Hybrid or hype. I was reading in the news on yahoo today and there was an article about hybrid cars. Go and have a look:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20060411/bs_bw/bw20060407879124
If you want to get into the psyche of Americans, click on the "discuss" link at the bottom of the page. Prepare to be disturbed if you do - more on that another day.
I have to agree with the people who are not that impressed with hybrids. It depends some on what kind of driving you do. For people on a small island with lots of traffic, they make some sense. If you do lots of city driving or are in stop and go traffic alot, good hybrids are cool. But if you live somewhere with an Autobahn or freeways and like taking road trips, get something else. My Dad had a Prius. It really only did in the 45 MPG range. Not that special. For those who don't like compacts, the Prius is a decent compromise between size and fuel economy. What was special about it was that it got in the 40s pretty much no matter what he did, stop and go, sitting in traffic, driving on the highway. That is something most other cars don't do. But... for absolute best economy figures go to the web like I did... Most of these are not even particularly expensive. Now notice something, where are the American cars? They can't compete in this part of the market. If gas prices keep going up the American automobile industry will get creamed again just like they did 25-30 years ago.
MGP Highway MPG urban
70.6 43.5 Suzuki Alto
68.9 47.1 Daihatsu Charade
78.5 62.8 Smart Diesel
83.1 53.3 Citroen C1 Diesel
66.0 60.0 Honda Insight
60.1 41.5 Honda Jazz
So, if you want to have an impact on the world, design a really economical car that can make a redneck happy. If you haven't lived in the US much and need some hints on the type of people you are trying to reach, go to yahoo, read the article, and then read some of the discussion. I didn't say it would be easy but if you could increase the market share of this kind of car by 20-30% in the US market it would have an enormous impact. Huge.
Here's the challenge folks, what combination of design features and performance changes would it take to make you buy a really economical car. As you can see 40 MPG is nothing special but the Smart is a funny looking car. It doesn't do a rifle rack justice.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Man's Best Friend
If you would know a country, buy a newspaper, look in the classified ads, not for a job, for a dog. If the section for adopting or buying dogs has ads like, national kennel club registered pampered and papered purebread whatchmacallit you know something you didn't know before.
If the section has ads like, "puppies, mother Rhodesian Ridgeback - Labrador mix, father Doberman" or "Rottweiller, Doberman, Great Dane mother, Father Bull Mastiff" or "Akita Mother, Father Alsatian golden retriever mix" you also know something you did not know previuosly. One of these countries knows a thing or two about dogs, the other well... If you recognize your country in this you know what I am talking about.
As you may have guessed from the preceding, Dr. Hanley is fond of dogs. They can be very good eternally manic company. Recently I have become more fascinated by some of the other talents that dogs have in addition to being friendly companions. If you look back at the "future of science 1" post, you will notice that one thing I would like to see is someone build a detector that equals a dog's nose for sensitivity. Analytical chemistry still needs dogs for inspiration.
The things is, this is not really doing the issue justice. Dogs combine intelligence with an exquisite sense of smell to do some truly amazing tasks. For example, I was recently reading an article where a dog has been trained to recognize cancer based on the smell (presumably) of someone's breath. The ability beat most other tests, many of which were more expensive.
Another example was that persons with serious epilepsy can get seizure warning dogs. These dogs are trained to be able to (somehow?!) recognize approximately 5-10 minutes in advance that someone will be havng a siezure. Add this to seeing eye dogs for blind people and hearing ear dogs for the deaf.
Forensics scientists have been looking into bomb and drug sniffing dogs to find out what it is that clues the dogs to the presence of the items of interest. A well trained dog can do pretty well, but apparently there is some variation in the quality of training so results are somewhat varied. In this study they have found that for certain items it is impurities associated with the compounds of interest that the dogs notice not the compounds themselves.
All this in a furry package seems a bit too good to be true. When you add to that reports that pet owners live longer and that the presence of a dog in hospitals or nursing homes immediately lowers stress levels it seems to me that we need to think a little more about these animals. Don't believe me? Do a google search on "Nico the Shih-Tzu and Kolya the Great Pyrenees" and what they are doing at UCLA medical center.
I think I would feel better if my dogs stay with me next time I need to be hospitalized.
