What did you learn today?

[Tom Bomb]

Got a real charge out of organic photovoltaics, where "Organic solar cells set new energy record"

What are organic solar cells?

The term organic relates to the fact that carbon-based materials are at the heart of these devices, rather than silicon. The square or rectangular solid solar panels that most of us are familiar with, require fixed installation points usually on roofs or in flat fields.

Organic photovoltaics (OPV) can be made of compounds that are dissolved in ink so they can be printed on thin rolls of plastic, they can bend or curve around structures or even be incorporated into clothing.

What's stopped them becoming widely used?

In a word - efficiency.

This is a measure of how much of the sunlight that shines on a panel can be turned into usable electricity.

Commercial solar photovoltaics usually co[n]vert 15-22% of sunlight, with a [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]reached in this summer in the UK.

Organics have long lingered at around half this rate, but this year has seen some major leaps forward.

In April researchers were able to reach 15% in tests. Now this new study pushes that beyond 17% with the authors saying that up to 25% is possible.

This is important because according to estimates, with a 15% efficiency and a 20 year lifetime, organic solar cells could produce electricity at a cost of less than 7 cents per kilowatt-hour.

In 2017, the average cost of electricity in the US was 10.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

 

[rtslinger]

Invalid Link Removed

 

[paste]

TIL cold water has negative calories, since your body needs to spend energy to heat it up.

Does drinking ice water burn calories?

 

[rtslinger]

Don't let your family eat these

Breakfast With a Dose of Roundup?

 

[PWRL]

Don't let your family eat these

Breakfast With a Dose of Roundup?

I'm a Cascadian Farm guy, myself.

 

[paste]

TIL The two parts to the word “helicopter” are not “heli” and “copter”, but “helico” meaning spiral, and “pter” meaning one with wings, like pterodactyl.

 

[RedVee]

Watched an interview with the Australian Country singer John Williamson. They brought up him performing his song True Blue at Steve Irwin’s memorial service, and said that it was watched live by 300 million viewers around the world.
300 million! That did my head in.

He said he just concentrated on performing it well for those in front of him.

Here is the Steve Irwin memorial “True Blue”.

 

[Tom Bomb]

Heart attack risk doubles for daily e-cigarette users, or so they say.

“Most adults who use e-cigarettes continue to smoke cigarettes,” said senior author Stanton Glantz, PhD, a UCSF professor of medicine and director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.

“While people may think they are reducing their health risks, we found that the heart attack risk of e-cigarettes adds to the risk of smoking cigarettes,” Glantz said. “Using both products at the same time is worse than using either one separately. Someone who continues to smoke daily while using e-cigarettes daily increases the odds of a heart attack by a factor of five.”
​

A little disconcerting really, especially when many official enterprises are still encouraging the use of e-cigs as a means towards becoming healthier. I'd say every player here's addicted to something. Either way, dropping the whole thing like a stone's the way to go. There are real positives, beyond the smoke and mirrors, for the reformed.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Today I learned, courtesy of this article, that "it's unethical to throw people out of airplanes for science."

 

[farshore]

Today I learned, courtesy of this article, that "it's unethical to throw people out of airplanes for science."

Unless the read the article and learn how to fall properly from 10,000 feet

 

[shadowtippy]

When you say, "There, there, little girl" to a pissed off grown man, it makes things worse.

 

[BioDriver]

Today (well, yesterday) I learned I'm a BAMF during my performance review, got a raise, and will be getting a promotion when I've been with the company long enough to qualify for one.

 

[Tom Bomb]

Just how great is the Great Barrier Reef? Swat, I got.

To put its size into perspective, the third biggest coral reef in the world is the Florida Reef stretching about 270 kilometres to the south of Florida. … The second, according to UNESCO, is the Belize Barrier Reef, at more than 300 kilometres.

The Great Barrier Reef is more than 2300 kilometres, covering almost 350,000 square kilometres. … And size is important. Though coral reefs cover only 1 percent of the world's land mass, and 2 percent of its ocean floors, they provide a home to almost a quarter of all marine life. [insert Nemo meme here.]
Nature's perfect match is breaking down and the reef is in peril

 

[catcauphonic]

Just how great is the Great Barrier Reef? Swat, I got.

​

Didn't click on the link inside, but i know from watching a doc last year that a process called bleaching is making ghost towns out of large sections of the coral, making it uninhabitable

 

[Tom Bomb]

Ha ha yeah. Whatever you do, don't click on the link

 

[dwm74]

Didn't click on the link inside, but i know from watching a doc last year that a process called bleaching is making ghost towns out of large sections of the coral, making it uninhabitable

Huge coral reef is discovered deep underwater off the South Carolina coast

It's not all bad. They just discovered a new reef off the Carolina coast. The circle of life, or something like that.

 

[bholder]

I learned I'm getting the biggest raise I've had in years. This does not suck.

 

[dwm74]

I learned I'm getting the biggest raise I've had in years. This does not suck.

Hey, now you can order the more expensive Tesla you've always wanted! Start your own fleet!

 

[bholder]

Hey, now you can order the more expensive Tesla you've always wanted! Start your own fleet!

It wasn't that big a raise... ...maybe I can actually afford what I just bought now!

 

[FilterFunk]

That I can actually get one of my own songs stuck in my head. Not a song I'm currently working on, or have recently worked on, but a song I wrote and recorded over 30 years ago.