Solar road tiles get their first public test

No, that’s not an elaborate new Lite-Brite kit– that’s the possible future of energy. After years of work (and some last-minute delays), Solar Roadways has installed its first public energy tiles in Sandpoint, Idaho as part of a test. On top of producing a light show, the panels will generate power for the fountain and restrooms in a public square. They have heating elements, too, so they should keep running even in the heart of winter. And if you’re not sure how well they’ll work in practice, you can check on them yourself — Sandpoint has a live webcam pointed at the tiles.

It’s a modest dry run with just 30 panels, and it’ll be a long while before you see them on the streets they were designed for. However, it shows that they’re more than just theoretical exercises. And if a small number of tiles can power a town square by themselves, it’s easy to imagine full-fledged solar roads shouldering a significant amount of the energy demand for whole cities.

Storytelling advice from Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa was one of the masters of cinema. Below is a six-minute interview where Kurosawa offers advice to aspiring filmmakers, but the advice can be applied more widely to other creative disciplines as well.

If you want to make a film today, you don’t need expensive equipment necessarily. Even a smartphone and a good microphone will do the trick. But before equipment and camera techniques comes knowing how to create a story. If you want to be a director, says Kurosawa, learn to write screen plays first. For a story, all you need is a pen and paper (or a cheap computer). When Kurosawa laments in the interview that most aspiring filmmakers want to get immediately to directing without first spending a lot of time learning the craft of story through the difficult task of writing, this is something that could be applied to other professional endeavors. Learning an art — any art — is not glamorous; it’s tedious and difficult. Writing is hard and can be lonely. The most important quality to have, says Kurosawa, is to have “the forbearance to face the dull task of writing one word at a time.” To have the patience to write one word at a time is key. Most people lack the patience to do this for very long, so they quit. But if you stick with it, Kurosawa says, over time the writing process will become second nature to you.

Patience
Kurosawa says the many younger people want to get to the end quickly rather than spending the long, tedious time in first preparing. Creating a film is an enormous task Kursosawa says, but the important thing is to not let yourself get overwhelmed by the size of the task. His advice is not just for filmmakers but for writers or anyone else who has a big, creative job to do in front of them. As he says, when you climb a high mountain you must not look up to the peak so often but instead focus on the ground just a head of you. Step by step you make progress. But if you keep looking up at how far you have to go to finish it will be discouraging and also distracts you from the moment at hand. When I got my first book contract ten years ago, I wondered how I could finish the book in time. Dan Pink recommended I read the book Bird by Bird, a book about how to get through large tasks by taking one step at a time, as the author’s father once advised her 10-year-old brother, who was worried sick over the scale of a book report on birds. His advice: “Just take it bird by bird.” Kurosawa here is giving similar advice.

“Don’t ever quit.”
Kurosawa says that he encouraged his Assistant Directors to never give up on the script halfway through, but to go all the way through and finish it. Even if it is not the best (yet) it’s important to develop the habit of perseverance and fighting through until the end. Otherwise, Kurosawa suggests, people will get in the habit of quitting when things get difficult or do not go well. Kurosawa also talks about the importance of reading books in order to become a better writer and a better storyteller. Reading a wide array of subjects over a lifetime gives one knowledge and perspectives in a kind of reserve which they may use in unforeseen ways in future. “Unless you have a rich reserve within, you can’t create anything,” Kurosawa says. “That’s why I often say creating comes from memory. Memory is the source of your creation. You can’t create something from nothing.” As Kurosawa says, whether it is from reading or your real-life experience, “you can’t create unless you have something inside yourself.”

I highly suggest you read this great book by Akira Kurosawa: Something Like an Autobiography

The Popinator is a voice activated popcorn launcher | Geek-Cetera | Geek.com

The Popinator is a voice activated popcorn launching machine. It sits there waiting for you to say the word “pop,” at which point the top of the machine lifts up to reveal a launcher that shoots out a single piece of popcorn in the direction of your mouth.

