Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘sustainability’ category: Page 295

Aug 19, 2021

Silicon Valley Neologisms: The Palantir Edition

Posted by in categories: climatology, robotics/AI, satellites, sustainability

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3zLFLotBFbA

Do you remember the Zuckerland metaverse? (Yes, I know he borrowed the word, but when you are president of a digital country, does anyone dare challenge Zuck the First, Le Roi Numérique?)

Palantir Technologies (the Seeing Stone outfit with the warm up jacket fashion bug) introduced a tasty bit of jargon-market speak in its Q22021earnings call:

Continue reading “Silicon Valley Neologisms: The Palantir Edition” »

Aug 18, 2021

The Ultimate Growing Platform

Posted by in categories: climatology, sustainability

AIR

Adaptive Air Control

Whether it is located in snowy mountains, scorching deserts, or smoggy cities, the Greenery S farm’s robust insulation and complete suite of climate control components work together to recreate the perfect growing environment 365 days a year.

Aug 18, 2021

The Most Expensive Listing in Southern Nevada Asks $32.5 Million

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability, transportation

The 14,207-square-foot home in Henderson features views of the Las Vegas Strip, smart-home technology, solar power and a 12-car garage.

Aug 17, 2021

Electric cars and batteries: how will the world produce enough?

Posted by in categories: chemistry, government, sustainability, transportation

Battery-and carmakers are already spending billions of dollars on reducing the costs of manufacturing and recycling electric-vehicle (EV) batteries — spurred in part by government incentives and the expectation of forthcoming regulations. National research funders have also founded centres to study better ways to make and recycle batteries. Because it is still less expensive, in most instances, to mine metals than to recycle them, a key goal is to develop processes to recover valuable metals cheaply enough to compete with freshly mined ones. “The biggest talker is money,” says Jeffrey Spangenberger, a chemical engineer at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois, who manages a US federally funded lithium-ion battery-recycling initiative, called ReCell.


Reducing the use of scarce metals — and recycling them — will be key to the world’s transition to electric vehicles.

Aug 16, 2021

Tesla Cybertruck’s updated origami-style windshield and dash teased in patent

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

Elon Musk has mentioned that the Tesla Cybertruck’s production version would be extremely similar to the all-electric pickup truck’s controversial prototype from 2019. While this may largely be the case, Musk has hinted at some new features that would be included in the production Cybertruck. Apart from updated door handles and rear-wheel steering capabilities, for example, Musk also hinted at “other great things” coming for the vehicle.

A recently published patent application from Tesla has now hinted at a couple more updates that may be coming to the Cybertruck, at least on the design front. The patent, titled “Automotive Glass Structure Having Feature Lines and Related Method of Manufacture,” describes a way to form extremely durable glass structures with aggressive curves and folds. Using such a technique, Tesla stated that it could create components like windshields with very aggressive feature lines that would otherwise not be possible with conventional glass-forming methods.

The patent application’s illustrations showcased how the system would be used in a vehicle such as the Cybertruck. One of the images in the patent featured the far left and right side of the Cybertruck’s windshield having aggressive feature lines that make the all-electric pickup truck even more futuristic and CGI-esque. This is quite different from the windshield used on the prototype Cybertruck, which seemed completely flat.

Aug 16, 2021

‘Fingerprints’ of extreme weather revealed by new statistical approach

Posted by in categories: climatology, mathematics, physics, sustainability

Determining if particular extreme hot or cold spells were caused by climate change could be made easier by a new mathematical method.

The , developed by physicists at the University of Reading and Uppsala University in Sweden, looks at the characteristics, or “fingerprints,” of a specific extreme weather event of interest, like a , in order to ascertain whether it can be attributed to natural variability of the climate or is a unique product of global warming.

The method also allows predictions to be made about how likely extreme climate events will be in the future.

Aug 16, 2021

Milan’s 3 Hectares of Vertical Forest

Posted by in categories: habitats, sustainability

Click on photo to start video.

🏢 Milan’s vertical forests’ plant life 🌱 equals 3 hectares of forests 🌳 0 maintained by “Flying Gardeners”, a specialized team of arborists-climbers.

🙏 Stefano Boeri Architetti BrightVibes.

Aug 16, 2021

Robots are taking over recycling jobs

Posted by in categories: employment, robotics/AI, sustainability

Robots are taking over low-paid and increasingly risky jobs in recycling, keeping the industry churning.

Aug 15, 2021

Reforestation holds promise for Europe’s increasingly drier summers

Posted by in categories: climatology, sustainability

“A new study suggests that if Europe planted trees across all the land suitable for reforestation, it might not only sequester carbon but also partially ameliorate the increasingly dry European summers predicted by climate change models.”


Plant more trees! This message has been one of the cornerstones of the European response to worsening climate change. A new study published in Nature Geoscience suggests that if Europe planted trees across all the land suitable for reforestation, it might not only sequester carbon, but also partially ameliorate the increasingly dry European summers predicted by climate change models. In all, mass reforestation could increase summer rainfall by an average of 7.6%.

“When planned carefully, reforestation could result in additional benefits in regions where it is implemented,” said Ronny Meier, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH Zürich), and lead author on the study.

Continue reading “Reforestation holds promise for Europe’s increasingly drier summers” »

Aug 14, 2021

Baidu to deploy low-cost robotaxi fleet in bid to monetise self-driving

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space, sustainability

Commercial prospects for robotaxi services remain uncertain in the near term due to the immaturity of the technology, the absence of legislation to clearly define responsibility in case of a self-driving accident, and persistently high costs associated with the complex self-driving systems.


Baidu’s autonomous driving unit has partnered with the luxury electric vehicle brand of BAIC Group to bring fifth generation Apollo Moon robotaxis to Chinese roads, cutting the cost of the vehicles by two thirds.