Category Archives: Technology and Society

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Technology and Society

Electric Cars

12 Comments

…are not a moon shot:

“What people overlook is that accomplishing ‘big picture’ programs like Apollo require accepting the concept of unlimited spending to achieve the mission,” says Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of the industry authority Green Car Journal and editor of GreenCar.com. “Current levels of unprecedented federal spending notwithstanding, electric cars are not an exclusive answer to future transportation challenges and consumers will not be willing to buy them at all costs.”

As I pointed out at the last Apollo anniversary, it’s time to stop using this economically ignorant analogy. And that means you, Mr. President. The only time that he ever talks about space is when he can use it as an excuse for one of his non-space economically nutty programs.

Technology and Society

A Nanotech Pioneer

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…is recognized. Alan Boyle has an interview. I found this interesting:

It turns out that nanomaterials can play a huge role in many areas of therapeutics. One example is HDL [high-density lipoprotein], the “good” kind of cholesterol. That’s a nanostructure. We have statins that allow you to lower the levels of LDL [low-density lipoprotein, which is “bad” cholesterol]. To be healthy, what you really like is a good HDL-to-LDL ratio, so you’d like to learn how to raise HDL levels.

We’ve learned how to build nanostructures based on gold particles that mimic the properties of natural HDL, and we think that will lead to a whole new class of therapeutics that will be the complement to statins. If you think about what that can do for cardiovascular disease, the impact could be enormous. And it’s not just cardiovascular disease. HDL is implicated in a lot of different diseases, as a positive thing to battle inflammation. Being able to raise effective HDL levels could be quite important. We’re now testing particles that mimic the properties, the size and structure of HDL, and the ability to bind cholesterol and transport it. So we’re really excited that this might lead to a whole new class of therapeutics designed to raise HDL levels and have an impact on cardiovascular disease as well as a wide range of diseases that involve inflammation.

I think that the down side of statins is significantly underplayed. They seem to cause muscle degeneration, and I suspect that they do this to everyone who takes them, to some degree, even if not everyone has overt symptoms. And hey, I learned in science class that the heart is a muscle. My cardiologist wants to put me on them, but I’m resisting (I have no symptoms of cardiac problems, other than high LDL, and high blood pressure, which I’ve had all my life along with a fast pulse). She prescribed Crestor, which I went to the Pfizer site to look up, and it said that while it reduced cholesterol, it didn’t reduce heart risk — for that, you had to go to Lipitor.

Anyway, I wonder if the artificial HDL being described here could allow you to improve the ratio by boosting the numerator, and ignoring the denominator, eliminating the need for statins? I guess only clinical trials will tell, if they get to that point. Anyway, I hope that Obamacare won’t end up cutting off funding for this kind of research.

Technology and Society

If I Had One Of These

10 Comments

..it would probably just chase women:

The person in the wheelchair wears a cap that can read brain signals, which are relayed to a brain scan electroencephalograph, or EEG, on the electrically powered wheelchair, and then analyzed in a computer program.

Research into mobility is part of Toyota’s larger strategy to go beyond automobiles in helping people get around in new ways.

The new system allows the person on the wheelchair to turn left or right and go forward, almost instantly, according to researchers.

Seriously, this will be a huge boon for the disabled. Faster please.

Humor, Popular Culture, Technology and Society

Back To The Stone Age

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A thirteen-year-old boy goes retro:

My friends couldn’t imagine their parents using this monstrous box, but there was interest in what the thing was and how it worked.

In some classes in school they let me listen to music and one teacher recognised it and got nostalgic.

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn’t is “shuffle”, where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down “rewind” and releasing it randomly – effective, if a little laboured.

I told my dad about my clever idea. His words of warning brought home the difference between the portable music players of today, which don’t have moving parts, and the mechanical playback of old. In his words, “Walkmans eat tapes”. So my clumsy clicking could have ended up ruining my favourite tape, leaving me music-less for the rest of the day.

How did we survive?

Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Flint, Without Us

32 Comments

It is returning to nature. A nice little photo essay.

There’s a quote from a New Yorker review of the book, The World Without Us:

After thousands of years, the Chunnel, rubber tires, and more than a billion tons of plastic might remain, but eventually a polymer-eating microbe could evolve, and, with the spectacular return of fish and bird populations, the earth might revert to Eden.

Why do I think that the reviewer would look forward to that? Except, of course, he or she wants an Eden without either Adam, or Eve.

Popular Culture, Technology and Society

Heyday Of The Accord

15 Comments

I had an ’86 three-door LXi that I put over a quarter of a million miles on, all over the west. It still had its original clutch when I sold it, and never needed any major engine work (only problem that caused a roadside breakdown other than timing belts was a sheared distributor shaft once down in Orange County on the 405).

I thought they went downhill in the nineties — they got too big and too soft, and you couldn’t get a stick shift with a six cylinder–what was up with that? As far as I can tell, as far as Honda goes, the Civic is the new Accord.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

The Case Against Waxman-Markey

37 Comments

Here. Bottom line:

Waxman-Markey would impose costs at least 10 times as large as its benefits, would not reduce the deficit, and doesn’t even really cap emissions.

But other than that, it’s a great idea.

Not to mention that the bill is twelve hundred pages long. I wonder if they’ll be given an opportunity to read it?

[Afternoon update]

What this bill will and won’t do for the climate.