Day: August 29, 2021

some of my drawings [August’21] [2]

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A super laser will protect us from lightning: tests at the top of the Swiss Alps

Installed on top of the Säntis a laser capable of capturing lightning strikes and directing them in a controlled manner to the ground. This modern lightning rod system was created to protect sensitive installations, things and people over an area much larger than the Franklin lightning rod.

Lightning strikes are as fascinating as they are dangerous, both for the environment (they can trigger accidents) and for the safety of people and things. The climate change that we are sadly already experiencing leads to increasingly devastating and violent storms and already today, on average, lightning strikes between 6,000 and 24,000 people a year. There are techniques to protect yourself from lightning, but for now the best solution is still based on the concept of lightning rod, invented by Benjamin Franklin almost 300 years ago.

The Laser Lightning Rod (LLR) project of the European consortium EIC FET-Open wants to go further, and for this reason a new type of lightning protection based on the use of a powerful laser fired upwards has been developing for some years. capable of capturing and discharging lightning strikes. It is a technique that aims to transfer the charge present in the clouds to the ground in a controlled way.

As reported by CNN, the technology is now ready for field testing at the weather station in Säntis (Switzerland), at an altitude of 2500 meters. Getting the laser up to that height wasn’t easy when you think that 29 tons of material were transported to the top of the mountain, including 18 tons of concrete blocks to anchor everything securely in the face of strong winds.

University of Geneva researchers led by Professor Jean-Pierre Wolf lead the European Union-funded consortium that includes universities in Paris and Lausanne, rocket manufacturer ArianeGroup and German laser manufacturer Trumpf Scientific Lasers, tasked with developing a compact laser source with an unprecedented combination of energy and speed.

“This is one of the places in Europe most affected by lightning,” Wolf explained. “There is a radio transmission tower that is hit 100 to 400 times a year. So it’s a great place to do our experiments.”

Lightning strikes form when turbulent air inside a thundercloud swirls violently around ice crystals and water droplets, stripping electrons from their atoms and creating separate zones with opposite electrical charges. These electric fields can become very strong and because opposite charges attract each other, they can connect through a discharge of electricity, namely lightning.

The laser mimics and enhances this natural scenario by generating an electric field so strong that it directly strikes electrons from their atoms, creating the opposite charges necessary for lightning to form. The idea is to make the clouds discharge lightning in a controlled way. “That’s why we call it laser lightning rods,” Wolf told CNN. The beam will run along the existing transmission tower, which is over 120 meters high.

Traditional lightning rods only protect a limited area of ​​the ground, while the laser will cover a larger area, although exactly how much cannot yet be said. Furthermore, according to the theory, the laser could not only capture lightning generated by thunderstorm activity, but also trigger extra ones by discharging the clouds.

Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley

Jake Paul and Tyron Woodley will be the ones who close the curtain on next weekend in the world of combat sports, with their boxing match that will be broadcast on PPV on Showtime Boxing and which will take place at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio.

With the first pages of international boxing still occupied by the events that took place in the meeting between Manny Pacquiao and Yordenis Ugas, the American YouTuber will once again try to ride the wave of successful matches between celebrities in a different reality from the one breathed on Triller, with a another match that will see him pitted against a former MMA champion.

However, given Woodley’s known strike skills, Jake Paul may not be able to finish the match with immense ease.

The myth of Chinese austerity (and devotion)

Illustration of Pawel Kuczynski

The pandemic has shocked the world and the origin of the virus is certain … but probably in the future there will never be certainty of the true causes of the spread of the virus. China is a powerful country even for the United States, and controlling or spying on political movements is a difficult task if the government has a firm dictatorship.

But what do they know about the Chinese?
Obviously in the collective imagination there is always the idea that Chinese are the largest rice producing and consuming country .. But there are other things:
have you ever seen a chinese funeral?
It is strange to think about this … many say that the Chinese sleep personally in boxes.
In any case, this image is eloquent. It can have many meanings but the most obvious one is that the Western world is so used to the glitz that it wastes grains of rice. A different thing for the Chinese instead …

️🎵 Oscar Anton – Ophelie

LYRIC

I’m playing back
Every song I wrote about
The memories I have with you

I play it loud
But you never turn around
Yet it’s such an easy thing to do

And I don’t want to tell the truth
Cause nothing’s gonna change
It’s too late I’m afraid

And I already fell for you
Our picture’s on the shelf
But I’m not happy there

Ophelie, why don’t you see
That I’m in love with someone else
Ophelie, why don’t you see
That I’m in love with someone else

I’m never sad
But tonight I think I am
There’s nothing left to say, I know

You think I’m fine
But you never really asked
It’s meaningless to say, I’m not
And I don’t want to tell the truth
Cause nothing’s gonna change
It’s too late I’m afraid

And I already fell for you
Our picture’s on the shelf
But I’m about to say

Ophelie, why don’t you see
That I’m in love with someone else
Ophelie, why don’t you see
That I’m in love with someone else

Ophelie, why don’t you see
That I’m in love with someone else
Ophelie, why don’t you see
That you should be with someone else

And I don’t want to tell the truth
Cause nothing’s gonna change
It’s too late I’m afraid

And I already fell for you
Our picture’s on the shelf
But I’m not happy there
…

Moors — A Dad trying to cope with the loss of his Partner and becoming a single parent.

A short drive takes us into the heart of the Yorkshire MOORS. A stunningly moody setting for generations of fantastic storytellers. Wuthering Heights could only be set here in Yorkshire. Today seemingly a perfect place for a trip out for Hawklad. He wanted to go out but to somewhere quiet and remote. The busiest time […]

Moors — A Dad trying to cope with the loss of his Partner and becoming a single parent.