Mind the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle, articulated by the Italian software developer Alberto Brandolini in 2013: the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. Or, as Jonathan Swift put it in 1710, “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.”Plus ça change.
Author Archives: mea
Future of carbon fibre is here
The technology, developed by Carbon Nexus PhD student Maxime Maghe and Carbon Nexus General Manager Steve Atkiss, has the potential to reduce the energy used in carbon fibre production by 75 per cent and reduces the production process time from around 80 minutes to under 15 minutes.
In addition, the specialised carbon fibre production machinery required is expected to cost around 50 per cent less than current equipment.
Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment.
In a recent survey of 1,100 virtual currency users, 94 percent were positive about the state of Ethereum, while only 49 percent were positive about Bitcoin, the industry publication CoinDesk said this month.
Source: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment. – The New York Times
Investors buying Ether are placing a bet that people will want to use the Ethereum network’s computing capabilities and will need the currency to do so. But that is far from a sure thing. And real-world use of the network is still scant.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Teardown
This laptop is not meant to be opened or repaired; you can’t get inside without inflicting a lot of damage.
Source: Microsoft Surface Laptop Teardown – iFixit
The battery is difficult and dangerous to replace, giving the device a limited lifespan.
Augmented reality lawsuit provides augmented view of 1st Amendment
“Texas Rope ‘Em is not entitled to First Amendment protection because it does not convey any messages or ideas. Unlike books, movies, music, plays and video games—mediums of expression that typically enjoy First Amendment protection—Texas Rope ‘Em has no plot, no storylines, no characters, and no dialogue. All it conveys is a random display of cards and a map. Absent the communicative features that invoke the First Amendment, Candy Lab has no First Amendment claim,” the county said. (PDF)
Source: Augmented reality lawsuit provides augmented view of 1st Amendment | Ars Technica
No plot, storylines, characters, and dialog describes the Academy Award winner for best picture last year.
A note about www.digitaltrends.com
Editorial Note: This is the first time I had to deal with something like this. Linking to a site is not against the law nor can anyone demand it be removed. Here are two emails supposedly from www.digitaltrends.com. The email lists three urls from bucktownbell.com, this site, but none of them reference the link he complained about. Thus, this could be a bot email and Rob Wolfe at dtlinkoutreach@gmail.com could be spam or some kind of spear phishing attack on me.
So I took the post that linked to https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/china-floating-solar-power-plant/ down. No big deal. After the emails are links to other sites about China’s new solar power plant. I found the story interesting. This site is about articles I find interesting.
Now bugger off Rob Wolfe whoever you are!
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2018 18:55:53 +0000 From: Rob Wolfe <dtlinkoutreach@gmail.com> To: Mark Anderson <mea@brandylion.com> Subject: quick question Parts/Attachments: 1 OK 25 lines Text 2 Shown 26 lines Text ---------------------------------------- Just a quick question Mark - did you get my last e-mail? I really need you to remove the link on http://bucktownbell.com/ http://bucktownbell.com/?%C2%A0 http://bucktownbell.com/?%C2%A0&paged=2 http://bucktownbell.com/?author http://bucktownbell.com/?author=2 going to my site at https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/china-floating-solar-power-plant/ Can you please remove it ASAP? If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know --- Rob Wolfe ------------- latest email -----------------
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2018 18:26:58 +0000 From: rob Wolfe <dtlinkoutreach2@gmail.com> To: Mark Anderson <mea@brandylion.com> Subject: Mark please respond Parts/Attachments: 1 OK 29 lines Text 2 Shown 33 lines Text ---------------------------------------- Hey Mark I really really need you to act on this. You are linking to my site at https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/china-floating-solar-power-plant/ from here http://bucktownbell.com/ http://bucktownbell.com/?%C2%A0 http://bucktownbell.com/?%C2%A0&paged=2 http://bucktownbell.com/?author http://bucktownbell.com/?author=2 I am very sure that this link is hurting my site in Google! This means, retaining that link would hurt the reputation of your site as well, if we need to include it in our link disavow request to Google. So please remove that link ASAP and I'll make sure to not bother you again! Thanks in advance! --- Rob Wolfe
Here are some better articles on this subject anyway. Enjoy!
China Turns On the World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm
So why build solar plants on top of lakes and reservoirs? Fiona Harvey at The Guardian explains that building on bodies of water, especially manmade lakes that are not ecologically sensitive, helps protect agricultural land and terrestrial ecosystems from being developed for energy use. The water also cools the electronics in the solar panels, helping them to work more efficiently, reports Alistair Boyle for The Telegraph. For similar reasons Britain built a 23,000-panel floating solar farm on the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir near Heathrow airport in 2016 to help power the Thames Water treatment plant.
Another blurb from an actual tree hugger site of all places: World’s largest floating solar farm, now online in China
When I wrote about China and India being years ahead of their climate pledges, some commenters expressed skepticism. But whatever your views on how well we can trust official government statistics, one thing is pretty much undeniable at this point:
Sports and the “Millennial Problem”
As they continue to move away from traditional sports viewing, a growing number of Millennials are instead flocking to alternatives such as eSports, including live video-gaming competitions such as The International, an annual tournament devoted to DOTA 2. Though such events aren’t organized in the traditional sense, the growing popularity of eSports nonetheless has the potential to further diminish Millennials’ loyalty to traditional sports.
Patent Troll Battle Update: Doubling Down on Project Jengo
We’re looking for prior art on 100% of the Blackbird Tech patents. If you are interested in helping, take some time to look into those patents where we don’t have anything yet. We’ll update the chart as we review the submissions with additional information about the number we receive, and their quality, to help focus the search. After the initial review, we’ll start to color code the patents (i.e., red/yellow/green) to demonstrate the number and quality of submissions we’ve received on each patent.
Source: Patent Troll Battle Update: Doubling Down on Project Jengo
Supreme Court Overturns Patent Ruling in Blow Against Trolls
The justices sided 8-0 with beverage flavoring company TC Heartland in its legal battle with food and beverage company Kraft Heinz, ruling that patent infringement suits can be filed only in courts located in the jurisdiction where the targeted company is incorporated. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in the decision.
Source: Supreme Court Overturns Patent Ruling in Blow Against Trolls | Fortune.com
Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
New laws will be introduced to implement these rules, forcing internet companies such as Facebook to abide by the rulings of a regulator or face sanctions: “We will introduce a sanctions regime to ensure compliance, giving regulators the ability to fine or prosecute those companies that fail in their legal duties, and to order the removal of content where it clearly breaches UK law.”