan in
the average person, with regular consumption also being
associated with increased healthspan (time spent living free
from serious disease)."
@18:13
12/09/2024 Antihyperhelium-4:
https://home.cern/news/news/physics/alice-finds-first-ever-evidence-antimatter-partner-hyperhelium-4
"The ALICE collaboration at the LHC has now seen the first
ever evidence of antihyperhelium-4, which is composed of
two antiprotons, an antineutron and an antilambda. The result
has a significance of 3.5 standard deviations and also
represents the first evidence of the heaviest antimatter
hypernucleus yet at the LHC."
@16:52
12/02/2024 Gravitational waves and black holes:
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/gravitational-wave-meet-black-hole/
"[Gravitational waves] propagate in the same fashion that
any massless quanta would travel, following the path laid
out by the curved space that they propagate through.
If that path takes you close to the event horizon of a black
hole, you'll experience all the 'normal' relativistic
phenomena (redshift/blueshift, time dilation/length
contraction, frame-dragging, etc.), but you'll still be able
to escape so long as you don't cross the event horizon.
If you do cross it, however, there's only one option: you
fall inexorably toward the central singularity, and upon
crossing over the threshold of the event horizon, your
energy and your angular momentum - both of which
gravitational waves should possess with respect to the black
hole - get added to the black hole itself. In other words,
black holes do grow from devouring all they encounter, and
gravitational waves help that to occur."
@18:57
12/02/2024 Spade-toothed whales:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spade-toothed_whale
https://www.courthousenews.com/this-whale-species-is-so-rare-its-never-been-seen-alive-a-dissection-may-decode-its-mysteries/
"It is the world's rarest whale, with only seven of its kind
ever spotted. Almost nothing is known about the enigmatic
species. ... None has ever been seen alive at sea. The list
of what scientists don't know about spade-toothed whales is
longer than what they do know. They don't know where in the
ocean the whales live, why they've never been spotted in the
wild, or what their brains look like. All beaked whales have
different stomach systems and researchers don't know how the
spade-toothed kind processes its food."
@17:52
12/02/2024 Recycled plastic frame bike from Germany:
https://www.core77.com/posts/134529/The-Low-Maintenance-Corrosion-Proof-RCYL-Bike
@11:26
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