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Carrion Luggage
Carrion Luggage
 
Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem.
This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it.
It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans.
It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier."
I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination.
August 31, 2025 at 10:53am August 31, 2025 at 10:53am
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Technology to solve technology problems, from an article in Slate:
It's not just the world's most expensive telescopes, either. I've seen these damn things through personal telescopes (not mine; I don't own one).
A new type of super-black, highly resistant satellite paint promises an affordable fix to the satellite light pollution problem that has marred astronomical research since the recent advent of low-Earth-orbit megaconstellations.
"New" and "recent" may be exaggerations. Vantablack has been around for over 10 years, and Starlink for over five. Matter of perspective, I guess.
The constellation's thousands of spacecraft orbit so low that the sunlight they reflect outshines many stars from our perspective on Earth.
I could also take issue with their use of "spacecraft" for these small (but shiny) devices, but they are in space and someone crafted them, so, okay.
When the $1.9 billion Vera Rubin Observatory opens its telescopic eyes to the sky later this month...
They're open now. I did an entry on that observatory a while back: "Hey Rubin" 
...astronomers expect that up to 40% of its images will be degraded or completely ruined by satellite streaks.
That does seem like a lot.
But a new paint being developed in conjunction with astronomers might help. The paint, called Vantablack 310, could reduce the amount of light reflected by satellites in orbit down to just 2% of what is reflected by uncoated satellites...
Pretty sure the original Vantablack got licensed exclusively to artist Anish Kapoor. I guess the exclusivity doesn't apply to newer formulations.
According to Noelia Noël...
..whose parents should be arrested and imprisoned...
...an astrophysicist at the University of Surrey, these satellite streaks will significantly reduce the scientific return on investment that the taxpayer-funded Vera Rubin telescope represents.
I think it's mostly British taxpayers, which I guess doesn't much matter for this.
The partnership has now produced a new type of blacker-than-black space paint, which reflects less light than available alternatives and can be easily applied by satellite makers in their clean rooms.
That's cool and all, but I wonder about the dozens, or hundreds, of brightly reflective satellites up there already.
The new coating is based on a proprietary blend of carbon black, a soot-like form of carbon, mixed with special binders that make the paint resistant against the harsh conditions in near-Earth space.
Carbon: Is there anything it can't do?
There's more at the link, and let's just hope Kapoor doesn't get his hands on this stuff. |
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