Lifeboat Foundation

Mon, Feb 21

Just how big is space, and could we really explore the galaxy with the invention of light-speed engines? To try and make sense of all those HUGE numbers we hear when talking about space, we’ll first create a quick and easy map of the Solar System that shows its true scale. It’s a fun activity for kids and adults of all ages and requires only a blank piece of white paper (letter size), tape, scissors, and some coloring/drawing supplies. Next, we’ll use this map to learn about how we communicate with spacecraft and what it would mean to travel amongst the stars.

Registration: https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYsdeysqjgoH9a7QUoBzPjwWpBXtHAsKosE

This makes too much sense not to try.

Could passenger planes begin flying in formation to draft each other’s wingtip vortex effects? One Airbus-based startup concept thinks so. The concept uses a formation idea inspired by birds, who commute north to south and back in large V shapes to capitalize on the updraft generated by the birds in front.

✈ You love badass planes. So do we. Let’s nerd out over them together.

Continue reading “Airliners Could Soon Fly in Formation, Just Like a Flock of Birds” »

Imagine making some liquids mix that do not mix, then unmixing them.

In one of the grand challenges of science, a Flinders University device which previously ’unboiled’ egg protein is now unraveling the mystery of incompatible fluids; a development that could enhance many future products, industrial processes and even the food we eat.

Using the highly advanced rapid fluidic flow techniques possible in the Flinders vortex fluidic device (VFD), the Australian research team has capped off 10 years of research to find a way to use clean chemistry to unlock the mystery of ‘mixing immiscibles’.

Rutgers professor Jason Barr has proposed adding 1,760-acres of reclaimed land, named New Mannahatta, to the tip of Manhattan to provide housing and combat climate change.

Called New Mannahatta in reference to the indigenous name for the island in New York, the plan would extend Manhattan Island into New York Harbor beyond the Statue of Liberty.

Barr, a professor of economics at Rutgers University, outlined his plan in an opinion piece directed at the city’s mayor Eric Adams, which was recently published in the New York Times.

The Russian Army has sent its BMPT-72 or Terminator 2 armored fighting vehicle towards the Ukrainian border area. Nearly 150,000 and 200,000 Russian troops are reportedly poised for a possible invasion of Ukraine. Experts say that BMPT-72 could be used for a potential campaign in an urban environment inside Ukraine.

00:00-Introduction.
00:15 — Russia Sends BMPT-72 Towards Ukrainian Border?
01:25 — What Is BMPT-72?
03:00 — BMPT-72’s Firepower?
03:48 — What BMPT-72’s Deployment Shows?

Continue reading “Putin Sends BMPT-72 ‘Terminator’ Fighting Vehicles Towards Ukraine l Russia Planning Combat Ops?” »

Building a better supercomputer is something many tech companies, research outfits, and government agencies have been trying to do over the decades. There’s one physical constraint they’ve been unable to avoid, though: conducting electricity for supercomputing is expensive.

Not in an economic sense—although, yes, in an economic sense, too—but in terms of energy. The more electricity you conduct, the more resistance you create (electricians and physics majors, forgive me), which means more wasted energy in the form of heat and vibration. And you can’t let things get too hot, so you have to expend more energy to cool down your circuits.

LG’s solar business panel business joins the company’s smartphone business in the graveyard, with the latter business being canned last April as it could not compete with other smartphone brands in the market. Prior to the smartphone business closing shop, it had recorded 23 consecutive quarters of loss.

The decision was approved by the board of directors on Monday night, LG said.

LG’s solar panel production will start winding down next month, the company said, with the business to officially shut down at the end of June.

“We saw a very large coronal mass ejection, which is a major storm on the sun,” Todd explained. “It happened on the far side, which is awfully good because it was enormous.”

Though the explosive CME is not expected to strike Earth, images captured by satellite and seismic mapping showing the sheer size of the eruption had many people talking, Todd said.

Todd said scientists estimate the flare stretched to roughly 400,000 kilometers, greater than the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

[Stefan] from CNCKitchen wanted to make some bendy tubes for a window-mountable ball run, and rather than coming up with some bent tube models, it seemed there might be a different way to achieve the desired outcome. Starting with a simple tube model designed to be quickly printed in vase mode, he wrote a Python script which read in the G-Code, and modified it allow it to be bent along a spline path.

Vase mode works by slowly ramping up the Z-axis as the extruder follows the object outline, but the slicing process is still essentially the same, with the object sliced in a plane parallel to the bed. Whilst this non-planar method moves the Z-axis in sync with the horizontal motion (although currently limited to only one plane of distortion, which simplifies the maths a bit) it is we guess still technically a planar solution, but just an inclined plane. But we digress, non-planar in this context merely means not parallel to the bed, and we’ll roll with that.

Continue reading “Bend Your Vase Mode Prints” »