You Can Just Print An Air Purifier

I don’t have the time right now, but when the ol’ dissertation is done, I can easily see a 3D printer getting heavy usage around these parts…

3D printers are one of the few pieces of technology in the last 30 years that are as revolutionary as they were pitched. It is easy to miss that fact, in part because 3D printing itself is a dorky little habit that produces a lot of embarrassing trinkets with visible layer lines, a technology that launched a thousand Iron Man cosplay masks. But the quality and speed of these machines improves yearly, and you can get a fantastic printer that handles multiple colors for less than $600 dollars and even cheaper if you go with eBay or know someone who is moving at just the right time. Access to a 3D printer can be a great way to repair an existing device, replace something you would otherwise buy commercially, or create something that the commercial market would never provide you.

Source: You Can Just Print An Air Purifier

3d printers

Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon | WIRED

The shock and awe on the face of the folks at Mission Control as they chatted with the astronauts as this happened…

  • During their flyby of the far side of the moon, the Artemis II astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft saw as many as six flashes emerging from the lunar surface. Surprisingly, they were witnessing small meteorites impacting the ground and producing brief flashes of light.
  • NASA’s control room recorded the team’s surprise during the mission livestream, although the cameras did not pick up the flashes. According to the astronauts, the flashes were white or blue-white and lasted less than a second. The cameras they were using to document the moon weren’t fast enough to record them.

Source: Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon | WIRED

moon and earth

The World’s Longest Outdoor Escalator Just Opened in China

More impressive infrastructure coming out of China…

The longest outdoor escalator system in the world is now running in Wushan County, China. At nearly 3,000 feet long, it carries pedestrians up 800 feet in elevation—around the height of an 80-story skyscraper.

The system is known as the “Goddess” escalator, and it’s made of 21 individual escalators, 8 elevators, 4 moving walkways and several pedestrian bridges. Riding all of them takes roughly 21 minutes.

“As far as I know, there are no similar projects nationwide, either exceeding or equal to ours, either under construction or already started,” project design lead Huang Wei, an engineer at China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group, tells the Financial Times’ Thomas Hale and Wang Xueqiao. “It’s the first of its kind.”

AI doesn’t write well, but neither do most people

Giles Turnbull has some thoughts on AI-generated writing:

First of all, I’ll come clean about where I stand, generally speaking: I’m an AI sceptic, especially on using AI for writing. I can see it being useful for other things – but that’s because I’m a writer, right?

I see AI generated text and most of the time, I think it’s rubbish. It’s dull, it’s derivative, it always sounds like a thousand other things I’ve read before. Because the AI has been trained on those thousands of things, all now easy to find on the internet.

But: do I think AI is quite good at making simple software, or basic web tools? Well, yeah, I have tried it for that, and I thought: “Hmm yeah this isn’t too shabby.”

And of course I would think that, wouldn’t I? I don’t know better. I’m not a software engineer.

I have a feeling that everyone likes using AI tools to try doing someone else’s profession. They’re much less keen when someone else uses it for their profession. I fall into the same trap as everyone else. I recognise, and admit to, my own bias.

Yes, using AI to do a job someone else does is fun. Ultimately, generative AI is an efficiency tool. Writing a first draft, especially for students who don’t have a lot of experience, is absolutely something AI can do for you. It will give you structure. It will help you overcome the blank page.

Should you then take up the writing task on your own? Sure. The only way to get better at writing is to write, whether it’s a human or AI.

Write more. Use whatever tools you have to get it done.

Source: gilest.org: AI and the human voice

Never Ending School Reforms..

From Larry Cuban..

As students, professionals, and parents, in the 20th and early 21st centuries, I, and most readers, have been the objects of these reforms, their implementers, or simply observers. School reform, then, is not something distant or far removed from our lives. We have experienced school reforms repeatedly.

So, for me, school reforms have been as normal as breathing, eating, walking, reading, and writing posts for this blog.

Source: School Reform Again, Again, and Yet Again | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Solar Eclipse from Dark of the Moon

Artemis II in Eclipse

art002e009301 (April 6, 2026) – Captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, this image shows the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. From the crew’s perspective, the Moon appears large enough to completely block the Sun, creating nearly 54 minutes of totality and extending the view far beyond what is possible from Earth. We see a glowing halo around the dark lunar disk. The science community is investigating whether this effect is due to the corona, zodiacal light, or a combination of the two. Also visible are stars, typically too faint to see when imaging the Moon, but with the Moon in darkness stars are readily imaged. This unique vantage point provides both a striking visual and a valuable opportunity for astronauts to document their observations during humanity’s return to deep space. The faint glow of the nearside of the Moon is visible in this image, having been illuminated by light reflected off the Earth. Credit: NASA

The pics of a blue Earth are frakkin’ brilliant, but this image taken from the Artemis II is breathtaking. And I still don’t understand how the flat-earthers can see these images and only hold more tightly to their delusions.

Also, I’m examining this pic very closely for signs of the Ark and/or Sentinel Prime…

Source: Artemis II in Eclipse | art002e009301 (April 6, 2026) – Capt… | Flickr

VOLUMES: ONE (SELECTIONS FROM MUSIC CONCERTS 2019-2023 BON IVER 6 PIECE BAND) | Bon Iver

11 track album

Finally got the chance to put this in my ears with the onset of Spring Break. Justin Vernon never ceases to amaze me with his inspired combination of analog and digital music tools. This is tons of fun, gotta pick up the vinyl soon.

Source: VOLUMES: ONE (SELECTIONS FROM MUSIC CONCERTS 2019-2023 BON IVER 6 PIECE BAND) | Bon Iver

Bon Iver - Volumes: One - Album cover