Sometimes I wonder about chopsticks. I mean, are they better than silverware? And what do you mean by better? They are certainly easier to make, at least if you have access to some wood and can handle a knife. But then they don't last very long. Most wooden chopsticks get thrown out after one meal. But wood is organic, so it will break down and decompose. Or they could be used as kindling for a fire, should you need a fire. And almost everyone needs a fire of some sort. Silverware lasts for practically ever. All you have to do is wash it. But that means clean, hot water and soap. Which becomes waste water, which needs to be treated, or least allowed to stew for awhile before it is released back into the environment.
I don't like chopsticks, mostly because I have never taken the time to become proficient with them. I can use them, but it is a bit of a struggle, and I wonder, why bother? What's wrong with silverware? These days if I go to a Japanese restaurant, or anywhere else where chopsticks are the default eating utensil, I will ask for silverware. Japanese restaurants make me a little nervous because some of them appear to still use laquerware, which I imagine suffers from contact with silverware, but maybe it isn't laquerware at all, but a modern plastic substitute, in which case silverware is no threat at all. In any case, I try to go easy on it, which is no big deal, because I am proficient with silverware.
Some restaurants give you plastic or imitation ivory chopsticks. Now I really wonder why that is. These have to be washed. Why not just use silverware? I suppose some people prefer it. For orientals, or people who grew up using chopsticks, I can see that there would be a preference. But I don't understand people who grew up using silverware preferring to use chopsticks. Well, maybe it you travel to the Orient a lot, it might come in handy. Me, I don't care for travel.
And it's not just chopsticks, but look at all the little disposable items we use everyday. Since chopsticks are made of wood, lets look at some other wooden items. Toothpicks and pencils come to mind. How many acres of forest are cut down each year to make toothpicks, pencils and chopsticks? How many of those acres are replanted? Have you tried using one of the imitation wood pencils? They look like wood pencils, they sharpen like wood pencils, but they are flexible and as far as I am concerned, they are junk. I hate them, I think because they are flexible they do not offer the same degree of control, and control is critical if you are trying to do any detail work, either writing or drawing.
I did a little research on the Internet about wood pencils. Making a wooden pencil is quite complex being as it has evolved over the last 100 years or so. They seem to have it down to a science. Mixing, baking, slicing, cutting, gluing, painting, crimping. A lot goes into making pencils. Of course this is only possible because they make billions of them every year.
Once again, we have the same question, do we use the wood disposable item, or the more elaborate metal contraption, in this case the mechanical pencil? Mechanical pencils have the advantage of using no wood, and of using almost all of their lead. Wooden pencils often get thrown out when they are no more than half way used, and often sooner. With a mechanical pencil, it is only necessary to replace the lead when it runs out, so theoretically there is much less waste. I have one mechanical pencil I use occasionally, it uses a 0.9 mm diameter lead. The 0.7 mm lead is much more common, and there are some people who like pencils that use 0.5 mm lead. I am too heavy handed for the smaller leads. The .7 mm lead breaks repeatedly when I try and write something, and I can only use the .5 mm lead if I am very careful. The .9 mm lead works fine, that is, it does not break, but it does not give the same writing experience as a wooden pencil. The only problem with wooden pencils is that the erasers inevitably disappear before the pencil does. If I were a true American, I would throw them away when this happens, but I must be a Bolshevik, because I go to the office supply store and buy rubber eraser caps by the dozen. Not that it helps. I have four wooden pencils in my pencil can at the moment and none of them have enough eraser left to be worth mentioning.
And then there are toothpicks. And matches, though most of them are cardboard now. But I think that is enough about this for now.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Movie: "The Contractor"
Wesley Snipes at it again. Another action adventure. The lying young girl, Emily, was a novel touch. The super-secret CIA assassination squad is an old story, but in these times it continues to play well. What does that say about my faith in our government, when the bad guys in the movie are supposedly from our government? I did not quite understand why there would be strobe lights in the airport luggage handling area, but I suppose it is possible. Wesley's assigned partner was a little inept, and it got him killed. Is good help that hard to find? Perhaps it is.
