A middle-school librarian in Virginia has found a way to ensure kids can still rent books during a time when libraries are closed to the public.
She’s delivering them by drone.
Kelly Passek / Credit: Wing
Kelly Passek was one of the first customers of a drone delivery service launched in Christiansburg, Va., last year by Wing. After seeing how quickly her household items were delivered, she petitioned the company to take on library books, too.
She asked the school’s superintendent, Mark Miear, who was “immediately on board.”
“Montgomery County Public Schools will be the first public school system in the world to use Wing to deliver library books to our students,” Passek said. “We are thrilled for this opportunity to have a really unique way to deliver resources to our students and do it practically on demand.”
Passek coordinates the delivery process with Wing. Students can request to take out library books using an online form. Passek then packs the books up in special delivery boxes, then drops them off at Wing, which handles the deliveries.
“Our libraries are essential and unique parts of our community and it is extremely important for our students to continue to have access to the resources that are here in our libraries in order to guarantee their success,” Passek said.
Now, students in Montgomery County can choose from the library’s more than 150,000 titles, and have their books delivered right to their front yard.
A carpenter in Toronto is building insulated, mobile shelters for homeless people who will be outdoors this winter.
Khaleel Seivwright / CBC
Khaleel Seivwright, 28, started building mobile shelters for the homeless last month. Each unit costs about $1,000 in materials and takes Seivwright eight hours to construct. But he’s been happily giving them away for free.
“It just seemed like something I could do that would be useful because there’s so many people staying in tents,” Seivwright told the CBC. “I’ve never seen so many people staying outside in parks, and this is something I could do to make sure people staying outside in the winter could survive.”
Seivwright says the shelters will be able to keep people comfortably warm with their own body heat in temperatures as low as -20 C.
To help fund his mission, Seivwright launched an online fundraiser which has raised more than $50,000.
“I’m excited to do this because I know it can work, I love designing and building different interesting ideas and I know it might help at least a few people get through this winter who might not and others in the future as well. As shelters are usually at capacity at some point in the winter in Toronto and also because of this coronavirus, making space to allow for social distancing will put even more strain on Toronto’s capacity,” he wrote on GoFundMe.
As the world transitions away from fossil fuels, a wide consensus of experts believes that of all the green technologies available, solar energy is among the most sustainable—and cheapest.
Research innovation is pulling down the costs of new equipment, raising efficiently levels, and making photovoltaic panels more durable—and even recyclable.
Recently, a new upgrade developed by scientists at the University of York in the UK has increased the ability of solar panels to absorb light by a stunning 125 percent.
A potential game-changer, it holds the promise of harvesting ten times more energy for the same relative cost.
The team achieved this feat by utilizing a checkerboard design for their panel face, instead of the traditional flat panel surface. The new design reportedly increased the diffraction rate, which measures the probability of light being absorbed.
Moreover, the team’s innovative pattern also led them to believe that lighter, thinner, and more flexible solar panels could be a natural result.
According to Dr. Christian Schuster from the University’s Department of Physics, “We found a simple trick for boosting the absorption of slim solar cells. Our investigations show that our idea actually rivals the absorption enhancement of more sophisticated designs – while also absorbing more light deep in the plane and less light near the surface structure itself.”
“In principle, we could deploy ten times more solar power for the same amount of absorber material: ten times thinner solar cells could enable a rapid expansion of photovoltaics, increase solar electricity production, and greatly reduce our carbon footprint,” he wrote in the team’s research paper, published in the Journal Optica.
A partnership with NOVA University of Lisbon, the team states that the amount of silicon required for their panels that have thinner cells, would cut the costs of new panels. Further, it could lead to adoption of solar cell technology for specialized applications, such as anti-skid walking surfaces, for example.
In developing new solar cell upgrades, scientists know there is currently a limit for how efficient photovoltaic solar cells can be in converting the sun’s energy into usable electricity. A good, typical solar panel today will convert about 15 to 20 percent of the sunlight.
With upgrades like these, companies will undoubtedly increase that level substantially.
After being lost to science for almost three decades, this tiny deer-like species has finally been rediscovered in the forests of Vietnam.
The “silver-backed chevrotain”—also known as the “Vietnamese mouse deer”—is about the size of a rabbit. Its last recorded sighting was in 1990, but after researchers managed to capture photos and video footage of the critter in the wild, it is now the first mammal to be rediscovered on the Global Wildlife Conservation’s (GWC) top 25 most wanted lost species in theSearch for Lost Species.
The GWC and their partners at the Southern Institute of Ecology and Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research made their rediscovery in southern Vietnam. Their findings, which were published this week in the scientific journalNature Ecology and Evolution, is now spurring on efforts to protect the chevrotain and the other mysterious and extraordinary wildlife that share its home in Vietnam.
