| Vitruvian Mind |
| The Man will burn! |
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Posted on May 31st, 2007 by Phil.
Categories: Philanthropy & Environment, Business & Finance, Science & Technology.
The Chinese government plans to boost the country’s nuclear power generation capability to 20 times its current level by the end of 2030, according to a speech made by a Chinese official close to the plan. To attain its goal under the new plan, China would need to build in excess of 100 nuclear reactors, each capable of generating 1 million kilowatts, over the next 20 years. If the plan is realized, China would become the world’s largest generator of nuclear power, surpassing Japan, France and the United States.
The key is going to be if they can build and operate these facilities in a responsible way. Generally speaking, nuclear power is incredibly efficient, clean, and carbon emission free. Many people forget examples like France, where over 80% of the country’s energy needs are met by nuclear power. Some very high profile failures (Chernobyl, Three Mile Island) have soured multitudes of people on the technology. These catastrophes were the result of operating failure as much as design error, and were very easily avoidable.
This is definitely a good option for China to consider, as they are the largest looming threat to climate change in the world. With over a billion people, and explosive business growth, China needs energy fast. Getting much of it from coal, of which they have plenty, would be a disaster.
Timely news, considering that this report on China was released simultaneously with yet another study, this one from the Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, concluding that 10 more years of ‘business as usual’ CO2 emissions would likely make avoiding dangerous global climate change impossible.
Information courtesy of Yomiuri Shimbun of Green Car Congress
Posted on May 31st, 2007 by Vitruvius.
Categories: History & Politics, Sports & Health.
Watch out Philip. All your ranting on projectile weapons has prompted a response from a vigilant reader; maybe even a member of the NRA. You’d think this was the Economist, with this level of detail taken to set you straight. Steven posted this comment under your 2nd Rant on Gun Control which we think deserves to be aired publicly. So the gauntlet has been thrown biotch! VM readers look forward to your response. Find the full critique below:
Whoa, Phil, time to change your brand of brainwash. Your rant, while I’m sure well meaning, is based on a lot of false assumptions. For example, “Now guns are used for crime more than for safety.” Wrong. According to research done by John Lott, Jr.*, firearms are used defensively to protect people and/or property approximately 2.5 million times annually in the US. That’s a fair amount more than they are used for criminal intent.
It’s not surprising that it’s a fact out of the view of the general public because defensive gun use doesn’t fit the popular media’s idea of sellable news (a 16 year old kid shooting up a school = news. Some chick with CCW permit using her pistol to scare off an attacker in a parking lot = not news).
Another assumption that you have, and one I’d urge you to rethink immediately, is that the cops will be there to protect you. Wrong again… A Supreme Court ruling in 2005 found that the police have basically no obligation to show up in time to save your ass from a bad guy (Castle Rock v. Gonzales, No. 04-278 ). Of course, you’re probably fortunate enough to be able to pick the neighborhood you live in and the areas that you visit, so the odds of you running into a situation where you needed to use (or threaten to use) deadly force to save your own posterior are pretty low. But, do you really think those less privileged than you “do not deserve the right” to posses the means to protect themselves?
You think more guns means more death? Check out the article titled “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International and Some Domestic Evidence” in the latest issue of the Harvard Law Review (http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/) for some interesting insight on that assumption.
Also, in the 36+ states that have made it easier to obtain concealed carry weapons (CCW) permits many types of violent crime has gone down. You might conclude two things from that: apparently carrying a weapon doesn’t turn people into bad guys, and, bad guys change their behavior when the possibility exists that their intended victim might shoot them. So ask yourself, will banning the possession of firearms by law-abiding people do anything more than improve workplace safety for criminals? Want more proof? Consider that the places that have the worst crime rates in the US are those with the most restrictive laws on gun possession (Washington DC for example) and that after the UK and Australia banned guns the violent crime rates there have skyrocketed.
I won’t even start on your assumption that guys who wrote Constitution and Bill of Rights placed the Second Amendment there so we could protect ourselves from banditos… that’s a whole essay onto itself. *Lott’s book, “More Guns, Less Crime”, is an interesting read, especially if you like statistics. Also, check out http://www.johnrlott.com
Steven, Marin County May 29, 2007
Posted on May 30th, 2007 by Phil.
Categories: Consumer Products, Business & Finance, Science & Technology.
