Thermoelectric Generator: Cold Side Radiates Heat Built Up from Day to Sky at Night
October 9th, 201925 mW/square meter is close to nothing, but it’s an interesting idea.
Via: Joule:
A large fraction of the world’s population still lacks access to electricity, particularly at night when photovoltaic systems no longer operate. The ability to generate electricity at night could be a fundamentally enabling capability for a wide range of applications, including lighting and low-power sensors. Here, we demonstrate a low-cost strategy to harness the cold of space through radiative cooling to generate electricity with an off-the-shelf thermoelectric generator. Unlike traditional thermoelectric generators, our device couples the cold side of the thermoelectric module to a sky-facing surface that radiates heat to the cold of space and has its warm side heated by the surrounding air, enabling electricity generation at night. We experimentally demonstrate 25 mW/m 2 of power generation and validate a model that accurately captures the device’s performance. Further, we show that the device can directly power a light emitting diode, thereby generating light from the darkness of space itself.
More: The Anti-Solar Panel – A Device That Generates Electricity From Darkness
Water Bottles Accumulate Bacteria Like ‘Barnacles on a Boat’ and Must be Cleaned Once a Week
October 9th, 2019haha. Unless the water bottles belong to my children, in which case the bottles require thorough washing every few days.
Via: Daily Mail:
A microbiologist has warned that your water bottle may be a portable Petri dish if it is not cleaned properly.
The bacteria accumulation is being compared to ‘barnacles on a boat’ and the most dangerous ones come from the outside world, which can cause strep and staph infections.
To transform the infected vessel back to a healthy water bottle, it is suggested that you clean every inch with hot, soapy water and a bottle brush, and do so at least once a week.
Millions Brace for Unprecedented Power Cuts in California
October 9th, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
It was a once-unthinkable move: purposely shutting off power to millions of people and plunging a major metropolitan area into darkness.
And yet, on Wednesday, utility PG&E Corp. began cutting electricity to almost 800,000 California homes and businesses — representing roughly 2.4 million people — to prevent wildfires as high winds are forecast to whip through the state. The outages will hit 34 counties, including much of the San Francisco Bay area, triggering a scramble by residents to prepare for what may be days without power.
For PG&E, forced into bankruptcy by devastating fires that its equipment has ignited over the past two years, there is no alternative. The shutoff is a key strategy for preventing its power lines from sparking another deadly — and costly — conflagration. It’s largely unprecedented. Never before have California utilities intentionally put so many people out of power for their own safety. Nor have they darkened heavily populated cities in addition to rural areas.
Nobel Awarded for Lithium-Ion Batteries and Portable Power
October 9th, 2019Via: Quanta Magazine:
Three researchers were honored with a Nobel Prize in Chemistry this morning for their roles in the development of lithium-ion batteries, a technology that has made possible our mobile electronic civilization of cellular phones and electric cars. John Goodenough of University of Texas, Austin, M. Stanley Whittingham of Binghamton University and Akira Yoshino of Meijo University share equally in the prize.
The Biggest Lie Tech People Tell Themselves – And The Rest Of Us
October 9th, 2019Via: Vox:
Imagine you’re taking an online business class — the kind where you watch video lectures and then answer questions at the end. But this isn’t a normal class, and you’re not just watching the lectures: They’re watching you back. Every time the facial recognition system decides that you look bored, distracted, or tuned out, it makes a note. And after each lecture, it only asks you about content from those moments.
This isn’t a hypothetical system; it’s a real one deployed by a company called Nestor. And if you don’t like the sound of it, you’re not alone. Neither do the actual students.
When I asked the man behind the system, French inventor Marcel Saucet, how the students in these classes feel about being watched, he admitted that they didn’t like it. They felt violated and surveilled, he said, but he shrugged off any implication that it was his fault. “Everybody is doing this,” he told me. “It’s really early and shocking, but we cannot go against natural laws of evolution.”
