Scientists discuss their discovery of a promising new supercapacitor which could radically change how the world stores electricity.
The Super Supercapacitor | Brian Golden Davis from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.
Why We’re Shutting Off Our Comments | Popular Science
Popular Science is disabling comments on their stories. The research they cite shows how influential reader comments can be, undermining PopSci’s mission to promote science.
From the time I’ve spent in the reader forums of local media sites, I wholeheartedly agree that comments often do more harm than good.
Comments can be bad for science. That’s why, here at PopularScience.com, we’re shutting them off.
It wasn’t a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to do the latter.
Air Force introduces QF-16 drones
Boeing and the Air Force just introduced a new drone to their drone program: the F-16. It was the first time an F-16 has ever flown without a pilot aboard.
This video reminded me of my visit to the Tyndall drone range in 2009, watching old F-4 Phantom IIs roar over me. It was like I was back in the Navy with my destroyer acting as plane guard behind an aircraft carrier on flight operations.
Here’s a great story on the drone program if you’d like to learn more.
The homeless and Moore Square
The past few weeks have had a number of stories, many unflattering, about Raleigh’s treatment of groups feeding the homeless in Moore Square. It seems most of the coverage has been one-sided in favor of the groups, often stretching the truth in some cases. I am not privy to the decisions that went into the city’s controversial policy – those are made at a level much higher than mine – but I do have some thoughts about the situation.
- No one should go hungry. I think everyone agrees on this.
- Moore Square is a public park.
- A lot of homeless people hang around the park.
- Everyone is welcome to use the park during the day.
- The park is frequently full of trash.
- There have been a number of violent incidents in the park.
- Anyone with a history of violence should not be welcome in the park.
- There are better places to feed the hungry.
- A meal is only a small fraction (though important, nonetheless) of what these people need.
Police: Man wanted in Raleigh museum break-in surrenders :: WRAL.com
Some dude broke into our favorite state museum early Sunday morning and made a mess. Fortunately for him, he turned himself in before I could find him. You do not mess with the Turners’ favorite museum.
One question I have about this incident is where was the State Capitol Police? Shouldn’t they be regularly patrolling this and other multi-million-dollar state resources? Would it be too much to ask that our cheapskate Republican legislature properly fund its state police resources so they can fulfill their obligations?
These are state resources. Why does it seem that Raleigh Police always has to bail out the state?
Raleigh, N.C. — A man caught on security video breaking into the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences early Sunday has turned himself in, State Capitol Police said.Police Chief Glen Allen said Joshua Matt Pace, 23, of Raleigh, turned himself late Sunday in after photographs from the security video were widely shown by the media.
via Police: Man wanted in Raleigh museum break-in surrenders :: WRAL.com.
Goldsboro Broken Arrow
Yesterday, news outlets ran a story based on newly-declassified documents concerning the 24 January 1961 crash of a B-52 near Goldsboro which resulted in the release of two megaton-sized atomic bombs. I became captivated by the story and spent what free time I had today collecting information on it for its Wikipedia page.
I had known about the crash for some time as UNC’s ibiblio server has hosted documents about it for nearly two decades. It seemed to be an interesting plane crash story with a nuclear angle but it make me worried. What I did not know until today is just how close one bomb was to nuclear detonation, vaporizing much of eastern North Carolina and raining deadly fallout all over the East Coast.
Yesterday’s stories highlighted the fact that only one switch kept one of the bombs from completing its arming cycle and setting off a detonation 250 times as powerful as the bomb that leveled Nagasaki, Japan. While that’s certainly scary enough, today’s sleuthing revealed a much more terrifying situation. It turns out when the second bomb was found it had been fully armed. Its arm switch had been activated. No one knows why the bomb plummeted harmlessly into the ground at 700 MPH instead of reaching a thermonuclear critical mass and wiping out all living things within a 10 mile radius. Only sheer blind luck saved us from nuclear incineration.
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Dogs in parks issue postponed
Due to a high likelihood that the Parks, Recreation, and Greenway Advisory Board (PRGAB) will not have a quorum tonight, the issue of restricting dogs in certain areas of parks will not be taken up at tonight’s meeting. Almost half of our board members have said they are unable to make it. This is an important issue we’re considering and we want to make sure all our members have the chance to weigh in with their thoughts, particularly those members who serve on the committee which considered it, the Greenways and Urban Trees Committee (GWUT).
Another factor is the change in location, part of the board’s desire to explore all the great meeting spaces the Parks system has to offer. We are meeting at the new Hill Street Neighborhood Park off of Skycrest Drive. It would not be good to have those interested in the dog issue schlep all the way out to Hill Street only to find that the issue wasn’t being considered. We’ll likely take it up at the next meeting, which should be held at the usual place: the Jaycees Module building off Wade Avenue.
This will be a notable meeting for another reason, however: it will be the last Parks board meeting I chair. I’ll officially hand the gavel over to Kimberley Siran tonight. She’ll be great.
Hanky alert
This foreign language public service announcement is surprisingly moving.
Dear parents, you need to control your kids. Sincerely, non-parents
Nice rant about non-parents thinking they know more about parenting than parents themselves.
Anyway, listen, I don’t think you, of all people, should be telling other folks what they “need to learn.” If you just shut up and paid attention, you’d realize that YOU could learn plenty from mothers like the one we both encountered yesterday. I know I have lots and lots to learn as a young parent, which is why I’m always prepared for a more experienced parent to take me to school and teach me a thing or two, even if they don’t know they’re doing it. Parenting is the easiest thing in the world to have an opinion about, but the hardest thing in the world to do. You shouldn’t scrutinize parents when you aren’t one, for the same reason I wouldn’t sit and heckle an architect while he draws up the blueprint for a new skyscraper. I know that buildings generally aren’t supposed to fall down, but I don’t have the slightest clue as to how to design one that won’t, so I’ll just keep my worthless architectural opinions to myself.
via Dear parents, you need to control your kids. Sincerely, non-parents | The Matt Walsh Blog.
Innovation and competition
The book The Idea Factory made me question what we know about innovation and the free market.
Conventional wisdom says that a free enterprise system that rewards innovators with market success is what drives innovation in this country. However, this was not the case at the fabled Bell Labs, where brilliant AT&T scientists brought forth a dizzying number of groundbreaking discoveries, one after another.
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