If the section has ads like, "puppies, mother Rhodesian Ridgeback - Labrador mix, father Doberman" or "Rottweiller, Doberman, Great Dane mother, Father Bull Mastiff" or "Akita Mother, Father Alsatian golden retriever mix" you also know something you did not know previuosly. One of these countries knows a thing or two about dogs, the other well... If you recognize your country in this you know what I am talking about.
As you may have guessed from the preceding, Dr. Hanley is fond of dogs. They can be very good eternally manic company. Recently I have become more fascinated by some of the other talents that dogs have in addition to being friendly companions. If you look back at the "future of science 1" post, you will notice that one thing I would like to see is someone build a detector that equals a dog's nose for sensitivity. Analytical chemistry still needs dogs for inspiration.
The things is, this is not really doing the issue justice. Dogs combine intelligence with an exquisite sense of smell to do some truly amazing tasks. For example, I was recently reading an article where a dog has been trained to recognize cancer based on the smell (presumably) of someone's breath. The ability beat most other tests, many of which were more expensive.
Another example was that persons with serious epilepsy can get seizure warning dogs. These dogs are trained to be able to (somehow?!) recognize approximately 5-10 minutes in advance that someone will be havng a siezure. Add this to seeing eye dogs for blind people and hearing ear dogs for the deaf.
Forensics scientists have been looking into bomb and drug sniffing dogs to find out what it is that clues the dogs to the presence of the items of interest. A well trained dog can do pretty well, but apparently there is some variation in the quality of training so results are somewhat varied. In this study they have found that for certain items it is impurities associated with the compounds of interest that the dogs notice not the compounds themselves.
All this in a furry package seems a bit too good to be true. When you add to that reports that pet owners live longer and that the presence of a dog in hospitals or nursing homes immediately lowers stress levels it seems to me that we need to think a little more about these animals. Don't believe me? Do a google search on "Nico the Shih-Tzu and Kolya the Great Pyrenees" and what they are doing at UCLA medical center.
I think I would feel better if my dogs stay with me next time I need to be hospitalized.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
More on Resumes and CVs.
Writing a good CV or resume is a problem for many students. Having worked internationally for 9 years at times I run into problems helping students through this often agonizing process. Ever on the hunt for new sources of funding, I followed a link sent to me by a colleague and stumbled across an interesting web site.
The European Union is working hard to try to integrate a culturally diverse population that includes many countries, cultures, and languages. One of the difficulties in integrating such diversity is the issue of intra-european mobility. How can you apply for a job in another country whose customs you do not know? The EU tried to define a transnational CV format, and there is a nice website that will help you write such a CV. What is really nice about this is that there are example CVs in 13 different languages!
There are templates you can download which will help you write a Europass CV. It will be a useful exercise. One of the things I like is the emphasis on specific skills toward the end. Many students forget to include these when they go to write their first CV.
Finally, having worked in the Caribbean for several years, the approach taken by the EU in confronting some of these issues is worth studying. The english speaking Caribbean is trying to integrate into a single economy including mobility of workers. It wouldn't be a bad idea to try to define something like this for CARICOM.
Here is the link (you will need to copy and paste:
http://europass.cedefop.eu.int/europass/home/vernav/Europasss+Documents/Europass+CV/navigate.action.
The European Union is working hard to try to integrate a culturally diverse population that includes many countries, cultures, and languages. One of the difficulties in integrating such diversity is the issue of intra-european mobility. How can you apply for a job in another country whose customs you do not know? The EU tried to define a transnational CV format, and there is a nice website that will help you write such a CV. What is really nice about this is that there are example CVs in 13 different languages!
There are templates you can download which will help you write a Europass CV. It will be a useful exercise. One of the things I like is the emphasis on specific skills toward the end. Many students forget to include these when they go to write their first CV.
Finally, having worked in the Caribbean for several years, the approach taken by the EU in confronting some of these issues is worth studying. The english speaking Caribbean is trying to integrate into a single economy including mobility of workers. It wouldn't be a bad idea to try to define something like this for CARICOM.
