Say hello to Boston Dynamics‘ latest robotic creation, Handle. A bipedal, wheeled ‘bot with some impressive stats…the ability to negotiate most terrain (including stairs), jump four feet, travel up to 9mph, and go around 15 miles between charges. This thing could finish a half-marathon in a very fast time…that’s pretty impressive.
Possible link between sugar consumption and Alzheimer’s Disease
Scientists in England have a found a possible link between excessive sugar consumption, and Alzheimer’s disease. It’s not that sugar is suspected to cause Alzheimer’s, but rather that excess sugar in the body interferes with the body’s normal immune response to a build-up of abnormal proteins in the brian that clump and lead to Alzheimer’s. Not that we really need any more reasons to avoid sugar, right?! But this is yet another…
As I teach my daughter, ‘sugar is poison’. Our bodies can handle it to some degree…life is too short to avoid Girl Scout cookies entirely…but it’s not good to subject our bodies to too much.
Great picture from SpaceX
SpaceX recently stuck another barge landing of their Falcon 9 rocket after launching another satellite into space. Kinda weird that this amazing technology is starting to feel routine! This landing though was a bit different…they captured this amazing photograph, with the sun nicely blocked by the rocket. Click on the image for a larger size. I’m anticipating their office printers running like crazy these days as all the employees print this out for their cubicle walls…
2016 was the warmest year on record
2016 officially came in as the hottest year in recorded history for this planet (as previously reported here, it was the second warmest if looking only at the US). Both NASA and NOAA independently came to this same
conclusion, using data from over six thousand weather stations around the world.
Care to guess what year is #2 in the list? Yep, 2015. And you guessed it, #3 is 2014. Even a Republican can’t deny this trend. Ok, well that’s not true, they’re expert climate change deniers, they’ll deny anything for personal gain. And we *can* expect 2017 to be cooler than 2016 due to the waning El Nino. So it’s up to the rest of us to call them out on their bullshit and not let them fuck up this planet any more.
Here are some external links if you’d like to read more about this:
The latest in global warming
Unless you’re ignoring the science, the Earth continues to exhibit signs of global warming. 2016 came in as the second hottest year (behind 2012) on record for the US. With El Niño expected to fade in 2017, things should cool off a little this year but the upwards trend continues. As for the ice in the oceans, global sea ice levels have never been as low as they are currently. Troubling signs overall, and with climate change deniers poised to take control of the US, attempts to avert this impending disaster are not likely to succeed. 🙁