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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: October 6th, 2023

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  • Researchers are combining the best attributes from each microbe to engineer enzymes that can convert CO2 from coal-fired power plant emissions into calcium carbonate—a mineral that can later be sold as a concrete additive or for other industrial purposes.

    Gotta be honest, that’s pretty slick. Making concrete is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to adding CO2 to the atmosphere. Concrete has a very high carbon footprint. If we can find a way to make concrete carbon neutral, or even carbon negative… That would be truly transformative.


  • Yes, those are both valid solutions.

    However, in some cities public transit isn’t very good, there aren’t enough lines to actually get you where you need to go consistently. Outside of cities, public transit is mostly non-existent, so you need something else. Taxis can work, but they’re also expensive and you have to rely on others, which can also be anxiety inducing. What if my taxi doesn’t show up, or shows up late? What if the taxi driver makes me feel unsafe? I expect some people would like to be more in control of the situation, just without having to actually drive.

    Hey, these things may not apply to you, and that’s fine, I’m glad there are simpler solutions for most people. But having used public transit every day for many years, I can honestly say that while it is usually the cheapest and most efficient solution, I can still understand why people might want something else.


  • And yet I still know people who are just so chuffed about “never having to drive again.”

    I mean, I think that part is 100% understandable. I get that many people in fact enjoy driving, but likewise, many people do not. For many a driving commute is the most anxiety inducing part of their day, and they’d be happy to be rid of it.

    That’s the promise that self driving cars present. They just aren’t actually capable enough yet. From what I gather though, waymo is probably the farthest along of any of these companies. I don’t think I’d trust them for complicated Boston area driving though. To many narrow, winding roads complete with active road work, aggressive drivers, rotaries, etc…




  • Maybe if instead of pegs they used little wheels you could turn revealing 1 color at a time. Everything built in, no parts to lose.

    Think of the game “guess who”, you just flip the portraits down, but they stay attached, that’s the design philosophy to match.

    Also, there are definitely mastermind mobile games. I actually really like a deductive mobile game called “crossme”.








  • Well it did a simulated landing in the sea. (And then exploded)

    We know that was the plan all along and that it landed on target because there was a camera buoy sitting in the ocean waiting to record the landing. Which it did.

    Yeah they blew an engine, but that’s kinda what redundancy is all about.

    Do you know how many times the Saturn V had to make early shutdowns on one of its engines? It’s easier to say how many times it didn’t have early shutdowns: 0. On every single launch they had to shut off at least 1 engine early as the combustion became unstable; this is just part of the game.