Data Centres in Space

If you're collecting money for them, you're a scammer.

If you're an investor putting money into such a project, you're so dumb that you deserve being scammed.

#Space #ThermoDynamics #CosmicRadiation #StupidMoney

Milano Cortina 2026: Cortina Sliding Center

This year’s sliding events–bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton–will take place at the brand-new Cortina Sliding Center. Built on the site of a historic sliding track, this new venue came together in only the last couple of years. It features a state-of-the-art refrigeration system that pumps a mixture of water and ethylene glycol beneath the track surface to keep the ice properly chilled. Each section of the track is continuously monitored to optimize the flow rate, temperature, and pressure of the refrigerant to keep the track at maximum performance while minimizing environmental impact.

According to the designers, it’s the first competition track to use a glycol-based refrigeration system, which should be more sustainable than the ammonia-based systems used elsewhere. For a sense of what a run is like, check out this skeleton driver POV run from the facility’s shakedown competition last year. (Image credit: LMSteel; video credit: tuff sledding)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKGNKGrONiU

#thermoDynamics always wins.

#Entropy always increases.

Claude witters on about the Thermodynamics or ideological Maintenance—referencing democracy and capitalism.
https://philosophics.blog/2026/02/08/comrade-claude-5-democracy-and-capitalism/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social
#philosophy #physics #maintenance #education #democracy #capitalism #entropy #thermodynamics #metaphor #culture #economics #inequality #blog #podcast #claudeai #dialog #infographic #notebooklm

Muse - The 2nd Law: #Isolated #System
#Thermodynamics #Term #me #Dynamics
#Prison #Planet #Apocalypse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXPoJAyeF8k

#Thermodynamics and #electronics Question. I'm about to add ventilation fans to my #Solar cabinet primarily for heat removal from the inverter and mppts. The cabinet isn't fully insulated yet, but will be at some point.

Am I better off with 2 fans both oriented as exhaust or 1 blowing air into the cabinet and one out?

“Darwin’s theory of #evolution by #naturalselection plays the role of #semantic #darkmatter in relation to the second law of #thermodynamics, reconciling the local, and perhaps even transiently global, increase in functional order in the face of #entropy increase” open.substack.com/pub/sfiscien...

The Problem of Translation & S...

if they only left the #energy maximum principle and non equilibrium #thermodynamics out of it. two things i hold very dearly.

they are not the reason for trump. they are not the reason why democracies lose trust.

there are maybe a million reasons for #trump but the #systems #ecology had absolutely nothing to do with it.

it just shows their loss of the narrative.

very funny when it happens to the MAGAs. very sad when it happens to your own.

@cdarwin

Is the SpaceX representative aware that radiating heat into #space is extremely slow? Like, dramatically slower than even air cooling, let alone water cooling. And most data centers these days are using water cooling.

Space is basically a giant Thermos bottle, and we all know how slowly heat leaks out of a Thermos bottle. One of the main engineering problems in designing a #spacecraft is to keep its energy usage low so it doesn't cook itself.

#physics #thermodynamics

French engineer Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron, who died OTD in 1864, was one of the founders of #thermodynamics https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/france/flaneur-canal-saint-martin/?s=mb #travel #France #history

Thermodynamic Computing Promises Energy-Efficient AI Images

Thermodynamic computing uses physical circuits that changes in response to noise, such random thermal fluctuations in the environment, to perform low-energy computations. A recent spate of experiments, theories and prototype hardware have shown it’s especially good at randomization tasks, and may be equally good at diffusion model tasks (e.g. image generation) in the future.

Thermodynamic Computing Promises Energy-Efficient AI Images

Thermodynamic computing uses physical circuits that changes in response to noise, such random thermal fluctuations in the environment, to perform low-energy computations. A recent spate of experiments, theories and prototype hardware have shown it’s especially good at randomization tasks, and may be equally good at diffusion model tasks (e.g. image generation) in the future.

🧬 A new JSTAT paper finds life pays energy to say no. Cells burn fuel not just to run metabolism, but to block all the reactions they could run and do not. Physics misses this. Life begins with boundaries, choices, and upkeep. Evolution favors the cheapest way to stay improbable.

Choice itself has a thermodynamic price.

#Thermodynamics https://scitechdaily.com/the-invisible-energy-cost-of-being-alive-that-physics-long-ignored/

Stirling Cycle Machine Analysis

https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/opentextbooks/9/

#HackerNews #StirlingCycle #MachineAnalysis #EnergyEfficiency #Thermodynamics #Engineering #Innovation

The glider now has 12 pounds of lead shot and epoxy added to dead space in the very end of the tail boom.

