Rubik’s cube record broken twice in one day – 5 second mark passed

Before Saturday 21 November, the world record for solving the Rubik’s cube had stood at 5.25 seconds for 8 months. On that day, the record was lowered twice to 4.90 seconds.

1st world record of the day – Keaton Ellis – 5.09 seconds



Later the same day 14-year old Lucas Etter lowered the record again to 4.90



https://medium.com/@jblake17/a-historic-day-for-the-world-of-competitive-rubik-s-cube-solving-33a92a5f3d1c#.woy27tgml / Rubik’s Cube puzzle abandoned few minutes of frustration first released 1980s revival younger generations learn how to solve cube video tutorials YouTube online forums emergence community Rubik’s Cube solving enthusiasts speedcubers cubers advanced solving methods buy specially designed speedcubes underground Chinese suppliers adjust tensions lubrication cubes match turning styles discussion amongst cubers online World Cube Association WCA competitions real action happens WCA official body oversees governs organises speedcubing competitions website more competitions more people more fun fair and equal conditions official records set only in competition WCA new Rubik’s Cube world records rare held for over two years maps progression WCA world records past decade world record stood 5.25 seconds set by Collin Burns competition Clarksville Maryland 21 November 21 2015 Keaton Ellis timer 5.09 seconds competition 14-year old Lucas Etter two world records single competition prompted former world record holder long-time champion Feliks Zemdegs Australia craziest ever day in cubing history cubing world Lucas Etter first person break 5 second barrier in competition 4.90 seconds mind-bogglingly fast Rubik’s Cube enthusiast record new chapter for speedcubing unceasing efforts cubers around the globe push boundaries competitive Rubik’s Cube solving speedcubing WCA website speedsolving speed solving speed cubing forums /

Enfield electric car from 1974 – updated – at the drag strip

Enfield 8000 aka E8000 ECC aka Electric City Car
Credit: Wikepedia

Enfield Automotive¹, was encouraged by the oil crises of the 1970s, to produce an electric car, & the Enfield 8000, aka E8000 ECC, aka Electric City Car² was born. Top speed has variously been reported as 40 mph (64 kph), to 80 mph (129 km/h). Since the electric motor produced 8 bhp (6 kW)^1,2, the lower figure seems more likely. Range was around 40 miles (64 km)². Only 120 were produced.

More recently, Jonny Smith, one of the presenters for Fifth Gear³, located one, restored the body, & updated the battery & motor.

Robert Llewellyn takes a look:



At the drag strip – 12.62 @ 101.65!


More about the car at Jonny's Flux Capacitor web site: http://www.flux-capacitor.co.uk/
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¹  Yes, a manifestation of the British motorcycle/ lawn mower/ firearm company.
Wikepedia: “Enfield Automotive”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfield_Automotive

²  Wikepedia: “Enfield 8000”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfield_8000

³  Wikepedia: “Fifth Gear”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Gear
Fifth Gear has recently reappeared on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/fifthgearuk

/ Enfield 8000 E8000 ECC Electric City Car 8 bhp 6 kW motor aluminium body 120 Enfield 8000s built Isle of Wight mid-1970s lead acid lead-acid battery Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris production Greek isle Syros oil crisis of 1973 vehicles assembled Isle of Wight oil crises 1970s Enfield Automotive electric vehicle EV electric car Enfield 8000 E8000 ECC Electric City Car ECC Jonny Smith presenter Fifth Gear restored Robert Llewellyn Fully Charged LiIon Lithium ion /

Shoot now focus later

Photograph out of focus? Or the main feature is out of focus & the background, sharp? Panasonic & Olympus have solutions to these & other problems.





http://www.dpreview.com/articles/7952778512/panasonic-s-post-focus-feature-arrives-november-25

http://www.popphoto.com/olympus-announces-new-firmware-for-om-d-e-m1-and-e-m5-mark-ii