Elevators
Tall buildings these days only have stairs because they are required by fire codes. If they were not required, I suspect many buildings would not have them at all. They consume floor space that could be otherwise be rented. But why has not anyone done anything about elevators? We will have a 50 story building with several elevator shafts that run all the way to top and each shaft is dedicated to one car. Imagine if streets were like that. One bus per lane all the way from Portland to Seattle.
We need an elevator system with autonomous cars, that is elevator cars that can ascend or descend on their own without depending on cables, counterweights and rooftop machinery. Instead of having a bank of ten elevators a tall building could get by with two elevator shafts: one for cars going up and one for cars going down. Each shaft would hold five or so cars. When climbing cars reached the top, they would be shunted over to the downshaft. When the descending cars reached the bottom, they would be shunted back to the upshaft. They would in effect follow a circular pattern.
I have no doubt that such an elevator could be designed and built and could be just as safe as our current elevators. Since floor space is at such a premium, and our current elevator system is so obviously inefficient, and a more efficient design could be built, the question is, why hasn't it been done? Okay, maybe it has, and I just haven't heard about it. In any case, what can be done?
Well, it's political. Someone is going to have to champion the idea, sell it to some financial backers. And not only are there going to be expenses for development and testing, but a whole bunch of rules, regulations, and probably even some laws are going to need to be changed, and that is going to require a whole different skill set than that needed to design and build it. And then you have the insurance companies. Proving the safety of the elevator cars to the insurance industry is going to be strenuous ordeal. Finding someone who is willing to fight this battle on all fronts is going to be difficult.
Let us leave aside the political and regulatory issues for the moment and return to how such an elevator system could be constructed. My favorite, and the most difficult technically, would be to use linear induction motors. The elevator shafts would have bus bars carrying electrical current. The cars would have linear motors that would react with the magnetic field generated by the current in the bus bars to propel the vehicle. The cars would derive their power by induction from the bus bars as well. Ascending cars would draw current from the system, and descending cars would push current into the system. No moving parts, a perfect system. But such technology may currently be beyond our capabilities.
All cars would need some kind of fail-safe so in case of power or other equipment failure they would stop where they were and be locked into the shaft so they could not fall. This kind of mechanism is what made elevators successful in the first place.
A technically easier method would be to equip each car with an electric motor, a speed reducer and a set of drive wheels. Like the previous idea, the elevator shaft would be equipped with bus bars running the entire length (height) of the shaft. The car would have brushes to pick up electrical current from the bus bars to drive the motors. All of the components for this kind of drive could be ordered from a standard industrial supply.
To reduce the amount of current being carried by the bus bars, we could include a tow rope, something like what you find at a ski resort. When a car starts to ascend the motor would start turning the drive wheels. When the car reached the speed of the tow rope it could clamp on and the rope would haul the car up, almost to it's destination when the motor would come on line again, the car would release its' clamp and it would come to a smooth stop at the requested floor. The tow rope would operate continuously and would guided by two large wheels, one at the top and one at the bottom of the shaft, much like a ski lift.
Of course you would need a sophisticated control system to dispatch the cars and keep them an adequate distance apart, but there are lots of smart people out there who could design such a system. The trick will be finding someone who can marshal the right people and deliver a correctly functioning, reliable system. Diebold is not it. I am sure there are companies that can do this, though it is very difficult to determine which companies are actually competent and which ones are just blowing smoke.
We need an elevator system with autonomous cars, that is elevator cars that can ascend or descend on their own without depending on cables, counterweights and rooftop machinery. Instead of having a bank of ten elevators a tall building could get by with two elevator shafts: one for cars going up and one for cars going down. Each shaft would hold five or so cars. When climbing cars reached the top, they would be shunted over to the downshaft. When the descending cars reached the bottom, they would be shunted back to the upshaft. They would in effect follow a circular pattern.
I have no doubt that such an elevator could be designed and built and could be just as safe as our current elevators. Since floor space is at such a premium, and our current elevator system is so obviously inefficient, and a more efficient design could be built, the question is, why hasn't it been done? Okay, maybe it has, and I just haven't heard about it. In any case, what can be done?
