mikeo56

[mikeo56]

This Self-Heating Concrete Melts Snow – No Power Needed

How do you get the snow off the sidewalk in front of your house? Our apartment building has a snow-duty schedule for the winter, and let me just say I’d often wished the sidewalk would just clear itself. A team of material scientists at Drexel University in Philadelphia just made my dream come true. They’ve invented self-heating concrete that warms up on its own when temperatures drop below zero. It’s basically magic, except it’s physics. Let’s have a look.

In Reykjavik they heat sidewalks with hot water from geothermal sources. But people in more boring countries don’t have that luxury. So we salt and sand and sweep and swear and now we could be using this concrete. This new magic concrete is infused with a type of paraffin that absorbs energy when temperatures are above 5 degrees Celsius and then gradually releases this energy when temperatures drop to zero and below. It’s what’s called a phase change material that releases energy when it turns from a liquid to a solid.

They embedded the paraffin into the concrete with two different methods. One is to just mix the stuff into the concrete as a fluid, the other one is to use microcapsules and mix those into the concrete. They then, well poured the concrete in several slabs and put them out in the Philadelphia winter. You can see the result here for yourself. In this time-lapse video from some cold Philadelphia nights, you see the concrete with the microcapsules on the left and the one with the fluid mixed in in the middle. You can clearly see how the self-heating concrete accumulates less snow and also that that the fluid-mix works better than the microcapsules. In their paper they write that the warming effect works 6 to 8 hours or so and down to minus 5 or minus ten degrees, depending on exactly what type of phase change material they use. It’s designed to kick in when night temperatures drop below zero and actually a very practical range. It could cope with up to 2 inches of snow which is more than we get most winters, so sign me up. Of course there’s the question what putting the liquid into the concrete does to the durability of the material. Well, I guess more work is needed, but the researchers think that overall, it will benefit the material. Because one of the major reasons for cracks in concrete and street covers is that water gets in, freezes, expands and then creates cracks. Pouring salt or other chemicals onto streets degrades the materials further and can also damage the environment. Self-heating concrete might therefore not just save us the work of removing the snow but in the long run also be more durable and more cost efficient.  

Sounds good. But what about this phase changing material, that is some sort of paraffine. These types of phase change materials are produced from fossil fuels, tend to be expensive and if the stuff leaks into the ground that’s not all that great for the environment. Then again, some labs are working on bio-compatible alternatives from animal fats or plants and maybe these could become used in the future. This self-heating concrete is just one example of a “smart material”. There are many more in the works. The defining feature of smart materials is that they have a custom-designed response to their environment. According to a recent report by Globe Newswire, the global market for smart materials will grow over 7 percent by 2030. I think it’s one of most underreported trends in science. A simple example of a smart material that has been around for a while fluids that change viscosity in response to magnetic fields. These are now often used as dampers in which the dampening strength can be controlled by an electromagnet. There are also materials that change colour in response to temperatures. Several companies are now putting them to use for example to track whether a food item or medicine has been consistently stored at low temperatures.

At Stevens University in New Jersey, materials scientists are creating self-healing concrete. It contains polymer fibres that, when the material develops a crack, spill into the crack and pull it back together.

Then there are smart paints like this recent invention by a group from the University of Vienna. It’s white paint that sheds off dirt when light falls onto it. And along the way it cleans the air too.

To be fair many of these smart material ideas are far away from hitting the consumer market. Maybe some of them turn out to be not robust or durable enough. But there’s a lot of promise in this research area. I think we underestimate the relevance of material science because let’s be honest it sounds kind of boring. But there’s a reason scientists classify prehistory by materials: the stone age, the bronze age, the ion age. It’s because the ability to use certain materials made such a huge difference to people’s lives.

Smart materials aren’t going to change our life in a snap, but they’ll be a quiet revolution that will make our entire living environment more responsive and efficient. It won’t be long, and our walls will be more intelligent than we are.

#self heating concrete #materials

[mikeo56]

Your mother once told me that her father wasn't fit to be a father...it wasn't just that she said it, it was the way she said it: with an incredible revulsion.

Do you think your kids will talk that about you?

#better off without you

[mikeo56]

Religion = Lazy = Stupid

#religion #stupid #lazy

[mikeo56]

Traditional chinese craftsmanship for architecture and furniture 榫卯 sǔn mǎo 

The mortise and tenon technique does not use glues or nails and creates furniture that is usually very strong and durable. 

