tumblr_mptlc1tXoB1qao8kio1_500

Most of the principles of the MIT Media Lab I think can be adopted by young professionals looking to make it big. It’s not safe, it’s not sure either, but it definitely re-establishes the connection with intuitive thought (“compasses”) instead of the process-entombed one (“maps”) that’s driving many good ideas and initiatives – like the newspaper – into the ground.

Dance there upon the shore;
What need have you to care
For wind or waters road?
And tumble out your hair
That the salt drops have wet;
Being young you have not known
The fools’ triumph, nor yet
Love lost as soon as won
Nor the best labourer dead
And all the sheaves to bind.
What need have you to dread
The monstrous crying of wind?

 

W.B. Yeats, To a Child Dancing in the Wind

Today feels like such a day…

Insects inspire simpler prosthetics

Evolution’s got everything going for it. Without a doubt, it’s the most powerful and efficient computing algorithm ever conceived – rather to have computed itself into existence. I don’t forget that it’s an axiomatic phenomenon, but humankind has struggled to recreate the same degree of complexity and energy efficiency with the same resources. However, humankind … Read more

A ‘Fight Club’ graphic novel

“About the graphic novel, it’s true. Chelsea Cain has been introducing me to artists and creators from Marvel, DC and Dark Horse, and they’re walking me through the process. It will likely be a series of books that update the story ten years after the seeming end of Tyler Durden. Nowadays, Tyler is telling the story, lurking inside Jack, and ready to launch a come-back. Jack is oblivious. Marla is bored. Their marriage has run aground on the rocky coastline of middle-aged suburban boredom. It’s only when their little boy disappears, kidnapped by Tyler, that Jack is dragged back into the world of Mayhem.

It will, of course, be dark and messy. Due to contract obligations it can’t come to light for a while. Next year is “Beautiful You,” followed by the story collection. But since the Fight Club sequel will appear serialized in graphic form, my book publisher might allow me to launch it earlier than 2015.

Feel free to release any or all of this information. We haven’t started to court a specific publisher, not until I hammer out the complete story.”

Thus spake Chuck Palahniuk at Comic-Con 2013.

Source here.

Better batteries from rice husk

Research in lithium-ion batteries (LIB) is booming because the industries that use it widely are growing in number and expanding in scale. There’s been a steady march toward increasing the charge-capacity of LIBs, and apart from uniquely innovative solutions, the prevalent tendency has been toward replacing graphite anodes with nanoparticulate or nanoporous silicon ones, increasing charge capacity by 400,000%. Manufacturing either isn’t especially difficult, but researchers from South Korea have found that nanoporous silicon dioxide exists naturally in rice husk. Treated properly, they were able to extract nanoporous silicon and use it as anodes in a high-performance LIB (CE 99.7% after 500 cycles). Here are more details.

Another window on ‘new physics’ closes

The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory that has been pieced together over the last 40 years after careful experiments. It accurately predicts the behaviour of various subatomic particles across a range of situations. Even so, it’s not complete: it can explain neither gravity nor anything about the so-called dark universe. Physicists searching … Read more

Second star found to have magnetic-field flips also flips them fast

Tau Bootis A is a Sun-like white-dwarf star about 51 light-years from Earth. Its magnetic field changes polarity once every year as opposed to the 11 years it takes our Sun. While astronomers don’t really know why this is the case, they have a pretty interesting hypothesis: Tau Bootis A has a giant planet orbiting … Read more