Here is the link (you will need to copy and paste:
http://europass.cedefop.eu.int/europass/home/vernav/Europasss+Documents/Europass+CV/navigate.action.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Interesting Times: Gaia and James Lovelock
You may not have ever heard of him but one of the greatest scientists of our time is a man named James Lovelock. For students I have taught you may find it interesting to know that he developed the electron capture detector. I am going to focus on him today, because he is in my mind for reasons which will become clear shortly. There is another scientist associated with these ideas who also is worth writing an entry about but her work will have to wait for another day. (See if you can guess her name)
James Lovelock is a very profound thinker and was the first one to really notice that the biosphere regulates the global environment making it more hospitable for life. The concept as a whole was originally called the Gaia hypothesis. A lot of evidence has been collected supporting the idea. One way to put (this is his approach not mine) the idea in perspective is to contrast it to the idea of evolution. Evolution, though still subject to much controversy, in its classis sense says that life forms evolve under the pressure of external selection. Life forms that are well matched to their surroundings survive. Those who are less able to thrive in their environment do less well and, of course things that are hopelessly ill-adapted die. That is a simple minded way of putting evolution.
Gaia in short is about the idea of life altering its surroundings to create a hospitable environment for life to continue. The general idea is not so radical in the sense that people build houses to make life more pleasant. What is radical is the scale of the idea. I think most people would be comfortable with the idea on a local scale (houses) but might find the idea on a global scale more difficult to grasp.
Essentially, through a series of quite complex feedback loops, the biosphere has regulated global climate. The problem is that the evidence, at least to the eye of James Lovelock and others, suggests the global regulatory mechanisms are about to go out of control. This is why Lovelock is on my mind. He recently wrote an article appearing in the Independent which you can find here:
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article338830.ece
There are some supporting articles. All are worth reading.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article338879.ece
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article338878.ece
Worth thinking about and one hopes he is wrong. In case you think this is just another overly shrill environmentalist, consider that Lovelock made a very strong argument for the use of nuclear power since it was to his mind the only mechanism by which carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere could be brought under control. Greenpeace did not like that idea very much. I have to say I don't like the idea very much... but that does not mean he is not correct.
What he has to say is worth thinking carefully about. It is a pity that he is now 86 years old otherwise he might be an excellent target for young students looking for a challenging mentor in graduate school.
James Lovelock is a very profound thinker and was the first one to really notice that the biosphere regulates the global environment making it more hospitable for life. The concept as a whole was originally called the Gaia hypothesis. A lot of evidence has been collected supporting the idea. One way to put (this is his approach not mine) the idea in perspective is to contrast it to the idea of evolution. Evolution, though still subject to much controversy, in its classis sense says that life forms evolve under the pressure of external selection. Life forms that are well matched to their surroundings survive. Those who are less able to thrive in their environment do less well and, of course things that are hopelessly ill-adapted die. That is a simple minded way of putting evolution.
Gaia in short is about the idea of life altering its surroundings to create a hospitable environment for life to continue. The general idea is not so radical in the sense that people build houses to make life more pleasant. What is radical is the scale of the idea. I think most people would be comfortable with the idea on a local scale (houses) but might find the idea on a global scale more difficult to grasp.
Essentially, through a series of quite complex feedback loops, the biosphere has regulated global climate. The problem is that the evidence, at least to the eye of James Lovelock and others, suggests the global regulatory mechanisms are about to go out of control. This is why Lovelock is on my mind. He recently wrote an article appearing in the Independent which you can find here:
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article338830.ece
There are some supporting articles. All are worth reading.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article338879.ece
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article338878.ece
Worth thinking about and one hopes he is wrong. In case you think this is just another overly shrill environmentalist, consider that Lovelock made a very strong argument for the use of nuclear power since it was to his mind the only mechanism by which carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere could be brought under control. Greenpeace did not like that idea very much. I have to say I don't like the idea very much... but that does not mean he is not correct.
What he has to say is worth thinking carefully about. It is a pity that he is now 86 years old otherwise he might be an excellent target for young students looking for a challenging mentor in graduate school.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Happy New Year
It has been a while since I last updated. This has been due to a move to the UK and a new university. I have been quite busy and not been sure what to say since it is a move to a new environment. Please check back now and then to look for updates. Hopefully when I have a free moment I will add something.
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