As a reporter who covers technology and the future, I constantly hear variations of this line as technologists attempt to apply the theory Charles Darwin made famous in biology to their own work. I’m told that there is a progression of technology, a movement that is bigger than any individual inventor or CEO. They say they are simply caught in a tide, swept along in a current they cannot fight. They say it inevitably leads them to facial recognition (now even being deployed on children), smart speakers that record your intimate conversations, and doorbells that narc on your neighbors. They say we can’t blame these companies for the erosion of privacy or democracy or trust in public institutions — that was all going to happen sooner or later.
…
JFK Airport’s Terminal 1 Launches Facial Recognition Boarding
October 8th, 2019Via: New York Times:
A biometric self-boarding gate has officially been launched at John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 1, officials said Tuesday.
Lufthansa has deployed the paperless, high-tech boarding process – which uses facial recognition technology to verify travelers with a photo capture — at its largest US gateway at the Queens airport.
Air France, Japan Airlines, and Norwegian Airlines are expected to follow suit at the terminal, officials said.
Secret Ingredients
October 8th, 2019Warning: Nothing that appears on Cryptogon should be considered medical advice.
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I have friends who had a vaccine injured child. Despite my urging them avoid vaccinating their baby, they went ahead with the standard vaccination schedule. The child wound up in a coma after the MMR. She survived, but was later diagnosed with autism.
My friend and his wife consulted with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride and went on the protocol described in, Gut and Psychology Syndrome.
The child eventually recovered; she became neurotypical, in other words.
You can probably guess the response from the doctors.
According to them, the MMR vaccine wasn’t responsible for the coma, her subsequent autism had been misdiagnosed and the GAPS diet did nothing. What caused the coma immediately after the MMR? Well, you know, shit happens with children, but it wasn’t the vaccine.
As usual, take it or leave it. I told the story just in case this can help anyone out there at all.
Via: Secret Ingredients Movie:
Federal Deficit Estimated at $984 Billion, Highest in Seven Years
October 8th, 2019Via: The Hill:
The federal budget deficit for 2019 is estimated at $984 billion, a hefty 4.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and the highest since 2012, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said on Monday.
The difference between federal spending and revenue has only ever exceeded $1 trillion four times, in the period immediately following the global financial crisis.
The deficit, which has grown every year since 2015, is $205 billion higher than it was in 2018, a jump of 26 percent.
The CBO has warned that the nation’s debt is on an unsustainable path. Higher levels of debt increase borrowing costs, make it harder for the government to battle economic downturns and increase the share of future spending devoted to paying off interest costs.
San Francisco, Hostage to the Homeless
October 8th, 2019Via: City Journal:
Everyone’s on drugs here . . . and stealing,” an ex-felon named Shaku explains as he rips open a blue Popsicle wrapper with his teeth. Shaku is standing in an encampment of tents, trash, and bicycles, across from San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church. Another encampment-dweller lights a green crack pipe and passes it around. A few paces down the street, a gaunt man swipes a credit card through a series of parking meters to see if it has been reported stolen yet.
For the last three decades, San Francisco has conducted a real-life experiment in what happens when a society stops enforcing bourgeois norms of behavior. The city has done so in the name of compassion toward the homeless. The results have been the opposite: street squalor and misery have increased, even as government expenditures have ballooned. Yet the principles that have guided the city’s homelessness policy remain inviolate: homelessness is a housing problem; it is involuntary; and its persistence is the result of inadequate public spending. These propositions are readily disproved by talking to people living on the streets.
Britain: NHS Opens Clinic for Child Addicts of Computer Games
October 8th, 2019Via: Guardian:
The NHS is opening the country’s first specialist clinic to treat children and young adults who are addicted to playing computer games such as Fortnite, Candy Crush and Call of Duty.
Staff will help those aged 13 to 25 whose lives are being debilitated by spending countless hours playing games. From Tuesday GPs and other health professionals in England can refer addicts to the service, with treatment starting next month.
It has been set up because of concern about the growing number of children and young people whose heavy use of computer games is causing problems for them, especially with their mental health.
