Tag: Energy

Un-Detroiting

While video recording and taking photos (time lapse) of our Electric Vehicle Tech session, I couldn’t help thinking about Detroit.

You see, these students have sat through 10 weeks of theory. Now they have a go at “degutting” the Internal Combustion Engine, to essentially make a “glider” (shell) for Electric components. The intended end-product is an All-Electric Vehicle, with zero emission (Bye Bye Sandy).

It’s not far-fetched or idealistic. Just realistic and achievable, right in front of my eyes.

When there is a will, there is a way.

More than a century of Detroit, of Fordism, and oil addiction.

Now at least someone somewhere is trying to jerk the chain, or even cutting it.  UnDetroiting.

Of course we need to take the economics of this into consideration.

Is it pie in the sky? Does it have a good chance of getting broad-base support?

While the I-pod is reduced to the size of a match box, we still can’t drive a carbon-fiber EV which costs less and leaves less carbon footprint.

Of course, we need recharging infrastructure. Of course, battery companies better not file bankruptcy etc..

I just saw something in the making.

I can’t figure it out.

What it is, ain’t exactly clear.

But with $5.00 per gallon on the West Coast, and Sandy on the East Coast, I think the idea of Electric Vehicle needs a relook.

As long as we get from point A to point B, why does it matter that the “mouse is black or white?”.

Technology changes all the time and is supposed to serve not enslave people.

But we have worshipped at the altar of the neon god we made (Sound of Silence).

No wonder we are subjected to OPEC and MidEast fluctuation  even when only 1/3rd of our supplies are from there. I am glad other energy sources and new-found ways are taking a larger shares of energy wealth. It’s in the head, in the heart and out there in space.

Whatever we need to survive (including being nice to one another) is available. Just a matter of coordinating and negotiating.

For a moment, the sky was the limit. If we hadn’t sent them home at the end of the day, many students would have stayed to finish “un-Detroting” the car. It is to show, when people are convinced and are together, they can achieve great things.

the Invisibles

They are out there, sleeping in street corners, behind dumpsters, in the park and parking lot.

They move about collecting bottles and cans, junk and juice.

We have trained our eyes to tune them out, to ignore their pleas and pitches.

We certainly don’t read their signs. We already knew, since it’s written on cardboard and held up at street corners.

More people are invisible nowadays.

They don’t vote, nor do they write to their Congressional Representatives.

Whatever funding earmarked for Social Assistance, perhaps never got to them.

Another group of invisibles  but someday, they will be here: future generation.

Inheriting and becoming “salt of the Earth“.

They will drive Electric Vehicles, pick up the bottles and cans after themselves and even plant some organic vegetables.

Last type of invisibles are unseen trends but will be here: mobile payment, paperless society, central ID, Medical ID etc…

We know they are coming. We just resist the technology with policy.

Blocking natural science with political science.

But they will be here, in your children’s face.

Whether you like it or not.

The environment will need to sustain this Earth.

The product we use will need to be recycled.

And the weak among us will need to be tended to and be made productive again.

Can’t legislate away people, who elected you. Can’t ignore them. Can’t tune them out. It’s not kind and it’s not wise.

The invisibles will soon be the majority, if neglected long enough. Wise leaders are those who can see a little bit further into the future, and shed some lights on the gravest of matter. That’s why they are elected to represent us. Now, do your job.

Empathize and Energize

You wish your co-workers are all into that. They know how you feel, and because of who they are, they take it up a notch.

The virtuous cycle. Feeding into it is like fueling the fire. Passion, dedication and yes, winning.

Don’t you miss working in teams with those qualities? Pettiness has no place there. Grumpiness? Out.

Just win.

Know how you feel. I felt the same way. But I found that…. FFF.

One cannot just go out to Costco or Target and get a software package that says “Empathy” or “Energy”.

BTW, the Cosco‘s of the world are expanding, pushing Mom and Pop stores to the outskirts.

Meanwhile, fresh produce and Supermarket chains just can’t justify open more location in inner cities where kids have no choice but fast foods. I know the First Lady got her pulse on this issue (as opposed to Jackie O and Nancy Reagan who just wanted to remodel the White House or consult an astrologer).

Back to Empathy and Energy.

Energy is contagious. At the Olympic, they still do the Wave. You get caught in the spirit of the time and the place.

Just a sea of humanity, cheering and jeering.

You want to be energized? Hang out with high-energy people. The paradox of energy is that it needs to be burned to reproduce (just like the Phoenix rises from the ashes).

Empathy, on the other hand, requires immersion. You step into the other’s person shoes and character. Feel the emotion: sadness, joy, triumph, and disappointment.

Who wouldn’t go through those ups and downs at times.

