Posts filed under 'Design'
I am absolutely fed up with the U.S. auto industry and the pig-headed brain trust running the show.
Let me get this straight.
The taxpayers need to bailout Detroit after The Big Three refused to innovate their products, killed the electric car, and manipulated Congress and the EPA into refusing California’s clean car waiver??
Right.
Here is what needs to happen before I would even consider throwing more money into this corporate money pit.
First, layoffs will begin with the CEO’s, CFO’s, and work their way down through the corporate management before one line worker is out of a job. And you can forget about your golden parachute boys.
Second, Detroit will build plug-in hybrids and/or electric vehicles. No exceptions.
Third, the American auto industry will not hinder California and the 17 other states who are trying to implement clean car legislation. California will get its waiver and the auto industry will not sue to block it.
If the United States wants to get out of the economic hole created by Bush and his Democratic enablers in Congress, the federal government has to stop rewarding failure.
Obama and the Democrats crushed the Republicans because voters felt they would do a better job than Bush in handling the economy.
Given that assumption, why do the Democrats want to blindly dump more of our money into the failing auto industry that has stubborly refused to acknowledge reality and innovate their products?
November 17th, 2008
This is just too easy.
One of McCain’s economic advisors, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, has now made the outlandish claim that McCain is responsible for the miracle known as the Blackberry.
Who knew a 72 year old man and self proclaimed computer illiterate possessed such raw technological genius? It boggles the mind on so many levels.
Oh, and wasn’t I just shooting my mouth off about how Al Gore got labeled a habitual liar when the corporate press decided to twist his words and push the story that Gore thought he had invented the internet.
I guess the corporate media will start labeling McCain a power hungry liar, just like they did to Gore in 2000. After all, fair is fair.
September 17th, 2008
Low impact building techniques can significantly reduce the run-off which is polluting Puget Sound and endangering its wildlife. Unfortunately, the biggest obstacle to requiring these techniques be used on new construction, is the state and local agencies charged with protecting the environment and managing storm water.
read more | digg story
July 8th, 2008
Once again, ideas which were considered on the environmental fringe, a year or two ago, are now getting serious attention in the mainstream press.
But we’re living in a world in which oil prices keep setting records, in which the idea that global oil production will soon peak is rapidly moving from fringe belief to mainstream assumption. And Europeans who have achieved a high standard of living in spite of very high energy prices — gas in Germany costs more than $8 a gallon — have a lot to teach us about how to deal with that world.
If Europe’s example is any guide, here are the two secrets of coping with expensive oil: own fuel-efficient cars, and don’t drive them too much.
read more | digg story
May 20th, 2008
Here are two pragmatic reasons to embrace this idea. First, it would cut down on street water run-off, which is a significant contributor to water pollution. Second, it would make high density living more attractive by adding green space and, with the right road surfacing materials, decrease ambient freeway noise.
read more | digg story
January 25th, 2008
The One Laptop per Child program gives poor, rural children the means to improve themselves, their families,and villages. Isn’t that what Christmas is all about.
Negroponte said 150,000 more laptops will get shipped to countries including Rwanda, Mongolia, Haiti, and Afghanistan in early 2008 through "Give One, Get One," a U.S.-based promotion ending Dec. 31 in which you buy a pair of laptops for $399 and donate one or both.
The children of Arahuay prove One Laptop’s transformative conceit: that you can revolutionize education and democratize the Internet by giving a simple, durable, power-stingy but feature-packed laptop to the worlds’ poorest kids.
To learn more about the Give One, Get One program, click here. If you want to participate, please act before December 31.
read more | digg story
December 24th, 2007
Designing infrastructure to serve more than one purpose is smart and practical. Instead of chasing symptoms with stop-gap solutions, why not solve the problem itself and let the value ripple through the economy.
Chicago has decided to retrofit its alleys with environmentally sustainable road-building materials under its Green Alley initiative, something experts say is among the most ambitious public street makeover plans in the country. In a larger sense, the city is rethinking the way it paves things.
In a green alley, water is allowed to penetrate the soil through the pavement itself, which consists of the relatively new but little-used technology of permeable concrete or porous asphalt. Then the water, filtered through stone beds under the permeable surface layer, recharges the underground water table instead of ending up as polluted runoff in rivers and streams.
read more | digg story
December 21st, 2007
In five years, these types of projects will be the norm. No one will touch a development that is not sustainable.
Donaldson, a first-time developer with a background as a real estate agent, is making a bet that Tennessee homebuyers are ready (after decades of encouragement) to take a chance on geothermal systems, the environmentally friendly technology that advocates say can cut utility bills in half or more.
His venture, the 51-home Masters View subdivision on the outskirts of Mt. Juliet, is drawing an array of pro-geothermal businesses to a project that they believe could convince builders, buyers and other developers that geothermal systems are worth the investment and are good for the environment.
read more | digg story
August 8th, 2007
What will the new green economy look like?
Less than a month ago, Thomas Friedman wrote a column which gave a snapshot of that future–tying together congestion pricing and the emergence of green collar jobs, filled with workers who are both creative and highly skilled.
I care, because it underscores a fundamental truth about green technology: you can’t make a product greener, whether it’s a car, a refrigerator or a traffic system, without making it smarter — smarter materials, smarter software or smarter design.
What can many U.S. companies still manufacture? They can manufacture things that are smart — that have a lot of knowledge content in them, like a congestion pricing network for a whole city. What do many Chinese companies manufacture? They manufacture things that can be made with a lot of cheap labor, like the rubber tires on your car. Which jobs are most easily outsourced? The ones vulnerable to cheap labor. Which jobs are hardest to outsource? Those that require a lot of knowledge.
So what does all this mean? It means that to the extent that we make "green" standards part of everything we design and manufacture, we create "green collar" jobs that are much more difficult to outsource. I.B.M. and other tech companies are discovering a mother lode of potential new business for their high-wage engineers and programmers thanks to the fact that mayors all over the world are thinking about going green through congestion pricing systems.
Luckily, Stop Global Warming has reprinted this article and can be read in its entirety by clicking here.
August 2nd, 2007
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