http://cameras.olympus.com/stack/en-au/

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/panasonic-cameras-get-a-shoot-now-and-focus-later-feature/ / Panasonic’s Lumix GX7 G8 FZ300 cameras free firmware update this morning update new mode Post Focus Lytro camera different implementation Post Focus mode capture 49 points of focus autofocus Post Focus mode camera records 4K video racking focus frame to frame sequence of differently focused images captured review sequence in camera photographer choosing the focus point Lytro’s living pictures player tapping swiping toggle through different focus points assist modes focus-peaking overlays Lumix cameras higher megapixel count Post Focus limited output resolution frame 4K video resolution of 8 megapixels resolution each frame-grab automated Post Focus completely in focus focus stacking light-gathering fast-shutter wide aperture deep depth of field narrow aperture everything-in-focus macro photography post-processing work stack all the images sequence third-party editing software Lytro Olympus Focus Stacking mode Focus Bracketing mode Olympus technical product manager Matthew Kandel focus stacking Panasonic’s Post Focus Olympus Focus Stacking several images different focus points Focus Stacking Post Focus Focus Stacking composites one image sharp from front to back Panasonic’s focus-after-the-fact feature similar Lytro end-to-end VR platform Post Focus mode Panasonic’s sensors image processors capture data light field Lytro Panasonic Post Focus retroactively pick point of focus selective focus mode larger sensors better overall image quality /

Sociologist suggests corporate disinformation at root of climate change polarization

Short version: study finds that vested interests have set out to confuse the public on climate change for their own commercial purposes.

Similar findings to those described in the book, “Merchants of Doubt”,¹ but worth noting a sociologist coming to the same conclusion as a science historian.

http://phys.org/news/2015-11-sociologist-corporate-disinformation-root-climate.html
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¹  Wikepedia: “Merchants of Doubt”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchants_of_Doubt

/ Justin Farrell sociologist School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Yale University conducted study polarity opinions Americans global warming climate change greenhouse effect gas CO2 carbon dioxide global environment change very strongly correlated correlation tied corporate disinformation campaigns paper published Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study publicly available few key players muddle debate minds voters science community Americans refusal to believe planet heating up man-made greenhouse gas emissions information Americans 20 years data identify 164 organizations actors oil companies something to lose alternatives oil use petroleum computational data methods extract information dataset two major findings organizations corporate funding messages meant intended polarize publicly funded corporate funding influenced content polarizing efforts led digression actual science messages meant to polarize generically amplify contrarian views causes readers question scientific evidence contrarian efforts some actors seeking mislead public caused confusion who listen believe research highlights needed information dissemination publicly funded sources counter backed corporations Koch brothers new study reveals funders climate change denial effort Justin Farrell corporate funding ideological polarization climate change Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences large-scale computational data methods research demonstrates polarization efforts influenced patterned network political financial actors /

Light operates without batteries

No this isn’t just another hand-cranked light. The claim is that it generates electricity to power its LED from body heat. Just put a finger or thumb on the fingerprint spot, & the heat from your body will power the light.



http://the-gadgeteer.com/2015/11/23/you-only-need-to-touch-this-flashlight-to-power-it/#more-189658

Kickstarter page:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/940015402/lumen-eternal-flashlight-that-doesnt-need-batterie/description

A couple of things to note:

●    This light depends on heat energy flow from your body through the device to the, “lower parts”.¹

●    Because power generation depends on, “... temperature difference between upper and lower parts ...”, the bottom needs to be cooler than the top.

●    Anyone starting to see a problem? — How would you hold this thing? Thumb on the fingerprint spot at the top, fingers on the opposite side? This is demonstrated in the YouTube video. Since the temperature of your thumb is normally the same as your fingers, neither a flow of heat energy from top to the “lower parts”, nor generation of electricity seems likely. So, how can this work? The body is made of either aluminium or titanium. Heat will initially flow from the thumb spot into the metal of the light. With sustained use, the entire body of the light will warm up, reducing output. This may be compensated by energy stored in the capacitor.²

●    Tritium vials described in the Gadgeteer article contain radioactive tritium gas in a tiny, glass vial lined with a chemical which fluoresces when exposed to the radiation produced by the decaying tritium.

●    Tritium is a weakly radioactive element with a half-life of 12.3 years. Radiation produced by tritium is unlikely to make it through the glass walls of the vial.

●    Half life is the time it takes for half of the atoms in a sample to radioactively decay. In the case of a glowing tritium vial, the brightness will halve in this time. It will halve again in the following 12.3 years & so on.³

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¹     “HOW DOES IT WORK? Lumen has relatively simple work principle - you touch TEG (Thermoelectric Generator) - small ceramic bar that can produce electric current when we provide temperature difference between upper and lower parts of TEG.” — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/940015402/lumen-eternal-flashlight-that-doesnt-need-batterie/description

²     “... excessive power is stored in a capacitor to power Lumen whenever you need it.” — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/940015402/lumen-eternal-flashlight-that-doesnt-need-batterie/description

³     Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Environmental Protection — “Facts about Radioactive Tritium” — https://www.ccpa.net/DocumentCenter/Home/View/3173

