Over thousands of years, the building science of timber framing developed independently in both Northern Europe and China. But one big difference between the regions is that China, by virtue of its size and geological traits, is prone to devastating earthquakes. Ancient Chinese builders thus needed a way to create wooden structures that could not be shaken apart, and that were not so stiff that its support members would shatter. They designed and engineered the solution at least as early as roughly 500 B.C. The builders created a series of brackets known as dougong . When interlocked together, these could transfer the incredibly heavy weight of a temple roof to the supporting columns, and they contained so many redundancies that they could not be shaken apart. They also, by spreading their tolerances over multiple joints, contained a measure of flexibility that prevented them from cracking and splitting. Check out the ingenious way that they fit together in the computer animation below: The craziest part of that system is that the columns are not sunken into the foundation nor moored, but are freestanding, and yet they stayed in place during the shake test. The video below, which is of a modern-day architect demonstrating dougong with a scale model, is a bit slower but really gives you a good look at the components and how they fit together: It’s crazy to see how wobbly it all looks, but how it all gets locked into place by the immense weight of the roof; and that wobbliness of course affords the flexibility required for the structure to withstand an earthquake without shattering. Also, this architect must look at people playing Jenga and think “Idiots.”
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These Ingenious 2,500-Year-Old Chinese Wood Joints Make Buildings Earthquake-Proof
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today launched Firefox 54 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The new version includes the next major phase of multi-process support, which streamlines memory use, improving responsiveness and speed. The Electrolysis project, which is the largest change to Firefox code ever, is live. Firefox now uses up to four processes to run webpage content across all open tabs. This means that complex webpages in one tab have a much lower impact on responsiveness and speed in other tabs, and Firefox finally makes better use of your computer’s hardware. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Across the Hudson and over Newark Bay, about 15 miles from Manhattan, a group of investors led by Goldman Sachs is financing the construction of what will become the largest vertical farm in the world inside a former steel mill. Read more… 
Apple has released its iPad Air, and while we don’t yet know how many it sold during opening weekend (it’s likely waiting to reveal launch numbers until the iPad mini with Retina display goes on sale), we do know that it seems to be enjoying strong adoption rates. The cost of building this latest iPad should help Apple’s product margins, too, if a teardown by analyst firm IHS iSuppli (via AllThingsD ) is any indication. IHS regularly makes a point of trying to backwards engineer the cost of building a brand-new Apple device by tearing them down and looking at what goes into one. This year, it estimates that Apple’s iPad Air runs between $274 and $361, for the $499 16GB Wi-Fi only model at the low end, and the $929 128GB Wi-Fi + LTE version at the top. As usual, margins are higher the further up the chain you go, but what’s remarkable about this device is that it actually costs an estimated $40 or so less than the third-generation iPad did (IHS didn’t revise its figures for the fourth-generation iPad release) when it first launched, at every price point and model. That’s despite featuring a much more expensive display and touchscreen assembly that combines some layers to result in a a thinner overall package. Measurement for the touchscreen assembly is now at 1.8 mm, which is down from 2.23 mm on previous versions. There are savings in other areas, however, since the display requires fewer LED units (36 vs. 84 before) to power the screen, and that’s mostly because apart from the screen, many of the components are held over from older versions. The A7 is actually cheaper than the A5 was back in March when the iPad 3 launched, and the cellular array used in the iPad covers all LTE frequencies in the U.S., which means cheaper manufacturing costs overall since it only needs to make one version. Apple eking out more margin on the iPad Air could result in huge upside for it going into a busy holiday season, especially if numbers prove as strong as early evidence suggests they could be. The iPad mini, too, might enjoy a boost to profit for Apple, given that it also uses the A7 and appears to share a lot of componentry in common both with the full-sized iPad Air and with its predecessor.