wayfarer1291

There's a silicon-valley based company that's building a combined thermal storage and TPV system: https://www.antoraenergy.com So these ideas may be get to market sooner than a typical university press release.

https://www.nrel.gov/news/features/2021/new-projects-move-th...

(some of the same people involved in this paper at NREL seem to also be collaborating with Antra, which is great to see)

This is most likely for someone at UCLA on sabbatical to have an affiliation. Some evidence it might be someone fleeing Ukraine and is being externally funded by a foundation directly as a fellowship. UC policy requires even direct onboarding like this to be posted as a 'job'. Bureaucracy..

One of these so-called affiliations was.. serving as an external grant reviewer for some proposal for the Chinese equivalent of the national science foundation (basic/ theoretical science). Which is of course ridiculous.. we scientists review proposals all the time and the government, in fact, doesn't want to know about it because it's extraneous pointless information. This was a rushed, and very dumb, effort by a US attorney in the final days of the Trump administration.

Not necessarily. Smallpox was around for a very long time till we vaccinated our way out of it. Same with polio.

For earthquake reasons alone this is completely insane, and clearly a blatant attempt at regulatory capture by the concrete association. Just asinine.

For most of LA (apart perhaps from certain canyons and hill areas) the risk of fire is not significantly different from anywhere else. It's a cityscape. Earthquakes however are an omnipresent threat and wood frame buildings in general do far better. For example - many of the concrete buildings built along Wilshire blvd. in the westside may not survive a big quake.

I am sorry to hear this. As a recent father myself, I find the fact that comparatively few fathers here in the US do (or can) take this leave very sad. The act of caring for our newborn is how we form our attachments and love, and it is ultimately a loss for the dads that choose not to participate in the caring. My dad never really took care of me as a baby (in the feeding, diapers, etc. sense) and is squeamish/ not able to do it with our own child now. Again, a loss for previous generations of men.

Which is all to say - if this company in the slightest gives you more negative feedback about taking leave,.. I would, if I were in your shoes, be looking for a new place. They're not showing you any loyalty, so you don't owe it to them.

A twitter thread from Ezra Klein (also recently took parental leave) that might resonate with you: https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1457771021327503360

The whole presentation felt a lot like visions of the internet from companies like Microsoft (and others) in the mid-90s.. top-down, centralized.

Here's the quote from the report written by the Facebook researcher: "Is there a way to leverage playdates to drive word of hand/growth among kids?"

https://twitter.com/drewharwell/status/1442912550815821824

Actual words written in a report a highly paid Facebook researcher: "Is there a way to leverage playdates to drive word of hand/growth among kids?" (I'm going to guess this researcher is not themselves a parent..)

Incredibly gross. At some point, those of you working at Facebook have to ask yourself what it is you're doing here. This is what you're putting your talents towards? There's a lot of ways to make money in this world than selling tobacco, sorry social media, to kids.

Barium sulfate based coatings have been used for decades, maybe a century, as the 'whitest' reflecting standard for optical instruments. I hate to be that guy, but there's nothing that new here. Though Purdue and this prof sure are hyping the heck out of this, it's pretty funny for anyone in the optics world.. we buy it all the time for integrating spheres! This wasn't published in a high profile academic journal for a reason...

The actual challenge with any solar reflective paint is that it loses its solar reflectivity after multiple years of outdoor exposure. This can be seen at the third party Cool Roof Rating Council's website: https://coolroofs.org/directory

Outdoor white paints that start at 90+ % solar reflectance drop to the low 80s with time. Same thing will happen with this one, so the added benefit of the high reflectance will decrease quickly. Figuring out how to maintain this high reflectance in a paint exposed outdoor remains a very hard problem.

The hypothesis considered at the very end of the article is intriguing. Time is generally viewed as a smooth variable. But fundamental thermodynamic limits on clocks suggest that there are in fact discrete steps occurring which we smooth over since they are below our measurement capabilities in general. I'm not entirely sure what the implications would be, but it does sort of make sense that this is in fact true.