/ touch flashlight torch power Lumen flashlight flashlight external power source your body heat Kickstarter page touch TEG Thermoelectric Generator small ceramic bar produce electric current temperature difference between upper lower parts TEG difference between temperature your body 37 degrees C 98 °F environment 82 °F generate power single LED Metal body Lumen serves radiator temperature difference at least 16 degrees 15 mA 3v greater temperature difference additional energy capacitor later use titanium aluminum one 5mm ultra bright CREE LED phone screen aluminum flashlight torch 45 grams 1.6 ounces tritium vial Lumen glowing bar fingerprint area vial glow dark finding flashlight torch project fully funded torch flashlights backers aluminum version titanium version optional tritium vial /

TurtleCell iPhone case has built-in earbuds

Credit: TurtleCell/The Gadgeteer

Phone cases are for protection. But some add other things. Like built in battery.

TurtleCell cases have built-in earbuds.



TurtleCell for iPhone 6 is $US59.95. iPhone 5 & 5s version is $US39.95.

Manufacturer’s web site:
http://www.turtlecell.com/

Reviews:

The Gadgeteer:
http://the-gadgeteer.com/2015/11/22/use-turtle-technology-to-keep-your-earbuds-ready-for-action/

Gizmag:
http://www.gizmag.com/turtlecell-iphone-case-retractable-earbuds/28104/ / seen iPhone cases built-in batteries, built-in multi tools iPhone case built-in charger prongs plug into wall outlet socket TurtleCell case iPhone 5 5s 6 iPhone case built-in earbuds TurtleCell case built-in retractable earbuds in-line microphone connected phone’s earphone jack press switch case engage earphone jack 42-inch long earbud cords case retract back in kickstand back TurtleCell cases several colors /

SSDs – a buyers' guide

Credit: Notebook Check

Solid state drives are faster, consume less power & generate less heat than spinning platter drives. They are also more reliable, at least in read-heavy use-cases. Unfortunately, they remain more expensive. AnandTech has a buyers’ guide:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9799/best-ssds / holiday buyer's guide SSDs SSD prices dropped recommendations high-end SATA SSDs limit performance value segment market flood of drives TLC flash brought prices power performance penalties MLC drives Samsung holds clear lead transitions 3D NAND PCIe interfaces most significant development past year release many good drives Silicon Motion's SM2246EN controller paired with 1x nm MLC flash drives TLC taking over low-end segment SM2246EN drives performance high-end SATA SSDs typical consumer workloads best power efficiency measured prices match beat TLC drives other big shift market 120-128GB capacity class fading away many new models starting 240-256GB 128Gb NAND chips drives aren't large enough full performance modern SSD controllers capable 128GB drives carry increasingly steep premium price per GB 256GB 512GB drives priced very similarly sensible buy always move up 240+GB size prices best discounts baseline holiday deals compared drives SSD Bench database provide performance information comparisons performance enthusiast SATA drives Samsung 850 Pro SanDisk Extreme Pro drives recommended last year's holiday guide summer 2014 guide major competitors Samsung 850 Pro overall faster higher endurance rating hardware encryption support SanDisk Extreme Pro cheaper Samsung advantage 2TB model 4TB version Samsung third generation V-NAND value drives below $0.30/GB good deals $0.25/GB Crucial BX100 top recommendation budget drives best values any market segment TLC-based BX200 severely disappointing performance SM2246EN-based drive BX100 on sale best performance drives controller Mushkin Reactor cheapest 256GB 512GB models OCZ Arc 100 sticks low price better performance under very heavy workloads much better steady-state random write performance power management lacking record-setting efficiency SM2246EN drives laptops options consumer-oriented PCIe storage 950 Pro first PCIe M.2 Samsung officially released retail channel XP941 SM951 M.2 form factor most widely supported connector PCIe SSDs consumer space most consumer motherboards PCIe x4 slot take lanes away from the GPU U.2 connector SFF-8639 rare AHCI variant SM951 much better idle power consumption Samsung's NVMe drives broader compatibility AHCI over NVMe worth paying a little more warranty from Samsung 950 Pro PCIe form factor card Intel SSD 750 performs very well several benchmarks enterprise product significantly more expensive Samsung's NVMe drives performance client workloads doesn't justify premium selection limited smaller form factors drives carry a premium Samsung 850 EVO Crucial MX200 benchmark capacity 850 EVO lower idle power consumption MX200 better steady-state random write performance. average 850 EVO performs better benchmarked mSATA M.2 versions MX200 performance 2.5" versions small form factors SLC caching enabled 850 EVO 840 EVO 1TB mSATA drives 1TB M.2 version 850 EVO /