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This heron carefully places a tiny piece of bread in the water, then grabs the fish that comes to eat it.
Basically, the very human activity of Fishing.
Green heron using a piece of bread as bait to catch a fish.
Camp counselors leading a group of youth campers on a wilderness excursion had to fight off a bobcat attack on Selden Neck Island in Connecticut on Friday. The New York Times writes that three adults were hospitalized and the animal was killed. — Read the rest
Libraries continue to sign Transformative Agreements while becoming increasingly convinced that they do not represent the desired transformation. Peter Barr explains why this happens.
The post Guest Post — Why Are UK Libraries Signing a Springer-Nature Deal They Don’t Seem to Like? appeared first on The Scholarly Kitchen.
NASA has launched an innovative air quality monitoring instrument into a fixed-rotation orbit around Earth. The tool is called TEMPO, which stands for Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution instrument, and it keeps an eye on a handful of harmful airborne pollutants in the atmosphere, such as nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde and ground-level ozone. These chemicals are the building blocks of smog.
TEMPO traveled to space hitched to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. NASA says the launch was completed successfully, with the atmospheric satellite separating from the rocket without any incidents. NASA acquired the appropriate signal and the agency says the instrument will begin monitoring duties in late May or early June.
Spacecraft separation confirmed! The Intelsat satellite hosting our @NASAEarth & @CenterForAstro#TEMPO mission is flying free from its @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and on its way to geostationary orbit. pic.twitter.com/gKYczeHqV5
— NASA (@NASA) April 7, 2023
TEMPO sits at a fixed geostationary orbit just above the equator and it measures air quality over North America every hour and measures regions spaced apart by just a few miles. This is a significant improvement to existing technologies, as current measurements are conducted within areas of 100 square miles. TEMPO should be able to take accurate measurements from neighborhood to neighborhood, giving a comprehensive view of pollution from both the macro and micro levels.
This also gives us some unique opportunities to pick up new kinds of data, such as changing pollution levels throughout rush hour, the effects of lightning on the ozone layer, the movement of pollution related to forest fires and the long-term effects of fertilizers on the atmosphere, among other data points. More information is never bad.
TEMPO is the middle child in a group of high-powered instruments tracking pollution. South Korea's Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer went up in 2020, measuring pollution over Asia, and the ESA (European Space Agency) Sentinel-4 satellite launches in 2024 to handle European and North African measurements. Other tracking satellites will eventually join TEMPO up there in the great black, including the forthcoming NASA instrument to measure the planet's crust.
You may notice that TEMPO flew into space on a SpaceX rocket and not a NASA rocket. This is by design, as the agency is testing a new business model to send crucial instruments into orbit. Paying a private company seems to be the more budget-friendly option when compared to sending up a rocket itself.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-launches-powerful-air-quality-monitor-to-keep-an-eagle-eye-on-pollution-170321643.html?src=rss
NASA TEMPO launch
The NASA TEMPO launch seen at night from a distance, with the rocket blazing as it takes off.
John Lewis-Stempel visits Ashdown Forest in Sussex, England, to closely observe a 300-year-old oak tree (Quercus robur). From first light until midnight, Lewis-Stempel describes the animals, birds, insects, and flora that depend on it in careful detail. In addition to astonishing you with the sheer variety and volume of creatures that inhabit and visit the tree, this piece will gently slow your heartbeat. You’ll feel your shoulders loosen as you follow Lewis-Stempel’s keen observations. It’s exactly the type of relaxation meditation we can all use.
7.01 am
The leaves of autumn, brought down by the screaming Halloween wind, still lie around the tree in a thick sodden copper mat; the mould is soft on the pads of the returning vixen as she slinks down into her den among the tree’s roots, a rabbit clamped in her jaws from her night prowl. A present for her cubs.
5.16 pm
The ecology of the oak tree is a game of consequences: the newly emerged leaves of the oak are eaten by the pale-green caterpillar of the wintermoth, which, in turn, feeds the blue tit, whose brood has just hatched in yet another of the tree’s cavities; the sparrowhawk, terror of the copse, flashes between the tangled branches, to catch and feed on the blue tit.
In this interview with Claire L. Evans, Ways of Being author James Bridle shares thought-provoking observations about the role of artificial intelligence, the awareness of living in a more-than-human world (and what gardening can teach us about building technology), and the importance of resilience and transmittal of knowledge as the world radically changes.
