UCLA professor David Hayes-Bautista stumbled upon the answer to a question that for years had puzzled scholars and amateur historians alike: Why is Cinco de Mayo so widely celebrated in California and the United States, when it is scarcely observed in Mexico? As Hayes-Bautista explains in “El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition,” his new …
Continue reading “Why is Cinco De Mayo not celebrated in Mexico, only the U.S.?”
The race is on to replace steel cars with carbon-fibre cars. All of the major automakers have inked deals to make the switch. The reason being that carbon-fibre is: “10 times stronger than regular-grade steel and one-quarter of steel’s weight.” “Using carbon fiber in lieu of conventional steel can lower the weight of a vehicle …
Continue reading “Soon cars will be ultra-light-weight and made out of carbon-fibre composites”
A new study from Carnegie Mellon University found that in 2010, video games wasted about 1% of America’s electrical energy. They found that up to 75% of energy consumed by video game consoles is during idle use, because the machines don’t have an auto-power-down feature (like every computer does). The authors of the study say …
Continue reading “Video games wasted about 1% of America’s electrical energy”
Some excerpts from the series by Jay B. Sauceda: BILL PRYOR – Bill runs a ranch in between Alpine and Marfa. He’s a friendly guy with what may be the raspiest voice I have ever heard. BROOKSIE – Brooksie spent 27 years working the coal mines of Utah until settling down on an 80 acre …
Continue reading “A portrait series of the modern American Cowboy/girl”
The largest private employer in China, Foxconn with over 1 million employees, is finally facing stiff labor costs. This is great news for the U.S. manufacturing sector who may be able to lure some work back to the United States. It will be interesting to see how this affects the global market, but for now …
Continue reading “One million robots in three years – Foxconn’s Robot Kingdom”
Flurry recently quantified China’s meteoric adoption of iOS and Android applications. While China ranked 10th in application sessions at the beginning of 2011, it finished the year in 2nd place, only behind the United States. With its large population and rapidly emerging middle class, adoption of apps vaulted China into the position of world’s 2nd …
Continue reading “China’s meteoric rise makes it the second largest app economy”
Transportation, not electricity, is the source of oil’s importance: since the 1970s, the U.S. has weaned its power sector off of oil. Today only one percent of U.S. electricity is generated from oil and only one percent of U.S. oil demand is due to electricity generation. Thus expansion of electricity generation from solar, wind, nuclear, …
Continue reading “Oil fact – 99% of U.S. electricity generation does NOT come from oil”
The following chart shows U.S. petroleum and gasoline usage for the same three-month period (Dec-Feb) going back to 1992. Note that petroleum usage is back to 1995 levels, and gasoline usage is back to 2001. Chart via Global Economic Analysis – (thx to Steven Witt for the tip) This graph highlights a continuing U.S. trend …
Continue reading “Gasoline use drops to 2001 levels – recent data shows”
Todd Park has been named the next U.S. Chief Technology Officer by the White House. A profile of him in O’Reilly Radar written by Alex Howard: Park has been working to revolutionize the healthcare industry at HHS since 2009, and in the private sector as an entrepreneur since 1997. Now he’ll have the opportunity to try to improve …
Eastern Coast of United States at Night Feb 6, 2012 — One of the Expedition 30 crew members aboard the International Space Station took this nighttime photograph of much of the eastern (Atlantic) coast of the United States. Large metropolitan areas and other easily recognizable sites from the Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. area spanning almost to Rhode …
Continue reading “Space shot of eastern coast of United States at night”