2015-10-04

Notes.

I'm getting married next weekend, and will be offline for a week and a half. As a result, I'm handing off the mic to Eric Weinhoffer, who emailed a few weeks back and allowed himself to get roped in :) This is a bit of an experiment; I'm looking forward to seeing what he sends.

Pathfinding.

• Paul Graham on not dying (thanks, Sam).
• A wrap-up of a few recent robotics acquisitions.
• Alcoa is splitting into two companies: one for upstream (mining, etc) and one for value added services. I have no idea how this came about, but it reminds me of the story on Timken (the steel bearing company which, under pressure from activist investors, split into a steel company and a bearing company) that I posted here late last year.
• My own guidelines for what I link to in this newsletter. Meta!

Building.

• These photos of the insane earth-moving that was done in Seattle in the early 20th century are *really* amazing. Dan writes to say that the "USA in the 1900s is basically as ambitious as China in the 2000s."
• Ronald Rael's clay 3D printing is *really* cool. Wild designs, mesmerizing process.
• Optical rectennas convert light into DC current. Nanotubes!
• Apparently black phosphorus is the new graphene. Unfortunately it degrades in air in a matter of hours, so...
• I spent a little while modeling a carbon fiber bike frame with titanium 3D printed lugs. I'm a long way from having a rideable (or even printable) thing yet, but excited anyway :)

Logistics.

• NYIO is going to the MTA's Coney Island Complex later this month, so I've been reading up on the subway system and rapid transit maintenance. For instance, did you know that the MTA won the award for Best Maintenance Program at the 2008 Metro Awards in Denmark? Or that the Coney Island Complex washes over 1000 subway cars per week? Or that the F train is arguably the "most Jewish" line in the city? I'd also recommend (more fun if you live in NYC) checking out the Wikipedia page for New York City Subway Yards, which lists where all the different train lines store cars during off-peak hours.

Evaluation.

• Mars has water.
• The Economist on the VW scandal and the state of (cheating on) emissions standards in the auto industry.
• This bike company, Canyon, got a CT scanner and is using it to validate carbon fiber bike frames. If and when I produce short-run metal AM bike parts, I'd consider doing something similar.

Stuff that doesn't fit into my dumb/arbitrary categories.

• I've trimmed my podcast subscriptions significantly over the past few years, but I'm excited for Salt of the Earth, Craig's new podcast about successful small business owners.

And.

Some really amazing photos from Fukushima. These sacks
are full of radioactive soil that's been scraped off the ground.