Why We Blame Millennials For Everything

There are regular headlines that accuse Millennials of “killing” some product or industry. What do you think this reveals about what’s expected or demanded of Millennials in our society?

MH: It’s kind of funny, right? It’s as if we are our consumer choices. I think it reflects a few things. One is the identification of Millennials with history. So if there are things that happen, it’s our fault [simply] because we are the next cohort. So you can project onto us the fault for these shifts that actually characterize us as much as anything. The reason that casual restaurants are closing is because people don’t have time and money to afford it. It’s strange that we see economists and business people blaming customers for not being able to afford things. Theoretically, that’s not our fault, that’s the market’s fault—if we can’t afford things, it’s not our fault for not wanting them.

Source: Why We Blame Millennials For Everything

Library of Congress Acquires Extremely Rare Mesoamerican Codex

The Library of Congress has acquired the Codex Quetzalecatzin, one of the very few Mesoamerican manuscripts to survive from the 16th century. After being in private collections for more than 100 years, the codex has been digitally preserved and made available online for the first time to the general public at loc.gov/resource/g4701g.ct009133/.The codex, also known as the Mapa de Ecatepec-Huitziltepec, represents one of the most important indigenous manuscripts from the earliest history of America to become available in the last century.

Source: Library of Congress Acquires Extremely Rare Mesoamerican Codex

One way to curb freight emissions: Put trucks on an electric catenary system

The eHighway built by Siemens and SCAQMD is for now just a test road. It’s only one mile long, and the system only has three freight trucks that can pair with the catenary system—a battery electric truck, a natural-gas hybrid-electric truck, and a diesel-hybrid truck. The battery-electric and natural gas trucks were developed by a company called TransPower, and the diesel hybrid was developed by Volvo-owned Mack Trucks.

Each truck is able to connect to the electric wires above the highway with rooftop rods just like a trolley car (the riser on top of the trucks and trolleys is called a “pantograph”). According to a Siemens press release, “The pantograph can connect and disconnect automatically with the contact line via a sensor system while the trucks are moving. This allows the eHighway trucks to easily switch lanes or pass other vehicles without being permanently fixed to the overhead systems like a streetcar.”

Source: One way to curb freight emissions: Put trucks on an electric catenary system

Rich people are cheapskates

What’s more, high-end retailers are fast learning that rich people are frugal: According to a new report this year from the Wall Street Journal,“high-end chains, which raised prices incessantly over the past decade, are learning the hard way that even wealthy customers are hunting for better deals.” Matthew Singer, Neiman Marcus’s former men’s fashion director, told the Wall Street Journal that “even a very rich person can say, ‘enough is enough,’ when it comes to price.”

Source: Proof that rich people are total cheapskates

Predicting the 2017-18 NBA season using The Oregon Trail

AFAIC This is the best predictive model that has ever been created:

First, the “Wagon Leader” is never an actual team because nothing happens to them until everyone else dies, therefore, it’s no fun. So, the four other spots get filled by team names in random order and sent down the trail on grueling pace and bare bones rations to create the worst health conditions and thus, kill teams off one-by-one. At rivers, I always caulk and float to, again, create the most random outcome (fording ends in death too much to even be funny).

Source: The Oregon Trail Predicts Carnage For The 2017-18 NBA Season

MOOSE: The Wearable Reentry Spacecraft of Yesteryear

The MOOSE unit was attached to the back of a maximum protection pressure suit not unlike the kind worn during space walks. The unit contained oxygen tanks, a rudimentary sighting system, a small rocket pack, as well as some basic survival supplies. The back of it — which was also at the astronaut’s back — had a quarter-inch thick heat shield made of GE’s Elastomeric Shield Material shaped like a shallow. Filled with rigid foam, it became a lifeboat. Here’s how GE imagined it saving a man from dying in space.

Source: The Wearable Reentry Spacecraft of Yesteryear – Vintage Space : Vintage Space