Companies don’t realize people are people i.e. there are days, they feel elated. Then, other days, they can barely show up. The leader’s job is to be cheerleader, counselor, coach and not police.

Let’s hope your team support each other as you lead them to victory. Nothing is sweeter than to win as a team. Bravo!

Pause-Reflect-Play

We are each given a remote control.

But not all of us know where the PAUSE button is.

We press PLAY or oftentimes FAST FORWARD.

Then we are looped in by stimuli  from all directions (Preview, Blu Ray slide show etc..).

Attention grabbers and assaults to our senses.

We have slowly been anesthetized. Our sensory perception goes numb.

Terminator 2, Transformer 3 etc…

If you count the shell cases spent on one of these action movies, you will find they quite exceeded the bullets

of all Western movies combined. Western genre now comes across as pathetically slow-motion.

Drone time.

Doom time.

Heat-seeking weaponry. High tech warfare. You can run but you can’t hide (as long as you still generate body heat).

I was across the street from Three-Mile-Island back in 1979. News media crews ate late dinners at the only restaurant still opened in town.

We were facing what was then considered a close call.

Now the Spill.

Oil leak and nuclear leak raise doubt about our technological prowess.

(As of this edit, there were explosion at a Navy yard in New Jersey).

There isn’t a better time to be a scientist. There isn’t a worst time to be a technologist.

Testing a solution and solving a problem in real-time, both at the same time.

No PAUSE, no reflect. Just pure play.

One shot. We have gone to the Moon and come back, many times.

Now the challenge is at the bottom of the ocean.

Who would have thought and seen it coming. During the Gulf big Spill, we were shown and stared at the graphic that showed “DAY XX”, as if the nation is held hostage by the Oil Spill.

We need a Reagan-esque take-charge voice, which theatrically pronounces “Mr BP, hold down that cap”.

A local captain committed suicide a few days ago. He was too close to the center of things.

And he did not allow himself the luxury of just playing along.  How many days has it been, DAY 70?.

The man should have watched it on video, sort of Peter Seller’s BEING THERE, instead of actually being there and got eaten up by the hole.

Peter Seller never knew where the PAUSE button was, nor did he care if life on and off-screen were different. All the same to him and actually,  it’s more real on than off-screen. Reality bites hard and in least desirable places. Please show me the PAUSE button. I want to get off.

Rev tone

Public concerns for traffic safety create a new market for rev tones used in electric vehicles.

People fear they cannot hear those noiseless cars approaching. So with multiple “ring tones” currently in the works,

pedestrians might get more than what they were bargaining for: out-of-sync responses to false stimuli (young men get a kick  souping up their Civics with fast-approaching Ferrari sound).

Similar chaos were experienced in the streets of New York before the DoT came up with the Red-Green-Yellow convention.

A friend of mine got hit from behind while walking in Dalat with MP3 on. The motorbike that hit him was

going down hill with engine off (apparently during the months of high fuel prices) with rider  facing down to avoid heavy rain . Hear no evil, see no evil.

With each invention comes a cluster of ancillary products: PBX + voicemail and headsets, wire line phones + answering machines, and now electric vehicles create a need for revving tones.

Just like those Ford automobiles (as long as it’s black!) in the old days, electric vehicles will clutter our nation ‘s highways,and personal “rev tone” will deceive our ability to I.D. them (our audio memory bank hasn’t yet been updated, except for a meager sound effect collection, e.g. electric luggage carts operated inside the airports or the fast beeping of backing-up trucks.) Cars will be manufactured Just-in-time like Dell. And with voltage (or storage capacity) options just like our choices of CPU. Would you like to pick out your rev tone to go with it?  Gas station will be changed to car station, and won’t take up all the precious real estate

(there is no need for a large driveway to accommodate fuel trucks).   Soon, charging stations will be cheap enough like treadmills to be installed in one’s garage. Garages will really be crowded: it gets in-sourced as home gym, hot water tank storage, home office,

garage band studio and vehicle charging station. Apartment and condo managers will be busy assigning

charging spots. So are corporations with assigned “employee of the month” space. Obnoxious salesmen won’t be able to hide their “rev tone” as easily as they did their tattoos.

Best way for rev tone to serve electric vehicle drivers is to give them an option to turn it on or off. That way, a party goer can sneak back into the neighborhood at night, undetected. That would be quite eerie even to the by-then drunk driver himself.

He might all of a sudden hear not just the rev tone, but a prerecorded ” raise your hands up to where I can see them!”. At least, this can prevent a possible screeching sound then complete silence preceded by that awful wham (of an automobile at impact). All is quiet on the western front. That is, until the next rev tone cruises by. In South LA, a drive-by is nothing but quiet.