Tech never sleeps/rev XX

Let's think about this, 3500 transistors vs 33.7 billion, 8 bit processing vs 64 and 1 vs10,000,000 times faster shows, in part, how much tech has evolved from 1972's Intel C8008-1 to 2021's Apple MI Pro.

An Intel C8008-1 processor variant with purple ceramic, 

a gold metal lid, and gold pins.

It gets better.

Apple's MI Max doubles the memory bandwidth from 200gb/s to 400 and has 57 billion Ts vs 33.7.

They go here

MacBook Pro

14” and 16” models

Again, tech never sleeps.

The last 10%

Hold the line Joe ...

 

The outdated water system in Rowlesburg, W.Va., releases raw sewage into the Cheat River during heavy storms. “It’s a lousy system that is extra lousy when there’s any rain,” the town’s mayor said.

Well, yours truly is so glad Joe Manchin's against the climate plat part of Biden's initiative as his stance's a boon to all the vendors in the flood business thanks to, you guessed it, global warming. Even though monies from the initiative would fund coal produces to make the transition to sustainable, Manchin's against it because it will hurt West Virginia's economy. Makes sense does it not?

FARMINGTON, W.Va. — In Senator Joe Manchin’s hometown, a flood-prone hamlet of about 200 homes that hugs a curve on a shallow creek, the rain is getting worse.

Those storms swell the river, called Buffalo Creek, inundating homes along its banks. They burst the streams that spill down the hills on either side of this former coal-mining town, pushing water into basements. They saturate the ground, seeping into Farmington’s aging pipes and overwhelming its sewage treatment system.

Climate change is warming the air, allowing it to hold more moisture, which causes more frequent and intense rainfall. And no state in the contiguous United States is more exposed to flood damage than West Virginia, according to data released last week.

From the porch of his riverfront house, Jim Hall, who is married to Mr. Manchin’s cousin, recounted how rescue workers got him and his wife out of their house with a rope during a flood in 2017. He described helping his neighbors, Mr. Manchin’s sister and brother-in-law, clear out their basement when a storm would come. He calls local officials when he smells raw sewage in the river.

Hold the line Joe because flood dependent vendors need the $$,

Tech never sleeps ...

The James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror comprises 18 gold-plated beryllium sections, each more than 1.3 meters across. Technology used to create the nearly flawless reflectors is also key for making flat-panel displays. Desiree Stover/NASA/Associated Press

Tech never sleeps, especially regarding imaging as the resolution and sharpness of digital dwarfs the halcyon days of film when Kodak ruled the roost for years. Seen below is a pix taken in 1977 by yours truly using a Nikon Photomic FTn and Kodak Ektachrome 160.

Nikon's Photomic FTn camera and finder

A box of Ektachrome 64T (2001) in 120 format

Good "olde" days - 1977

Going forward ...

A perfect early fall day - 2021

Samsung 21 Ultra

With the Webb telescope, the connection between space tech and regular-life tech is more than just the transfer of insights gained from research and development conducted on NASA’s dime. It turns out that the very same factory where the mirrors for the space telescope were polished are now where the optics required for manufacture of OLED displays—short for organic light emitting diode, the screens in the latest generation of smartphones—are made.

As stated before, tech never sleeps.

3 Buds ...

A guilty pleasure for sure, Master Shake, Meatwad and Frylock of Aqua Teen Hunger Force ... 3 buds bent on benign destruction and very funny commentary on the inanities of aughts America, has entertained yours truly for years. :)

Dave Willis, the co-creator of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, says the developing the characters — roomates Meatwad, Frylock, Master Shake, and neighbor Carl Brutananadilewski — constituted the big early creative achievement. “We had to figure out how to make an animated show while we were doing it,” Willis says.

“We loved the show so much we started making the second episode without telling anybody.

“Then our boss came in and was like, ‘What the hell are you doing? We didn’t ask for another one of these.’”

Says it all, right?

Guilty as charged.

Inflation rules ...

The modern cosmic picture of our universe’s history begins not with a singularity that we identify with the Big Bang, but rather with a period of cosmic inflation that stretches the universe to enormous scales, with uniform properties and spatial flatness. The end of inflation signifies the onset of the hot Big Bang. (Credit: Nicole Rager Fuller/National Science Foundation)

The essence of chaos starts with the initial condition of a given process. Seems there are fundamental questions regarding the chaotic universe because assigning a timeframe of 13.7 billion to define the lifetime of existence appears arbitrary at best, especially when researchers are beginning to question this notion based on the evidence presented by the universe itself.

A visual history of the expanding universe includes the hot, dense state known as the Big Bang and the growth and formation of structure subsequently. The full suite of data, including the observations of the light elements and the cosmic microwave background, leaves only the Big Bang as a valid explanation for all we see. (Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss)

Where did all this come from? In every direction we care to observe, we find stars, galaxies, clouds of gas and dust, tenuous plasmas, and radiation spanning the gamut of wavelengths: from radio to infrared to visible light to gamma rays. No matter where or how we look at the universe, it’s full of matter and energy absolutely everywhere and at all times. And yet, it’s only natural to assume that it all came from somewhere. If you want to know the answer to the biggest question of all — the question of our cosmic origins — you have to pose the question to the universe itself, and listen to what it tells you.

The Big Bang teaches us that our expanding, cooling universe used to be younger, denser, and hotter in the past. However, extrapolating all the way back to a singularity leads to predictions that disagree with what we observe. Instead, cosmic inflation preceded and set up the Big Bang, changing our cosmic origin story forever.

