April 6‚ 1652: Cape Colony‚ the first European settlement in South Africa‚ was established by Dutch East India Company under Jan van Riebeeck. Today is the birthday of novelist Vince Flynn. (Born April 6‚ 1966‚ died June 19‚ 2013.) His death at age 47 was a loss to the literary world. This is also the birthday of famous American author and newsreel/radio journalist Lowell Thomas. On April 6‚ 1199‚ Mortally wounded in battle‚ Richard I (the Lionheart) died at Chlus in the Duchy of Aquitaine. On April 6‚ 1980‚ 3M began selling Post-it Notes in U.S. stores; the small pieces The post Preparedness Notes for Saturday April 6‚ 2024 appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

It could still be out there.

Read more about the science of ";orange cat behavior"; (yes‚ there is actual science on it) here.

Lorain County Emergency Management (EMA) in Ohio has issued a warning to eclipse watchers and locals to the path of totality to stock up on food‚ water‚ and fuel ahead of the total eclipse on April 8‚ with an influx of visitors to the area expected.The last total solar eclipse over the US was pretty spectacular‚ as anyone who saw it will attest. Looking at the photos‚ it';s hard to imagine how the sight could have been improved upon come Monday.But if we are lucky and the weather is fine‚ we could be in for something special‚ as the eclipse coincides with the solar maximum and you might even see Baily';s beads.";In 2017‚ the Sun was nearing solar minimum. Viewers of the total eclipse could see the breathtaking corona but since the Sun was quiet‚ streamers flowing into the solar atmosphere were restricted to just the equatorial regions of the star. The Sun is more magnetically symmetrical during solar minimum‚ causing this simpler appearance‚"; NASA explains.";During the 2024 eclipse‚ the Sun will be in or near solar maximum‚ when the magnetic field is more like a tangled hairball. Streamers will likely be visible throughout the corona. In addition to that‚ viewers will have a better chance to see prominences which appear as bright‚ pink curls or loops coming off the Sun.";The eclipse should be visible from Mexico to Canada. The path of totality the area where people will see a total solar eclipse is wider than in 2017 too‚ as the Moon is closer to Earth due to where it is in its orbit‚ meaning more people will see the Sun';s corona.";With lucky timing‚ there could even be a chance to see a coronal mass ejection a large eruption of solar material during the eclipse‚"; NASA added.As always with eclipses though‚ there are safety concerns. Last time‚ there was a concerning spike in Google searches related to what happens if you look directly at the Sun‚ shortly after the eclipse took place.There are logistical problems too in the form of a huge influx of tourists hoping to see the celestial event‚ which areas along the path of totality are currently getting ready for. Lorain County officials‚ for example‚ have put out a warning last month that as people arrive ahead of the eclipse there could be increased traffic‚ increased wait time for services such as hospitals and gas stations‚ as well as difficulty accessing food and other supplies.What we could have is crowds here that were not used to‚ said Dave Freeman‚ Lorain County EMA director‚ in a statement seen by USA Today. Were not set up infrastructure-wise for that‚ we dont have the roads.A lot of the roads here are two lanes‚ Freeman added‚ per Yahoo News. This is not Chicago‚ this is not Cleveland‚ where we have a bunch of four-lane‚ six-lane roads coming in so the traffic could be pretty extreme here if we get crowds more than we expect.";The EMA is also warning that cell phone signals could be lost due to the increase in cell phone activity in the area overloading the system. The team is warning residents that in the weekend ahead of the eclipse‚ they should fill their vehicles with gas‚ stock up on food‚ and avoid other travel where possible.More importantly‚ you should look up and enjoy the eclipse‚ of course minimizing the risk of damage to your eyes by checking out our handy guide toviewing eclipses safelyfirst. If theweather stays clear‚ you could also use this guide on how tobest photographthe upcoming eclipse.An earlier version of this article was published inMarch 2024.