Microsoft recent unveiled its new ‘Surface Computing’ technology, a project that has been kept under wraps for the past five years. Using a giant table-like display, users are able to draw, interact with media, and use another new technology called domino tagging, in which a real-life object on the computer’s surface is identified and becomes an on-screen object that can be manipulated.
Surface is essentially a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a shiny black table base, topped with a 30-inch touchscreen in a clear acrylic frame. Five cameras that can sense nearby objects are mounted beneath the screen. Unlike most touchscreens, however, Surface can respond to more than one touch at a time. During a demonstration with a reporter last week, Mark Bolger, the Surface Computing group’s marketing director, “dipped” his finger in an on-screen paint palette, then dragged it across the screen to draw a smiley face. Then he used all 10 fingers at once to give the face a full head of hair.
With an opening price tag between $5,000 and $10,000, the machines will be for a niche market at the beginning. The company said it expects prices to drop enough to make consumer versions feasible in three to five years.
Information Courtesy of CNET and The Washington Post
Posted on May 30th, 2007 by Sprad.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Philanthropy & Environment, Sports & Health.
It’s about to be a really interesting time to be alive. The combustable engine has been around for well over 100 years now, and despite massive break-throughs over the years, it’s truly amazing that other forms of “power” for our means of transportation are just now coming about. That said, one company, African Cats, has decided to tackle the problem out on the water, providing electric motors for sailing yachts. There have been several extremely intersting proposals over the past couple of years for trans-oceanic shipping, involving enormous sails, electric motors, etc, in attempts to make it more (surprise surprise) cost efficient. This won’t solve that problem just yet, but it’s great to see a step in the right direction regardless however small, as it’s where we’re going to end up I’m sure is going to be fascinating.
African Cats Developing All-Electric Drive for Sailing Yachts
29 May 2007
African Cats, the Dutch company that last year introduced a hybrid version of one of its lightweight, 43-foot catamarans is developing a full-electric retractable propulsion and generation system for sailing yachts.
African Cats plans to use a 40 kW lithium-ion battery pack designed to provide continuous operation for 12 hours at a speed of 6 knots without any recharging. The company is looking at using li-ion cells from A123Systems or Nanoexa.
Solar panels (4 x 210 Watt) and a wind generator (300 Watt) provide renewable power generation to recharge the battery. When the yacht is under sail, the electric motors regenerate power for the battery pack as well. Regeneration starts at 5 knots. At 8 knots, 3 kW per motor is regenerated out of the 10 kW drive unit. African Cats is developing a range of 8 different electric motors from 5 kW up to 50 kW. The retractable drives reduce resistance while sailing. When extended, the props hang three feet from the hull, and not in the wake of the keel, enabling a better water flow.
African Cats is currently testing the system with 10 years of simulated usage in its salt water testing facility in Durban South Africa. After 3,000 hours of total run time, the company will disassemble the units to check for wear. Concurrently, it is building the first FastCat 435 Green Motion (no hybrid) and at the end of this year will complete two Atlantic crossings for further testing. The retractable Green Motion drive system will be made both for monohulls and catamarans.
Posted on May 30th, 2007 by Myk.
Categories: Philosophy & Spirituality, Arts & Literature.
For those of you who haven’t read the Alchemist, or Veronika Decides to Die, or 11 Minutes; you might be missing something important. Paulo Coehlo is one of Brasil’s best regarded and most prolific writers; interweaving spirituality with philosophy and storyline much in the way that Milan Kundera does (my opinion).
A few interesting points about Paulo (from his website and Wikipedia):
Some of Paulo’s books, like the Alchemist (his biggest success) are a bit simplistic but beautiful nonetheless. The purity of his writing is moving. Other books, like 11 Minutes, effectively capture complex and slippery elements of our human condition, like pain/beauty/happiness and deliever them to us in plain language. To entice all those who aren’t familiar with his work, here is Chapter 1: Veronkia Decides to Die, the book that first introduced me to this author. Hope you enjoy it.
Posted on May 29th, 2007 by Myk.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Travel & Leisure, Business & Finance, Science & Technology.
