Tag: OPEC

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.

Ways of seeing

I saw a cone-hat lady make her garbage scavenging route after midnight.  I blurted out ” wow, that late. Must be tiring.”

When my friend suddenly added ” she doesn’t depend on others to make her living”.

Now, that’s an alternate way of seeing the same thing.

Our judgment is often clouded by our prejudice.

Prejudice is built up over the years, millions of stimuli have conditioned us to a certain “safe” way to respond.

We carry on with “stuff” in our heads to assure ourselves that things will always stay the same, and that we have control over our surrounding (dominion over the seas).

This white-man burden, with steam-ship industrialization, helped expand empires in the mighty seas and to distant shores (colonial period).

Now, it runs out of steam (no punt intended).

We now have a multi-polar world, with blocks and alliances, and fewer common denominators to work with (Kyoto, Kosovo and Davos).

Emerging countries keep their options open: they can’t forego OPEC, but can’t pretend to be in the league with BRICs or PIGS.

Welcome to 2012, the year without Whitney and Monkey’s lead singer.

Things used to be a lot simpler: Chevy in the drive way, chicken in the pot and cherry on top.

Now, it’s “where is the beef?, and “where are the jobs?”.

We bail out banks and blocks of countries.

Young people are netizen more than citizen.

At least, there, online, their fingers can take control.

Reality is just one-way: command, coding, outcome.

We are moving away from the communitarian model, to online collaborating model (sans borders).

All of a sudden, localization is hot (the same way Contextualization used to be).

When we zoom out,  we see patterns.  When we zoom in, we see details.

Depends on where we stand, how much of the “garbage”  we are carrying in our heads, and the zoom lenses we have at our disposal,

we see things differently.  Garbage in, garbage out. First in, first out. Wow, that’s tough!. No, wow, that’s liberating and independent.

Who is right and who is wrong.  Same set of facts and circumstances. Midnight in the garden of Eden, or of garbage disposal.  What’s happiness? We don’t seek it in the sense that it is a moving target. Rather, it’s a longing to return to the place where we were expelled from.

Machine and Me

Sir Chaplin showed it best in “Modern Times”.

Jacques Ellul took a step further to analyze all things “technique”. The 70’s OPEC oil embargo triggered  cost-cutting craze, starting with the elimination of gas station full-service to Smart cars and EVs.

I took a trip this past Thanksgiving. At rest area, the vending machine took my money and spit out my choice 1A6 (translation: dark coffee with cream, no sugar). With SunPass I did not have to stop and pay at the toll booth.

Of course, at rest area, the air dryer helped dry my hands. At the outlet mall, I had a massage by a chair

(only after I fed the machine my 5-dollar bill.)

I picked up something at Home Depot whose self-checkout allows me to scan my merchandise (while the cashier played loss prevention). On Halloween, they even put up a mean looking monster to stare down at home-builders.

When I got home, tired from the trip, I rented a video at Red Box. And while at it, I might as well filled my water at the machine next to the  prepaid calling card and blood-pressure machines.

I could have taken some pictures in one of those kiosks. But I saved money by using my digital camera, and print out Thanksgiving pictures ( no longer a trip to the Kodak store).

Pretty soon, they will have machine that can give you a flu shot. I already got my stamps from the post office machine.

Coffee, gas, photo, DVD , pre-paid calling card, stamps, water, highway toll, photo , car wash, water, air pump, laundry, kitchen appliances, I-pod, shaving kit. Car alarm (You stand too close to the vehicle, step back), GPS, remote control, alarm clock, unmanned aircraft, Stair Master, and IRobot to clean your house.  I am too tired to clean house, so I drop my clothes in the wash, pop in the DVD, and set my alarm. That was after I managed to check my email on the computer and warm my food in the microwave.

No wonder we don’t need people. Where have they all gone, long time passing? No wonder in Buffalo, NY, the last of the station attendants startled me when he asked if I needed to fill up. I thought that was a panhandler trying to hustle me.

The Machine Age is here. And someday, machine will make more advanced machines as they interact and evolve. Did I mention the ATM’s? My bank closes at 4PM, sending me to the machine today. I can hardly get face-time with any teller. Cherish the chat, “organic relationship” (this makes off-shored call centers heavens on Earth: “I understand what you mean” really?) . When we have a face-to-face with someone, we can read  non-verbal cues: facial expression, body language.  Tommy was left playing the pinball machine, and he moaned “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me”. Machine will stay behind in Goodwill long after we are gone. It’s those human who are close to us (and even not so close ) that matter. Family, and larger human family (social networking?), united against the machine – Trust not that which doesn’t brush its teeth, gives you poor service, yet takes your money. Try to get a refund by kicking it.

In Michael Moore’s words, “downsizing this!”.

P.S. I kept forgetting to click the ABC icon for the machine to spell check. Can’t live with or without “it” any longer.