We are so married to the systems that currently deliver energy to us - be it hydro, petrol, or coal. Big systems run by big companies for big profit are needed to extract, make usable, and deliver these forms of energy to us. They cost a lot in terms of money and tend to have negative environmental impacts. But energy is everywhere around us - and within us - and we waste it for a lack of creative ways to capture it. But this is changing.
Developed by Jessica Lin, Jessica Matthews, Julia Silverman, and Hemali Thakkar (recent Harvard engineering grads - note: all ladies), the sOccket is a product that takes what energy is readily available in many developing nations - namely many children with a love of soccer - and converts kicks into a usable source of electricity. This is not old school child labour - but a portable generator that encourages play! Apparently, 15 minutes played on sOccket 1.0, could store enough energy to illuminate a small LED light for three hours! The new prototype sOccket 2.0, can power the same LED for the same amount of time with just 10 minutes of play. Imagine how much wood or kerosene this can save a family.
Or how about a night club dance floor that captures the energy of the dancing upon it? There is so much energy wasted at night clubs - not least of which is the energy being expended by all the people writhing about (mostly) to the beat. This kind of thinking, which recognizes the power of movement, can easily be applied to so many places where people move - train station turn styles, for instance, or slightly more exciting/creepy - in the chest cavity - where we breathe with some regularity.
Generally speaking, these tools are not meant to replace all the energy used to power our lives, but rather supplement them - for the time being. In combination with proper energy saving measures, they could eventually become a more important source of energy for all of us. Further, these products help to remind us of the multitude of opportunities for those who think creatively about issues such as energy sourcing and uses - and points to a future where more democratic energy sources abound.
Like a lot of visual learners, I have to write everything down in order to remember them - I write words, pictures and anything that might help me commit certain kinds of ideas to memory. I began studying for the GRE recently and am thereby forcing myself to revisit the high school math that, despite it's purported importance at the time, seems to have been underutilized in my academic and professional life. I forget most of it completely, while the echoes of some rules of logic seem to be trapped in the folds of my grey-matter and tease me continually by their inaccessible presence. So I take notes. I draw pictures. I procrastinate.
While looking for an excuse not to start an algebra review, it occurred to me I might be better able to use the scrap paper I had been using for notes. So I got out my cutting board and hacked a substantial stack of old lecture notes in two.
I then used the three-hole punch to make a few holes on one side. I found an old pasta box in the recycling and cut that to make a front and back to the book, and I bound all the stuff together with a few hinged metal book rings. I'd advise the use of some heavier cardboard stock, but otherwise it's functional, mostly recycled and took no time at all. Sure beats buying a recycled paper "eco-notebook" with a plastic cover in the stores.
If you walk around Montreal with any regularity, you may have noticed the recent rise of an artistically rich and linguistically complex graffiti tag known as "Cobra Cock". Clearly a deep thinker with much on the mind, this street artist has shared his floral and richly original understanding of mankind by tagging many homes, businesses and alleyway fences with this overtly naïve approach to street art.
A particularly nuanced version of the ubiquitous Cobra Cock tag.
Well, it's happened, as it was bound to. There is a new alliterated snake/genital tag in town. Behold: Viper Vag.
Viper Vag stamped threateningly above a rather limp Cobra Cock.
I have no idea who did this - but you have my respect sir or madame - well played. As many Montreal property owners surely do, I look forward to the ensuing alleyway battles for space and supremacy.
Sound advice for those who might also make sexist or homophobic comments. Learning to confront people based on what they (in fact) did, rather than confronting them on who they (appear) to be.
Thursday June 24th, 2010 I'll be telling tales around the theme of 'worry' with the likes of Dan Bingham, Gerard Harris, Michael Lifshitz, and Anna Berlyn. It should be a good time - especially as the whole event is organized and hosted by the charming and hilarious DeAnne Smith - and with any luck she'll break out the ukulele. The event takes place at Cagibi (5490 St. Laurent), starts at 8:30pm and runs until about 10:30. All these yarns for less than a decent alcoholic beverage - $5.