“We had no idea what to expect, so I was surprised and overjoyed when we checked the camera traps and saw photographs of a mouse deer with silver flanks,” said An Nguyen, associate conservation scientist for GWC and expedition team leader. “For so long, this species has seemingly only existed as part of our imagination. Discovering that it is, indeed, still out there, is the first step in ensuring we don’t lose it again, and we’re moving quickly now to figure out how best to protect it.”
The silver-backed chevrotain was described in 1910 from four individuals collected from southern Vietnam. A Russian expedition in 1990 in central Vietnam collected a fifth individual. Scientists know almost nothing about general ecology or conservation status of this species, making it one of the highest mammal conservation priorities in the Greater Annamite mountains, one of GWC’s focal wildlands.
After several interviews with local villagers and government forest rangers who reported seeing a gray mouse deer—the color distinguishing the silver-backed chevrotain from the more common lesser mouse deer—the field team set three camera traps for five months in an area of southern Vietnam where locals indicated they may have seen the animal. This resulted in 275 photos of the species. The team then set up another 29 cameras in the same area, this time recording 1,881 photographs of the chevrotain over five months.
“The rediscovery of the silver-backed chevrotain provides a big hope for the conservation of biodiversity, especially threatened species, in Vietnam,” said Hoang Minh Duc, head of the Southern Institute of Ecology’s Department of Zoology. “This also encourages us, together with relevant and international partners, to devote time and effort to further investigate and conserve Vietnam’s biodiversity heritage.”
There are 10 known species of chevrotains in the world, primarily from Asia. Despite their common English names, chevrotains are neither mice nor deer, but the world’s smallest small ungulates (hoofed mammals). They are shy and solitary, appear to walk on the tips of their hooves and have two tiny fangs. Chevrotains typically weigh less than 11 pounds (5 kilograms).
The silver-backed chevrotain is one of a number of fascinating species that live in the diverse tropical forests of Southeast Asia, where some species have been discovered only in the last few decades. This includes the antelope-likesaola(the Asian “unicorn”), which was only discovered in 1992 and that no biologist has seen in the wild.
A team is now setting out to determine how large—and stable—this population of silver-backed chevrotains is; assess the wider distribution of the species; and explore the threats to its survival. As part of the first-ever comprehensive survey on the species, the team began camera trap surveys in October in two additional areas. They will use all of the information that they gather to develop a conservation action plan that strengthens enforcement and protection of the species across its range, building on the increased enforcement already put in place at the site of rediscovery.
“It is an amazing feat to go from complete lack of knowledge of the wildlife of the Greater Annamites 25 years ago to now having this question mark of the silver-backed chevrotain resolved,” said Barney Long, GWC senior director of species conservation. “But the work is only beginning with the rediscovery and initial protection measures that have been put in place—now we need to identify not just a few individuals on camera traps, but one or two sites with sizable populations so that we can actually protect and restore the species.”
“Even when we are old, I’d still look at you like this.”
October 28, 2020
A carpenter in Toronto is building insulated, mobile shelters for homeless people who will be outdoors this winter.
Khaleel Seivwright / CBC
Khaleel Seivwright, 28, started building mobile shelters for the homeless last month. Each unit costs about $1,000 in materials and takes Seivwright eight hours to construct. But he’s been happily giving them away for free.
“It just seemed like something I could do that would be useful because there’s so many people staying in tents,” Seivwright told the CBC. “I’ve never seen so many people staying outside in parks, and this is something I could do to make sure people staying outside in the winter could survive.”
Seivwright says the shelters will be able to keep people comfortably warm with their own body heat in temperatures as low as -20 C.
To help fund his mission, Seivwright launched an online fundraiser which has raised more than $50,000.
May, 2019
A simple moment of intimacy between an elderly man and his fast food date has melted the hearts of thousands of people across social media.
The heartwarming photo was captured by Al Oliver Reyes Alonzo as he was dining at a McDonald’s in the Philippines last week.
While he was eating his meal, Alonzo spotted an older man who was looking at his female companion with the sweetest expression of love and affection.
As the man leaned his head on his folded arms so he could gaze fondly at his date across the table, Alonzo snapped a photo of the exchange and posted it to Facebook.
The translated caption of the photo simply reads: “Even when we are old, I’d still look at you like this.”
Since publishing the photo to social media, it has been shared thousands of times. Some internet users have used it to pledge their own declarations of love towards their romantic partners; others have expressed their longing to one day experience the same look of love from another person.
Regardless, the picture is the sweetest example of how there can still be plenty of golden moments in your golden years.
