You're right. Thanks for the correction.

Mod parent up. Too many posts here assume that it's the heat of the tire that is being converted to electricity. In fact, it's the flexing of the tires that is being converted, flexing that would otherwise show up as heat. I'm not sure whether it will work effectively, but let's wait and see.

TFAs don't say that the heat of the tire is captured to create electricity. Rather, the energy from the flexing of the tire (that would otherwise produce heat) is instead harvested to create electricity.

I remain a bit skeptical, but let's wait and see where Goodyear goes with this.

Electric and hybrid cars are better for the environment, and they already employ technology to charge the batteries with energy that would otherwise be wasted as heat (for example, the braking systems.)

It is not outrageous to explore ways of capturing energy from the flexing of the tires that also would otherwise be wasted as heat. As I see it, the challenge for Goodyear would be to show that the process is efficient enough to be worth adding to the tire design.

No, I meant isoceles (2 equal sides.) That's much easier to do on a text-console with asterisks than an equilateral triangle (3 equal sides.)

Okay, but if you insist on calling it a pyramid, a simple 2D rendering of one is not necessarily equilateral.

Sounds to me like you mean an isoceles triangle, not a pyramid. The latter is a polyhedron, i.e., it's in 3D.

What were you listening to? Come, Sweet Death?

It would take 70 years for someone to copy all of the music Bach wrote. There are plenty of upbeat Bach pieces to chose from.

Carl Franklin's website has some ~30s samples of each track.

FTFY

TFA cites a letter sent to the Congressional committee by David Morganstein, president of the American Statistical Association. He writes:

You can read Morganstein's full letter here. [PDF alert]

Well, sometimes it can. An engine or transmission in poor condition can slow down a car's uphill performance. A broken heater will make a car less comfortable in the winter. Repairs will correct these problems.

And so it goes with software refactoring. Removing redundant calculations and data-reads (e.g., out of loops) where possible will improve performance. Changing names of variables, functions, classes, etc., to reflect their use more closely will improve readability (or "comfort" if you will.)

Good car analogy, though.

1964 called. They want their APL manual back, along with the "write-only language" jokes.

But there's no such thing as a Vulcan Death Grip! -- Nurse Christine Chapel

FTFY. But actually he made it with radio tubes, after time-travelling with Kirk and McCoy to depression-era 1930 in New York City.

Whenever I hear anyone compare scientific funding to a gravy train, I burn with contempt.

Surviving as an academic researcher is difficult. There is a high level of competition for grant money. Typically, only one out of every 5 to 10 proposals gets funded. The dollar amount of a grant can vary significantly from $100k to a few million, depending on whether the grant covers a year-long study, or a larger mission that involves building and/or transporting equipment to remote parts of the earth or to space. But no matter what the funding level, researchers' salaries are capped by the institution they work at. Getting more grant money just allows the researcher to do more projects with larger teams. It doesn't increase their take-home pay.

And let's not get too excited about the amount of $21.4B. It is comparable to recent yearly budgets of NASA.