Slashdot Mirror
Purple Pokeberries Yield Cheap Solar Power
separsons writes "Researchers at Wake Forest's Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials created a low-cost solar power system geared towards developing nations. By coating fiber-based solar cells with dye from purple pokeberries, a common weed, scientists created a cheap yet highly efficient solar system. Wake Forest researchers and their accompanying company, FiberCell Inc., have filed for a patent for fiber-based solar. Plastic sheets are stamped with plastic fibers, creating millions of tiny 'cans' that trap light until it is absorbed. The fibers create a huge surface area, meaning sunlight can be collected at any angle from the time the sun rises until it sets. Coating the system with pokeberry dye creates even greater absorption: researchers say the system can produce twice as much power as traditional flat-cell technology."
Off topic I know, but to address your stereo-type. You're way off, on an old stereo type that doesn't exist anymore. They are White, and get their income through child support, by having babies by as many people as they can to ostensibly, spread the load. Now they just use the system to juice the unlucky victims and have medicaid. We don't give out money unless they are working or trying to find work. I know this, because I am one of those victims. - Dan.
This is one reason (of many) why it's unwise to date single mothers, especially if they have never been married to the father(s) of their children. They have a way of being quite fertile.
You also have to wonder why a man who was involved with her enough to have a child with her did not want to stay with her. It means one of three things: she has poor taste in men, she dates decent men but doesn't treat them well, or the act of creating life is so meaningless to her that she'll allow herself to become pregnant by a man who's a casual sex partner and has no interest in a serious relationship (I bet she thinks that's a matter of "luck" too). All of those are red flags! You're thinking with the wrong head if you believe you can ignore them without regretting it.
Another reason is that parenting is a full-time job. If you are a single man with no dependents you can afford to invest a lot of time and energy into a relationship that a single mother could not possibly match. That sort of one-way relationship where there is a lack of reciprocity tends to be unstable. This is another red flag that you ignore at your own peril.
You call yourself a "victim". Unless you are claiming that this woman raped you, then you're not a victim and you're not "unlucky". You just engaged in poor decision-making. That is what made you vulnerable to someone who decided to use you for her own selfish needs. I'll go one further and say that you probably have some kind of dissatisfaction with life or other personal issues, otherwise a woman like that would not have been attractive in your eyes or otherwise appealed to you.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
No, it means people who claimed to have used them as directed to the best of their knowledge saw a 2% failure rate. See the flaws with that?
No, it means people who claimed to have used them as directed to the best of their knowledge saw a 2% failure rate. See the flaws with that?
That's all the more reason to use your own form of protection (i.e. condoms) so that you can personally make sure it's used correctly. Bringing a child into the world is a very serious responsibility even for people who are prepared to do so. Things far less serious than this warrant a prudent level of caution.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein