The year of Ox gives way to the year of Tiger

This is a ceremony in Osaka marking the change of Zodiacs. 2009 - the year of Ox - gives way to 2010 - the year of Tiger. The tiger cub is quite naughty and irrepressible here - perhaps a sign of things to come in 2010 ;-)

Chernobyl Revisited - Ghost Town

Chernobyl Revisited - Ghost Town

One of the most amazing and awe inspiring travelogue I've read in a long long time. This is a first person account of a motorcyclist named Elena in Ukraine. She lives near Kiev - about 130 kms from Chernobyl. She takes us through an illustrated ride into the heart of the biggest nuclear disaster the world has seen - apart from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII.

Elena doesn't describe herself much - she maintains the website without any commercial activity - no ads, no sponsorships, no request for donations. I guess this quote from here story describes her best, "The roads are blocked for cars, but not for motorcycles. Good girls go to heaven. Bad ones go to hell. And girls on fast bikes go anywhere they want. "

Infrastructure Spending Will Not Revive the Economy - WSJ.com

Back in the 30s when Infrastructure spending got us out of the Great Depression, it was the infrastructure of the future - highways, dams, etc. Today, the equivalent would be spending on the 21st century infrastructure - technology, communication, healthcare, education. I agree with Andy on all the areas. I might add additional areas like - increased spending on radically new cures for diseases like cancer, diabetes and a variety of genetic disorders, making our schools the best in the world bar none, spending on new energy technology - solar, wind, gas and also safer nuclear power.

Infrastructure Spending Will Not Revive the Economy - WSJ.com

Bacteria turn tiny gears

If only we can harness the power of bacteria to do all our manual work - pure salvation and nirvana! Read the full article from Wired here.


"The power of swimming bacteria can be harnessed to turn tiny gears, opening the possibility of building hybrid biological machines at the microscopic scale."

Airlines lighten their loads in quest to save fuel

Things are getting scary with this move towards clean and cost cutting measures in the aviation industry. Now, I am not against either cost cutting or cleaner environment, but when you start taking operational decisions based on these factors and not on the key parameter for running an airline - that is passenger safety, then you are headed towards a disaster. And Japan is a country which has had its share of aviation disasters - so you'd expect them to be more cognizant of the pitfalls.

Instead of compromising on passenger safety and comfort, airlines would do far better by focusing on improvements in areas that contribute both to reduced energy consumption and increased passenger comfort. Here are the top ones that come to mind:

1. Reduce the amount of time airplanes spend on the tarmac - both waiting for the takeoff and taxiing after landing.

2. Improve air traffic control - reduce the amount of time airplanes spend circling over airports waiting for their turn to land.

3. Renew their fleets - get rid of the old 70's and 80's planes they are still flying - these have older fixtures that are heavier, they are less fuel efficient, higher maintenance costs and are quite uncomfortable and depressing for the passengers.

4. Gain real fuel economies by technological improvements - like Southwest did with modified wingtips - gaining almost 5% in fuel efficiency:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/2006-06-05-winglet-money_x.htm

Here's the article from Asahi.com that details some of the more trivial stuff which to me seems to increase the hassle and discomfort of flying while achieving little in terms of improved fuel efficiency or cleaner environment:

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200912170116.html

Airlines lighten their loads in quest to save fuel

BY YOSUKE AKAI

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

2009/12/17

In a quest to reduce passenger weight to save fuel and cut carbon dioxide emissions, one Japanese airline made an unorthodox request: It asked passengers to use the toilet before flying.

Concern about global warming has prompted the nation's carriers to devise a range of novel ways to slash the amount of fuel they use.

In August, Japan Airlines Corp. introduced a comprehensive operation to reduce the weight of staff luggage and in-flight items.

The carrier began using plastic bottles rather than glass for in-flight wine. The plastic variety is about one-seventh as heavy as the glass version, which weighs roughly 140 grams each.

The airline also shortened the handles of spoons and forks, and started using lighter plates. It has even cut its in-flight magazines for international flights--by about 60 grams per copy.

In July, JAL flight attendants began a campaign to reduce the weight of their carry-on bags by 2.5 kilograms. Over the three-month period to September, they collectively lightened their load by 7 tons.

Marina Okada, a 28-year-old JAL flight attendant, said she had refilled her cosmetics "from the original bottle to smaller ones, or even brought along sample products."

She has also swapped a 2-liter plastic water bottle for a 500 milliliter version, and now carries paperbacks instead of large women's fashion magazines.

Instead of providing a fixed number of newspapers for every flight, JAL now adjusts the amount to match the volume of seats reserved.

It has stopped serving some unpopular alcoholic beverages, and, whereas it used to fill water storage tanks to capacity, it now fills them only to a level that staff estimate to be necessary.

All Nippon Airways Co., meanwhile, has combined a manual explaining how to operate the in-flight entertainment system with the in-flight magazine to save weight.

Arguably its most unusual idea--carried out in October--was to ask passengers on 38 domestic flights to use the bathroom before boarding.

The airline estimates that if 20 percent of roughly 400,000 passengers use the bathroom before boarding over a one-month period, the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from the plane would be reduced by 4.7 tons, or equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed over the course of a year by 330 Japanese cedar trees.

Landing procedures have also come under scrutiny.

Normally, planes level off while making their final approach to allow for sufficient distance between the planes scheduled to land before and after them. Extra fuel is needed to increase engine thrust during this process.

When the conditions are right, some planes have taken to reducing the amount of level flight as much as possible and moving diagonally into a direct landing approach.

An effective way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions is to switch to aircraft that offer better fuel economy.

In October, JAL tried an experiment to determine how much carbon dioxide emissions could be cut without changing the aircraft, but only by reducing the amount of fuel used.

The company dubbed the demonstration flight from Honolulu to Kansai International Airport the "ultimate eco-flight," and said it included every conceivable measure to reduce the burden on the environment.

The standard volume of fuel required for such a flight, including reserve fuel, is about 98,000 liters.

However, about 5,400 liters was conserved on the eco-flight, or about 5.5 percent of the standard fuel volume.

The saving is equivalent to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of about 13,000 kilograms.

An official at the Scheduled Airlines Association of Japan said that "Japanese companies have undertaken a considerable range of very specific measures, including converting to new aircraft, to save on fuel. There will have to be major technological innovation in order to reduce emissions much further."

The official added that "the global airline industry should be doing more to cut carbon dioxide emissions, especially those nations that continue to use aircraft with poor fuel economy."

A central issue for the global airline industry is whether to restrict carbon dioxide emissions on international flights.

The Kyoto Protocol on global warming that took effect in 2005 covers emissions from domestic flights for advanced nations.

But it does not set targets for international flights on the grounds those flights cross national borders.

According to the International Energy Agency, carbon dioxide emissions from international flights increased by 60 percent in 2007 over 1990 levels.

While those emissions only represent about 1 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, there are concerns they could rise dramatically on the back of growing airline passenger demand in newly emerging economies in Asia, such as China.

In October, the International Civil Aviation Organization compiled a declaration calling for an annual improvement of 2 percent in fuel efficiency for the entire global airline industry.(IHT/Asahi: December 17,2009)

FLEETWOOD MAC - HYPNOTIZED

It's the same kind of story
That seems to come down from long ago
Two friends having coffee together
When something flies by their window
It might be out on that lawn
Which is wide, at least half of a playing field
Because there's no explaining what your imagination
Can make you see and feel

Seems like a dream
(They) got me hypnotized

Now it's not a meaningless question
To ask if they've been and gone
I remember a talk about North
Carolina and a strange, strange pond
You see the sides were like glass
In the thick of a forest without a road
And if any man's hand ever made that land
Then I think it would've showed

Seems like a dream
(They) got me hypnotized

They say there's a place down in Mexico
Where a man can fly over mountains and hills
And he don't need an airplane or some kind of engine
And he never will
Now you know it's a meaningless question
To ask if those stories are right
'Cause what matters most is the feeling
You get when you're hypnotized

Seems like a dream
(They) got me hypnotized

"Eye in the Sky" - The Alan Parsons Project (LIve)

Awesome Low Riders from Fremont

 

 

All my friends know the low rider
The low rider is a little higher
Low rider drives a little slower
Low rider is a real goer
Low rider knows every street yeah!
Low rider is the one to meet yeah!
Low rider don't use no gas now
Low rider don't drive to fast
Take a little trip
Take a little trip
Take a little trip and see
Take a little trip
Take a little trip
Take a little trip with me

Beautiful sunset at Dumbarton

Electric DeLorean back for the future

asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：Electric DeLorean back for the future - English


Trust the Japanese to take a great idea and make it better. DeLorean - one of the most iconic cars of the 80s gets a new lease of life from university teachers and students in Hiroshima. There may be a commercial proposition here - how about an electric conversion kit to breathe life into all the old cars. Instead of junking old cars and recycling only a portion of metal, you could recycle 100%. Think of all the landfills, the energy used for recycling metal, the pollution and the terrible waste that could be avoided. This whole concept of having a new car every 3-5 years is so out of line with the current focus on environment - I wish someone would take up these real recycling ideas in right earnest.

How much difference 9 months make

I just noticed my blog post from last June and gas was touching almost $5. This weekend I took another picture with gas at close to $2!
How long do we have before inflation sets in? I say drive all you can - see California. I can recommend this great show - "Bay Area Backroads" for some excellent weekend driving ideas:









Here's the picture from June 2008

Stimulate Manufacturing, Not Consumption

I love this quote from Joel Kotkin's article, "we have deluded ourselves into believing that a small number of "creative" alchemists--software engineers, hedge fund managers, urban developers--could transform code, cash and condos into limitless pots of gold. The huge winnings of these few would then allow the rest of us to spend like teenagers on a borrowed credit card, consuming everything made by the hard-working fools abroad."

Read on...
http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/29/manufacturing-productivity-stimulus-oped-cx_jk_1230kotkin_print.html





New Geographer
Stimulate Manufacturing, Not Consumption
Joel Kotkin 12.30.08, 12:01 AM ET

As store earnings plunged last week, the National Retail Federation proposed that the country create the mother of all sales by suspending taxes on all purchases. These tax holidays would occur in March, July and October and be national in scope.

The bill, they suggested, should be picked up by--who else?--the federal taxpayer, who would make up for the lost local revenues even for the five states without sales taxes. The rationale, suggests the Federation's chairman, J.C. Penney Chief Executive Myron Ullman III, in a letter to President-elect Barack Obama, would be "to help stimulate consumer spending as one of the first priorities of your new administration."

Now I can understand the manager at the local Target, Macy's or Nordstrom feeling a bit neglected as money pours out to prop up financial institutions and the Big Three. This proposed subsidy for mallrats, however, makes the previous somewhat-dubious bailouts look like good policy.

In fact, if there is one thing Americans do not need, it is yet another incentive to spend money they do not have. This has become a fixture of stimulus-think under the Bernanke-Bush regime. Remember the tax rebates earlier in the year? That was a big help, wasn't it?

Sadly, this "shop 'til you go bankrupt" strategy is being adopted by the new kingpins in Washington as well. Already you can hear Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, talking about a big stimulus to "prop up consumption."

This quick-fix approach has become a new genus of bipartisan madness. Like "the best minds of my generation ... looking for an angry fix"--to recall Allen Ginsberg's Howl--politicians and policymakers seem to feel we need some quick high to restore our battered economy.

Like a bad drug habit, reckless stimulation may make us feel better in the short term, but it could leave us shaky later on. To be effective over time, a stimulus plan must first address some fundamental challenges that have haunted the American economy for a generation.

Of course, there are countries that should be spending more. Places like China, Germany and Japan have gotten fat off our consumption. Now their beggar-thy-neighbor policies are backfiring as shopaholic nations, most notably the U.S., rein in their spending.

In contrast, our economy's failing stems from not producing nearly enough in goods and services to pay our bills. Our long-term weakness stems not from a shortage of consumer credit--the main obsession of Wall Street and both parties--but from the decline in manufacturing, growing dependence on imported fuel and deteriorating basic infrastructure.

Our consumption patterns--coupled with disdain for production--explain how our deficit in goods-related trade alone has soared over the past two decades from roughly $100 billion annually to over $800 billion. In the process, we have created an enormous shift in currency reserves to countries like China, Russia, India, Korea, Brazil and Taiwan. They produce and save too much; we consume and borrow too much.

