Friday, October 6
Starbucks Coffee
I would suspect that it was much less than $5 then probably around $2.50 or $3.
However, it was delicious.
Today, a large Vanilla Cappuccino at Starbucks is between $5.50 and $6.50 depending upon one's location.
I WOULD NEVER in my wildest dreams pay that much money for a cup of coffee... UNLESS, I was in possession of a gift card.
I have been asking for Starbucks gift cards for several years now for my birthday and Christmas... The reason why I am even talking about this is that I used one of those cards today, to get a large Vanilla Cappuccino.
After using the card and getting a receipt to keep track of how much was left, I asked my wife, who is the caretaker of these cards, how much I had left not including this card.
She informed me that I had $80 left in a variety of cards ranging from $5 to $25. While that may seem like a lot, $80 will only buy me about 13 cups of coffee, maybe 14/15 depending upon how much is left on the card that we just used.
So, depending upon how often I get a large Vanilla Cappuccino at Starbucks, these cards will last me 6 to 18 months. However, there is a birthday this month and Christmas in two months after that so I am sure my Starbucks gift card wealth will increase.
I might be able to extend the longevity of these cards if I reduced the size cup, I get but I have gotten so used to drinking the large that a smaller size would seem like I was cheating myself.
Ukrainian Calls Russian Tank Tech Support for Help
In the 20 months of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, the Ukrainian army has captured around 200 of Russia’s T-72B3 tanks.
The T-72B3, a product of Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, is one of Russia’s newer tanks. And unlike, say, the T-64BV, the T-80U or the T-72AMT, Ukrainian industry doesn’t have much experience with the type.
So when a Ukrainian tanker with the callsign “Kochevnik” ran into problems with his captured Russian T-72B3—problems local expertise couldn’t immediately solve—he called Uralvagonzavod tech support. And incredibly, the help line actually helped.
Militarnyi captured Kochevnik’s calls on video.
Kochevnik serves in the Ukrainian army’s 54th Mechanized Brigade, which fights around Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine and operates mostly Soviet-vintage equipment including T-64 tanks and BMP fighting vehicles. It also owns some of Ukraine’s ex-Russian T-72B3s.
Kochevnik was trolling the Russians, mostly. But his gripes with his 45-ton, three-person tank were real. The tank had been spewing oil. Its compressors weren’t working. The electrical turret-rotation mechanism kept failing, forcing the crew to rotate the turret with a hand crank. READ MORE...
Thursday, October 5
A Reduction on Oil Production in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia could begin easing its production cut sooner than oil market participants believe as the world’s top crude oil exporter wouldn’t risk demand destruction through too high prices, consultancy Rapidan Energy Group says.
Due to the Saudi and OPEC+ cuts and falling commercial crude inventories in the U.S., oil prices climbed to their highest levels in months in early trade on Thursday —the U.S. benchmark jumped to a 13-month high and Brent hit the highest price since November 2022 and a new high for 2023.
Early this month, Saudi Arabia extended its 1 million bpd cut through December. The production levels would be reviewed each month until the end of 2023.
According to Rapidan Energy’s president Bob McNally, Saudi Arabia could start easing the cuts sooner than traders realize as it wouldn’t want to overheat the market.
“They do not want to deliberately over-tighten the market, because if you get a spike, then you get a demand collapse, and you get a bust,” McNally told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Thursday.
“The real sensible way to bring prices to heel is for Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ to say: ‘We’ve made our point, we’ve scared away the speculative shorts’,” the energy expert added.
Last week, Warren Patterson, Head of Commodities Strategy at ING, said that even though the oil price rally had “more room to run,” a break above $100 per barrel for Brent wouldn’t be sustainable.
“OPEC+ will also want to be careful about overtightening the oil market. They will be shooting themselves in the foot if they push prices to levels where we start to see an increased risk of demand destruction,” Patterson wrote in a note. READ MORE...
Driving Habits
I have only been one accident while driving as a messenger in a company car when I was 20 years old. It was not my fault. I have had half a dozen speeding tickets, maybe a few more or less, but nothing within the last 5 years.