Well, it's political. Someone is going to have to champion the idea, sell it to some financial backers. And not only are there going to be expenses for development and testing, but a whole bunch of rules, regulations, and probably even some laws are going to need to be changed, and that is going to require a whole different skill set than that needed to design and build it. And then you have the insurance companies. Proving the safety of the elevator cars to the insurance industry is going to be strenuous ordeal. Finding someone who is willing to fight this battle on all fronts is going to be difficult.
Let us leave aside the political and regulatory issues for the moment and return to how such an elevator system could be constructed. My favorite, and the most difficult technically, would be to use linear induction motors. The elevator shafts would have bus bars carrying electrical current. The cars would have linear motors that would react with the magnetic field generated by the current in the bus bars to propel the vehicle. The cars would derive their power by induction from the bus bars as well. Ascending cars would draw current from the system, and descending cars would push current into the system. No moving parts, a perfect system. But such technology may currently be beyond our capabilities.
All cars would need some kind of fail-safe so in case of power or other equipment failure they would stop where they were and be locked into the shaft so they could not fall. This kind of mechanism is what made elevators successful in the first place.
A technically easier method would be to equip each car with an electric motor, a speed reducer and a set of drive wheels. Like the previous idea, the elevator shaft would be equipped with bus bars running the entire length (height) of the shaft. The car would have brushes to pick up electrical current from the bus bars to drive the motors. All of the components for this kind of drive could be ordered from a standard industrial supply.
To reduce the amount of current being carried by the bus bars, we could include a tow rope, something like what you find at a ski resort. When a car starts to ascend the motor would start turning the drive wheels. When the car reached the speed of the tow rope it could clamp on and the rope would haul the car up, almost to it's destination when the motor would come on line again, the car would release its' clamp and it would come to a smooth stop at the requested floor. The tow rope would operate continuously and would guided by two large wheels, one at the top and one at the bottom of the shaft, much like a ski lift.
Of course you would need a sophisticated control system to dispatch the cars and keep them an adequate distance apart, but there are lots of smart people out there who could design such a system. The trick will be finding someone who can marshal the right people and deliver a correctly functioning, reliable system. Diebold is not it. I am sure there are companies that can do this, though it is very difficult to determine which companies are actually competent and which ones are just blowing smoke.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Rolling Nickel
I took the Mitsubishi into the dealer for service today. They gave us a free-oil-change-for-life deal when we bought the car. Normally I would not drive all the way to Beaverton just for an oil change, but there were a couple of other problems that needed attention, and then they sent me a free car wash coupon in the mail. So I took it in. The first problem was that something was rolling around loose and making a rattling noise. It started a few weeks ago, and it only happens occasionally, like on turns, but it is really annoying. It sounded like a screw had come loose inside the front passenger door. The other problem was a small scratch on the front bumper. That happened when we were getting ready for the garage sale. What was worse is that I tried to fix it. I left the car at the dealer for a couple of hours and when I came back it was ready. They had changed the oil and washed the car and found the source of the noise and fixed it. A nickel had fallen into the front passenger seat track and was rolling back and forth. All that was needed was a sharp pair of eyes, and maybe someone who had tracked this problem down before. They hadn't done anything about the scratch, but there was no charge for the rest of it, so I didn't complain, I just took the car and went home. I still want to get the scratch fixed, so I suppose I will have to go back.
I always liked Mitsubishi. Their cars seem to be more engineering inclined. I have never liked Honda, or the higher priced Acura. I can't say why exactly, except that I think they are overpriced for what you get. Maybe it's the advertising that turns me off. Or maybe I just don't get it. In any case, I am repelled by Hondas.
But somehow a nickel landed in the Mitsubishi's seat track. Was this just a fluke, or is it something about the design? Do Honda's ever have problems like this? Or maybe all cars have their little quirks, and this is just the Mitsubishi's weak spot.
I always liked Mitsubishi. Their cars seem to be more engineering inclined. I have never liked Honda, or the higher priced Acura. I can't say why exactly, except that I think they are overpriced for what you get. Maybe it's the advertising that turns me off. Or maybe I just don't get it. In any case, I am repelled by Hondas.
