Archive for April, 2007
Profiles in Awesomeness
Posted by Grg in Dumb thoughts, Rant/Rave, Science/Geek on Friday, April 27, 2007
Ahem
Anyway, I was just thinking about collecting some stories about people I think are Awesome. Robert Ballard, Dean Kamen, Elon Musk…all of those innovative folks who are doing something cool with their lives and resources. I’ll call it Profiles in Awesomeness* and it will be awesome. Verily.
I’m going to start a regular series here and now about them. Of course, I’m not prepared to actually write an entry yet. But this post will serve as something as a letter of intent, so help me Spongebob.
*Or something else, if I find a better Profiles in Awesomeness series somewhere out there.
Well whattya know…New Post
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Thursday, April 26, 2007
While I’m thinking of space and energy…
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Thursday, April 12, 2007
Of all the loony space megaengineering projects out there, space solar power stations are my favorite.
The Pentagon is considering studying them as a way of delivering energy to deployed troops (which they might think twice about now that China can shoot satellites down and fill the orbit with blasted bits). Maybe this is the sort of boost the technology needs.
One can hope.
Oddly, I just read Ben Bova’s Powersat (not recommended) and had been thinking of this topic.
Are you what you drive?
Posted by Grg in Dumb thoughts, Rant/Rave on Thursday, April 12, 2007
It is funny how the Outback is associated with lesbians. But, in my mind, at least, it is also associated with NPR yuppies. Folks of reasonable means who feel the Outback somehow gives them granola cred. (When in reality, the little AWD hatchback on roids guzzles more gas most cars its size. I really have a problem with unnecessary all-wheel drive for people in Philly and its suburbs. The roads around here are littered with these people. I don’t know why, but it bothers me.)
It is incredibly silly, yet otherwise sane people say horrible things about folks who drive any form of SUV. Likewise, they’ll think wonderful things about people who drive SUVs emblazoned with Terrapass stickers. It is all about status, especially those who think that simply buying Terrapass carbon offsets for their SUV absolves them of their guilt. I categorize them with smug Prius owners, but for different reasons, since they are all deluding themselves in some way.
If you are truly concerned with your environmental impact (and you still need to buy a car), what makes you think that carbon offsets make up for the 6mpg Land Rover? It’s like having a diet Coke with your whopper. Have salad instead.
Still, at the risk of coming out of the closet (read that article, really), I’d be all over the electric Mini Coop. Of course, it is horribly impractical for the price ($50k), but if there were nuke plants to support the extra electricity use, I’d jump all over it. The Tesla Whitestar is supposed to be in the $40k range, which sounds reasonable for an electric family sedan. Plus, there’s the Babylon 5 connection</nerd>.
As for now, if you drive an electric car you’re just centralizing your carbon output.
Just some random thoughts
Yuri’s Night
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Thursday, April 12, 2007
But I’ll be packing for my trip to LA. I’m bringing along my laptop, so there might be some blogging and there might not.
So it goes…
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Thursday, April 12, 2007
I think the first Vonnegut book I read was The Sirens of Titan, followed by Deadeye Dick (which troubled me greatly as a pre-teen), Slaughterhouse-Five and then a great many more…
You just THINK you had a past life
People who believe they have lived past lives as, say, Indian princesses or battlefield commanders are more likely to make certain types of memory errors, according to a new study.
The propensity to make these mistakes could, in part, explain why people cling to implausible reincarnation claims in the first place.
I’m going to have to start setting these things aside.
Perception and choices: Why It Is Still Stupid to Buy A Prius
Posted by Grg in Dumb thoughts, Grg's Reference, Rant/Rave, Science/Geek on Monday, April 9, 2007
A number of folks in my small borough have bought Priuses over the last few years — I see about five of them on my short walk to the train in the morning. One even has a little decal over the back window that says “Breath Free, Drive A Prius” (right next to this family’s other car, an old beater with a Dennis Kucinich ’08 sticker). Smug snots, aside from the Kucinich sticker.
With most hybrids, the air might be cleaner, but it could be at the expense of the water and soil. The nickel in its batteries are the main culprits — the mining of nickel and disposal of nickel-based batteries contributes to serious pollution around the globe. And, with an increasing demand for battery power, that’s only going to increase. (I suspect lithium-ion batteries might cause similar damage, but I don’t know.)
Anyway, this article from Bloomberg goes along with what I’ve been saying: with most hybrids, it is more about perception than substance. You aren’t saving money with a Prius. Buy a cheap subcompact with good gas mileage for half the price and you’ll likely never buy enough gas to make up the difference. Given that Prius mileage isn’t as good as advertised, you aren’t going to be producing that much more CO2, either.
It is more about affluence at this point. Even though the technology is expensive now, it will change eventually as hybrids become more acceptable to the market and cheaper to build. I still have hope for more nuke plants and more Teslas, but that’s just me.
What we need is the Automotive X Prize to work, pushing the creation of a 100 mpg production car.
Anyway, a quick rant. I’m sure I’ll be eaten alive in the comments.
PowerPoint is a Disaster
Posted by Grg in Grg's Reference on Wednesday, April 4, 2007
It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you in the written and spoken form at the same time.
Prof John Seller sez:
”It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented.”
Garr Reynolds beat him to it back in 2005, although he takes a more “I know it when I see it approach.” Reynolds’ one blog post formed the basis for every PowerPoint presentation or every discussion about presentations I’ve had since.
Not to criticize Prof Seller or the ed writer in SMH, but…well…yeah.
No, the world isn’t ending…When PR Pranks Go Bad
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Monday, April 2, 2007
I’m in public relations and, as tempted as I might be, I would think five or six times before going ahead with an April Fool’s prank. The item below, listed as number 75 on the Museum of Hoax’s Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes list was this ill-conceived bit from a PR twit at one of my favorite places, the Franklin Institute:
On March 31, 1940 the Franklin Institute issued a press release stating that the world would end the next day. The release was picked up by radio station KYW which broadcast the following message: “Your worst fears that the world will end are confirmed by astronomers of Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. Scientists predict that the world will end at 3 P.M. Eastern Standard Time tomorrow. This is no April Fool joke. Confirmation can be obtained from Wagner Schlesinger, director of the Fels Planetarium of this city.” The public reaction was immediate. Local authorities were flooded with frantic phone calls. The panic only subsided after the Franklin Institute assured people that it had made no such prediction. The prankster responsible for the press release turned out to be William Castellini, the Institute’s press agent. He had intended to use the fake release to publicize an April 1st lecture at the institute titled “How Will the World End?” Soon afterwards, the Institute dismissed Castellini.
Italics are mine. And a big “DUH” to Mr. Castellini.