Hydrogen Hybrid Supercar Revealed in Las Vegas

Nowadays people are interested in cars that use little oil because the high price of fuel. As a result, hybrid cars are one alterntives for us.

"Hydrogen Hybrid Supercar Revealed in Las Vegas"
source: http://www.hybridcars.com/fuels/hydrogen-hybrid-supercar-25231.html
Summary: Texas-based Ronn Motor Company has launched "Hydrogen hybrid Supercars" on November 6th, 2008. The supercar is called "The Scorpion" which can reach 200 mph (miles per hour) while using only 40 mpg (miles per gallon). The Scorpion is powered by a hydrogen-assisted Acura 3.5-liter V-6 engine. Its power can be ranged from 289 to 450 horsepower depending on the enginge customers choose. Unlike most hydrogen systems which utilize fuel cells and electric motor, these supercars employ only hydrogen and gasoline by adding hydrogen to internal combustion in order to improve fuel efficiency. The dual computer processors of the on-board hydrogen system charge water in a small tank to release hydrogen molecules and then inject them into the powertrain as needed. Because the cost is high (The Scorpion price is around $150,000 to $250,000), it is difficult to reach the mass market.
Response: I think the price is too high so only little people (who are rich ;p) can buy and use it. Although the price of fuel is high, most people still need to use it because they cannot easily afford those supercars. However, the development in this technology gives options to people who don't want to use oils and will reduce cost in the future if they keep doing research. So keep working... Scientist and engineers :)

New Communications Tools Help Emergency Responders

As I was assigned to be in the Science and Technology group, I need to read an article about Science and Technology this weekend ;p And I found one interesting article about smart search-and-rescue robots.

"New communications tools help emergency responders"
And this is a link to the article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/10/29/disaster.communication/index.html

Summary: Because rescue crews' tools don't work well in searching survivors in the destroyed-by-disasters places, some researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are trying to improve these tools. They created smart search-and rescue robots which communicate with the person controlling them and the transmitters via radio signals. But in the rubble pile of exploded buildings, radio signals can be lost easily depending on scattering and distance between the operator and the robot. The further distance and more scattering environment, the less power of radio signals. As a result, these robots can monitor their received signal strengths and will amplify the radio signals if they know they are going to lose the communication between them and operators. These robots can help rescue workers search survivors better and also protect the lives of these workers who do dangerous rescue work.

Response: I think these robots are really helpful because they will decrease the danger risk of these rescuers and help rescuers find survivors easier. Also, these robots use radio signals to contact with their operators. So it will be better if something happens in the ruins, rescuers will be saved because they can control the robots somewhere else outside those ruins. And the most interesting for me is that these robots can monitor received signal strengths and can amplify them using their repeaters! This make robots can go further... Good! In my opinion, the development in technology is making our world better if people use these technologies in the right and appropriate way :)

When I read this article, I wonder how operators control these robots? I think these robots must have a camera so that operators can see environment, and navigate and control them. Also, I want to learn more about the way operators communicate with robots.

Technology news!!!

Because I graduated with a B.A. of Electrical Engineering, I am quite interested in technology news especially about communications.

"AIS cuts its 3G budget for this year by 40%"

The link to news source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/271008_Business/27Oct2008_biz25.php

This article is about cell phone networking and AIS is one of service providers in Thailand. I think this article should be shared with all of my classmates to let them know that my country, Thailand, is going to have a 3G network. Although our cell phone networking is too lag and after the U.S. but now we're improving it in order to catch up with new technolgies.

Summary: Advanced Info Service (AIS) has planned to provide a 3G service using 900-MHz frequency band in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chon Buri with a total of 600 base stations. it cannot provide a 3G on 2100-MHz band because the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) hasn't approved this frequency band license yet so it has to use an existing 2G frequency band. However, because of the global financial crisis and Thailand's economic situation, AIS scales its boudget down 40% from US$600-million to US$150-million in the first phase of the 3G mobile broadband plan. Its goal is to provide a mobile high-speed broadband experience in order to get higher data speed than 2G service and a 3G network coverage of 80% of its existing conventional 2G capacity.

Reference: "AIS rattles sabre over DTAC 3G investment"
This article provides a background knowledge for 3G network. The link to reference source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/180808_Business/18Aug2008_biz26.php

The Story of Stuff

Summary

This is a story about stuff: materials economy - a system of stuff (how stuff come from and where it goes) and problems. Stuff move to a system consist of five processes: extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. This system is in crisis and we can't run it which is linear on a finite world.