But I have this very strong sense that one of the broader roles of AI in the present is really just to broaden our idea of intelligence. The very existence, even the idea of artificial intelligence, is a doorway to acknowledging multiple forms of intelligence and infinite kinds of intelligence, and therefore a really quite radical decentering of the human, which has always accompanied our ideas about AI — but mostly incredibly fearfully. There’s always been this fear of another intelligence that will, in some way, overtake us, destroy us. It’s where all the horror of it comes from. And that power is completely valid, if you look at human history, the human use of technology, and the way in which it’s controlled by existing forms of power. But it doesn’t need to be read that way.
Extreme weather conditions have become a topic of grave concern. Are floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and catastrophic storms the new normal?
Just for a moment, let’s travel to a place where extreme weather has always been the norm: Lake Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela.
According to NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission‘s lightning image sensor, it is the lightning capital of the world.
Chalk it up to the unique geography and climate conditions near the confluence of the lake and the Catatumbo River. At night, the moist warm air above the water collides with cool breezes rolling down from the Andes, creating an average of 297 thunderstorms a year.
Watching photographer Jonas Piontek‘s short film documenting the phenomenon, above, it’s not surprising that chief among his tips for shooting lightning at night is a pointed warning to always keep a safe distance from the storm. While viewable from as far as 400 kilometers away, the area nearest the lightning activity can average 28 strikes per minute.
More than 400 years before Piontek shared his impressions with the world, Spanish poet Lope de Vega tapped Catatumbo lightning in his epic 1597 poem La Dragontea, crediting it, erroneously, with having thwarted Sir Francis Drake‘s plans to conquer the city of Maracaibo under cover of night. His poetic license was persuasive enough that it’s still an accepted part of the myth.
The “eternal storm” did however give Venezuelan naval forces a genuine natural assist, by illuminating a squadron of Spanish ships on Lake Maracaibo, which they defeated on July 24, 1823, clearing the way to independence.
Once upon a time, large numbers of local fishermen took advantage of their prime position to fish by night, although with recent deforestation, political conflict, and economic decline decimating the villages where they live in traditional stilted houses, their livelihood is in decline.
Meanwhile the Eternal Storm has itself been affected by forces of extreme weather. In 2010, a drought occasioned by a particularly strong El Niño, caused lightning activity to cease for 6 weeks, its longest disappearance in 104 years.
Environmentalist Erik Quiroga, who is campaigning for the Catatumbo lightning to be designated as the world’s first UNESCO World Heritage Weather Phenomenon warns, “This is a unique gift and we are at risk of losing it.”
See more of Jonas Piontek’s Catatumbo lightning photographs here.
– Ayun Halliday is the Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine and author, most recently, of Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto and Creative, Not Famous Activity Book. Follow her @AyunHalliday.
The Guardian is reporting that one of the episodes of David Attenborough's Wild Isles series will not be broadcast over a feared reaction from the right. The episode, which focuses on the destruction of wildlife in the British Isles, the reasons behind it, and the concept of "rewilding," will only be viewable on the BBC's iPlayer service. — Read the rest
“I have invented a new way of imitating flowers,” Mary Delany, a 72-year-old widow wrote to her niece in 1772 from the grand home where she was a frequent guest, having just captured her hostess’ geranium’s likeness, by collaging cut paper in a nearly identical shade.
Novelty rekindled the creative fire her husband’s death had dampened.
Former pursuits such as needlework, silhouette cut outs, and shell decorating went by the wayside as she dedicated herself fully to her botanical-themed “paper mosaicks.”
Over the next decade Mrs. Delany produced 985 astonishingly floral representations from meticulously cut, hand colored tissue, which she glued to hand painted black backings, and labeled with the specimens’ taxonomic and common names, as well as a collection of numbers, date and provenance.
In the beginning, she took inspiration from a giant collection of botanical specimens amassed by the celebrated botanist Sir Joseph Banks, with whom she became acquainted while spending summers at Bulstrode, the Buckinghamshire estate of her friend Margaret Bentinck, duchess of Portland and a fellow enthusiast of the natural world.
Bulstrode also provided her with abundant source material. The estate boasted botanic, flower, kitchen, ancient and American gardens, as well a staff botanist, the Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander charged with cataloguing their contents according to the Linnaean system.