But somehow a nickel landed in the Mitsubishi's seat track. Was this just a fluke, or is it something about the design? Do Honda's ever have problems like this? Or maybe all cars have their little quirks, and this is just the Mitsubishi's weak spot.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Movie: "Equilibrium"
Watched "Equilibrium" (with Christian Bale) the other night. I was expecting something really bad, but it turned out to be pretty good. More and more I think the differences between a good movie and a bad movie are pretty small. Mostly it comes down to the good telling of a story. The story itself may be insignificant, but if it is well told, it is still enjoyable. Some movies get criticised for shoddy props, but if the audience is engaged in the story, the props don't really matter. Is the storyteller able to maintain a certain level of tension? If all the tension goes out of a story, the audience falls away, and all the great cinematography in the world can't save it. I am convinced that music can make or break a movie. Play sinister music and the pleasant scene in the world becomes fraught with risk. Play happy music and the darkest dungeons can become carefree playgrounds. I have often wondered if someone could take some of these box office disasters and edit them into something wonderful. Just pick and choose from the scenes that are already filmed and see if you could do a better job of telling the story.
Recently I read a translators note about translating written Chinese to English. His idea was to absorb the ideas indicated by the pictographs, and then to render the English version to the best of his ability. While many people may be able to "read" and understand written Chinese, each persons translation of it will be different according to their abilities and the way they perceive the world.
Likewise, different people given a batch of film clips, will arrange them in different ways to tell the same story. I wonder what I could do if given the opportunity.
But back to the movie. I think this might be a pro-war film. The premise is that everyone takes a drug that suppresses strong emotions, it makes people more even tempered, and this prevents crime and war. All people are good little citizens, as defined by powers that be. Of course, the powers that be are totally corrupt, and not everyone is a good little citizen. Matter of fact there is a sizable police force devoted to tracking down and executing "sense" criminals, people who are not taking their emotion suppressing drugs, i.e. people who are enjoying life. These people make up a sizable underground, so naturally we have many gun battles. We also have something called "Gun Fu" which is the art of fighting with handguns. The elite few who have mastered this technique are nearly invincible. Great stuff.
Reminds me China and Japan which enjoyed long periods of peace but suffered from stagnation. People often comment on how polite the Japanese and Chinese are, and I wonder if this is not an outgrowth of having eliminated all the troublesome members of their society. That is how they achieved peace and stagnation, they got rid of everyone who ever thought about making trouble. Contrary-wise, that is why America is so violent and dynamic. We have collected all the worlds troublemakers under one sky.
Recently I read a translators note about translating written Chinese to English. His idea was to absorb the ideas indicated by the pictographs, and then to render the English version to the best of his ability. While many people may be able to "read" and understand written Chinese, each persons translation of it will be different according to their abilities and the way they perceive the world.
Likewise, different people given a batch of film clips, will arrange them in different ways to tell the same story. I wonder what I could do if given the opportunity.
But back to the movie. I think this might be a pro-war film. The premise is that everyone takes a drug that suppresses strong emotions, it makes people more even tempered, and this prevents crime and war. All people are good little citizens, as defined by powers that be. Of course, the powers that be are totally corrupt, and not everyone is a good little citizen. Matter of fact there is a sizable police force devoted to tracking down and executing "sense" criminals, people who are not taking their emotion suppressing drugs, i.e. people who are enjoying life. These people make up a sizable underground, so naturally we have many gun battles. We also have something called "Gun Fu" which is the art of fighting with handguns. The elite few who have mastered this technique are nearly invincible. Great stuff.
Reminds me China and Japan which enjoyed long periods of peace but suffered from stagnation. People often comment on how polite the Japanese and Chinese are, and I wonder if this is not an outgrowth of having eliminated all the troublesome members of their society. That is how they achieved peace and stagnation, they got rid of everyone who ever thought about making trouble. Contrary-wise, that is why America is so violent and dynamic. We have collected all the worlds troublemakers under one sky.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Break the Oil Cartel
Break OPEC. OPEC is a cartel, a very successful cartel. They have been able to keep the price of oil much, much higher than the production costs. I do not suggest this to bring the price of oil, and therefor the price of gasoline down, but rather to deprive our sworn enemies of the enormous stream of revenue that is flowing into their countries.
