Quartz Magazine features a very engrossing and inspiring profile of the unsung inventor, John Bannister Goodenough, who gave the world its mobility and galloping pace of miniaturisation with the lithium-ion battery. This robust and rechargeable power-source is in every electronic gadget worldwide and in the motors of hybrid vehicles, and I could imagine that the world might look very different if Goodenough had not found the right balance and combination to improve upon the transistor. Goodenough achieved his breakthrough at the age of fifty-seven—and now at the age of ninety-two, he’s far from ready to retire, believing that he can develop the next generation of storage-medium that could help finally wean the world off oil and start to reverse climate change. I wager that he’ll be about to deliver.
Thursday 5 February 2015
quod numquam
Though the popular myth that no one expected the Spanish Inquisition has been dispelled for the most part, it’s a pretty fun thing to proclaim and the phrase might have its origins in another Church culture struggle. In 1875 on this day, Pope Pious IX issued the encyclical called Quod Numquam, “What we never Expected” to Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and Prussian King Wilhelm I during the height of what was known as the Kulturkampf, the systematic dissolution of Church holdings in Protestant territories and discriminatory measures taken against the congregation, including the forced exile of priests and bishops. What was never expected was that the House of Prussia might turn its back on Catholicism, and though no on the level of the Crusades, clerics ignited a holy war to sue for the freedom of religious worship.
redirected from berenstein
Via Reddit, an older speculative post on a blog called the Wood between Worlds by the self-described world’s worst scientist puts forward such a profoundly baffling psychological blind-spot that the imaginative explanation—that we are in our own parallel universe, seems pretty plausible.
empty nest oder relocation bonus
A consortium of architects and civil engineers and some elements that advocate for the welfare of senior citizens in Germany are proposing (DE) that one way to address the housing shortage in metropolitan areas would be to provide pensioners with support and an incentive to move out of apartments that have gotten to be too big for them that would better accommodate young families with children. No one is proposing to force homesteaders out and of course retirees have the liberty to do what they want, but the logistical and financial help, finders’ fees and helping to arrange and pay for relocation, may prove amiable to some who feel otherwise tied to too big a place. What do you think about this idea? Most Germans are apartment dwellers and no one is occupying a McMansion but that still comprises a vertical neighbourhood, and I am sure something changes when the most veteran residents leave and are replaced with up-and-comers.
pax populi
Back to World War III—though it’s hard to say when the declaration came, the sort of false urgency lent to housekeeping items that really could and ought to be tabled until cooler consideration can be paid, like breaking the internet or pushing through a shambles of a shady trade deal with international ramification usually seem to herald its beginning—it seems that the US is poised to directly, rather than its usual proximate warfare, supply armaments to certain factions in Ukraine.
catagories: ๐ท๐บ, ๐บ๐ฆ, ๐บ๐ธ, ๐, ๐ฑ, ๐ฅธ, foreign policy, religion, revolution