When I retired in 2015 at the age of 67, I decided that there was very little need or reason to exceed the speed limits other than by 5 miles. Not sure why I decided on 5 miles and not 7 but that the number I selected.
Prior to my 40th birthday, when I got behind the wheel of a car, I drove like a bat out of hell, except inside the city limits.
Prior to my 30th birthday when I was behind the wheel of a car and unless I was going to or from work, I always had a 6 pack of beer sitting next to me in the shotgun seat.
Obviously, over the years I have mellowed but I am also aware that as I get older, my reaction time gets longer and while there is not much difference with regards to reaction time between 70 mph and 80 mph, it is still enough to make me drive cautiously.
These days wherever I am driving to or driving from whether it is within the city limits or out on the highway or on a country 4-lane road that is heavily traveled, the cars that pass me by are driving 15-20 miles over the posted speed limit signs.
Seldom do these speeders get caught by the police which only serves to encourage their behavior, but the fines for speeding are so low, that they act as an incentive to speed not a disincentive.
Over the years, the youth are supposed to be more intelligent that the previous generations and yet when they are behind the wheel that never seems to be the case.
I cannot understand that if many of these speeders are speeding because they are late for work, then why not get up 10 minutes earlier? If you are late getting to work, then what can I assume about the quality of their work?
It is good, bad, or just mediocre?
Is that the kind of employee you want to be?
Is that the kind of parent you want to be if you have children in the car, observing your driving habits?
Driving habits are a little problem with LARGE IMPLICATIONS...
The Giant Magellan Telescope
Artist’s concept of the completed Giant Magellan Telescope. The Giant Magellan Telescope is finalizing its last primary mirror, with the goal to surpass current space telescopes in sensitivity and resolution. Leveraging U.S. manufacturing, it promises unparalleled astronomical insights and aims for operation by the decade’s end. Credit: GMTO Corporation
Seven of the world’s largest mirrors will search the Universe for life beyond Earth
The Giant Magellan Telescope begins the four-year process to fabricate and polish its seventh and final primary mirror, the last required to complete the telescope’s 368 square meter (3,961 square foot) light collecting surface, the world’s largest and most challenging optics ever produced.
Together, the mirrors will collect more light than any other telescope in existence, allowing humanity to unlock the secrets of the Universe by providing detailed chemical analyses of celestial objects and their origin.
Last week, the University of Arizona Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab closed the lid on nearly 20 tons of the purest optical glass inside a one-of-a-kind oven housed beneath the stands of the Arizona Wildcats Football Stadium.
Last week, the University of Arizona Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab closed the lid on nearly 20 tons of the purest optical glass inside a one-of-a-kind oven housed beneath the stands of the Arizona Wildcats Football Stadium.
The spinning oven will heat the glass to 1,165°C (2,129°F) so as it melts, it is forced outward to form the mirror’s curved paraboloid surface. Measuring 8.4 meters (26.7 feet) in diameter—about two stories tall when standing on edge—the mirror will cool over the next three months before moving into the polishing stage. READ MORE...
Wednesday, October 4
MilliMobile An Autonomous Robot
Researchers at the University of Washington have created MilliMobile, a tiny, self-driving robot powered only by surrounding light or radio waves. It’s about the size of a penny and can run indefinitely on harvested energy. (UW Photo / Mark Stone)
University of Washington researchers are rolling out another tiny robotic breakthrough, this time in the form of an autonomous device that relies on surrounding light or radio waves to move in short bursts.
The robot, dubbed MilliMobile, is about the size of a penny and weighs as much as a raisin, and a typical power source, such as a battery, has been kicked to the curb in favor of more environmentally friendly approach.
MilliMobile has a solar panel-like energy harvester that sits above four tiny wheels, enabling the robot to roll — in incremental steps — about the 30 feet in an hour across surfaces such as concrete or packed soil.
Carrying three times its own weight in equipment such as cameras and sensors, the device takes internet-of-things style data collection and makes it mobile. Such tiny robots can be used on a smart farm to track humidity and soil moisture or in a factory to seek out electromagnetic noise to find equipment malfunctions — especially when deployed in a swarm.
