Minneapolis' School Plan Asks White Families to Help Integrate

Via: Nerm_L  •  News Viners  •  1 Comments  •  2 Likes  •  6 days ago

“In a citywide overhaul, a beloved Black high school was rezoned to include white students from a richer neighborhood. It has been hard for everyone.”

The expectation that simply mixing Black and white kids in the classroom will solve problems with education is always interesting.  The unilateral and undemocratic plans by education boards to integrate schools seems to be driven by gentrification of the classroom. The justification for...

China blowback looms for Schumer's Innovation and Competition Act

Via: Nerm_L  •  News Viners  •  4 Comments  •  2 Likes  •  5 days ago

“Beijing warns that U.S. tech and competitiveness legislation will "gravely damage America's own interests."”

Democrats go MAGA with a neoliberal twist.  Innovation doesn't have much value without the ability to produce.  Depending on China to produce those innovations is how we got into this mess.  The resilience and sustainability of the US producing economy really is on the line.  Democrat's...

Opinion | Here's a Fact: We're Routinely Asked to Use Leftist Fictions

Via: Nerm_L  •  News Viners  •  4 Comments  •  4 Likes  •  one week ago

“Today's sociopolitical newspeak has an aroma of self-delusion.”

There are lies, damned lies, and then there is political correctness.  When socially enforced fictions become oppressive then what progress has been made?

EXPLAINER: What happened to the Afghanistan evacuation?

Via: Nerm_L  •  News Viners  •  1 Comments  •  1 Like  •  one week ago

“The 124,000 people evacuated in the initial phases included about 6,000 American citizens.”

What happened 500 years ago is fresh news but what happened three months ago is old news.  The relocation and resettlement of Afghan refugees progresses in the shadows of a liberal government bureaucracy that can do no wrong.    Too bad there aren't champions in Congress, like Ilhan Omar and...

This Mining Truck Will Be the World's Largest Electric Vehicle

Via: Nerm_L  •  News Viners  •  5 Comments  •  2 Likes  •  2 weeks ago

“The big boy breaks the scales at 290 tons.”

While still a hybrid-electric truck, this machine is pretty impressive.  The diesel engine is being replaced with a hydrogen fuel cell and a battery that can be recharged with regenerative braking.  All these technologies have been around for almost a century.

World's largest EV never has to be recharged

Via: Nerm_L  •  News Viners  •  3 Comments  •  3 Likes  •  2 weeks ago

“How is that possible, you ask?”

Large electric and hybrid-electric vehicles have been around for several decades.  The problem all along has been miniaturizing the technology to the size of a Ford F-150.

Scientific pluralism: why science does not give simple answers

Via: Nerm_L  •  News Viners  •  1 Comments  •  1 Like  •  2 weeks ago

“Scientific pluralism is the notion that some questions must be approached from many angles. How can we integrate these scientific models?”

As the various scientific disciplines become fractured by specialization, science overall becomes more ambiguous.  The scientific process provides a multiplicity of answers to questions on many different levels.  Each of those answers may be correct within the context of specialization but, as a...

Scientists develop an economical atomic battery with power increased by 10 times

Via: Nerm_L  •  News Viners  •  5 Comments  •  1 Like  •  2 weeks ago

“the development will make it possible to increase the specific power by an order of magnitude”

Another small scale betavoltaic or atomic battery.  Atomic batteries would be microscale power generation.  

A novel betavoltaic technology with dyes for better energy production

Via: Nerm_L  •  News Viners  •  1 Comments  •  1 Like  •  2 weeks ago

“So far, our dye-sensitized betavoltaic cell is the first to apply dye to achieve high radiation-to-current conversion efficiency.”

A betavoltaic cell converts beta radiation (electrons) from a radioisotope source into electricity.  The technology has been around for a while.  A betavoltaic cell approximately one cubic inch in size was used to power pacemakers during the 1970s.  The problem with the technology has been low...

Science Goes Woke

Via: Nerm_L  •  News Viners  •  46 Comments  •  4 Likes  •  2 weeks ago

“As if academics were not wasting enough time on paperwork, now they face the added burden of proving their progressive bona fides in order to win...”

Funding agencies, organizations, and institutions are imposing their politically 'woke' biases onto the scientific community.  The competition for grant funding works much like natural selection:  those with a competitive edge in grant funding become dominant.   The conduct of science is...