Intercept Mineral Preservation System

Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 May 2015 12:13 Written By Albert Greenhut Friday, 25 April 2014 07:57

INTERCEPT TM Technology is pleased to introduce a new user of our Intercept Mineral Preservation System (IMPS): Freeport-McMoRan, a Phoenix-based natural resource company.

IMPS, our state-of-the-art system, enables long-term preservation of core mineral samples. In the mining industry, core samples are used to prospect sites for new mine locations, and, therefore, accuracy of the sample reports is absolutely essential to ensure optimum business operations. By using IMPS, testing core samples involves unsealing and resealing our Intercept bags. (Previous sample storage methods were time-consuming, expensive, and often inaccurate.) Mineral samples are protected from corrosive gasses and other elements that can damage and hinder the accuracy of the core samples.

What You See is What You Get With Intercept — Part 2

Last Updated on Thursday, 17 September 2015 03:32 Written By Albert Greenhut Thursday, 17 April 2014 04:43

Did you know that rhino milk is pink? It is almost the same as regular milk besides the color and it is also high in calories, about 500 per cup as compared to cow milk which has about 150 per cup of whole milk, or about 90 that is common in milk popular with humans. That makes sense as a baby rhino would need more calories than a baby cow. The pink is the result of a secretion that rhinos have, sometimes known as blood sweat; this actually is not sweat at all. These secretions act as a sort of a natural sunscreen that protects the rhino’s skin while it is not in water. This secretion is red so when mixed with white milk you get pink.

What You See is What You Get With Intercept — Part 1

Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 May 2015 11:57 Written By Albert Greenhut Monday, 7 April 2014 03:17

Zebras have stripes unlike any other species. Humans haven’t been able to discern why for hundreds of years. I have been around zebras and have heard many theories, from guides, not from the zebras. One posed that the different colors created high and low pressures based on the heat they were absorbing and reflecting causing convection and air movement to keep them cool. Another posed that the stripes confused predators, because many predators have black and white vision, and a herd of zebra running would make it very hard for their eyes to pick out individual targets, essentially a camouflage due to the herding tendency of this animal. Both of these make sense to me, and I believe would make sense to anyone who has experienced a hot day or has watched a TV’s black and white static. But neither of these theories has been able to be proven.

When Seconds Count…

Last Updated on Wednesday, 16 September 2015 08:09 Written By Albert Greenhut Tuesday, 11 March 2014 04:26

Seconds matter in sports. This was on display during the Olympic men’s downhill ski race. Bode Miller, the American favorite, was on a quest to finally win this race in an Olympics. He did not, and the winner, Matthias Mayer won with a time of 2:06.23, about half a second faster than Miller, in fact the top twelve finishers were within one second of the winner and all 47 competitors were within 10 seconds of each other, here are details and results.

Another sport that catches my eye is F1 racing. These cars are built for speed (averaging about 185 mph over tracks with winding turns). This sport also puts a premium on time. I am used to seeing NARCAR pit crews working at around 14 seconds but the Formula 1 cars are only about 2 seconds long because they do not refuel, they just change tires. This video shows the fruits of their practice, labor, and choreography. All of these show that the little things, hitting a gate or a bump in skiing or taking an extra second while changing a tire can mean the difference between winning and losing.

Unintended Consequences – How Wolves Change Rivers

Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 May 2015 11:39 Written By Albert Greenhut Monday, 10 March 2014 06:17

I enjoy camping and have been receiving flyers and opinion polls because of my time spent in Yellowstone Park. While there I learned about how the reintroduction of wolves (after a 70 year absence) changed the behavior of the animals and the land. I recently found a video that described the lengths to which the park and its wildlife were affected. In short, the wolves thinned the elk and deer populations, which were over-grazing and that lead to regrowth of vegetation that drew more birds that were followed by small animals.

Disruptive Innovation

Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 May 2015 11:28 Written By Albert Greenhut Thursday, 13 February 2014 04:25

This term refers to a development that displaces an earlier innovation and can create a new market or value network (formerly known as disruptive technology, but the term innovation gives the idea that it does not have to be a brand new technology, only an improvement on an earlier one.) Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School) made a distinction between two different types of technology that affect business, a distinction that has since become accepted wisdom. On the one hand he described what he called “sustaining technologies”, technological developments that help organizations to make marginal improvements in what they are doing. These require only gradual change and pretty much retain the status quo. On the other hand, there are what Christensen termed disruptive technologies. These are wild and unexpected technological breakthroughs that require corporations to radically rethink their very existence.

The End of an Era?

Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 May 2015 11:22 Written By Albert Greenhut Thursday, 6 February 2014 05:23

The first iPod came out in 2001, with 5 GBs of storage and the slogan “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Now different versions can hold up to 160 GBs and 40,000 songs. The original black and white screen has been replaced by not only a color screen but an HD one. Apple has done a lot of things right with the iPod, but when Steve Jobs said that the best iPod that Apple made was the iPhone, I believe he was wrong. Having these devices separated is a nice feature, why? Because if I am at the gym, library, on a walk, or if I just want some quiet music, I do not want to be interrupted, or even have to consider the possibility of being interrupted. I understand, use, and celebrate airplane mode, but that feature does not thoroughly solve my dilemma. Also, combining these two devices leads to a greater expense if it gets damaged at the aforementioned gym or while on a run. With these devices converging there are rumors that Apple might obsolete the iPod. (According to ECNmag.com)