Monthly Archives: July 2014

Finding quake shelters, breaking bad in Punjab, rice-wheat divide & more

Posted on July 23, 2014 by

Curious Bends is a weekly newsletter about science, tech., data and India. Akshat Rathi and I curate it. You can subscribe to it here. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged agrochemicals, drug mafia, green revolution, India, newsletter, quake shelters, rice consumption, science news | Comments Off

The new and large fly the farthest

Posted on July 23, 2014 by

British Airways and Air France mutually retired the Concorde supersonic jet in 2003. Both companies cited rising maintenance costs as being the reason, which in turn were compounded by falling demand after the Paris crash in 2000 and a general downturn in civil aviation after 9/11. Now, American and French scientists have found that Concorde was in fact an allometric outlier that stood out design-wise at the cost of its feasibility and, presumably, its maintenance. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged aerodynamics, allometry, aviation, commercial airplanes, Concorde, constructal laws, correlation, mechanical engineering | Comments Off

Plotting with the Highcharts.js API

Posted on July 22, 2014 by

[code language=”html”] <script src="http://code.highcharts.com/highcharts.js"></script> <script src="http://code.highcharts.com/modules/exporting.js"></script> <div id="container" style="min-width: 310px; max-width: 800px; height: 1200px; margin: 0 auto"></div> $(function () { $(‘#container’).highcharts({ chart: { type: ‘bar’ }, title: { text: ” }, subtitle: { text: ‘Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged data, Highcharts.js, visualization | Comments Off