In our collective memories of high school, rings a "truth" so frequently cited in popular discourse that rarely is it ever challenged in any substantive manner – but I honestly think that time is long overdue.
Perhaps it is the year in sports thus far - we went from the Olympics, to the NHL Playoffs right into the World Cup of Football - but I've been thinking about sport more than I like to admit. In honour of the nerdish celebration of jock culture we are currently surrounded by (only pollsters value stats more than sports fans), I think it’s time we challenge the concept of a unquestionable, insuperable abyss between the two camps of jocks and nerds.
I'm not a big fan of generalizations, though I surely make them all the time, but I truly disdain the simplistic, reductionist principle that one cannot be effectively both a jock and a nerd. Frankly, I believe the best jocks are likely nerds - of sport - if nothing else. While I'm not sure that the opposite claim can also be made - I may explore this thesis for a future PhD dissertation. It's just that important to me.
Consider the following:
San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young went to Princeton wrote a senior thesis entitled The Integration of Professional Baseball and Racial Attitudes in America: A Study in Stereotype Change, which examined the impact Jackie Robinson and the integration of Major League Baseball had on attitudes and stereotypes regarding race in the media. Man, that sounds pretty damn nerdy.
Anaheim Ducks right wing George Parros also attended Princeton, majored in economics and maintained a B-average, had a GPA of approximately 3.18 - presumably while training intensively for his sport.
Free agent utility player Eric Bruntlett attained a degree in economics in just 3 1/2 years, recorded an SAT score of 1440, posted a 3.97 GPA in high school, started studying algebra when his parents introduced him to it when he was in first grade. Such early signs of nerd-hood, are particularly interesting - he was likely nerdy long before knowing he was also a jock.
Anyway - enough with the anecdotal stuff. There are SO many such examples to be found on the interweb. Many of these men chose sport over knowledge work, as it can be so lucrative and presumably because sport was their true passion. I had a harder time finding female athletes for this exercise - presumably because the comparable women are likely more notable for their knowledge careers, given the relative dearth of women known for their professional athletic carriers. Moreover, searching anything about female athletes always leads to a plethora of "100 Hottest Female Athletes" lists - which despite my orientation, I find rather tedious. However, during my lifetime of playing a variety of sports, I've noticed that the best athletes have been what one might conventionally consider highly intelligent - as they generally have a better grasp of the training and strategy needed to excel in their sports.
Further, in a Northwestern State University study it was discovered that 133 "student athletes" were on the school's honour roll, and a full 21 students had achieved a 4.0 average. (Not knowing how many students in total qualify as "student athletes" makes it hard to interpret the study results as significant or not - but that academics are excited enough to talk about the findings to the media, suggests a certain degree of significance).
I think it's high time to acknowledge the false divide between jocks and nerds. I would suggest just like the controversial concept of "highly intelligent beautiful people", the idea that someone can be both kinestheticly wise and intelligent in more academic ways seems unfair in the grand scheme of things. Well guess what? Life is not fair. Deal with it. And while you are at it put your kids into sports - especially your daughters - you never know, it might help with their math grades.
Note: I recognize that rhetoric around Nerd/Jock relations is incomplete without addressing the issue of Preps. I feel the particular tension between the two former groups requires careful attention and at this point I did not want to burden this foundational issue with additional complexity.
I've been collecting wine bottles - attempting occasionally - mostly unsuccessfully - to make drinking glasses out of them. I had a few of these blue Aufkellerein bottles kicking around when the need for more book storage became evident.
After a visit to Instructables.com I found a great idea for this little boozy bookshelf project. And voila - an afternoon, several nights of drinking white wine in the park with my sweetheart, and a trip to the hardware store later: a lovely little place to house the children of my Amazon.ca addiction.
