This is a pretty awesome set of photos from inside a Russian rocket factory. (via gizmodo)
the joy of regulations
When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.
however…
[...] the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.
Why the iPhone is made in China
Consider this a follow-up:
For technology companies, the cost of labor is minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and managing supply chains that bring together components and services from hundreds of companies.
and
“The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-ranking Apple executive. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”
a trip to the Apple Factory
I’ve been meaning to post this but I keep forgetting, anways: This recent This American Life is worth a listen, especially given the recent interest in Foxconn and the other Chinese factories that assemble so much of modern life.
A Rocket Factory
recycling Christmas lights in China
To be sure, it’s possible to shred wire in the United States. But unlike China, where there are plenty of manufacturers eager to buy large volumes of rubber and plastic insulation, the United States lacks such industrial demand, forcing U.S. recyclers to either landfill insulation or sell it to power plants as fuel. But the lack of a U.S. market for chopped plastic and mixed chopped copper and brass creates a counter-intuitive (for American environmentalists, at least) result: not only do Chinese recyclers recover more material from Christmas tree lights than Americans, they make more money, too. After all, they can sell the insulation, not pay for its interment.
The Chinese Town That Turns Your Old Christmas Tree Lights Into Slippers
Solving an absorption tower problem using numpy and scipy
I’ve ranted before about how many of my peers fail to make the mental leap from what they are doing by hand, on paper, and what they could be making a computer do while they go get coffee. This problem comes from having one of those discussions with someone. I originally solved the problem using octave, but I decided that since I’m not sharing it with anyone at school (where matlab compatibility is necessary) I would rather have my solution in python. I also originally did this based on a homework problem, but I figured I should use an already worked example from the text instead, in case someone wanted an easy answer for their homework (if I had to do the work, so must you!)