Sir Joseph Banks commended Mrs. Delany’s powers of observation, declaring her assemblages “the only imitations of nature” from which he “could venture to describe botanically any plant without the least fear of committing an error.”
They also succeed as art.
Molly Peacock, author of The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72, appears quite overcome by Mrs. Delany’s Passiflora laurifolia – more commonly known as water lemon, Jamaican honeysuckle or vinegar pear:
The main flower head … is so intensely public that it’s as if you’ve come upon a nude stody. She splays out approximately 230 shockingly vulvular purplish pink petals in the bloom, and inside the leaves she places the slenderest of ivory veins also cut separately from paper, with vine tendrils finer that a girl’s hair. It is so fresh that it looks wet and full of desire, yet the Passiflora is dull and matte
Mrs. Delany’s exquisitely rendered paper flowers became high society sensations, fetching her no small amount of invitations from titled hosts and hostesses, clamoring for specimens from their gardens to be immortalized in her growing Flora Delanica.
She also received donations of exotic plants at Balstrode, where greenhouses kept non-native plants alive, as she gleefully informed her niece in a 1777 letter, shortly after completing her work:
I am so plentifully supplied with the hothouse here, and from the Queen’s garden at Kew, that natural plants have been a good deal laid aside this year for foreigners, but not less in favour. O! How I long to show you the progress I have made.
Her work was in such demand, that she streamlined her creation process from necessity, coloring paper in batches, and working on several pieces simultaneously.
Her failing eyesight forced her to stop just shy of her goal of one thousand flowers.
She dedicated the ten volumes of Flora Delanica to her friend, the duchess of Portland, mistress of Balstrode “(whose) approbation was such a sanction to my undertaking, as made it appear of consequence and gave me courage to go on with confidence.”
She also reflected on the great undertaking of her seventh decade in a poem:
Hail to the happy hour! When fancy led
My pensive mind this flow’ry path to tread;
And gave me emulation to presume
With timid art to trace fair Nature’s bloom.
Explore The British Museum’s interactive archive of Mary Delany’s botanical paper collages here.
All images © The Trustees of the British Museum, republished under a Creative Commons license.
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– Ayun Halliday is the Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine and author, most recently, of Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto and Creative, Not Famous Activity Book. Follow her @AyunHalliday.
From adorable pets to exotic safaris, the Pokémon universe offers a sprawling jungle gym for players. Writer and gamer Nate Carlin gives a guided tour of what he calls the franchise's naive ecotopia.
The post Into the Not-So-Wild World of Pokémon appeared first on Edge Effects.
Everything that Signature Kitchen Suite creates is a masterclass in demonstrating respect for food at every level. From performance to intelligent design to precision, the brand honors the ones who are producing and preparing it – and, of course, the lucky individuals who get to enjoy the fruits of their labor. It’s through these details and dedication that the brand stays True to food and wellness. Now, Signature Kitchen Suite has introduced the 48-inch Built-in French Door Refrigerator/Freezer, providing never-before-seen capacity and functionality – imagine the possibilities!
Ideal for large families, entertainers, and home chefs, the 48-inch French Door Refrigerator/Freezer is a true workhorse that features innovative preservation features, a sleek design, and more. A standout element is the 5-mode convertible drawer that allows you to select a temperature zone to best suit what you’re storing. Choose between Chilled Wine, Fridge/Deli, Meats/Seafood, and Cold Drinks – or drop the temperature to turn the entire unit into an extra freezer. This functionality goes a long way toward increasing food freshness and lifespan, while also making the appliance work in the way that best suits your needs and lifestyle. Dual compressors, a stunning metal interior, and engineering to minimize temperature fluctuations to +/-1° F provide further enhanced food preservation.
Signature Kitchen Suite’s latest episode of True to food with Mark Bittman features Kaitlin Guerin, owner and pastry chef at Lagniappe Bakery in New Orleans. Guerin stresses the importance of using fresh ingredients and being able to control time and temperature when in the kitchen. These are the main elements that decide how long it will take to produce different parts of her pastries – be it hours or days. As Guerin shares, the desserts she makes can only be as good as what goes into them, and high tech refrigeration like that from Signature Kitchen Suite keeps ingredients at their peak for longer. Once the various components of the desserts are created, everything is stored at different temperatures for different lengths of time using temperature zones. “These pastries are temperature controlled so they maintain their balance of flavor and texture,” Guerlin explained. What she does and how she achieves it is truly an art form, with Signature Kitchen Suite eliminating worry of freshness and helping Lagniappe Bakery achieve success.
