Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2012

solar-powered hornets

The oriental hornet,  Vespa orientalis,  is more active during the day, and tends to become even more active as the temperature rises. And scientists have discovered the reason: the hornets are solar-powered. It turns out that the distinct yellow stripe on the hornet's abdomen is actually full of tiny protrusions that gather sunlight and harness it for energy. The insect also features a special pigment, called xanthopterin, that helps with the process. Xanthopterin works as a light-harvesting molecule transforming light into electrical energy. Wasps and hornets tend to be more active during the morning, and this research explains why the oriental hornet is different: it stays out during the day because there's more sun.  - Andrew Webster.

speed up file copying in windows

In Windows sometimes it can be sluggish while copying files to pen drives, external drives and and network drives. To make things better, use applications such as TeraCopy, FastCopy or Super-Copier. These contain features seriously lacking in Windows copy, those that many people wished existed as native features of Windows Explorer. They will do the job much faster, and they contain pause and resume transfers features, which might come in really handy at times.