It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong. - Richard Feyman

Six iterations of a set of states [x,y] passed through the logistic map. The first iterate (blue) is the initial condition, which essentially forms a circle. Animation shows the first to the sixth iteration of the circular initial conditions. It can be seen that mixing occurs as we progress in iterations. The sixth iteration shows that the points are almost completely scattered in the phase space. 

Forever ...

Water samples from Clover Flat landfill in Calistoga, California, have confirmed the presence of PFAS chemicals. Photograph: Courtesy of Brian Lilla

Crapping on earth as art form applies, this time the US but think about other places like China, Russia and India. The poisons unleashed by us staggers the mind without question.

List of facilities makes it clear that virtually no part of the US appears free from the potential risk of air and water contamination with the chemicals

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified more than 120,000 locations around the US where people may be exposed to a class of toxic “forever chemicals” associated with various cancers and other health problems that is a frightening tally four times larger than previously reported, according to data obtained by the Guardian.

Colorado tops the EPA list with an estimated 21,400 facilities, followed by California’s 13,000 sites and Oklahoma with just under 12,000. The facilities on the list represent dozens of industrial sectors, including oil and gas work, mining, chemical manufacturing, plastics, waste management and landfill operations. Airports, fire training facilities and some military-related sites are also included.

The EPA describes its list as “facilities in industries that may be handling PFAS”. Most of the facilities are described as “active”, several thousand are listed as “inactive” and many others show no indication of such status. PFAS are often referred to as “forever chemicals” due to their longevity in the environment, thus even sites that are no longer actively discharging pollutants can still be a problem, according to the EPA.

The top ten industries who handle this stuff.

Forever ...

Addendum: Packaging's a player also.

Phthalates are found in common products. In the US, three types have been restricted or banned in toys, but are less restricted in cosmetics and food packaging materials. Photograph: Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images

The group of chemicals called phthalates, also known as plasticizers, may contribute to the early deaths of 91,000 to 107,000 older adults in the US each year, according to a new study.

Adults between 55 and 64 with the highest concentrations of phthalates in their urine were more likely to die of any cause, especially heart disease, than adults with lesser exposure, according to the study published on Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Pollution.

The study also estimated that this loss of life could cost the US between $40bn and $47bn each year.

They're everywhere.

Lava, Lava ...

 The music's a little too much but the video's not as earth rules when it comes to volcanoes and lava flows.

Excellent ... to a fault :)

Courtesy of Aaron Bugai

What an excellent idea. Combine solar panels with crops as many crops get toasted if they get too much sun. This is a prime example of a great notion as all great concepts begin with people who didn't come with the idea stating "Why didn't I think of that.".

IN JACK'S SOLAR Garden in Boulder County, Colorado, owner Byron Kominek has covered 4 of his 24 acres with solar panels. The farm is growing a huge array of crops underneath them—carrots, kale, tomatoes, garlic, beets, radishes, lettuce, and more. It’s also been generating enough electricity to power 300 homes. “We decided to go about this in terms of needing to figure out how to make more money for land that we thought should be doing more,” Kominek says.

Rooftops are so 2020. If humanity’s going to stave off the worst of climate change, people will need to get creative about where they put solar panels. Now scientists are thinking about how to cover canals with them, reducing evaporation while generating power. Airports are filling up their open space with sun-eaters. And space doesn’t get much more open than on a farm: Why not stick a solar array in a field and plant crops underneath? It’s a new scientific (and literal) field known as agrivoltaics—agriculture plus photovoltaics—and it’s not as counterintuitive as it might seem. 

Yes, plants need sunlight, but some need less than others, and indeed get stressed by too many photons. Shading those crops means they will require less water, which rapidly evaporates in an open field. Plus, plants “sweat,” which cools the panels overhead and boosts their efficiency. 

A win, win for sure. 

Hellscape 101

Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash

The hellscape of our own doing is gathering speed 24/7 while governments and businesses do nothing to derail the catastrophe being unleashed upon the world. Words cannot describe but nature is beginning to as civilization moves ever further into the Anthropocene. 

No one is entirely sure how this horrifying experiment will end but humans like defined goals and so, in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, nearly 200 countries agreed to limit the global temperature rise to “well below” 2C, with an aspirational goal to keep it to 1.5C. The latter target was fought for by smaller, poorer nations, aware that an existential threat of unlivable heatwaves, floods and drought hinged upon this ostensibly small increment. “The difference between 1.5C and 2C is a death sentence for the Maldives,” said Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, president of the country, to world leaders at the United Nations in September.

There is no huge chasm after a 1.49C rise, we are tumbling down a painful, worsening rocky slope rather than about to suddenly hit a sheer cliff edge – but by most standards the world’s governments are currently failing to avert a grim fate. “We are on a catastrophic path,” said António Guterres, secretary general of the UN. “We can either save our world or condemn humanity to a hellish future.”

The Grasshopper

A grasshopper spent the summer hopping about in the sun and singing to his heart's content. One day, an ant went hurrying by, looking very hot and weary.

"Why are you working on such a lovely day?" said the grasshopper.

"I'm collecting food for the winter," said the ant, "and I suggest you do the same." And off she went, helping the other ants to carry food to their store. The grasshopper carried on hopping and singing. When winter came the ground was covered with snow. The grasshopper had no food and was hungry. So he went to the ants and asked for food.

"What did you do all summer when we were working to collect our food?" said one of the ants.

"I was busy hopping and singing," said the grasshopper.

"Well," said the ant, "if you hop and sing all summer, and do no work, then you must starve in the winter."

Photo by Malcolm Lightbody on Unsplash