Signature Kitchen Suite puts a lot of effort into designing and bringing to life appliances that will improve your quality of living. But beyond exceptional food preservation, what else can you do to increase well-being and eliminate stress within your kitchen? With spring on the horizon, we spoke to experts Sarah Barnard, Blair Costello, and Diana Ryu to learn some ways to easily create a joy-filled space where we look forward to spending time.
The 48-inch French Door Refrigerator/Freezer’s ample capacity is impressive, with enough space to accommodate the largest of trays and tallest of bottles. Say goodbye to contorting containers or relegating leftovers to the basement fridge – there’s space enough for it all and then some right here.
The overall design also makes it easy to see what you have in stock. Blair Costello, of Vera Iconica Architecture, designs retreat experiences, workplaces, and life experiences at home with health and holistic wellness in mind. With so many seasonal fruits and vegetables making their appearance this month, there are more options at hand than we’ve had all winter. “Being part of the [cooking] process kicks off digestion and hones your relationship with food, and with yourself.” Costello suggests stocking a diverse pantry full of whole grains and legumes – as well as spices – to help boost nutrition and give you the tools needed to change up meals rotated through on a regular basis. Fresh foods are many things, but boring is not one of their qualities.
Costello added, “Digestion begins with the eyes, so put healthier snacks (fresh fruits, fresh bread, fresh vegetables, etc.) within eyesight to encourage those habits. These small environmental nudges can have a big impact.” Costello added, “Our mind and body are truly connected. What you eat will impact your body function, mental function, and state. Invest in quality food. For me, wellness in the kitchen space revolves around the quality of the ingredients, with a big focus on locally grown produce and locally raised and pastured meats.”
The 48-inch French Door Refrigerator/Freezer also has something special for the ice lovers – you know who you are. The freezer includes a dual ice maker that gives you the option of traditional ice or slow-melting, spherical Craft Ice. If your cocktail game is strong, this is a way to take it to the next level. Relax more with your afterwork beverage or entertain with ease while enjoying this fun feature.
Putting groceries away and meal prepping just got a bit more stress-free with Signature Kitchen Suite’s exclusive Lift and Go Drawers. They make interacting with the appliance incredibly easy, with minimal effort on your part when it comes to lifting. The drawers also make regular cleaning and accidental spills easier to remedy, something we can all appreciate when it comes to unwelcome messes.
Sarah Barnard, WELL AP + LEED AP, is a leading designer of personalized, sustainable spaces that support mental, physical, and emotional well-being. When it comes to a more convenient kitchen, Barnard suggests creating a setup while spring cleaning that will help streamline daily routines and reduce moments of friction apt to build up throughout the day. This can be as simple as knowing where regularly used items are stored and keeping countertops clean for a peaceful start to cooking. Digging deeper, it might mean utilizing a pantry to its fullest capabilities or purging cabinets of their belongings to create more order. “It’s also essential to ensure that the kitchen is more than a place of utility and includes items of joy,” Barnard finds. “If listening to music is part of the cooking experience, having quality kitchen speakers will make a substantial difference in the pleasure of preparing food.”
We can also bring more wellness into our kitchens through good light and a view of nature. This doesn’t mean you need to knock down an exterior wall and install floor-to-ceiling windows – there are workarounds to make both elements a part of your cooking space. If you do have windows in your kitchen, take advantage by making sure the blinds or curtains are open and letting in fresh spring air when weather permits. And if those windows happen to face a backyard or greenspace, all the better.
Diana Ryu is the owner of Namu Home Goods. The brand strives to highlight the natural beauty of wood, sourcing gallery-quality woodwork from Korea with a Korean-American aesthetic. She recommends adding a table lamp to brighten up the room, something that we’ve been seeing more of recently in kitchens. It adds a layer of comfort and warmth that can make a difference during those lingering dark mornings of spring.