There used to be a coffee cartel. JFK got it started in the early sixties. It flourished for a number of years, and it was the primary reason that your choice of coffee was Folger's or Maxwell House. This cartel finally collapsed about ten years ago, and now you have a plethora of coffees and coffee shops. Google found another article about JFK and the coffee cartel, but when I followed the link I found that access was restricted. If access is restricted, how does Google know the article is in there?
Now that you have had your coffee, let us get back to the business at hand: OPEC and the Middle East. As long as I can remember, it seems that the Middle East has been in turmoil. You can point to any number of factors, the heat, the poverty, the arrogance of taking Arab land and giving it to the Jews (to found the state of Israel. Let's not argue about whether this was a good idea or not, my only point is that the Arabs have been complaining about it.), American arrogance in our conduct of our foreign policy. But the real problem is we have been pouring enormous sums of money into the area, more than they have any idea of what to do with it. You have heard perhaps about the story about the solid gold camel saddle with 17 Rolex watches embedded in it? So what do you do about it?
Stop sending them money. But they will cut off the oil you say. Right, as if they could. I doubt they would even know where the oil is, much less how to turn it off. The only people who do any actual work over there work for foreign corporations. Just do not send any more money. If they complain, first of all, deny. That should buy us a couple of months. When that runs dry, prevaricate: tell them the check's in the mail, there was some kind of foul up. With a skillful telling, that might last a year. When that story runs out, ask them what they are going to do about it? It might lead to war, but recent history has shown that in open warfare the Arabs can't fight their way out of a box. And in a year, they will have spent all their ready money. Yell boo, and the thieves will scurry off with their loot.
There used to be a coffee cartel. JFK got it started in the early sixties. It flourished for a number of years, and it was the primary reason that your choice of coffee was Folger's or Maxwell House. This cartel finally collapsed about ten years ago, and now you have a plethora of coffees and coffee shops. Google found another article about JFK and the coffee cartel, but when I followed the link I found that access was restricted. If access is restricted, how does Google know the article is in there?
Now that you have had your coffee, let us get back to the business at hand: OPEC and the Middle East. As long as I can remember, it seems that the Middle East has been in turmoil. You can point to any number of factors, the heat, the poverty, the arrogance of taking Arab land and giving it to the Jews (to found the state of Israel. Let's not argue about whether this was a good idea or not, my only point is that the Arabs have been complaining about it.), American arrogance in our conduct of our foreign policy. But the real problem is we have been pouring enormous sums of money into the area, more than they have any idea of what to do with it. You have heard perhaps about the story about the solid gold camel saddle with 17 Rolex watches embedded in it? So what do you do about it?
Stop sending them money. But they will cut off the oil you say. Right, as if they could. I doubt they would even know where the oil is, much less how to turn it off. The only people who do any actual work over there work for foreign corporations. Just do not send any more money. If they complain, first of all, deny. That should buy us a couple of months. When that runs dry, prevaricate: tell them the check's in the mail, there was some kind of foul up. With a skillful telling, that might last a year. When that story runs out, ask them what they are going to do about it? It might lead to war, but recent history has shown that in open warfare the Arabs can't fight their way out of a box. And in a year, they will have spent all their ready money. Yell boo, and the thieves will scurry off with their loot.
Archives
I figured out how to set the posting date on my blog entries, so over the last few days I have been digging through some of my old email and posting them on my blog with the date they were originally written. Getting all my writings collected in one place has been a goal of mine for a while now. This blog is a convenient place to do it, and it promises to be semi-secure. However, I am dependent on Google to maintain this site and my blog, and I am not entirely comfortable with that. It might not be a big loss to the world if my blog disappeared, but it I would be upset. So, what to do? Well, my kids got me an external disk drive for my birthday, so I could download it and save it there. Kind of a nuisance, but that's what I get for being paranoid. Google did lose part of one of my entries, so I have some justification. I wish I could just trust them. Maybe someday I will.
Only other problem I have is that I would like to be able to arrange the articles in chronological order. For a blog, reverse chronological order is fine (latest first), but for archives, I want to start with the oldest. Haven't figured out an easy way to do that yet.
Only other problem I have is that I would like to be able to arrange the articles in chronological order. For a blog, reverse chronological order is fine (latest first), but for archives, I want to start with the oldest. Haven't figured out an easy way to do that yet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
