Section of Trump’s Wall topples over in high wind

January 29, 2020January 29, 20205 Comments

Click to enlarge

Newly installed panels from the US border wall fell over in high winds Wednesday, landing on trees on the Mexican side of the border.

The area is part of an ongoing construction project to improve existing sections of the wall…

The National Weather Service reports that winds in the area gusted as high as 37 mph Wednesday. Video from CNN affiliate KYMA shows the metal panels leaning against trees adjacent to a Mexicali, Mexico, street as the wind whips up dirt from the construction site on the other side of the border.

“We are grateful there was no property damage or injuries,” said Pitones.

Keep the Fake President away from there. He produces enough wind to knock over miles of his crap wall.

A mouse killed the fox

January 29, 2020January 28, 20201 Comment

In a move at once unsurprising and highly symbolic, the Walt Disney Company is dropping the “Fox” brand from the 21st Century Fox assets it acquired last March, Variety has learned. The 20th Century Fox film studio will become 20th Century Studios, and Fox Searchlight Pictures will become simply Searchlight Pictures…

Those logos won’t be dramatically altered, just updated. The most notable change is that the word “Fox” has been removed from the logo marks. Otherwise, the signature elements — swirling klieg lights, monolith, triumphal fanfare — will remain the same…

As one insider puts it, “I think the Fox name means Murdoch, and that is toxic.”

I’ll second that emotion.

Builders may someday grow their own cement

January 29, 2020January 28, 2020Leave a comment

In a study published…in the journal Matter, engineer Wil Srubar and his colleagues describe their strategy for using bacteria to develop building materials that live and multiply—and might deliver a lower carbon footprint, to boot.

“We already use biological materials in our buildings, like wood, but those materials are no longer alive,” said Srubar, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, CU Boulder. “We’re asking: Why can’t we keep them alive and have that biology do something beneficial, too?”…

Such structures could, one day, heal their own cracks, suck up dangerous toxins from the air or even glow on command…

In the new study, the team discovered that under a range of humidity conditions, they have about the same strength as the mortar used by contractors today…You can step on it, and it won’t break…

The researchers also discovered that they could make their materials reproduce. Chop one of these bricks in half, and each of half is capable of growing into a new brick.

Maybe not real soon; but…pretty interesting experiments.