1. Extraction means taking the planet's resources out of the earth and bringing them into materials economy. The problem is because we're using too much stuff, we're running out of resources.
2. Production means using energy and toxic chemicals to produce stuff. This means that we're producing toxic products. "Toxic in & Toxic out" These toxics are harmful to human and environment.
3. Distribution means selling products. Stores keep the price down by not paying store workers much and skip health insurances every time they can. These are externalized costs. We don't pay for true costs of products but we pay for the loss of natural resources, cleaned air and etc.
4. Consumption is the most important. People now shop more and more, and a lot of stuff run into trash quicker. The ultimate purpose is now consumer goods. To do that, there are two ways: planned obsolescence (to make stuff useless as soon as possible) and perceived obsolescence (to throw away stuff that is perfectly useful such as computer and fashion). We have more stuff but our happiness is declining because we have less time with things that make us happy; in one day, we only watch TV, shop and work.
5. Disposal means dumping trash into landfills or burning or recycle. Burning causes supertoxics into the air and changing climate as well. Recycle isn't enough to handle with increasing garbage. Also, some products can't be recycled because they composes of different materials which can't be seperated into types of recycle.

To protect our world, we can reclaim and transform a linear system into something new which are based on sustainability and equity, for example, green chemistry, zero waste, closed loop production, renewable energy and local living economies.

Related link: http://storyofstuff.com/

Reaction

In Thailand, I think most of new adolescences are having same consumption habits. However, it depends on people; If one knows how to spend money and value of products, one won't have this habit. For me, I'm in a middle. When I'm really crave for something, my rationality is little. But most of the time, I use reasons to decide what to do; not emotion.

This video is really good and interesting. Most people who see it should get ideas and make things right. Me too! I'm going to think more before buying things I really want. Watching this video makes me feel like this is the time we should protect our world. No more deytroying our health and environment.

From this video, I think this globaliztion are having a negative effect on global warming. This stuff system causes damages to our environment; our climate changes. Those toxics is being let into the air and some of them are factors of the Green House Effect. Heat from the sun passes through layers of the earth but it can't go outside; it is blocked by the earth's layers. Our world is getting hot.

It's now the time for everyone to save our lives by stopping ruining our world! Try creating as less trash as possible. Keep using current stuff if we can still use them. Do not buying unnecessary stuff. Besides, companies should plan to effectively use natural resources and try compensating them as much as companies can, for example, by growing more trees. Remember, everytime one is taking resources out of the earth, we're running out of those resources.

Chinese Contaminated Milk!

Summary: Cadbury has a chocolate plant in Beijing and the Beijing plant uses Chinese contaminated milk as an ingredient in its product. It exported these products to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, the Pacific island of Nauru and Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, so it recalls them because it is afraid that the products might contain chemical melamine.

When I first saw the title of this article "Cadbury recalls Chinese-made candy in chemical scare", it interested me very much because food is the most important thing for us to stay alive and if a kind of food contains a dangerous substance, we shouldn't eat that.

"Unscrupulous milk suppliers in China added the cheap, toxic industrial chemical melamine - used in pesticides and plastic-making - to substandard milk to inflate the nitrogen count, which is used to determine protein levels."

This chinese milk contains a toxic substance that should not be in our food at all. The melamine endanger people who eat it too much. This melamine is also used as an ingredients in infant milk; how poor are the babies! These baby are too young and they don't have a strong enough immune system to tolerate it. It also affects adult. How did the milk suppliers in china do that? They thought of only their advantages without thinking about the result. They were too greedy. What if their children eat some food that contains their milk, what will happen? Will they feel sad? When they did this, they should know that one day people will know what they did because melamine is dangerous to people's health. They will not only get no more money, they will also be in jail. It is good that Cadbury recalled its product and I believe that other companies will take their products back too.

Related links:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/09/29/cadbury.milk/index.html?iref=newssearch

http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=130923

Food For Thought

In this article "Food For Thought", it tells us that we can know foreign cultures by eating their food. These national food tells the nation's internal interaction and how it wants to be seen from the outside. The indicator of historical relationships is those countires' cheap food; this reflects the deep history with the countries that produce the cheap food for them.
For me, I'm not really sure about this because I don't know a lot of history. But I think food tells me about how old of this country and its culture.

CuTiezZ -> MySelF

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