Many of us have grown up with reality t.v. shows. I remember the 1st season of MTV’s Real World in 1992; which was about the personal problems of a bunch of 20-somethings living in a cool pad in New York. Next was LA and another group of troubled souls. It was amazing, right? Really it was an entirely new genre of content–I’ll call that genre the editorialized depiction of real people (editorialized because networks controlled the presentation of the content). Well, as society and technology have progressed, we’re now in the age of self-generated depiction of real people. You Tube is probably the best example of a platform where people can portray their hopes, lip-synching abilities, political views; basically every positive and negative facet of their lives. This is distinctly superior to what was possible before because it is no longer edited by 3rd parties. Neworks and studios like MTV clearly want as much conflict as possible betwen The Real World cast members because drama is good for business.
On a high level, my personal thoughts on people choosing to expose themselves to the world are split. Watching really screwed up people do really stupid things makes me feel dirty. Like I need to hear another crack whore talk about why she turns tricks…but that’s me. The media loves that stuff and I suppose lots of people love to watch because it makes them feel better about themselves. Let’s call those people dirt-bags. They don’t read this blog. The positive aspect of people having the ability to broadcast their ideas is that maybe they have something unique and interesting to offer. Not very likely in most cases, but definitely possible.
Well, an article from MIT’s Technology Review Broadcast your Life Online 24-7 talks about the emergence of technology which will let all of us do exactly that. Broadcast our lives. Forget reading our blog, how about watching our writers eat cereal, take meetings with VCs–maybe throw in a fight with our girlfriends a couple of times a week for entertainment’s sake. Or better than watching OUR drama, why not attach a camera to your head and deliver true entertainment to the rest of the world via web streaming?
I thought this was an interesting article because it is another example of how technology continues to affect our social experience. Whether it’s MySpace, Second Life, or one of these new streaming sites (Stickam, Ustream, and Veodia), things are changing. Not everything will stick but I just get the feeling these businesses will affect quick soon how we interact with each other. You might be reading VM today (our user-generated content), but tomorrow I may be watching you play golf in real time–sending you tips through SMS while IMing with other viewers about how bad your swing is. As outlandish as it sounds, pretty soon you’ll have all the tools to be the star of your own show.
Posted on May 27th, 2007 by Myk.
Categories: Humor & Pop Culture.
I love my sleep. Some of the best moments of my life were while I was passed out horizontally. That’s why I’ve always been opposed to all nighters. No way that schoolwork would keep me away from my z’s. No way that late night partying would keep me away from my REM state. No way that work would motivate me to skip my ritual. That’s just crazy talk. Actually, according to Nicole Fizpatrick of Marina Del Rey, “Sleep is so overated.” So I have to wonder, who is it that doesn’t need/love/require/want sleep? Lots of it. Every night. Are these people masochists? Hedonists? Are they just so busy that they can push back something so important? Todd Staples of Los Angeles notes that if a 75 year old person has slept 8 hours a night on average, that’s 25 years of life spent asleep. If that same person sleeps 7 hours a night, he’ll gain almost 2 years of life. Interesting, right? Compelling?–not so much. 50 years of life is quite enough. I’ll take my sleep.
Posted on May 25th, 2007 by Myk.
Categories: Consumer Products, Business & Finance.
We clearly love talking about water, but I just couldn’t help it this time. I just saw in Portfolio.com that Glaceau Water, the company behind both Vitamin Water and Smart Water, has just been purchased by Coca Cola for $4.1BB. From Portfolio, “Coke’s biggest rival, PepsiCo has dominated the market for noncarbonated beverages, the New York Times reports. Pepsi, which owns Gatorade, has 50 percent of the market, while Coke has just 23 percent.” Coke has had enough, apparently, with its purchase of Fuze earlier this year and now Glaceau.
Interestingly, the founders of both companies spoke at Wharton, and the Fuze founder was this chummy salesman type guy who started his business out of his garage. I liked the Glaceau guy much more–he is a really visionary marketer–I mean, how BRILLIANT is Smart/Vitamin Water branding within the context of the healthy living trend? How could it not succeed? Anyways, huge fan.
A bit more about the Glaceau. The company is privately held, which means its management and investors, cleaned house. Also, this deal is about twice as large as the Google/You Tube transaction–so there is hope for traditional (ie not tech or online) businesses after all! That makes me happy :).
Posted on May 24th, 2007 by Phil.
Categories: Humor & Pop Culture.