How does it know where to fire the popcorn? Ted, the electrical engineer in the video, explains how they employed binaural microphones to figure out where your voice originated from using “small differences in the arrival time of sound waves.”

via Popcorn Indiana

Nobel Goes to Worlds Tiniest Machines

“This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry is about the world’s smallest machines,” said Goran Hansson, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences which conferred the award.

The French, Scottish and Dutch scientists had developed molecules with controllable movements that can perform tasks when energy is added, the Academy said in a statement awarding the $931,000 prize.

“The molecular motor is at the same stage as the electric motor was in the 1830s, when scientists displayed various spinning cranks and wheels, unaware that they would lead to electric trains, washing machines, fans and food processors,” it added.

Sauvage is professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

Stoddart, born in Edinburgh, is professor of chemistry at Northwestern University in the United States, while Feringa is professor in organic chemistry at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

“This is quite unexpected, although it has been in the cards for 25 years, I think. When it happens, it takes your breath away,” Stoddart said in a phone interview, as he watched the ceremony in a live broadcast from his home outside Chicago.

Feringa, when asked his reaction to learning he had won, said: “What I said when I got this message is that I don’t know what to say.”

Chemistry is the third of this year’s Nobel prizes after the medicine and physics laureates were announced on Monday and Tuesday.

The prize is named after dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and has been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will.

Photo Credit: French scientist Jean-Pierre Sauvage speaks on the phone after learning he won the Chemistry Nobel Prize with J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa. VINCENT KESSLER / Reuters

Car-buyers Hindered by Online-Dealer Showroom Disconnect

October 05, 2016
Car-buyers Hindered by Online-Dealer Showroom Disconnect, Accenture Finds
 
Automakers and dealers must tighten multi-channel integration strategy and embrace the latest technology or risk losing sales

 
NEW YORK; Oct. 5, 2016 -As car-buyers become more accustomed to shopping online, they are visiting dealer showrooms for fewer and more specific reasons to accelerate the purchase process. But they are finding that their expectations are not being met due to poor web-showroom integration at a time when technology is offering some of the best opportunities for a compelling experience, a new Accenture survey reveals.
 
The survey of consumers in China, Germany, and the United States who recently bought a car shows that they believe that their online and offline experiences are poorly integrated.  Rating seamless integration on a scale of one to four, with four being the most integrated and one the least, they rated their experience 2.32, on average.
 
Accenture defined consumers that shop online frequently, defined as “Digital Natives,” and those that are more conservative online users, characterized as “Digital Laggards.” The report found that the “Natives” visit the dealer more often than the “Laggards”: 60 percent of them stop at their dealership more than twice before buying a car, while only 47 percent of the more conservative customers do the same.
 

Majority of car-buying decisions made online, but consumers still using showrooms, says Accenture Survey

The findings indicate that Digital Natives may need less time at the dealer because they have made their vehicle purchase decision online. This underscores how the showroom’s value is being re-defined as a destination to finalize the purchase of a car, rather than the traditional starting point for initiating the sale.   The survey also reveals that nearly all car-buying decisions are made online, and many customers do not believe that in-person interaction is necessary at every stage of the transaction.
 

“Today’s consumers, influenced by digital technology, are driving the car-buying process.  They are visiting showrooms to seek distinct information to supplement the information found on the web, and want counsel from product- and customer experts instead of a traditional sales presentation,” said Axel Schmidt, managing director in Accenture’s automotive practice.  “As digitization increases, automakers and dealers can no longer afford to ignore full integration of their operations.  They must work together more closely than ever to create a truly seamless, multichannel experience to satisfy customers.”
 
The report also found that respondents believe there is room for improvement in both digital channels and showrooms.  Nearly half (43 percent) would consider purchasing a new vehicle online if prices were lower than those at the dealership.  This is true for half of the Digital Laggard respondents, who said they would buy new vehicles online if prices were cheaper.  Yet lower prices are not the only online enhancements customers would like to see. They are also interested in advanced product configurators, online chat consultation, and augmented reality-based experiences.
 
