Brunnian links are a type of nontrivial link – or knot – where multiple linked loops become unlinked if a single loop is cut or removed. Beyond ‘fun’ disentanglement toys and a tantalizing subject of academic papers on knot theory, it can also be used for practical applications, as demonstrated by [Anthony Francis-Jones] in a […]
Quality 3D printing is a common hobbyist tool nowadays, and [wontonnn]’s mini arcade car racing game really shows off how 3D printing can bring parts from functional to fantastic. There are quite a few details we like in [wontonn]’s design, so let’s take a closer look. The mini mechanical game is one of those treadmill-based […]
This week Jonathan and Katherine talk with Jamie Abrahams about Drupal, and how AI just makes sense. No, really. Jamie makes a compelling case that Drupal is a really good tool for building AI workflows. We cover security, personal AI, and more! https://www.drupal.org/u/yautja_cetanu https://www.drupal.org/project/ai https://freelygive.io/ Did you know you can watch the live recording of […]
Supersonic air travel is great if you want to get somewhere quickly. Indeed, the Concorde could rush you from New York to London in less than three and a half hours, over twice as fast as a conventional modern airliner. Despite the speed, though, supersonic passenger service has never really been sustainable thanks to the […]
Over on their substack [ObsoleteSony] has a new article: The Last Disc: How Blu-ray Won the War but Lost the Future. In this article the author takes us through the history of Blu-ray media and how under Sony’s stewardship it successfully defeated the competing format of the time, HD DVD. Sony started behind the eight […]
The DEW line was one of three radar early warning systems of the time. If you grew up in the middle of the Cold War, you probably remember hearing about the Distant Early Warning line between duck-and-cover drills. The United States and Canada built the DEW line radar stations throughout the Arctic to detect potential […]
For decades there has been this tantalizing idea being pitched of pulling CO2 out of the air and using the carbon molecules for something more useful, like making plastics. Although this is a fairly simple process, it is also remarkably inefficient. Recently Caltech researchers have managed to boost the efficiency somewhat with a new two-stage […]
For home HVAC systems, heat pumps seem to be the way of the future. When compared to electric heating they can be three to four times more efficient, and they don’t directly burn fossil fuels. They also have a leg up over standard air conditioning systems since they can provide both cooling and heating, and […]
Radio Shack, despite being gone for a number of years, is still in our cultural consciousness. But Tandy, the company behind Radio Shack for many years. Did you ever wonder how a leather company started in 1919, because, briefly, a computer giant? Or even an electronics retailer? [Abort Retry Fail] has the story in three […]
Fusion product against duration, showing the Lawson criterion progress. (Credit: Dinklage et al., 2024, MPI for Plasma Physics) In nuclear fusion, the triple product – also known as the Lawson criterion – defines the point at which a nuclear fusion reaction produces more power than is needed to sustain the fusion reaction. Recently the German […]