Breaking Bad Habits

Best- selling author James Clear notes most of your actions are influenced by your surroundings. He says you can manipulate those surroundings to make your desired habits obvious, attractive, easy to do, and satisfying.

James Clear first experienced the power of habits when he was seriously injured during a high school baseball game. Struck in the face with a baseball bat, he fell into a coma. He was determined to play baseball again one day and went through painstaking physical therapy. When he was able to walk again, he made a habit of hitting the gym and going to sleep early. In college, he continued working out and going to sleep early—and eventually, these habits paid off. Clear joined the college baseball team, and he was named to the ESPN Academic All-America Team at the end of his college career.

Having taken painstaking notes, Clear saw the true power of minute habits. And in his bestseller, Atomic Habits, Clear synthesizes everything he’s learned about habits—from keeping good ones to losing bad ones—and illuminates the transformative power of tiny, everyday behaviors.

1. Habits are compound-interest gains
On its own, an action like flossing your teeth or buying a cup of coffee seems pretty insignificant. After all, one missed night of flossing won’t immediately give you a cavity. And one cup of coffee, even a fancy $5 latte, won’t break your budget.

But what if you got a $5 coffee every day for a month? What if you got one every day for a year? That adds up to more than $1,800 a year to feed your coffee addiction! When actions become habits, they gain exponential power.  READ MORE...

Bowwhip Master

 

Embracer Phenom 300

It’s been the best-selling light jet for nine years running: the Embraer Phenom 300 series. And now a newer, faster, and safer version — the enhanced Phenom 300E — has entered the picture. We dive into what makes this twin jet so desirable.

It’s slick, innovative, comfortable, efficient, safe. If you ask a Phenom 300 series operator what they love about the plane, these are some of the answers you’re likely to hear. It’s been the best-selling light jet for nine years running, and it’s no coincidence. More than 600 Phenom 300 series aircraft have been delivered since the aircraft entered service in December 2009, and the type is flying in more than 30 countries.

So, what makes this twin jet so desirable?

Embraer brought the Phenom 300 to market just over a decade ago, with the goal to challenge the status quo of the light jet category.

“They accomplished that well, and that’s why it’s popular,” said Glenn Thorpe, director of sales and marketing at Canadian private charter and aircraft management company, Flightpath.

One of Flightpath’s Embraer Phenom 300s in flight. Nearly half of Flightpath’s fleet is composed of Embraer products, including the Phenom 100 and 300 series. Rod Dermo Photo

“‘Embraer’ immediately implies a more modern product,” he added. “That innovation is there to make the pilot or the owner/operator’s life easy.”

Powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) PW535E turbofan engines, the Phenom 300E can fly distances up to 2,010 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 464 knots, with a 45,000-foot service ceiling. It’s a clean-sheet design, compared to other business jets. And best of all, it’s simple.

“Embraer really got all the automation right in their design,” said Flightpath Captain Osama Arafat. “Ninety percent of all the switches in the cockpit are in auto-mode, and they stay there. It’s very simple from a design perspective. . . . [Embraer’s] pedigree is airliners, and they brought that level of safety innovation into the business jet market when designing the Phenoms.”

The first Phenom 300 series aircraft was added to Flightpath’s fleet in 2015, followed by a second in 2020, with a third (the new Phenom 300E) on its way later this year. The company’s total fleet today is 14 aircraft — nearly half of which are Embraer products, including the Phenom 100; each aircraft is owned by a private individual, and managed by Flightpath.

Headquartered at the Region of Waterloo International Airport (YKF), with locations across Ontario and Quebec, the luxury charter flight company had a vision 15 years ago to offer a better experience for both aircraft owners and their management and acquisition services, as well as charter clientele. “We wanted to offer a very personalized approach to that,” described Thorpe.  READ MORE...