My initial estimate of volume indicated that I could add 8 - 10 pounds this way. I'm pleasantly surprised, and I didn't make a chocolate covered mess of things as I was pouring this goop into the tail.

I need to add a few more pounds to the tail. Phase two of this project will use lead plate, bolted to the vertical fin spar. (I need to unroll the 1/4-inch plate first, then develop a template to cut the lead.)

I could not add the epoxy/lead shot mix all at once because of the exothermic reaction of epoxy. When mixed epoxy is in a thick blob (instead of a thin layer), it generates enough heat to warm itself...which accelerates the chemical reaction...releasing more heat...further accelerating the reaction.... I have seen epoxy smoking hot because of this, so I added a bit, waited a half hour, checked temperature with an IR non-contact thermometer, added a bit more when it was clear that the exotherm was only very mild, etc. That took a while, but turned out well.

I note that Roto Metals has a discount on some 1-inch lead plate. Get your fork lift ready. No free shipping!

https://www.rotometals.com/lead-sheet-plates/sheet-lead-1-64-lbs-sq-ft/

#AvGeek #Aviation #ElectricAircraft #Homebuilt #Glider #DIY #EAA #Ballast #Math #Density #Exothermic #Chemistry #Thermodynamics #Lead #Epoxy

Job Alert

Wissenschaftliche*r Mitarbeiter*in (m/w/d) Professur für Thermodynamik

Deadline: 2026-02-08 
Location: Germany - Hamburg  

https://www.academiceurope.com/ads/wissenschaftlicher-mitarbeiterin-m-w-d-professur-fur-thermodynamik/

#hiring #Thermodynamics #MechanicalEngineering #chemistry #physics #PhD #processengineering

Regenerative braking cranes, why not!

'The Melbourne Intermodal Terminal also features 350-tonne rail mounted gantry cranes which are fully electric and can regenerate electricity back into the grid by the kinetic process of lifting and loading shipping containers.'
#power #thermodynamics #electricity
https://www.railexpress.com.au/australias-largest-new-intermodal-terminal-kicks-off-operations/

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away”*…

Reality is tough. Everything eats and is eaten. Everything destroys and is destroyed.

In a way that challenges lots of our deeply-seated conceptions (your correspondent’s, anyway), philosopher (and self-proclaimed pessimist) Drew Dalton invokes the laws of thermodynamics to argue that it is our moral duty to strike back at the Universe…

Reality is not what you think it is. It is not the foundation of our joyful flourishing. It is not an eternally renewing resource, nor something that would, were it not for our excessive intervention and reckless consumption, continue to harmoniously expand into the future. The truth is that reality is not nearly so benevolent. Like everything else that exists – stars, microbes, oil, dolphins, shadows, dust and cities – we are nothing more than cups destined to shatter endlessly through time until there is nothing left to break. This, according to the conclusions of scientists over the past two centuries, is the quiet horror that structures existence itself.

We might think this realisation belongs to the past – a closed chapter of 19th-century science – but we are still living through the consequences of the thermodynamic revolution. Just as the full metaphysical implications of the Copernican revolution took centuries to unfold, we have yet to fully grasp the philosophical and existential consequences of entropic decay. We have yet to conceive of reality as it truly is. Instead, philosophers cling to an ancient idea of the Universe in which everything keeps growing and flourishing. According to this view, existence is good. Reality is good.

But what would our metaphysics and ethics look like if we learned that reality was against us?…

Read on for his provocative argument that philosphers must grapple with the meaning of thermodynamics: “Reality is evil,” from @dmdalton.bsky.social in @aeon.co.

Dalton further explores these ideas in his book The Matter of Evil: From Speculative Realism to Ethical Pessimism (2023)

* Philip K. Dick

###

As we wrestle with reality, we might send somewhat sunnier birthday greetings to Stephen William Hawking CH CBE FRS FRSA; he was born on this date in 1942.  A theoretical physicist and cosmologist, he is probably best known in his professional circles for his work with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, for his theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation (now called Hawking radiation), and for his support of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

But Hawking is more broadly known as a popularizer of science.  His A Brief History of Time stayed on the British Sunday Times best-seller list for over four years (a record-breaking 237 weeks), and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

“We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.”

source

#physics #physik #thermodynamics #statisticalmechanics

🪇 Soft robots harvest ambient heat for self-sustained motion

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-11-soft-robots-harvest-ambient-sustained.html

#robots #energyharvesting #energy #thermodynamics #heat #technology