[mikeo56]

According to Laura, Doug did beat the boys. The day the boys were dropped off, you made the mistake of dropping them off with only Doug at home. They didn't want to be alone with Doug. You made a mistake. They were terrified of Doug. I was working on my cars and both boys ran over to me. It was obvious that the boys were terrified of Doug, who again, according to Laura had hit them.

So, following this, you invaded the space behind our home: fires, firecrackers, shouting obscenities and peering in our bedroom windows. This behavior of yours, of threatening, and harassing and terrorizing both of us, began immediately after your mistake of dropping off the two boys alone with Doug, causing them to run away to nearest person they could find. But this was not the reason that you began to harass us. You had entered into an agreement with Travis DeCere and Jennifer Umanzor to harass us free of worry that Marshall Reddick or Law Enforcement would interfere with your behavior. And that is why your children would be better off without you.

I believe justice would be burning Marshall Reddick to the ground, with Travis and Jennifer locked in the building.

You do know people who like to do this sort of thing.

[mikeo56]

Where’s George Orwell Today? Texas!

If you think the GOP’s Congress of Clowns represents the fringiest, freakiest, pack of politicos that MAGA-world can hurl at us – you haven’t been to Texas.

It’s widely known, of course, that Ted Cruz, Greg Abbott, and most other top Republican officials here are obsequious Trump acolytes. Thus, Texas is infamously racing against Florida to be declared the stupidest, meanest, most-repressive state government in America, constantly making demonic attacks on women’s freedom, immigrants, voting rights, public schools, poor people, and so on. But I’m confident Texas will win this race to the bottom for one big reason: GOP crazy runs extraordinarily deep here.

JIM HIGHTOWER

APR 18, 2024

#maga #republicanself destructive platform #texas

[mikeo56]

The coral reef is currently experiencing its worst mass bleaching event on record — warming waters brought on by climate change are to blame.

Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef is fundamentally changing because of repeated bleaching from high ocean temperatures brought on by climate change, according to marine biologists.

“It's not a question of reefs dying or reefs disappearing, it's reef ecosystems transforming into a new configuration,” says marine biologist Terry Hughes, from James Cook University in Townsville, Australia.

“Species like fish and crustaceans and so on — the iconic biodiversity of reefs — all depend on the structure and three dimensionality the habitat provided by corals,” Hughes says. “When you lose a lot of corals, it affects everything that's dependent on corals.”

Corals ‘bleach’ when stressed, expelling their colourful resident zooxanthellae. According to a report released on 17 April by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority – the Australian government’s reef management agency — the World Heritage-listed reef is experiencing its worst mass bleaching event on record. The Reef Snapshot said three-quarters of the entire reef is showing signs of bleaching and nearly 40 percent is showing high or extreme bleaching.

The report is based on aerial surveys of 1,080 of the Great Barrier Reef’s estimated 3,000 individual reefs, and in-water surveys of a smaller number of reefs.

It showed that while bleaching was observed along the entire length of the Great Barrier Reef, it was most severe in the central and southern regions.

“We've never seen this level of heat stress across all three regions of the Great Barrier Reef,” says Brisbane-based marine biologist Lissa Schindler, from the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

This is the fifth mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef in eight years. Hughes warns that climate change-driven increases in ocean temperatures are making it more difficult for the Reef’s corals to recover between bleaching events. “In the last six years, we've settled into bleaching every other year – in 2020, 2022, and now 2024 – and that's simply not enough time for a proper recovery,” he says.

Global phenomenon

The Snapshot was one of a series of reports released this week on coral bleaching that also sounded alarm bells for reefs. The Australian Institute of Marine Science announced on 18 April that the Great Barrier Reef experienced water temperatures in parts of the southern reef at 2.5 degrees Celsius higher than historical summer peaks.

Meanwhile on 15 April the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the fourth global coral bleaching event on record, and the second in the past decade. The declaration acknowledges that the warmth of the southern hemisphere summer mirrored coral bleaching events seen in the northern hemisphere summer last year.

It comes as global sea surface temperatures again broke records in 2023, associated with a strong El Niño weather pattern, recording an annual average temperature around 0.3 degrees Celsius higher in the second half of 2023 compared with 2022.

“There have been very high temperatures driven by climate change all across the world, and there has been coral bleaching in many other countries,” says environmental scientist Roger Beeden, chief scientist for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville.

Hughes says the warming climate is pushing reefs to have less coral, and the mix of coral species is changing. For example, the branching and table-shaped corals are often the fastest to recover from a bleaching event because they are fast-growing, Hughes says. However they’re also very prone to bleaching and have higher levels of mortality during bleaching events.