“We took inspiration from ‘intermittent computing,’ which breaks complex programs into small steps, so a device with very limited power can work incrementally, as energy is available,” said the UW’s Kyle Johnson. “With MilliMobile, we applied this concept to motion. We reduced the robot’s size and weight so it takes only a small amount of energy to move. And, similar to an animal taking steps, our robot moves in discrete increments, using small pulses of energy to turn its wheels.”
MilliMobile was tested both indoors and out and in very low light situations, and was still able to inch along. The robot is also able to steer itself, navigating with onboard sensors and tiny computing chips.
Johnson, a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, was co-lead author on research that the team will present Monday at the ACM MobiCom 2023 conference in Madrid, Spain. READ MORE...
An American Tragedy
- Not getting what you want
- Getting what you want
Take a minute or two and think about the implications of what he is saying, then reflect on this statement...
50% OF ALL FIRST MARRIAGES END IN DIVORCE
It has been this way since 2000
Obviously, this is a result of getting what you want...
Can you imagine how many children grow up in one parent homes?
Can you imagine the mental trauma through which they are constantly experiencing?
Will these sons and daughters be successful?
Will they get married and divorce like their parents?
It is difficult on children growing up with two parents, so I can just imagine what it would be like with only one parent.
Can the mother fill the role of the father?
Can the father fill the role of the mother?
I am sure this happens all the time, but these single parent adults are the exception to the rule not the rule.
If we think about what might happen to children with only one parent, maybe we should change our mind about abortion... that is to say, maybe we should start encouraging abortion rather than discouraging it...
I do not support abortion.
I support a woman's right to choose.
But what is worse abortion or single parent families?
Success and Happiness like beauty is in the eye of the beholder... so, who's to say that these children will not be successful or happy. Who's to say that these children will not become criminals or drug dealers because they only had a single parent.
Life is a crap shoot... children of divorce are like playing with loaded dice.
Tesla's Bot Video
In the wake of Agility Robotics announcing their intention to scale production to 10,000 bipedal humanoid robots every year, Fourier Intelligence, a technology-driven company specializing in exoskeleton and rehabilitation robots, released a new video showcasing its GR-1 humanoid robot and production facilities.
Set in Salem, Oregon, “RoboFab”, Agility Robotics’ 70,000-square-foot robot factory is slated to open later this year and manufacture the company’s bipedal robot Digit.
“When you’re building new technology to improve society, the most important milestone is when you’re able to mass produce that technology at a scale where it can have a real, widespread impact,” Agility Robotics’ co-founder and CEO Damion Shelton said.
With recent developments in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics engineering, the prospects for a human-esque robot capable of performing the actions of real people have been better than ever before.
Fourier Intelligence’s GR-1— first unveiled at the 2023 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai— is equipped to assist patients from their beds to wheelchairs and pick up objects, boosted by the ability to carry loads of up to 110lb (50kg).
The newly released video flaunts Fourier Intelligence’s production prowess, custom-built actuators, and body parts that are being 3D printed.
And it isn't just Fourier Intelligence seemingly interested in reminding the public of their existence.
Optimus not-at-its-prime.
Tesla issued an update on its take on a humanoid robot, Optimus, with a video that eerily looks CGI-like.
What seemed like a half-baked idea from Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk when first announced was not helped by an underwhelming demo organized by the company at Tesla AI Day last year.
Optimus, barely able to walk about and wave wearily at the crowds, has since gained strength and credibility, reported Electrek.
The new video released by Tesla depicts the bot autonomously sorting objects by color amidst human interruption and self-calibrating its arms and legs.
The humanoid leverages vision and joint position encoders to locate its limbs in space, which allows for precise calibration and efficient learning of tasks. Optimus now trains using a neural network that runs entirely on-board.
The company claims Optimus' capabilities to include learning new tasks such as un-sorting and ended the video with the bot flaunting its dexterity. “Time to stretch after a long day of work,” the company captioned. READ MORE...
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