Plotting with the plot.ly API

Posted on July 22, 2014 by

[code language=”javascript”] var data = [{"name":"Gaseous fuel","type":"scatter","fill":"tonexty","mode":"lines","xsrc":"isnerd:1:0I4LU2RD2QVQRQS0Q35GU4N1D97CL8EI","ysrc":"isnerd:1:MG6030IZ7H4OZ5WH8Z0BZNN9E4MEJMIT","uid":"cbaea7","line":{"shape":"linear"},"marker":{"line":{}},"textfont":{},"error_y":{"visible":true,"type":"percent","array":[0,3.667,11.001,11.001,22.002,282.359,311.695,487.711,751.735,997.424,924.084,1085.432,1206.443,1169.773,1360.457,1734.491,2295.542,2482.559,2742.916,3032.609,2489.893,2885.929,4363.73,5247.477,6175.228,7205.655,10318.938,12786.829,15218.05,18533.018,21114.586,23582.477,27278.813,27018.456,29024.305,39082.886,39779.616,46061.187,47634.33,42350.183,43908.658,43604.297,47172.288,50028.881,49625.511,50479.922,49482.498,52738.794,57366.548,79067.854,98458.95],"traceref":"0","symmetric":true},"error_x":{},"connectgaps":false,"autobinx":true,"autobiny":true,"colorbar":{},"xbins":{"start":1949.5,"end":2019.5,"size":10},"ybins":{"start":-40000,"end":120000,"size":20000},"zmin":0,"zmax":20,"contours":{"start":2,"size":2,"end":18.02}},{"name":"Liquid fuel","type":"scatter","fill":"tonexty","mode":"lines","xsrc":"isnerd:1:0I4LU2RD2QVQRQS0Q35GU4N1D97CL8EI","ysrc":"isnerd:1:QRC9D8VKPOBSQ7TRFE4ZYM9KO7VJZQP5","uid":"092b82","line":{},"marker":{"line":{}},"textfont":{},"error_y":{"visible":true,"array":[19460.769,21327.272,24906.264,27128.466,28144.225,30839.47,35705.579,32724.308,42284.177,45386.459,49372.488,55489.044,58925.023,61799.951,60677.849,61887.959,63490.438,68613.237,75378.852,82731.187,83244.567,89786.495,94483.922,99251.022,106192.653,116856.289,121957.086,127776.615,133724.489,150838.378,158297.056,166558.807,188208.775,187031.668,199118.1,216459.343,243360.455,244401.883,263107.25,285483.284,303752.278,298068.428,284834.225,293851.378,296858.318,300011.938,316902.14,323656.754,419020.756,472771.642,465294.629],"type":"percent","traceref":"1"},"error_x":{},"autobinx":true,"autobiny":true,"colorbar":{},"xbins":{"start":1919.5,"end":2039.5,"size":20},"ybins":{"start":-100000,"end":600000,"size":100000},"zmin":0,"zmax":20,"contours":{"start":2,"size":2,"end":18.02}},{"name":"Solid fuel","type":"scatter","fill":"tonexty","mode":"lines","xsrc":"isnerd:1:0I4LU2RD2QVQRQS0Q35GU4N1D97CL8EI","ysrc":"isnerd:1:HIWFG08N46UFGKAQD6T2PUCS3YVCK31J","uid":"665793","line":{},"marker":{"line":{}},"textfont":{},"error_y":{"visible":true,"array":[97208.503,104956.874,114227.05,122144.103,117167.984,128818.043,129404.763,131740.642,136973.451,136463.738,136669.09,140449.767,148641.845,152440.857,161102.311,178465.556,186855.652,232986.512,228175.408,234849.348,252854.318,268618.751,284533.531,310858.924,315064.973,343975.601,370466.009,395925.99,429585.383,459625.447,476853.013,514436.096,539639.387,569712.454,604306.932,630294.961,677965.961,710004.54,715464.703,768665.539,788507.676,806574.985,834689.874,874660.174,935308.687,986632.019,1056349.023,1147807.67,1240524.098,1326284.227,1338473.335],"type":"percent","traceref":"2"},"error_x":{},"autobinx":true,"autobiny":true,"colorbar":{},"xbins":{"start":1919.5,"end":2039.5,"size":20},"ybins":{"start":-500000,"end":2000000,"size":500000},"zmin":0,"zmax":20,"contours":{"start":2,"size":2,"end":18.02}}]; var layout = {"title":"CO2 emissions from consumption of fuel types (with error)","xaxis":{"range":[1957.2222222222222,2012.7777777777778],"type":"linear","showline":false,"mirror":false,"linecolor":"#444","linewidth":1,"tick0":0,"dtick":10,"ticks":"","ticklen":5,"tickwidth":1,"tickcolor":"#444","nticks":0,"showticklabels":true,"tickangle":"auto","exponentformat":"SI","showexponent":"all","showgrid":true,"gridcolor":"#eee","gridwidth":1,"autorange":true,"rangemode":"normal","autotick":true,"zeroline":true,"zerolinecolor":"#444","zerolinewidth":1,"titlefont":{"family":"Droid Sans, sans-serif","size":0,"color":""},"tickfont":{"family":"Droid Sans, sans-serif","size":0,"color":""},"overlaying":false,"domain":[0,1],"position":0,"anchor":"y","title":"Year"},"yaxis":{"range":[-81795.59269444444,1554116.2611944443],"type":"linear","showline":false,"mirror":false,"linecolor":"#444","linewidth":1,"tick0":0,"dtick":500000,"ticks":"","ticklen":5,"tickwidth":1,"tickcolor":"#444","nticks":0,"showticklabels":true,"tickangle":"auto","exponentformat":"SI","showexponent":"all","showgrid":true,"gridcolor":"#eee","gridwidth":1,"autorange":true,"rangemode":"normal","autotick":true,"zeroline":true,"zerolinecolor":"#444","zerolinewidth":1,"titlefont":{"family":"Droid Sans, sans-serif","size":0,"color":""},"tickfont":{"family":"Droid Sans, sans-serif","size":0,"color":""},"overlaying":false,"domain":[0,1],"position":0,"anchor":"x","title":"CO2 emissions in kilo-tonnes"},"legend":{"bgcolor":"#fff","bordercolor":"#444","borderwidth":0,"font":{"family":"Droid Sans, sans-serif","size":0,"color":""},"traceorder":"reversed","xanchor":"left","yanchor":"top","x":1.02,"y":1},"width":1214,"height":404,"autosize":true,"margin":{"l":80,"r":80,"t":100,"b":80,"pad":2,"autoexpand":true},"paper_bgcolor":"#fff","plot_bgcolor":"rgb(217, 217, 217)","barmode":"overlay","bargap":0.2,"bargroupgap":0,"boxmode":"overlay","boxgap":0.3,"boxgroupgap":0.3,"font":{"family":"Droid Sans, sans-serif","size":12,"color":"#444"},"titlefont":{"family":"","size":0,"color":""},"dragmode":"zoom","hovermode":"x","separators":".,","hidesources":false,"smith":false,"showlegend":true}; Plotly.plot(Tabs.get(), data, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged data, plot.ly API, visualization | Comments Off

What is ‘The Last Why’?

Posted on July 21, 2014 by

I’m changing this blog’s name from Is Nerd because I haven’t felt like a nerd for a while and the blog’s contents have reflected that, too. At the same time, I’m not going to split up my stuff between different blogs because, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged identity, name | Comments Off

Science Quiz – July 21, 2014

Posted on July 21, 2014 by

Every week, I create a science quiz for The Hindu newspaper’s In School product. It consists of 10 questions and only developments from the week preceding its day of publication (Monday). The answers are at the end. (This week’s quiz … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged quiz, Science, The Hindu In School | Comments Off

Early morning pigeon-sighting

Posted on July 20, 2014 by

This gallery contains 11 photos.

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A thicker crust on Vesta questions how it was baked

Posted on July 18, 2014 by

Billing its mission as a journey to the beginning of the Solar System, the NASA Dawn probe has revealed more information about the asteroid Vesta that has scientists both eager and cautious about what they have learned. The second largest … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 4 Vesta, asteroids, Ceres, chondrites, NASA Dawn, olivine, planet formation, Solar System | Comments Off

Hinterland

Posted on July 16, 2014 by

I hate travelling. But don’t confuse that with going to new places and meeting new people. I don’t mind that. What I dislike is catching a train or a flight and mingling with other people on the move, in train … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged clouds, flying, peaceful, sky, tempest | Comments Off