Ryu also suggests creating a relaxing ritual. “I keep an incense chamber and incense that I light every morning when I put my kettle on for tea. I like the ritual of lighting the incense, smelling the scent, and hearing the water start to boil.” Easing your way into the new day sets the tone for the rest of it, and savoring even a small moment can make for a stress-free start.
When it comes to incorporating nature, the solution may be as simple as a windowsill garden that can be utilized to add flavor and vitamins to your favorite dishes – and it’s the perfect time of year to start one. “I love growing my own produce, and having that experience extend into my kitchen space has become a significant part of the joy of cooking,” Barnard said. “I keep a small garden on my windowsill of herbs and plants I’ve started from vegetable scraps and have views of my garden from my kitchen, which helps make the gardening experience feel like an active part of my food preparation. Being conscious of where my food comes from and having that be a part of my kitchen design makes me feel more mindful and connected to what I’m cooking.” Adding a garden space in your kitchen can also nicely coexist with creating efficient systems for recycling and composting.
Costello recommends we stay away from cookware coated with Teflon or other “non-stick” coatings when enameled, cast iron, carbon steel, and stainless steel cookware have been proven non-toxic. “Invest in high-quality, heirloom cookware and bakeware. It will be healthiest for you (from a toxicity standpoint) and future generations will get to share in the use and experience of these items as well.” You can also choose to swap out pieces seasonally for more variety when sitting down to a weeknight dinner or entertaining on the weekend.
Many people don’t view the kitchen as a room where art belongs, but we have to disagree because it brings joy, just as Barnard mentions. “It doesn’t have to be fine art,” Ryu suggests. She suggests doing a quick spring refresh by adding “Prints, beautiful ceramic plates, cups from small artists, pretty spoons and forks – and lots of big bowls on the counter filled with fruits and vegetables. They’re attractive and also healthy.” Barnard adds that visible storage of produce may also encourage the prioritization of these foods, which is something to make a habit of.
Spring’s warmer weather is the impetus to come out of hibernation, optimize your kitchen space, and welcome life back into your home. Ryu and Barnard agree that the positive experience circles back to who you’re surrounding yourself with, with Ryu adding, “There’s nothing better for our health than a loving community.” Technology, like that used in the 48-inch French Door Refrigerator/Freezer, can help further improve upon these times spent together with its capacity and capabilities. “Increasing options in diverse refrigeration systems can be a great asset when hosting, giving guests more independence and hosts more privacy and time to socialize,” shared Barnard. Pastry chef Guerin agreed, adding “There’s always a reason to celebrate, there’s always a reason to eat good food, to be around family and friends.”
The 48-inch French Door Refrigerator/Freezer is available panel ready or with accessory stainless steel panels. Through temperature control, capacity, and flexibility, Signature Kitchen Suite’s refrigeration products can help you confidently keep your food fresh longer and improve on your time spent in the kitchen. To learn more, visit signaturekitchensuite.com.
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Nature Portals is an immersive trip through a neural network of alien-like plants. Each plant has a "portal" in the center, which acts as a hypnotic focal point for each scene. Both the music and psychedelic imagery in this video helped to reset my mind after a stressful day. — Read the rest
Outdoor enthusiasts of a non-vegetarian stripe, do you weary of garden variety energy bars and trail mix?
Perhaps you’re feeling adventurous enough to make your own pemmican, variously described by Tasting History’s Max Miller, above, as “history’s Power Bar” and “a meaty version of a survival food that has a shelf life not measured in months but in decades, just like hard tack.”
Perhaps you’re already well acquainted with this low-carb, ketogenic portable provision, a culinary staple of the upper half of North America long before the first European traders set foot on the land. Many indigenous communities across North America are still producing pemmican for both personal and ceremonial consumption.
Back in 1743, Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader James Isham was one of the first to document pemmican production for an English readership:
[Meat] beat between two Stones, till some of itt is as small as Dust…when pounded they putt itt into a bag and will Keep for several Years, the Bones they also pound small and Boil them…to Reserve the fatt, which fatt is fine and sweet as any Butter…Reckon’d by some Very good food by the English as well as Natives.
Perhaps now would be a good time to give thanks for the plentiful food options most of us have access to in the 21st-century (and pay it forward with a donation to an organization fighting food insecurity…)
A time may come when knowing how to make pemmican could give us a leg up on surviving, but for now, execution of this recipe is likely more of a curiosity satisfier.
