Not a Journal

So if you understood my lackluster title, this post is about stars. What are they? Where do the come from? How big are they? .... I was asking you... you.. you don't know? Well, I have bad news for you........... GOTYA! Why else do you come to this corner of the observable web? That joke probably went right over your head because it was completely unrelated to anything I may or may not mention later in this post which of course you haven't read yet. Okay, that's enough of that intro... Stars are, well, pretty simple actually. If you look at a periodic table, you know the one that's kind of a weird shape and has a bunch of letters and numbers on it and you probably have no idea what they are? Yeah, that table. Well, we're in luck. We really only need to look at the first two elements on it. Hydrogen and Helium. Now a star usually contains other stuff too, but for simplicity, we'll stick with the basics. Hydrogen is the 1st element on the periodic ...

Ladies and gentlemen! We are in a state of emergency. Okay, I'm overreacting. But still, I feel it is my duty to make this blog, even though it will likely never reach the people who this post is targeted to. Nonetheless, hopefully it's a little interesting for the regular readers, all 6 of you and the accompanying 40 bots and web crawlers I assume my audience includes. So I was made aware that it might not be common knowledge, or it is and this person just missed the 80 science classes I'm sure this was discussed in over the last 10 years of their education, that our solar system is NOT THE ONLY SOLAR SYSTEM OUT THERE. I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAD TO WRITE THAT. I ALSO FORGOT TO TAKE CAPS LOCK OFF and didn't want to retype any of that. Now I'm not trying to make fun of anyone, but let's go back to square one here. Next time you're outside at night, not you fake audience, just the real people, look up! Those twinkling white dots, those are stars! On a...

I wrote my highest viewed post a year ago.  Here it is if you missed it.  Look how helpful I am! That post was a discussion of the potential of solar power. We've made significant strides since then. Solar is now the fastest growing renewable energy production method in the world. Ignoring President Trump's public statements, solar has generated over 50,000 jobs in the US, Elon Musk - founder & CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, is investing a ton in solar with his Solar Roof initiative and PowerWall tech, and China is increasing their solar energy generation capacity by a great deal and abandoning coal (*cough* take notes, USA *cough*). That's pretty exciting if you ask me. In the post on solar from last year, I mentioned only one type of solar tech - where the solar panel acts as a concentrator of light to generate steam. Due to improvements in material science and electronics, there is another type of solar technology which is driving this upbringing of large-scale solar a...

Let's start by saying that each and every one of these scenarios are coming from my head as I write this... bare with me.. bear with me? no no, it's definitely bare with me. Scenario 1 - Quasi-Zombie Apocalypse This one is a given. Americans are already zombies of their once free-selves, however, they are now called Trumpies. Freedom is no longer real, just an illusion where citizens no longer make dollars, they collect Trump-points. Trump, the all knowing and true undisputed ruler, designs a chemical agent which is distributed by flying drones each week through chimneys. This agent guarantees obedience to the New World Order of Trump. Scenario 2 - Trumpilism Capitalism is no longer determined by the free market, but by the executive ruler Trump. He now controls all industry in the country and no longer has ties to any other country in the world. He has carried out his promise of creating jobs. However, citizens, rather, employees of his country no longer have rights, wages...

I've seen this video about an author named Simon Sinek floating around the internet for the past few days titled "Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace". From my minimal dataset, including my own opinion, since this is not an unbiased blog whatsoever, I'd actually say I'm quite biased in this regard, but I have a few points to make for Mr. Sinek, and all of the people who seem to think this is more than a semi-successful author's attempt to sell his books. Here's a link to the video:  Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace The 15 minute interview-style video discusses the attitudes of millennials and consequences of the technological world we live in today. He certainly makes good points, although his overall theme is that millennials are addicted to their phones. And generally I agree with that, but is it the end of the world as he seems to make it out to be? Well, judge that for yourself at the end of this post. First of all, he cites mi...

Literally thought of this post because even I thought my last few of these were boring... So, rationally, let's go back to asking irrational questions that I really shouldn't be the one answering. Still want to keep reading? Why do people get bored? Do animals get bored? I cannot even imagine how boring a cow's life is. "Moo, moo moo mooooooo". Translation: "Hi, I'm a cow, I eat grass and sleep". Yes, I obviously speak cow. Why do humans have such a short attention span? Where does it come from? And how does attention span affect other animals? Again, I literally have no idea of real, hard evidence answers. And I probably should do some research on the topic, but if you want real science [incoming self promotional plug] check out my other blog that I rarely post to... well I don't even remember the title anymore... ignore me. Here's a riddle. What do you pay but receive nothing in return? Attention. The... what is attention?...

Is there one thing that comes to mind when you stop and think? I've written about stopping and thinking a while ago, and if I wasn't so lazy I'd link that post, but I honestly don't remember what it was even called. *Pretend to read aforementioned post*  All 4 of you who read: "Wow, nice post Jay, can't wait to finish this one!" Thanks guys.. For whatever reason, lately, it has been the control loops our brains go through to perform simple, or even insanely complex tasks that I've been thinking about. I get a little excited (I do recognize how lame this will sound) when I think of a PLC. A PLC is essentially a simplified electronic version of the control loops I'm talking about, that for example, controls the heating and cooling inside your house. It's rather simple, a thermocouple (a slightly better thermometer, or an RTD if you're fancy) measures the temperature. A small computer reads it, compares it to the setpoin...