Author Archives: cleek

Sipping Along The Tube

In the US, we measure fuel economy in miles/gallon—which could just as easily be written as gallons/mile. (This reciprocal form has some advantages. It’s popular in Europe, where it’s expressed as liters per 100 kilometers.)

But regardless of which units you use, there’s something strange going on here. Miles are units of length, and gallons are volume—which is L3. So gallons/mile is L3 / L, which is L2.

Gas mileage is measured in square meters.

You can even plug it into Wolfram|Alpha, and it’ll tell you that 20 MPG is about 0.1 square millimeters (roughly the area of two pixels on a computer screen).

Unit cancellation is weird.

Ok, so what’s the physical interpretation of that number? Is there one?

It turns out there is! If you took all the gas you burned on a trip and stretched it out into a thin tube along your route, 0.1 square millimeters would be the cross-sectional area of that tube.

17

Announcing Smaller Animals' latest album, "17".

It is the 17th album and features the hits "Hills" and "Heavy Decibels", as well as several as-of-yet unreleased gems that will have your and your whole family moving and grooving.

I did not see that coming

For the first time, I built my own PC from parts. Very exciting.

I tried hard to get components with no LEDs, as I am not interested in having something that looks like a Japanese arcade game in my office. For example:

But I also bought the cheapest case I could find. And the two front fans that came with it have white LEDs in them. I hoped I could just turn the LEDs off somehow. But that doesn't seem to be possible.

Even worse:

The LEDs are arranged in these creepy swastikas. So, looks like I have to buy some different fans!

Fun fact: to replace those two fans with identical units would cost about $25. The whole computer case, with two fans, cost $35.

Plastic Recycling Is a Sham

Plastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to a new report.

“The companies lied,” said Richard Wiles, president of fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which published the report. “It’s time to hold them accountable for the damage they’ve caused.”

Plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is notoriously difficult to recycle. Doing so requires meticulous sorting, since most of the thousands of chemically distinct varieties of plastic cannot be recycled together. That renders an already pricey process even more expensive. Another challenge: the material degrades each time it is reused, meaning it can generally only be reused once or twice.

The industry has known for decades about these existential challenges, but obscured that information in its marketing campaigns, the report shows.

Sigh.

Our recycling pickup people won't even take glass anymore. That leaves paper/cardboard and metal as the only things that actually get recycled for us.

Copilot To Tranquility

Me: simple fluorescent yellow and sky-blue mandala with solid colors

Bing's "Copilot" AI: Certainly! Here’s a simple and serene mandala design featuring fluorescent yellow and sky-blue hues. The circular pattern radiates calmness and balance:

  _________ 
 /         \
|   🌟🌟   |
|  🌟🌟🌟  |
| 🌟🌟🌟🌟 |
|  🌟🌟🌟  |
|   🌟🌟   | 
 \_________/

Feel free to imagine this mandala as a tranquil focal point for meditation or simply as a delightful visual treat! 🌈✨

---

It literally gave me an ASCII circle with little yellow stars.

Life Of The Mother

On one hand, weird science:

A baby born in Hong Kong was pregnant with her own siblings at the time of her birth, according to a new report of the infant's case.

The baby's condition, known as fetus-in-fetu, is incredibly rare, occurring in only about 1 in every 500,000 births. It's not clear exactly why it happens.

"Weird things happen early, early in the pregnancy that we just don't understand," said Dr. Draion Burch, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Pittsburgh, who goes by Dr. Drai. "This is one of those medical mysteries."

On the other hand, Missouri Republicans:

The Senate ended debate for the night before a vote could occur on an amendment by Sen. Doug Beck, D-south St. Louis County, which would authorize abortion if the pregnant girl was 12 or younger. Beck raised concerns about health issues for child rape victims forced to carry their pregnancies to term.

The amendment led to a pointed exchange between Beck and Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, who is running for governor.

You want to bring back the institution of abortion so that kids can get abortions in the state of Missouri,” Eigel said to Beck. “A 1-year-old could get an abortion under this,” Eigel said.

If an infant is actually pregnant, I'm gonna say she should probably have an abortion. I'm not sure trying to force her to carry it to term is going to have a good outcome.

lolwut

Kaitlyn Anderson was nearly six months pregnant and an employee for the Missouri Department of Transportation when a vehicle struck and killed her at a worksite.

MoDOT has attempted to claim Anderson's unborn child, Jaxx, as an employee, which would make the case a worker's compensation issue rather than a wrongful death suit.