If youve looked in your utility drawer lately‚ you may have noticed the various shapes‚ sizes and types of batteries that power your electronic devices. First‚ there are the round‚ non-rechargeable button cells for your watches and small items. Theres also the popular AA and AAA cylindrical batteries for calculators‚ clocks and remotes. Then you have the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries in your laptops and phones. And dont forget about the lead-acid battery in your car.Im a professor who studies batteries and electrochemistry. To understand why batteries come in many different sizes and shapes and serve many purposes look to the past‚ at how batteries originated and how they have developed over the years.The first batteries were made in the 1800s‚ and they were quite simple. One of the first demonstrations was a series of metal discs soaked in brine‚ which Italian scientist Alessandro Volta found created an electric current. The first lead-acid battery was made of a few pieces of lead in a jar of sulfuric acid. The modern versions are not that different. Theyre just easier to manufacture and contain various additives to improve performance.In all cases‚ batteries perform in the same manner: a voltage difference between two dissimilar electrodes produces an electric current‚ which can be discharged to power a device. Rechargeable batteries can then reverse this current to charge back up. Inside the battery‚ the electric current is accompanied by the flow of ions through a liquid‚ the electrolyte.The passage of each electron in the current is accompanied by the transport of one ion through the electrolyte. Electrodes that can store more ions lead to batteries that can hold more charge and therefore last longer on a single charge. Electrodes that are engineered for faster ion storage lead to batteries that can discharge faster‚ for high-power applications. Lastly‚ being able to charge and discharge many times without degrading leads to batteries with long lifetimes.Lead-acid batteriesThe lead-acid battery was the first rechargeable battery invented back in 1859 by Gaston Plante‚ who experimented with lead plates in an acidic solution and found that the flow and storage of electric current could be reversed.A lead-acid battery has to be big enough to provide enough charge to start a car. It also has to be usable in cold climates and last many years. Since the electrolyte is a corrosive acid‚ the external casing has to be tough to protect people and car parts from any possible harm. Knowing all this‚ it makes sense that modern lead-acid batteries are blocky and heavy.Alkaline batteriesOn the other hand‚ household devices like calculators and digital scales can afford to use smaller batteries because they dont require a lot of charge. These are primarily non-rechargeable alkaline batteries that have been used for decades. The standardized cell sizes are AAAA‚ AAA‚ AA‚ C and D‚ as well as button and coin cells and many others. The sizes are related to how much charge they store the bigger the battery‚ the more it holds and the sizes of the devices they power.Sometimes‚ you may find alkaline batteries sold in rectangular shapes‚ like common 9-volt batteries‚ but open the outer casing and youll find that they are simply a few cylindrical cells connected together inside. Cylindrical batteries have been around so long and used so widely that it just doesnt make sense for the companies to manufacture anything different it would require an investment to change their manufacturing facilities‚ something theyd rather not do.Are 9-volt batteries as different from AAA batteries as you think? Take a look inside.Lithium ion batteriesNickel-cadmium batteries were the first widely used rechargeable batteries for household electronics and were popular through the end of the 20th century. But they had their pitfalls. Cadmium is very toxic‚ and the batteries suffered from a memory effect‚ which decreased their lifetime.For many decades‚ lithium was studied for potential use in rechargeable batteries because of its unique properties as a lightweight metal that stores a lot of energy. Sony first commercialized the lithium-ion battery in 1991.The company made cylindrical cells because these were the easiest to manufacture. In the 1990s‚ Sony was making lots of camcorders and tapes‚ and thus had lots of equipment for roll-to-roll manufacturing. It was natural to repurpose this equipment to produce rolls of battery electrodes‚ which are made by casting films on sheets of copper or aluminum and then rolling them up into a jelly roll cylinder.Cylindrical batteries are made of many thin layers rolled up like a jelly roll. OpenStax/Wikimedia‚ CC BYThe thick casing of these cylindrical cells is mechanically strong‚ and to add another layer of safety they have a pressure relief valve. Very quickly‚ these early lithium-ion cells took over the portable electronics market‚ especially for laptops and cellphones‚ because they stored more energy and lasted longer than the nickel-cadmium rechargeable batteries.Factors that shape batteriesBatteries are made in certain sizes and shapes for reasons of cost and manufacturability‚ but in other cases because of legacy manufacturing processes. Market demand also plays a role.For example‚ electric vehicles didnt take off until Tesla started making cars using cylindrical lithium-ion battery cells rather than the rectangular pouch or prismatic cells other EV makers have used. Pouch and prismatic cells can be packed closely together‚ but because cylindrical cells were already being mass-produced for portable electronics‚ Tesla was able to make lower-cost EVs in the 2010s.What shapes and sizes batteries will take in the future depends not only on how much energy they store‚ but also on market economics how easy it is to make each type of cell‚ how much it costs to make them and what theyre used for. And those factors are a mix of innovation and history.Wesley Chang‚ Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics‚ Drexel UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