Birds

 

NASA's Rover

WHAT’S A MARS ROBOT to do with its downtime? The hard-working Perseverance rover takes a break from searching for signs of habitability on Mars every once in a while to just stare at the sky. But in a fortuitous turn of events, something stared back: Deimos, the smaller of the planet’s two moons.

NASA’s Perseverance rover captured the gorgeous footage of the moon sparkling in the sky earlier this year — and NASA did us all a favor and released the video via the rover’s Twitter account.

“Sky watching is fun no matter where you are,” the Perseverance team writes on Twitter. “I took this short time lapse movie to watch for clouds, and caught something else: look closely and you’ll see Deimos, one of two moons of Mars.”

“Perseverance was busying capturing images of Mars’ clouds when it caught something else: Deimos,” Inverse’s Passant Rabie wrote in August. “This is the smaller of the two Martian moons and is shaped a bit like a potato.”

DEIMOS: A BRIEF HISTORY
Deimos, named for the Roman god of panic, is one of the smallest moons in the Solar System, measuring a mere seven miles in diameter. That is smaller than the length of Manhattan.


Deimos orbits Mars once every 30 hours and has a sibling moon, Phobos, that’s somewhat closer to Mars. American astronomer Asaph Hall spotted both the moons in 1877.

The moons seem to be made of the same materials, but their origin remains murky. They could be captured asteroids, but other evidence suggests that they could be pieces of Mars kicked up by an impact. Some scenarios even suggest that Deimos formed from a larger former moon.  READ MORE...

Cold Morning

Let's Be Honest Here

Darkside

Guide to Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park stretches over 500,000 acres across Tennessee and North Carolina, and is known for its wildlife and historic homesteads. It’s the most visited national park in the country (yes, beating Yellowstone), with 12 million visitors in the last year alone.

With six park entrances to choose from, it’s important to base yourself near the sites you most want to see. Each gateway town has its own personality, but most don't get as much press as well-known Gatlinburg. Here, we break down what each of the six towns has to offer to help you decide where to stay for your Smokies getaway.

All listings featured in this story are independently selected by our editors. However, when you book something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Bryson City and Cherokee, North Carolina
Bryson City is the hub for the North Carolina Smokies and is popular with families riding the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, as the best-known route snakes through the mountains between Bryson City and Dillsboro. Train tickets include admission to the Smoky Mountain Trains Museum, which has over 7,000 model train engines and cars.

Neighboring Cherokee is an essential stop for learning about the Native people who were forcibly removed from this land in 1838. The tribe still has a presence here, and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian details their 11,000-year history. Support the community by shopping for Cherokee-made crafts at Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc.

When you’re feeling peckish, Naber’s Drive In is like stepping back in time, complete with carhop service and a simple menu featuring burgers and hot dogs. Anthony's Restaurant, in the heart of downtown Bryson City, is known for its white pizza and garlic knots (you'll need to fuel up for all that hiking, after all).

Cozy up at Sky Ridge Yurts, located just across the river from rafting outfitters like Nantahala Outdoor Center. The permanent tents have porches overlooking the forest, fire pits, full-sized bathrooms, WiFi, televisions, and kitchens (some come with kitchenettes, others offer full set-ups).  READ MORE...

Baby Turtle

 

Fusion Reaction Creates More Energy Than It Absorbs

A major milestone has been breached in the quest for fusion energy.

For the first time, a fusion reaction has achieved a record 1.3 megajoule energy output – and for the first time, exceeding energy absorbed by the fuel used to trigger it.

Although there's still some way to go, the result represents a significant improvement on previous yields: eight times greater than experiments conducted just a few months prior, and 25 times greater than experiments conducted in 2018. It's a huge achievement.

Physicists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will be submitting a paper for peer review.

"This result is a historic step forward for inertial confinement fusion research, opening a fundamentally new regime for exploration and the advancement of our critical national security missions. It is also a testament to the innovation, ingenuity, commitment and grit of this team and the many researchers in this field over the decades who have steadfastly pursued this goal," said Kim Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

"For me, it demonstrates one of the most important roles of the national labs – our relentless commitment to tackling the biggest and most important scientific grand challenges and finding solutions where others might be dissuaded by the obstacles."