To be fair, it’s not designed to be a delicacy, but rather an extremely long lasting source of calories, four times as nourishing as the same weight of fresh meat.
If you want to try it, lay in 2 pounds of meat – bison is historically the most popular and most documented, but deer, elk, moose, beef, fish, or fowl work well too.
You’ll also need an equal amount of suet, though heed Miller’s advice and add just enough to make things stick.
Bump the flavor up a notch with ground dried berries, sugar, or salt.
(Miller went the traditional route with chokeberries, procured in an extremely 21st-century manner.)
In terms of appliances, feel free to use such modern conveniences as your oven, your blender, and a small pan or mold.
(Please report back if you take the old school route with fire, direct sunlight, mortar, pestle, and a bag formed from undressed hide.)
Given Miller’s response to the finished dish, we’re hunching most of us will rest content to feast on historical context alone, as Miller digs into the Pemmican Proclamation of 1814, the Seven Oaks Incident and the unique role the biracial, bilingual Métis people of Canada played in the North American fur trade…
Those still up for it should feel free to take their pemmican to the next level by boiling it with wild onions or the tops of parsnips, to produce a rubaboo or rechaud, as bushcrafter Mark Young does below.
You can also get a taste of pemmican by ordering the Tanka Bars that Oglala Lakota-owned small business produces on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation.
Watch more of Max Miller’s Tasting History videos here.
– Ayun Halliday is the Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine and author, most recently, of Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto and Creative, Not Famous Activity Book. Follow her @AyunHalliday.
Tesla's production capacities are in store for a significant growth spurt, CEO Elon Musk told the crowd assembled at the company's Austin, Texas Gigafactory for Investor Day 2023 — and AI will apparently be the magic bullet that gets them there. It's all part of what Musk is calling Master Plan part 3.
This is indeed Musk's third such Master Plan, the first two coming in 2006 and 2016, respectively. These have served as a roadmap for the company's growth and development over the past 17 years as Tesla has grown from neophyte startup to the world's leading EV automaker. "There is a clear path to a sustainable energy Earth by 2050 and it does not require destroying natural habitats," Musk said during the keynote address.
"You could support a civilization much bigger than Earth [currently does]. Much more than the 8 billion humans could actually be supported sustainably on Earth and I'm just often shocked and surprised by how few people realize this," he continued. He promised that the company would release a "detailed whitepaper with calculations & assumptions," via Twitter during the event.
Main Tesla subjects will be scaling to extreme size, which is needed to shift humanity away from fossil fuels, and AI.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2022
But I will also Include sections about SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company.
The Master Plan aims to establish a sustainable energy economy by developing 240 terraWatt hours (TWH) of energy storage and 30 TWH of renewable power generation, which would require an estimated $10 trillion investment, roughly 10 percent of the global GDP. Musk notes, however, that figure is less than half of what we spend currently on internal combustion economy. In all, he anticipates we'd need less than 0.2 percent of the world's land area to create the necessary solar and wind generation capacity.
"All cars will go to fully electric and autonomous," Musk declared, arguing once again that ICE vehicles will soon be viewed in the same disdain as the horse and buggy. He also teased potential plans to electrify aircraft and ships. "As we improve the energy density of batteries, you’ll see all transportation go fully electric, with the exception of rockets,” he said. No further details as to when or how that might be accomplished were shared.
“A sustainable energy economy is within reach and we should accelerate it,” Drew Baglino, Tesla's SVP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering, added.
Following Musk's opening statement, Tesla executives Lars Moravy and Franz von Holzhausen took the stage to discuss the company's "production hell" and the challenges of building the Cybertruck out of stainless steel. However, the lessons learned from that, Moravy argued will help Tesla build its Gen 3 vehicles more efficiently, and do so within a far smaller factory footprint. von Holzhausen announced to a rousing round of applause that the Cybertruck will arrive later this year, a significantly closer date than Musk's previous public estimate that production wouldn't begin until next year.
Unfortunately, there will be no new vehicle reveal at this event, von Holzhausen said. That announce will happen "at a later date."
The company did tease a new video featuring the Tesla Robot walking independently and without the aide of a support frame though there was no live demonstration of the same. Despite difficulties finding suitable off-the-shelf actuators and motors for the humanoid robot platform, "we should bring and actual produce to market at scale that is useful far faster than anyone else," Musk said.