“It's a bit analogous to a fire on land through a forest, that favours a bounce-back by flammable grasses before the trees can recover,” he says. “Ironically, that that bounce-back, that resilience, undermines the ability of the reef to cope with the next inevitable bleaching event.” Seaweeds also flourish when corals degrade.

Beeden says those who live and work on the Reef are observing significant changes. “There's historical photos that show inshore reefs that were laden with coral, and that’s very different now,” he says.

He says there are an estimated 450 different species of coral on the Reef, and such diversity means there is a chance the Reef will adapt to the changing conditions, even if it changes character. “What we see within species is definitely there is variability in how they respond to stress events.”

Hughes says the solution to the Great Barrier Reef’s bleaching problem is clear. “Reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Full stop.”

#coral reef #great barrier reef #coral bleaching #CO2 #climate change #extinction #biodiversity

[mikeo56]

"Nimbus"

Ephemeral clouds drift through unusual places in artist Berndnaut Smilde’s works. He creates his clouds from smoke and water, launching them for a matter of seconds before they dissipate. (Image credit: B. Smilde and collaborators; via Colossal) Read the full article

[mikeo56]

Pedophiles Are the Ultimate Sadists and they come equipped with one big Duping Smile for willfully ignorant Adults and often operate with the Grace of someone's god...

#kill a pedophile

[mikeo56]

Nuclear war is a topic few care to think about. We sometimes call it unthinkable. But we need to think carefully, and to talk—particularly with high-ranking foreign officials whose motives we may have reason to distrust, just as they distrust ours—about how we can collectively avoid launching a weapon that would end our civilization.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s timely new book, Nuclear War: A Scenario, is a lightning-fast read intended to put the nuclear threat squarely back on everyone’s radar. Her narrative thread, as the title suggests, is a fact-based (though thankfully fictional) scenario that shows how a nuclear launch can escalate into World War III at dizzying speed.

#true holocaust #nuclear war #brinksmanship #escalation

[mikeo56]

[mikeo56]

To Love Another

I would like to apologize to a particular person, only to her and to no one else.

E----:

I am so sorry for what I said about the man who passed that you loved. It was such a terrifically horrible and heartless thing for me to say and I regret it.

I am sorry, for what I said.

I truly am.

I truly am.

[mikeo56]

V006 Sync or Swim

#youtube #FLUID DYNAMICS

[mikeo56]

[mikeo56]

Bad baby Good baby

When your dad raped me, I cried out; it hurt. My scream scared the shit out of Jack and then he was angry with me. Yes, babies are aware of anger and fright.

I was a very bad baby, I'm sure Jack would say. I protested and scared him.

I don't remember any other pedophile type encounters with your Dad ever, after this only one, which leads me to believe he really wanted to avoid screaming encounters, unconscious babies, freezing outdoor trips and steeping a baby in hot water...a bad memory for poor little Jack.

I was the first one out the chute and you were the third. I suspect Jack modified his technique to avoid screaming victims by the time you arrived.

You were a good baby, I believe Jack would say and I wonder if Jack spoke to you about the bad baby and who the bad baby was and that everything, including Jack's hand all over your junk was the bad babies fault.

You and I have never gotten along, hardly ever spoken to each other when young and you and yours have actively tried to harm my life, as much as is convenient for you, going on about 30 years now. When you contact people, neighbors etc., that I know or that I am associated with the only common ground you look for is a hatred for me similar to your hatred for me.

Do you have any other business than paying tribute to the bastard that raped you throughout your childhood?

#pedophiles #relatives #pathological

[mikeo56]

[mikeo56]

Question: Is it normal to feel love for the person who sexually assaulted you?

This is such a great question because this is such a misunderstood topic and it sheds some light on misconceptions surrounding sexual assault.

Of sexual abuse cases reported to law enforcement, 93% of juvenile victims knew the perpetrator:

59% were acquaintances

34% were family members

7% were strangers to the victim

Ask yourself, do you have family members that you love? Do you have aquaintences you care about? Friends you love?

Imagine one of those people sexually violates you. Everything you've shared together up until that point doesn't go away. You still remember the good times. Christmas dinner with family, sharing struggles and successes with friends, enjoying an aquaintences company.

To make this relatable to people who have not been assaulted think about this. Everyone has experienced a difficult break up. Did you stop missing that person just because they wronged you? No, you didn't. Being sexually assaulted by someone you care about is the same.

Answer: Yes, it's normal for a person to feel love for someone who sexually assaulted them.

In reality anything a victim of sexual assault feels is normal because who defines normal anyways?

Source: The nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization

-Mitch was groomed by Jack

#pedophiles #groomed #siblings