Inertial confinement fusion involves creating something like a tiny star. It starts with a capsule of fuel, consisting of deuterium and tritium – heavier isotopes of hydrogen. This fuel capsule is placed in a hollow gold chamber about the size of a pencil eraser called a hohlraum.  READ MORE...

Illusion

 

A Conscious Universe

(Image credit: NASA/Shutterstock)

As humans, we know we are conscious because we experience and feel things. Yet scientists and great thinkers are unable to explain what consciousness is and they are equally baffled about where it comes from.

"Consciousness — or better, conscious experience — is obviously a part of reality," said Johannes Kleiner, a mathematician and theoretical physicist at the Munich Center For Mathematical Philosophy, Germany. "We're all having it but without understanding how it relates to the known physics, our understanding of the universe is incomplete."

With that in mind, Kleiner is hoping math will enable him to precisely define consciousness. Working with colleague Sean Tull, a mathematician at the University of Oxford, U.K., the pair are being driven, to some degree, by a philosophical point of view called panpsychism.

This claims consciousness is inherent in even the tiniest pieces of matter — an idea that suggests the fundamental building blocks of reality have conscious experience. Crucially, it implies consciousness could be found throughout the universe.  READ MORE...

Higgs

 

To Each His Own

My thoughts collect the dust of time unless I put them down on paper and share them with whoever and/or whomever wants to read them...

I am a Vietnam Veteran and the GI Bill paid for my undergraduate and graduate degrees but I do not favor military aggressions into foreign lands to preserve a democracy and freedoms that those people "over there" do not really want.  It is wrong to force our values or our faith on other people.

It is just as wrong for our own American government to force its values and faith on its citizens...  that is to say, there is no justification for our government to force the acceptance of transgendered people on the rest of us.  If they want to change sex, let them change sex but don't force me to accept them or invite them into my home or my place of business.

MLK Jr. believed that we should judge people by their character and not their color, but CRT and WOKENESS wants to teach us to judge people on their color alone and be damned with their character.  This is fundamentally wrong on so many levels of morals, values, and ethics...  not to mention common sense as it will perpetuate RACISM not end it.

I think people should be allowed to drink whatever alcoholic drink that they want to drink...  AND, I believe that people should be able to take whatever illegal drug that they want to take...  as long as that consumption does not infringe upon my rights...  LIVE AND LET LIVE...  however, these substances should be taxed...  but, how much of a tax is above my pay grade and desire to give a damn.

I have a very strong belief that our Federal Government should be as small as possible and in so doing will collect the least amount of taxes in order to finance that government.  Our Federal Government should have minimal regulations on business and if business begins operating in a way that hurts the people, then the people can boycott that business.  This would be a variation of the "invisible hand."  

The people should have the POWER, not the Federal Government or the POLITICIANS...  and, while we are mentioning politicians, all of them should only serve one term.  And, LOBBYING should be illegal.

People should be allowed to own firearms period...  handguns, rifles, shotguns, etc.  whether they are collectors, hunters, just wanting to shoot at ranges or simply exercising their constitutional right...  BUT, there is no reason for any civilian to own any type of automatic or semi-automatic weapon.  There is nothing wrong with background checks or age limits or any other common sense limitations.  Concealed Carry Permits should be outlawed or illegal.  And all sales should only be legal at a dealerhsip not a gun or firearms show.

The states should be allowed to regulate abortions but the Federal Government has no reason to tell the people what they can or cannot do with their body.  That is personal and individual and should depend upon one's personal feelings, attitude, behavior, and religious beliefs.

In order to protect one's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness rights as guaranteed by the US Constitution, criminals should be severely punished and sentencing should be directly proportional to the crime.  Spending time in jail should be less if one steals $100 than it should be for someone who steals $1,000 or $100,000.

