Via Boing Boing:

From an engineering standpoint, we find two major limitations on achieving human flight modeled after birds. These are the ability to translate energy into thrust using these flapping wings and then the structural limitations. The purpose of the flapping wing on a bird, insect, or ornithopter is to create thrust. The body, after being thrusted forward, can sustain flight by simple aerodynamic manipulation through wing shape, the way it has been done for decades. The flapping motion moves air, imparting momentum on the body creating this thrusting force. This means that we would have to design wings that could flap at speeds that would be able to sustain the thrust force to keep the aircraft airborne while being structurally sound and as light as possible, a task easier said than done. Then comes the issue of hovering, which would require the wings to create a significant upward force equaling the weight of the aircraft. Following that, the structure of these wings must be considered. Aeronautical engineers have nearly perfected the design of fixed wings structure, but with a flapping wing, the wing is no longer fixed and is in a constant state of stress. There are generally two categories of stress, compression and tension, the pulling and pushing of material. With a flapping wing, the material will experience both these stresses on top of the other stresses associated with flowing air. This state of constant, high magnitude stress, leads to a very short fatigue life for the structure.

I always found the idea of the ‘thopter in the Dune novels needlessly unique, because it didn’t seem possible and the physics of the world the people inhabited in the novels were not different from ours. In the de Laurentis movie, they’re just boxy, luxe spacecraft. But a reader of the novel learns of a different machine altogether, which flaps and whomps and makes its own brand of noise.

Nevertheless, humans have in fact built flapping flying contraptions.

Feasibility of a Dune Ornithopter

Mark Spoonauer, writing for Tom’s Guide, about Windows 11 vs macOS:

While Apple refuses to bring touch to the Mac and keeps pushing the iPad Pro, the best 2-in-1 laptops running Windows 11 will get improved touch support. You’ll see more space between the icons, larger touch targets and visual cues for sizing and moving windows. The onscreen keyboard is getting better, too.

What Spoonauer leaves out, though, is how poorly Windows 11 is as a touch-driven interface than iPadOS. It’s true that macOS doesn’t support touch; it’s also true that while Windows offers a touch interface, even a five-year-old iPad feels snappier than a modern Windows Surface tablet. And while Windows 11 is better than 10, it’s still like using a tablet with gloves on in comparison.

Windows 11 vs macOS Monterey — 6 ways Microsoft already wins

Schadenfreud. You hate to see it.

Awarded… posthumously

1. Focus on what you can control.
2. You control how you respond to things.
3. Ask yourself, “Is this essential?”
4. Meditate on your mortality every day.
5. Value time more than money and possessions.
6. You are the product of your habits.
7. Remember you have the power to have no opinion.
8. Own the morning.
9. Put yourself up for review. Interrogate yourself.
10. Don’t suffer imagined troubles.
11. Try to see the good in people.
12. Never be overheard complaining—even to yourself.
13. Two ears, one mouth for a reason.
14. There is always something you can do.
15. Don’t compare yourself to others.
16. Live as if you’ve died and come back (every minute is bonus time).
17. “The best revenge is not to be like that.” —Marcus Aurelius
18. Be strict with yourself and tolerant with others.
19. Put every impression, emotion, to the test before acting on it.
20. Learn something from everyone.
21. Focus on process, not outcomes.
22. Define what success means to you.
23. Find a way to love everything that happens.
24. Seek out challenges.
25. Don’t follow the mob.
26. Grab the “smooth handle.”
27. Every person is an opportunity for kindness.
28. Say no (a lot).
29. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
30. Find one thing that makes you wiser every day.
31. What’s bad for the hive is bad for the bee.
32. Don’t judge other people.
33. Study the lives of the greats.
34. Forgive, forgive, forgive.
35. Make a little progress each day.
36. Journal.
37. Prepare for life’s inevitable setbacks.
38. Look for the poetry in ordinary things.
39. To do wrong to one, is to do wrong to yourself.
40. Always choose “alive time.”
41. Associate only with people that make you better.
42. If someone offends you, realize you are complicit in taking offense.
43. Fate behaves as she pleases…do not forget this.
44. Possessions are yours only in trust.
45. Don’t make your problems worse by bemoaning them.
46. Accept success without arrogance, handle failure with indifference.
47. Courage. Temperance. Justice. Wisdom. (Always).
48. The obstacle is the way.
49. Ego is the enemy.
50. Stillness is the key.

50 Very Short Rules for a Good Life From the Stoics

Guns don’t keep you safer:

[Dr. Fridel’s] findings show that looser concealed-carry laws had little impact on mass shootings and increased a state’s gun homicide rate by 11%. Higher rates of firearm ownership overall, meanwhile, was associated with a 53.5% increase in the likelihood of a mass shooting.

New research puts the ‘good guy with a gun’ idea to rest: Loose concealed-carry laws are linked to more firearm homicides

Donald G. McNeil Jr, calling for stricter federal mandates to combat COVID-19, shares my observation about the anti-vaccine movement’s central hypocrisy (via Daring Fireball):

Many writers, including Michael Fitzpatrick, author of “Defeating Autism, a Damaging Delusion” and Seth Mnookin, author of “The Panic Virus,” have shown that the anti-vaccine movement is not merely a self-help group of concerned mothers. It is a business pushed by millionaires: the sellers of vitamin and herbal supplements, the directors of unregulated clinics prescribing chelation drugs, detoxifying purges and hyperbaric chambers, the seekers of fame and tax-deductible donations.

