Semantic Traveller: Washington, D.C. GM HydroGen Test Drive

While in Washington, D.C. three weeks ago, an interesting opportunity approached me. General Motors was giving test drives of their HydroGen prototype vehicle, which runs on compressed hydrogen gas. The fuel cell powered auto is a bit smaller than the average sedan, comparable in size to a Prius, but higher off the ground with more headroom and larger windows. There are no mechanical components of the vehicle besides the front and rear axles. There is no drive shaft. There is no shifting assembly. The stearing wheel is not physically connected to the front wheels, lacking tie-rods and a pitman arm. Everything in the vehicle is controlled electronically. There are "forward," "reverse," and "park" buttons located on the center console between the two front bucket seats. The "gas" and "brake" are still in the form of pedals on the floor, however.

Semantics: High-Tech Cheating?

Today, the New York Times published an article entitled "Colleges Chase as Cheats Shift to Higher Tech." The article opens by describing three sets of students who recently 'cheated' via high-tech means: a student at the University of California who used class notes on a PDA during an exam, Students at San Jose State University who used their computers for spell check during an exam, and students at the University of Nevada Las Vegas who used cameras on cell phones to trade answers during a test. In the course of the article, a dean at U.N.L.V. states, "If they'd spend as much time studying, they'd all be A students." While these cases may seem somewhat clear cut, it's worth taking a few minutes to reflect on two questions: Why, exactly, do students cheat? and What can we consider cheating?

Semantic Analysis: Incentives or Nuclear Appeasement?

The New York Times published an article today discussing European/U.S. attempts to negotiate with Iran. According to the new offer, Europe and the United States would aid Iran in building a light-water nuclear reactor in exchange for Iran's ending of "activities suspected of being a cover for a weapons program." Ostensibly, such a compromise seems ideal for both sides. But is it?

Book Review: American Prometheus

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is both a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography and an essential read for anyone interested in the politics of nuclear energy and warfare both historically and today. The book, written by Kai Bird and Tufts University’s own Martin J. Sherwin, details Oppenheimer's life from his birth in New York City in 1904 to his death of throat cancer in 1967. The story is beautifully told and provides great insight into Oppenheimer's art, work, and politics. Perhaps more importantly, American Prometheus illuminates the origins of many of the world's current conflicts. What has been called the only "truly comprehensive" biography of the father of the atomic bomb is well worth the read.

Semantic Traveller: Seabrook Nuclear Station

The debate for nuclear power in the United States has been an ever-inflamed issue since the Three Mile Island incident in 1979 at the plant's Unit 2 reactor. Since then, no new nuclear power generating stations have been built in the U.S. leaving us behind countries like France, who produce close to 90% of their power from nuclear energy. The American public has been pumped with anti-nuclear stigma for thirty years and is extremely reluctant in accepting nuclear technology of any type. The public idea of nuclear power associates a mushroom cloud to the technology. The idea can't be farther from the truth. The only "explosion" (if you even can call it that) that can occur is a steam flash event, or the effect of a steam-pipe leak within the reactor containment dome. The superheated steam rapidly expands once hitting ambient air temperatures within the reactor dome. The dome is specifically designed to contain this swift air expansion. The dome has near five-foot-thick, concrete walls reinforced with steel rods that form a woven steel grid. These steel woven "baskets" build on top of one another within the poured concrete. The result is a containment dome that can withstand never-before-seen tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, nuclear blasts, and specifically, direct impacts of military aircraft or missiles.

Apple’s Boot Camp: Is it really so great?

The Devil may be shivering in his boots, but at least now he can run Windows on his Macintosh computer.

Thats right, Hell has actually frozen over. This past week, Apple released a beta version of their software “Boot Camp” which will be included into their next version of Mac OS X. It allows Macs with an intel processor to install and run the Windows operating system.

But how could this be good for Apple?

Hoarding and Collaboration: the Struggle over Intellectual Property

Today, Microsoft announced that it received its 5000th U.S. Patent. As the article explains, Microsoft’s intellectual property strategy is fairly defensive. As much as I tend to hate Microsoft, they could be worse; there are quite a few companies with much more aggressive policies. Take over 1600 record labels, represented by the Recording Industry Association of America, for example. As we all know, the RIAA and its associates have recurrently pursued aggressive lawsuits against copyright violators. It’s also common knowledge that quite a few people are less than pleased with the RIAA.

While companies and consumers seem locked in a never-ending battle over the freedom of data, the intellectual property struggle is producing a much more subtle, though arguably more profound, effect on technological innovation. Wired.com recently published a nice, though predictably uninformative, article on innovation in the era of copyrights and patents.

Walmart Begins Annexation of the Blogosphere

Walmart has begun its systematic takeover of the blogosphere. In retaliation for current government and public attacks against the company, Walmart is beginning to hire current employees and embedded bloggers to do their dirty-work; they are feeding Walmart propaganda into the blog world. Recently, a state-legislated bill was announced that would force Walmart to increase spending on employee health insurance. Walmart currently encourages employees to seek public health benefits and welfare programs, instead of using the company’s programs. Brian Pickrell, a paid Walmart crony and frequent blogger, was posting in spades pro-Walmart messages attacking the bill: “All across the country, newspaper editorial boards — no great friends of business — are ripping the bills…” The New York Times ran the article this morning, giving an inside look into the invasion of the blog world:

Several sentences in Mr. Pickrell’s Jan. 20 posting — and others from different days — are identical to those written by an employee at one of Wal-Mart’s public relations firms and distributed by e-mail to bloggers.

Under assault as never before, Wal-Mart is increasingly looking beyond the mainstream media and working directly with bloggers, feeding them exclusive nuggets of news, suggesting topics for postings and even inviting them to visit its corporate headquarters.

Catching Up, or Dragging our Feet?, the Fate of Broadband in America

In the last six months the U.S. has been playing catch-up with the rest of the world; from going green to better cell phones, it seems like America might finally be catching up.

There is at least one area, however, where the U.S. hasn’t even begun to modernize. Broadband internet speeds in the United States max out at a rather lethargic 6 megabytes per second, compared to about 100 megs per second in England, and up to 250 megs per second in Japan and other parts of Asia.

But why is the U.S. so behind, and what does that mean for the future of broadband in America?

Zero to 60 in Four Soybeans…

CBS reports that a group of 5 former dropouts have built a soybean-fueled car that goes from zero to sixty in 4 seconds; pretty damn impressive.

They also speculate on why nobody has managed this feat yet:

“We made this work,” says Hauger. “We’re not geniuses. So why aren’t they doing it?”

Kosi thinks he knows why. The answer, he says, is the big oil companies.

“They’re making billions upon billions of dollars,” he says. “And when this car sells, that’ll go down — to low billions upon billions.”