A lab accident quadruples battery life.
This reminds me of the discovery of vulcanized rubber.
All posts by Rand Simberg
Big Brother In Redmond
This seems like a good reason not to enable Cortana:
Section 7b – or “Updates to the Services or Software, and Changes to These Terms” – of Microsoft’s Services EULA stipulates that it “may automatically check your version of the software and download software update or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorised hardware peripheral devices.”
And they decide what is and isn’t “authorized.”
Russia Goes Reusable?
I doubt it, but Space Daily is reporting that. It’s a misleading headline and picture, though. They aren’t really resurrecting Buran. Looks like they plan on a fly-back first stage.
Hillary And Her Aides
Yes, absolutely, they should be stripped of their clearances. Anyone else would have been months ago.
The people in denial about the prospects for her candidacy don’t seem to understand that she has rendered herself unqualified for the office with what is (at a minimum) very poor judgment, and utter incompetence in handling national security.
[Update a while later]
Here’s a bit of good news for Hillary; there’s one poll in which she’s rising: “69% want to see a special prosecutor.” Nice to be in the majority for once.
[Update a few minutes later]
Clinton aides’ Blackberries likely destroyed.
I’m sure it was just an unfortunately accident.
Got A Drone?
Here’s now to fly it by the FAA rules.
I’ve been thinking about picking up a cheap quadcopter just to play with, but probably not one big enough to require filing a flight plan.
[Late-morning update]
Man versus drone versus the law:
I personally like some of the quirkier aspects of old English law. I think limiting self-help against drones to thrown T-shirts would make a wonderful common law rule. If you can take it down by throwing a T-shirt at it, then it’s too damn close. If not, then tough luck.
“Excellent. We could call it the rule of ‘quod tangit tunicula.'”
Heh.
Campus Sexual Assault
The policy continues its descent into madness in California:
A student found responsible for campus sexual assault is often branded a rapist in local (and often national) media, his transcript is forever marked and his reputation is forever tarnished. And let’s not forget that a finding of responsibility can be achieved on nothing more than an accusation, with exculpatory evidence and witnesses ignored and a complete lack of due process.
An expulsion with a mark on the transcript could keep him from continuing his education. When accused students have been suspended and allowed to return to campus, outrage has sometimes ensued. Colleges are now being pressured simply to expel. Expelled students — again, expelled based on nothing more than an accusation — find it nearly impossible to transfer to another school. Their education is halted, and if they can’t afford an attorney to sue the university for wrongful expulsion, their lives are put on hold.
As one male student told Buzzfeed: “At first I thought they didn’t want me to participate in campus activities. Then I thought they didn’t want me to graduate. Now they don’t want me to have a job or be part of society. Do they want me to commit suicide? Is that what they want me to do? What is the endgame?”
We need some lawsuits over this. If I had a son, I wouldn’t let him attend school in the state.
The Dems Start To Face Reality
They’re figuring out something that’s been obvious to most of the rest of us for years; she’s a terrible candidate. And that’s even without all the lying, corruption and felonies.
Income Inequality
Want to increase it? Raise the minimum wage.
There is no greater income inequality than some versus none.
California?
There is no California:
There is no such state. Instead there are two radically different cultures and landscapes with little in common, each equally dysfunctional in quite different ways. Apart they are unworldly, together a disaster.
Yes. It needs to be split up.
The State Of Higher Education
It’s awful. Who is to blame?
And here we arrive at a way to thread this needle of collective criticism. The one thing that Deresiewicz, Lukianoff, Haidt and McArdle all agree on, surprisingly enough, is that higher education should be a non-market institution. The point of college is not merely to cater to consumer demands, whether one defines the consumers as “college students” or “the firms that will eventually hire those college students.” A vital function of universities is to convert young people into thinkers who can critically analyze the very society that they are about to join. But when people are ponying up vast sums of money to attend these places, it becomes more difficult for college administrations to ignore the whims of their students.
Cut off the spigot. If people were really spending their own money, and couldn’t borrow it foolishly at below-market rates, much of this problem would go away. Of course, so would many universities and university departments. But it’s not clear that would be a bad thing.