Educational degrees and levels of knowledge should not be passed on quizzes, tests, and/or final exams but on compentency tests that must be passed in order for that individual to receive credit for that course or that knowledge...  this concept would be similar to CPA certification tests or the BAR exam for lawyers.  Students today memorize for the grade and forget rather than retain the knowledge.

 

Humpday Humor

 

Cowboy

Ultra Compact Camera

Scientific ingenuity means cameras keep on getting smaller and smaller, and the latest to appear is not only incredibly tiny – the same size as a grain of salt – it's also able to produce images of much better quality than a lot of other ultra-compact cameras.

Using a technology known as a metasurface, which is covered with 1.6 million cylindrical posts, the camera is able to capture full-color photos that are as good as images snapped by conventional lenses some half a million times bigger than this particular camera.

And the super-small contraption has the potential to be helpful in a whole range of scenarios, from helping miniature soft robots explore the world, to giving experts a better idea of what's going on deep inside the human body.

Existing micro-sized camera (left) versus the new model (right). (Princeton University)

"It's been a challenge to design and configure these little microstructures to do what you want," says computer scientist Ethan Tseng from Princeton University in New Jersey.

"For this specific task of capturing large field of view RGB images, it was previously unclear how to co-design the millions of nano-structures together with post-processing algorithms."

One of the camera's special tricks is the way it combines hardware with computational processing to improve the captured image: Signal processing algorithms use machine learning techniques to reduce blur and other distortions that otherwise occur with cameras this size. The camera effectively uses software to improve its vision.  READ MORE...

Cow

 

Draining the World's Oceans

Although many maps of our planet go into great topographical detail on land, almost two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by the world’s oceans.

Hidden from sight lie aquatic mountain ranges, continental shelves, and trenches that dive deep into the Earth’s crust. We might be familiar with a few of the well-known formations on the ocean floor, but there’s a whole detailed “world” that’s as rich as the surface, just waiting to be explored.

This animation (above) from planetary researcher James O’Donoghue of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA simulates the draining the world’s oceans to quickly reveal the full extent of the Earth’s surface.

How Deep Does the Ocean Go?
Above sea level, Earth’s topography reaches all the way up to 8,849 meters (29,032 ft) to the top of Mt. Everest. But going below sea level, it actually goes deeper than the height of Everest.

Open ocean is called the pelagic zone, which can be broken down into five regions by depth:

• 0m–200m: Epipelagic (sunlight zone). Illuminated shallower waters that contain most of the ocean’s plants and animals.
• 200m–1,000m: Mesopelagic (twilight zone). Stretches from where 1% of surface light reaches to where surface light ends. Contains mainly bacteria, as well as some large organisms like the swordfish and the squid.
• 1,000m–4,000m: Bathypelagic (midnight zone). Pitch black outside of a few bioluminescent organisms, with no living plants. Smaller anglerfish, squid, and sharks live here, as well as a few large organisms like giant squid.
• 4,000m–6,000m: Abyssopelagic (abyssal zone). Long thought to be the bottomless end of the sea, the abyssal zone reaches to just above the ocean floor and contains little life due to extremely cold temperatures, high pressures, and complete darkness.
• 6,000m–11,000m: Hadopelagic (hadal zone). Named after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, the hadal zone is the deepest part of the ocean. It can be found primarily in trenches below the ocean floor.

To put ocean depths into context, the bottom of the ocean is more than 2,000m greater than the peak of Mount Everest.

What “Draining” the World’s Oceans Reveals
For a long time, the ocean floor was believed to be less understood than the Moon.

The sheer depth of water made it difficult to map without newer technology, and the tremendous pressure and extreme temperatures make navigation grueling. A manned vehicle reached the deepest known point of the Mariana Trench—the Challenger Deep—in 1960, almost 90 years after it was first charted in 1872.  READ MORE...