He further expects the company's robots to become so successful that we may soon see a day where they outnumber humans. "I think we might exceed a one-to-one ratio of robots to humans," he added. "It's not even clear what an economy means at that point."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-lays-out-his-vision-for-teslas-future-at-the-companys-investor-day-2023-215737642.html?src=rss
2022 China International Fair For Trade In Services (CIFTIS) - Previews
BEIJING, CHINA - AUGUST 29: A Tesla logo is displayed at Tesla booth ahead of the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) at China National Convention Center on August 29, 2022 in Beijing, China. The 2022 CIFTIS is slated to be held in Beijing from August 31 to September 5 to provide platforms for exchanges in service trade. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
The United States Postal Service isn't pinning all its electrification hopes on next-gen mail delivery vehicles. The service has signed a contract to buy 9,250 Ford E-Transit electric vans, with the first units arriving in December. The handover should be complete by the end of 2024, Ford adds. The USPS is also placing its early orders for over 14,000 charging stations for its facilities across the country.
The USPS already plans to buy at least 60,000 of its Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV) by 2028, with 75 percent of them being electric. The Ford vans are part of an additional plan to buy 21,000 "off-the-shelf" EVs. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says this helps the USPS quickly act on a strategy that improves mail service and working conditions while keeping costs down for the self-sufficient agency. The total vehicle investment is expected to cost $9.6 billion, including $3 billion in funding thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.
The charging network may not grow as quickly. The USPS expects to provide chargers to at least 75 locations within the next year, but doesn't estimate how it will expand in following years.
The overall EV push represents a sharp break from the initial plans. The USPS originally expected that most of its NGDV orders would be for gas-based trucks. The Biden administration fought that approach, claiming that the USPS under DeJoy ignored Environmental Protection Agency advice, rejected public hearings and relied on "biased" estimates. The service challenged the administration before relenting and shifting most of its purchases to electric models.
The transition will play an important part in the government's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions for itself and the country at large. The USPS represents the largest federal vehicle fleet — its EV purchases will have a significant impact relative to other agencies.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-usps-is-buying-9250-ford-electric-vans-213034903.html?src=rss
2022 Ford E-Transit electric van
2022 Ford E-Transit electric van
When Venice was way under water a decade ago, we posted about it here on Open Culture. By that time, the City of Canals was supposed to have been protected by MOSE, a $7 billion flood-control system not actually completed until 2021. But a drought struck the following year, and what afflicts Venice right now isn’t an excess of water but a lack of it. “Weeks of dry winter weather have raised concerns that Italy could face another drought after last summer’s emergency,” reports Reuters, “with the Alps having received less than half of their normal snowfall.”
Venice in particular “faces unusually low tides that are making it impossible for gondolas, water taxis and ambulances to navigate some of its famous canals,” a phenomenon blamed on a combination of factors including “the lack of rain, a high pressure system, a full moon, and sea currents.”
The Guardian video above includes, among other dispiriting scenes, a gondolier struggling to maneuver through one of the canals of Venice not quite reduced to muddy ditches. It also shows the contrast with the flooding Venice endured as recently as 2019, which had tourists and locals alike up to their knees in water.
These conditions are striking, but not unprecedented in Venice’s history of over a millennium and a half. “Although they’ve become significantly less frequent over the past two decades due to rising sea levels, Venice still sees one to ten low tides every year,” writes The Local‘s Giampietro Vianello. “The city has seen 160 low tides with levels equal to or lower than -90cm since 1872, whereas the current tide has ‘only’ reached the -70cm mark so far.” Forecasts do indicate a rainfall to come across northern Italy, but at least until then, modern-day Robert Benchleys will have to alter their message back home: “Streets empty of water. Please advise.”
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How Venice Works: 124 Islands, 183 Canals & 438 Bridges
A Relaxing 3-Hour Tour of Venice’s Canals
Watch Venice’s New $7 Billion Flood Defense System in Action
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletter Books on Cities, the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.
Bird Lady Drin has found a clever way to observe birds up close. She's constructed a bird-feeder by attaching a paper plate to her face, and shielding her eyes with sunglasses. She wraps her body up in blankets to disguise herself, then sits and waits for the birds to come and take seeds from the plate. — Read the rest
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