That’s right, we’re not talking about yoga, we’re talking about Yoda. With Memorial Day Weekend rapidly approaching, we at VM offer you this moment of zen. Think green, and may the force be with you.
Posted on May 22nd, 2007 by Raj.
Categories: History & Politics.
Big Brother is watching you…online. Google searches now being used at border crossings. This one is scary. From the NY Times. Being convicted of a crime is one thing, but simply mentioning in article that you took LSD 40 freakin’ years ago (Hello…so did half the population, it was the 60’s) is apparrently now enough to be permanently barred from entering the US:
The Nation’s Borders, Now Guarded by the Net
Published: May 14, 2007, NYTimes
Andrew Feldmar, a Vancouver psychotherapist, was on his way to pick up a
friend at the Seattle airport last summer when he ran into a little trouble
at the border. A guard typed Mr. Feldmar’s name into an Internet search engine, which
revealed that he had written about using LSD in the 1960s in an
interdisciplinary journal. Mr. Feldmar was turned back and is no longer
welcome in the United States, where he has been active professionally and
where both of his children live. Mr. Feldmar, 66, has a distinguished résumé, no criminal record and a candid
manner. Though he has not used illegal drugs since 1974, he says he has no
regrets. “It was an absolutely fascinating and life-altering experience for me,” he
said last week of his experimentation with LSD and other psychedelic drugs.
“The insights it provided have lasted for a lifetime. It allowed me to feel
what it would be like to live without habits.”
Mr. Feldmar said he had been in the United States more than 100 times and
always without incident since he last took an illegal drug. But that changed
in August, thanks to the happenstance of an Internet search, conducted for
unexplained reasons, at the Peace Arch border station in Blaine, Wash.
The search turned up an article in a 2001 issue of the journal Janus Head
devoted to the legacy of R. D. Laing, with whom Mr. Feldmar had studied in
London about 30 years before.
“I traveled to many regions many times with the help of many different
substances,” Mr. Feldmar wrote of his experiences with Dr. Laing and other
psychiatrists and therapists. “I took peyote, psilocybin mushrooms,
cannabis” and other drugs, he added, “but I kept coming back to LSD.”
He was asked by a border guard whether he was the author of the article and
whether it was true. Yes, he replied. And yes.
Mr. Feldmar was held for four hours, fingerprinted and, after signing a
statement conceding the long-ago drug use, sent home.
Mike Milne, a spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection agency in
Seattle, said he could not discuss individual cases for reasons of privacy.
But the law is clear, Mr. Milne said. People who have used drugs are not
welcome here.
“If you are or have been a drug user,” he said, “that’s one of the many
things that can make you inadmissible to the United States.”
He added that the government was constantly on the hunt for new sources of
information. “Any new technology that we have available to us, we use to do
searches on,” Mr. Milne said.
Mr. Feldmar has been told by the American consul general in Vancouver that
he may now enter the United States only if he obtains a formal waiver.
“Both our countries have very similar regulations regarding issuance of
visas for citizens who have violated the law,” the consul, Lewis A. Lukens,
wrote to Mr. Feldmar in September. “The issue here is not the writing of an
article, but the taking of controlled substances. I hear from American
citizens all the time with decades-old D.U.I. convictions who are barred
from entry into Canada and who must apply for waivers. Same thing here.”
The waiver process would require a lawyer, several thousand dollars and
dishonesty, Mr. Feldmar said. He would have to say he has been
rehabilitated. “Rehabilitated from what?” Mr. Feldmar asked. “It’s degrading, literally
degrading.”
Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which
works to ease drug penalties, said Mr. Feldmar’s case proves how arbitrary
American drug policy can be.
“Roughly a majority of the population of the United States between the ages
of 18 and 58 has violated a drug law at least once,” Mr. Nadelmann said, and
there is no reason to think that Canadians and other foreigners of a certain
age have experimented much less. It has been a long, strange trip from the Summer of Love to the Age of
Terror, from excluding people based on actual criminal convictions to
turning them away based on a border guard’s Internet search. The first
approach is rooted in due process and enhances the nation’s security. The
second is profoundly arbitrary and effectively punishes not past drug use
but honest discourse about it.
“I should warn people that the electronic footprint you leave on the Net
will be used against you,” Mr. Feldmar said. “It cannot be erased.”