Reversing this dangerous disequilibrium does not necessitate the end for American-style capitalism--as suggested recently by France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy--but instead a paradigm shift within it.

First, we need to swear off our addiction to hype-driven bubbles, seen first in technology and more recently in real estate. The fact that the government may be about to start yet another--this one colored "green"--suggests bad habits are hard to break.

Of course, bubbles certainly benefit some individuals and companies, most notably the financial sectors, who can best take advantage of wild speculative swings. The financial sector's share of profits more than doubled as a percentage of national income since the 1980s.

However, this pattern has not worked so well for most Americans, who have seen their wages stagnate or even fall. Most of us would benefit far more from robust growth that stems from productive industries like energy, fiber, food, logistics and manufacturing. Parts of the industrial Midwest, Texas and the Southeast have enjoyed expansions in these fields--until the onset of the recession, at least.

More important, productive economic growth creates demography far more egalitarian than the Namibia-like bifurcation that characterizes bubble centers like Manhattan and San Francisco. In fact, notes University of Washington demographer Richard Morrill, areas with greater concentration of these kinds of industries tend to suffer less inequality and offer better prospects for the average middle class worker.

Concerns over income equality should persuade Democrats--the supposed party of the people--to focus primarily on the basics of economic growth. This is precisely what we have not been doing for over a generation.

Just think of the billions sunk into convention centers, yuppie condos, performing arts centers and other ephemera. These produce some high-wage short-term construction and architecture jobs, but after that, they offer largely low-paying service work. Meanwhile the Chinese and other competitors dredge new harbors, build high-speed rail systems, new freeways and fiber-optic lines--the keys for pushing their economies to the next stage.

Sure, you can say, the Chinese are also hurting from this financial crisis. But at least they can pay for their own stimulus. The Germans, Russians and Japanese, for now, can also dip into their dollar reserves to pay for new infrastructure investment. In contrast, we will have to beg the money for our stimulus like some busted-up small-town bookie.

More serious yet, the real problem may be whether we even want to make the changes necessary to boost our economy. Americans were once masters of both innovation and production, but we have begun to fall behind on both counts.

Indeed, our policies no longer focus on such things as manufacturing and energy production, deeming them beneath our dignity. As early as the mid-1980s, the New York Stock Exchange issued a report baldly stating that "a strong manufacturing economy is not a requisite for a prosperous economy."

At the same time, we have deluded ourselves into believing that a small number of "creative" alchemists--software engineers, hedge fund managers, urban developers--could transform code, cash and condos into limitless pots of gold. The huge winnings of these few would then allow the rest of us to spend like teenagers on a borrowed credit card, consuming everything made by the hard-working fools abroad.

By now we should know better. Americans possess no monopoly on "creativity." Our suppliers abroad are using the billions made from selling us everyday stuff to help finance future moves up the value-added scale. You can see it in every critical field from aerospace, steel and pharmaceuticals to software services, fashion design and entertainment.

Americans can meet this challenge but not by goading the family to spend more at Wal-Mart. Instead, we need to remember what actually drives economic growth. The ultimate fate of the economy will not be determined in the malls, but in the mines, oilfields, farms, factories, design shops and laboratories of a more productive economy.

Joel Kotkin is a Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and executive editor of www.newgeography.com. He is finishing a book on the American future and writes a weekly column for Forbes.com.

Technorati Tags: economy, manufacturing, consumption, bailout, stimulus, china, india, software, hedge funds

Dumbarton Bridge, Fremont, CA

Santa Cruz Beach - Christmas 2008

The dumbfounded jolly bird - a poem

The dumbfound jolly bird
Streaking by the seashore,
With the slowly iceberg-white leaves

Flogging while the virtuous sea
On the viperish kings star-struck
Goes to burn against the sixpenny night.


Like this poem? How about writing one yourself? It's not difficult - just t try this website:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/themes/books/dylan_thomas_rpg.shtml?



To me the computer generated poem sounds no more gibberish than some of the human-written ones - if you get enough literary critics analyzing this, they may come up with a pretty good explanation of what the poet (in this case the random poem generation program) is trying to convey :-)