The Dutch master is thought to have touched the oil paint on Study Of A Head Of A Young Man when it was still wet.
By Stephen White 21:21, 21 Nov. 2018
Study Of A Head Of A Young Man portrays Rembrandt’s model as Jesus (Image: PA) Fingerprints thought to be those of Dutch master Rembrandt have been discovered in a small oil sketch almost 400 years old.
Study Of A Head Of A Young Man, measuring just 10in high, is expected to fetch about £6million when it is auctioned in London next month.
Buried in the original layer of paint, in the lower edge of the “powerful and touching” 17th century portrait, experts found what are believed to be the Dutch master’s thumbprints.
No other prints by the painter, said to be the “foremost master of the Western artistic tradition”, have ever been found.
While it is impossible to confirm the prints are those of Rembrandt, who is famous for his portraits and use of light and shadow, experts believe they are the “only known fingerprints of the Dutch master”.
They were uncovered during a process of technical examination and restoration, which included pigment analyses, X-ray and infra-red imaging, just before the painting went on display in the US and the Louvre, in Paris.
George Gordon, worldwide co-chairman of Sotheby’s Old Master paintings, who are auctioning the work, called the find an “extraordinary discovery”.
The fingerprints were left on the 1655 painting when the paint was still wet.
The Next Rembrandt: Dutch Master ‘brought back to life’ for one last painting “You often get finger and thumbprints in the varnish of painting, but that doesn’t really tell you anything of interest,” he said. “This is in the original paint.
“This shows that Rembrandt was happy with the painting while it was still wet. He painted it very quickly.
“But what is certain is that it is somebody that picked up the painting as soon as it was finished.”
He added: “While as far as we know no comparable finger or thumbprints of Rembrandt have been found in other works to confirm the conclusion, the discovery of the marks in the original layer of paint…. make their connection to the artist highly credible.”
He said that the portrait, dating from around 1655, has a “spiritual and emotional impact”.
“We know he worked really quickly and you can also see and feel it in this painting,” he said.
“When Rembrandt applies thick layers of paint, some of the colour leaches through. It has an intense visceral quality and is astonishingly well preserved.”
He added: “I suspect people will now look for fingerprints in other paintings.”
Michel van de Laar, a conservator in Amsterdam who helped lead the research, said: “The work was also determined to have been executed in one sitting.
“The discovery of the fingerprints is further testament to the speed with which the work was likely executed and provides fresh insight into Rembrandt’s complex but swift painting technique.”
Study Of A Head Of A Young Man portrays Rembrandt’s model as Jesus, with his hands clasped in prayer, and has been praised for the artist’s ability to “render human emotions”.
Terry Jackson Holds His Rifle He Pawned at Age 8 For His Grandmother’s Washing Machine.
Sep 26, 2006 3:40 pm US/Pacific (AP) Syringa, Idaho It was a ricochet nearly 50 years in the making. At age 8, Terry Jackson gave up his prized .22-caliberWinchester short-barrel rifle to get his grandmother a washer. Recently, the 57-year-old got the gun back through a series of chance encounters and conversations.
“I didn’t even have much reaction,” said Jackson. “I was so dumbfounded.”
As a boy, Jackson felt bad that his grandmother was too poor to have a washer. So he took the rifle he had earned money for by mowing lawns and doing other chores to a pawn shop.
“That was the only thing I had that was worth anything,” Jackson told The Lewiston Tribune.
The pawn shop owner agreed to trade a wringer washer for the rifle. When the washer was delivered to his grandmother, Edna Jackson, she refused it until realizing the sacrifice her grandson had made.
“She just couldn’t believe it,” Jackson said.
The rifle, meanwhile, remained with the pawn shop owner, Bill Jackson. He never sold the rifle, instead giving it to family friend James Grow in the 1980s, recounting the story that accompanied the rifle.
“He told me the story but I never thought anything about it,”Grow said. “I didn’t even know who Terry Jackson was at the time, although Bill did tell me his name.”
Grow said Bill Jackson told him the gun might be worth something someday. He never shot the rifle and kept it in his closet.
Grow became an attorney in Lewiston, and Terry Jackson recently hired Grow to do some legal work. The connection might not have been made about the rifle except for a conversation Becky Brotnov, Terry Jackson’s companion, had with Grow during a business lunch.
She told the story of Terry Jackson giving up the rifle to get the washer.
“All of a sudden it dawned on me, I own the gun,” Grow said.
After hearing the story, Grow said he knew he wouldn’t keep the gun. So he recently drove to Terry Jackson’s home to return the rifle.
“That was a really nice thing he did for his grandma,” Grow said.
Two Brothers Weblog 