What Is Biden Waiting For?

Classic Mac OS X wallpaper, for those of use who still call it “Oh-Ess-Ten.” Collected are Leopard through Mountain Lion.

OSX.Photo

Anti-masker conservative Caleb Wallace took nutraceuticals in place of bona fide COVID-19 treatments:

Jessica Wallace told the newspaper that her husband initially refused to be tested and took unproven home remedies for the virus, including high doses of Vitamin C, zinc, aspirin, and ivermectin — a deworming treatment commonly given to livestock. Poison control centers are being swamped with calls from people suffering ill effects from ivermectin, and the Food and Drug Administration has issued alerts against ingesting the drug.

As I observed before, the alternative to evil big Pharma who wants to sell you poison is someone who is selling you snake oil.

Texas Anti-Mask ‘Freedom Defender’ Caleb Wallace Dies Of COVID-19

Anand Pandian, writing about an acquaintance on the libertarian side of the mask debate, for the Guardian:

For masks and vaccines acknowledge something he won’t: the truth of our vulnerability, our capacity to wound and be wounded by others. I don’t know when Frank and I will talk again. But we remain exposed to each other’s whims and disdains. One way or another, we’ll have to figure out what to do with each other’s company.

What I learned from an unlikely friendship with an anti-masker

The benefit of a commute to work:

Broadly, boundary theory holds that however much Facebook encourages employees to bring their “authentic selves” to work, we have multiple selves, all of them authentic. Crossing between one role and another isn’t easy; it’s called boundary work. And the commute, as Arizona State University’s Blake Ashforth and two collaborators wrote in a seminal paper on the topic, “is actually a relatively efficient way of simultaneously facilitating a physical and psychological shift between roles.”

This dips into role theory in social psychology, which is perhaps the most fascinating speciality of psychology you can study:

Role theory posits that the roles that people occupy provide contexts that shape behavior.

Additional note: the average commute seems to remain constant, at about 30 minutes, from the era of the horse-drawn carriage to the Tesla.

The Psychological Benefits of Commuting to Work

Names Given to Computers is chock full of great idea. Consider:

• Muppets
• Star Trek
• Beers
• Dune
• Astronomical Objects
• Bodies of Water
• Star Wars
• Trains

There are so many more. I realized I’ve been keeping a list of coveted guitars that would work nicely:

• DoubleJet
• Crestwood
• Sparrowhoawk
• Telecaster
• s100
• Mockingbird
• Sensei
• Revstar
• SG

Merlin Mann, some time back, linked to a geeky screed about naming your computers. I realized that despite a brief period naming my hard drives on my pre-OS X Macs, I hadn’t been doing much creatively with this.

Andy Ihnatko, I knew, kept the moniker Lillith in rotation for his main production machine. Clever enough.

I thought about the most obvious scheme–songs. But who would you have song titles that were, importantly, one-word titles, but which conveyed both seriousness of purpose with a touch of whimsy?

Rush, you say?

I concur.

Behold this list of possibilities:

• Anthem
• Bytor
• Snowdog
• Rivendell
• BastilleDay
• LakesidePark
• Necromancer
• Xanadu
• CygnusX-1
• CinderellaMan
• VillaStrangiato
• Freewill
• JacobsLadder
• NaturalScience
• TomSawyer
• RedBarchetta
• YYZ
• Limelight
• CameraEye
• Witchunt
• VitalSigns
• BroonsBane
• Subdivisions
• AnalogKid
• Chemistry
• DigitalMan
• TheWeapon
• NewWorldMan
• Countdown
• Afterimage
• RedSectorA
• BodyElectric
• KidGloves
• BigMoney
• Force10
• PrimeMover
• Presto

I CamelCased where appropriate. That’s a long list of names. You could feasibly name all of your devices Cygnus-Xx, where x is the variable, and call it a life.

But no.

The 16″ MacBook Pro I use at work is BigMoney. BigMoney is my least favorite name, so I got it over with, and it fit the model: I wouldn’t buy that much computer myself, although I am glad to have both the size and horsepower.

But my home Mac Mini? It’s Anthem. I get goosebumps when my watch unlocks it or it pops up in the AirDrop share sheet.

Arnold on Terminating Your Whacked Out Sense of Entitlement:

“I think people should know there is a virus here, it kills people. And the only way we prevent it is we get vaccinated, we wear masks, we do social distancing, washing your hands all of the time, and not just to think about, ‘Well, my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.’ No, screw your freedom. Because with freedom comes obligations and responsibilities. You cannot just say, ‘I have the right to do x, y, and z,’ when you affect other people. That is when it gets serious. It’s like, no different than a traffic light. They put the traffic light in the intersection so someone doesn’t kill someone else by accident. You cannot say, ‘No one is going to tell me that I’m going to stop here, I’m going to go right through it.’

Schwarzenegger, an immigrant and conservative, gets it.

“You’re a Schmuck”: Arnold Schwarzenegger Tells People Refusing to Get Vaccinated and Mask Up to Go F–k Themselves