For decades‚ the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures‚ mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or 273.15C). Thats because the quantum phenomena that grant quantum computers their unique computational abilities can only be harnessed by isolating them from the warmth of the familiar classical world we inhabit.A single quantum bit or qubit‚ the equivalent of the binary zero or one bit at the heart of classical computing‚ requires a large refrigeration apparatus to function. However‚ in many areas where we expect quantum computers to deliver breakthroughs such as in designing new materials or medicines we will need large numbers of qubits or even whole quantum computers working in parallel.Quantum computers that can manage errors and self-correct‚ essential for reliable computations‚ are anticipated to be gargantuan in scale. Companies like Google‚ IBM and PsiQuantum are preparing for a future of entire warehouses filled with cooling systems and consuming vast amounts of power to run a single quantum computer.But if quantum computers could function at even slightly higher temperatures‚ they could be much easier to operate and much more widely available. In new research published in Nature‚ our team has shown a certain kind of qubit the spins of individual electrons can operate at temperatures around 1K‚ far hotter than earlier examples.The cold‚ hard factsCooling systems become less efficient at lower temperatures. To make it worse‚ the systems we use today to control the qubits are intertwining messes of wires reminiscent of ENIAC and other huge computers of the 1940s. These systems increase heating and create physical bottlenecks to making qubits work together.The more qubits we try to cram in‚ the more difficult the problem becomes. At a certain point the wiring problem becomes insurmountable.After that‚ the control systems need to be built into the same chips as the qubits. However‚ these integrated electronics use even more power and dissipate more heat than the big mess of wires.A warm turnOur new research may offer a way forward. We have demonstrated that a particular kind of qubit one made with a quantum dot printed with metal electrodes on silicon‚ using technology much like that used in existing microchip production can operate at temperatures around 1K.This is only one degree above absolute zero‚ so its still extremely cold. However‚ its significantly warmer than previously thought possible. This breakthrough could condense the sprawling refrigeration infrastructure into a more manageable‚ single system. It would drastically reduce operational costs and power consumption.The necessity for such technological advancements isnt merely academic. The stakes are high in fields like drug design‚ where quantum computing promises to revolutionise how we understand and interact with molecular structures.The research and development expenses in these industries‚ running into billions of dollars‚ underscore the potential cost savings and efficiency gains from more accessible quantum computing technologies.A slow burnHotter qubits offer new possibilities‚ but they will also introduce new challenges in error correction and control. Higher temperatures may well mean an increase in the rate of measurement errors‚ which will create further difficulties in keeping the computer functional.It is still early days in the development of quantum computers. Quantum computers may one day be as ubiquitous as todays silicon chips‚ but the path to that future will be filled with technical hurdles.Our recent progress in operating qubits at higher temperatures is as a key step towards making the requirements of the system simpler.It offers hope that quantum computing may break free from the confines of specialised labs into the broader scientific community‚ industry and commercial data centres.Andrew Dzurak‚ Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak‚ CEO and Founder of Diraq‚ UNSW Sydney and Andre Luiz Saraiva De Oliveira‚ Solid State Physicist‚ UNSW SydneyThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The prize for the smallest animal goes to a group of microscopic species.

The following article‚ Stupid: Liberals Blame NY-Area Earthquake On Climate Change‚ was first published on Conservative Firing Line.On Friday‚ the Northeast United States was hit with a 4.8 magnitude earthquake that was reportedly felt from Boston to Baltimore. Lebanon‚ NJ was listed as the epicenter. A 4.8-magnitude earthquake was felt just now in New York‚ New Jersey‚ Philadelphia‚ Boston‚ and Connecticut with Lebanon‚ NJ as the epicenter pic.twitter.com/y0F72NKOij Continue reading Stupid: Liberals Blame NY-Area Earthquake On Climate Change ...

Pointing to the past and the future.The post Who has been the biggest band of the 2020s so far? first appeared on Far Out Magazine.