In terms of offline improvements, the survey found that in addition to wanting expert product advice, many of the respondents would like staff to be available to answer additional questions and provide well-founded recommendations regarding their purchase throughout the buying process, not just in person, at the dealership.
 
“There are clear opportunities for the industry to improve interaction with customers using new technologies like cloud-based customer relationship management, business-insights software and virtual- and augmented-reality technologies. Automakers and dealers have almost everything they need to make the online-offline experience more compelling, but what they need to do is to bring it all together and make it work,” said Schmidt. “That’s likely to be challenging, but it will be rewarding for those who are able to create strong multi-channel integration.”
 
Buying preferences vary from country to country
There are some important differences between the surveyed countries regarding auto retail channels, which dealers and car-makers need to consider.

  • China – Chinese consumers showed the strongest preference for flagship stores, with 37 percent saying they would buy their next car at such an outlet, and 28 percent preferred picking up their new car from their dealer.  Fifteen percent would buy their next vehicle from an online store if possible.
  • Germany -Prospective buyers in Germany showed the strongest interest in buying a car at a standard dealership, with nearly half (46 percent) citing such a preference as their vehicle purchase location.  Sixty-one percent also preferred picking up their car from the dealer.  Twenty percent were open to auto retail outlets featuring advanced technologies, such as virtual reality experiences, and 10 percent would entertain purchasing a car from an online store.
  • The U.S. -These drivers are the most likely group to buy a car online.  Nineteen percent of U.S. drivers polled could see themselves buying from an online store, and only 14 percent would prefer to purchase a vehicle from a flagship outlet.  Thirty-five percent still prefer buying their new car from a standard dealership.

“Despite these market differences, it is clear that automotive retail business models throughout the global market need to undergo a dramatic transformation to fully benefit from the multi-channel customer and fend off new market entrants, whose platform business models have already disrupted the second-hand car market,” said Schmidt.
 
About the survey
Accenture carried out an online survey of approximately 3,000 consumers in China, Germany and the United States. The survey participants are a representative number of private car buyers in each market who had purchased a new car in the past five years.
Copies of the research report are available here.

Pianist Ludovico Einaudi In The Arctic Ocean – because why not right?

Ludovico Einaudi performs an original piece “Elegy for the Arctic”, on the Arctic Ocean to call for its protection, on June 17th, 2016.

With a grand piano on a floating platform in front of a glacier, Einaudi played an original piece composed for the cause.

The acclaimed composer has turned into music the voices of the eight million people that asks for Arctic protection.

With this action, Greenpeace is urging the OSPAR Commission not to miss the opportunity to protect international Arctic waters under its mandate at this week’s meeting in Tenerife.

Through his music, acclaimed Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi has added his voice to those of eight million people from across the world demanding protection for the Arctic. Einaudi performed one of his own compositions on a floating platform in the middle of the Ocean, against the backdrop of the Wahlenbergbreen glacier (in Svalbard, Norway).

Travelling on board Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise on the eve of a significant event for the future of the Arctic: the meeting of the OSPAR Commission, which could secure the first protected area in Arctic international waters.

Sign the petition to save the Arctic on: https://www.savethearctic.org
http://www.greenpeace.org/

Follow Ludovico Einaudi on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ludovicoeina…
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ludovico_ei…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ludovicoeinaud
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2uFUB…

This article originally appeared at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DLnhdnSUVs

Most Popular New Video on YouTube: The Color Blast Game

When YouTube started, one of the first things I did was watch the most popular videos. 
Part of my reason was to see if there was a trend that I could use to create better videos, but mostly, I just wanted to see something creative. 
I stopped going to YouTube for that almost immediately. 
So when I read stats from Google showing more view time on YouTube than all the major TV networks, I thought to check what was being watched. 
I found two guys goofing off. 
Is this entertaining?