think or thwim

A 2005 National Geographic documentary. I can’t improve on PBS’ summary:

Based on Jared Diamond’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, Guns, Germs and Steel traces humanity’s journey over the last 13,000 years – from the dawn of farming at the end of the last Ice Age to the realities of life in the twenty-first century.

Inspired by a question put to him on the island of Papua New Guinea more than thirty years ago, Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality.

• Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet?
• Why didn’t the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead?
• Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East?
• Why did farming never emerge in Australia?
• And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty?

Have you noticed that time seems to move faster as you get older? Well, that’s because it’s true. Our perception of time varies with age. Have people count out one minute and time them with a stop watch. Young people underestimate how long a minute is. Old people overestimate.

This video is part 2 of a four part BBC series on time. It starts out talking about our perception of time and morphs into a discussion about the possibility of immortality.

From the immortality segment: Aubrey de Grey thinks that after we have mastered the ability to stop the destructive processes of aging we will still only live about 1000 years. We’ll still be stepping in front of trains and falling in bathtubs, so accidental death statistics will become the determining factor for our expected lifespans.

:: Educated Earth

Pauric sent a link to this disturbing set of pictures of pollution in China from The Guardian.

It’s horrible stuff, but at the same time the worst offenders might be forced to be at the front of making things right. William McDonough grew up in Hong Kong. Now he’s helping design twelve eco-cities in China. Here he is explaining one at TED in 2005.

The whole presentation is here: TED Talks

Here’s a way to cut down traffic. Put two cars in each lane. Note that they drive it into the Google classroom for the talk.

• 0-60 in 4 seconds. Top speed = 150 mph.
• Leather seating and Nakamichi stereo.
• 80 mile range between charges.
• 10 minute charge using off-board charger. 220V outlet = 3 hours. 110V outlet = overnight.
• 39″ wide. 5″ narrower than a Honda Goldwing.
• Seats two 6′-6″ people jet fighter style.
• Cost = $108,000 ($85,000 target).
• Nascar roll cage with four point safety harnesses.
• Weight = 3000 lbs. Center of gravity is 12″ above the road.
• Designed with cradle to cradle in mind.

“It would be a zero emission if it weren’t for the tire smoke.”

CommuterCars.com

Update

Tony sent a link to an electric car that’s even smaller: the Takeoka Milieu. According one of the commenters at the link it only costs $6600, but it only goes 37 mph with a range of 34 miles.

Tony also says the speed limit for the toll roads in Japan is 44 mph (70 kmph), and 31 mph (50 kmph) is the highest he’s seen on the other roads. His 12 mile (20 km) commute is longer than average where he lives, so this little car works pretty well there.

The styling reminds me of this car.

So far during 2007 I’ve bought two things. Both are books.

The poorer people are, the more stuff they seem to have. Hardly anyone is so poor that they can’t afford a front yard full of old cars.

- Paul Graham | Stuff

When Kevin Smith’s movie, Dogma, was released there were some protests. He took a friend to the one at their local theater and joined in. It’s a good story.

In the early 1990s California passed a law requiring car makers to sell zero emission vehicles if they wanted to sell any gas powered cars there. They required 2% of sales to be ZEVs by 1998 and 10% by 2003. The car manufacturers complied. For instance, between 1997 and 1999 GM produced 1100 electric cars called the EV1. They leased them all and had a waiting list.

However, the manufacturers also fought back. They sued the State of California, and in 2003 California lifted the ZEV requirement. GM promptly canceled the EV1 program, rounded up all the EV1s, and crushed them.

This 2006 documentary examines the forces that led to the demise of the EV1 and other electric vehicles after California backed down.

From Wikipedia:

The price for the EV1 used to compute lease payments was US$33,995 to US$43,995, which made for lease payments of US$299 to over US$574 per month. One industry official said that each EV1 cost the company about US$80,000, including research, development and other associated costs. The vehicle’s lease prices also depended on available state rebates. At the time of purchase, the cost for the electricity used to power the car was computed to be one-third to half the cost of the equivalent amount of gasoline, and since that time, increases in gas prices may have made electricity relatively even less expensive.

An EV1 is still on display at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Interestingly, this vehicle is the one previously leased by film director Chris Paine, director of the aforementioned Who Killed the Electric Car?.

Big oil and car makers may have colluded to kill the electric car, but I think fender skirts over the rear tires killed the EV1. They are cool on a 67 Cadillac, but nothing says “I’m a dork, please don’t breed with me” like fender skirts on a compact car.

A 1994 documentary about The Netherlands, common sense capital of the world.

• Universal low cost health care.
• Free education for all.
• Mostly legal cannibus.
• Legal prostitution.
• Bikes everywhere.
• Equal treatment for gays.
• Tolerance of abortion.
• No death penalty.
• Guns are illegal.
• Lowest prison population in the western world.

Peaceful coexistance and tolerance. It’s like the ideals of the 60s really stuck there.

The current income taxes range from 34.4% to 52% (including social security tax). There’s another 6% tax on food and essentials, and 19% on luxury items. Corporations pay 20-25% taxes.

In the US the income tax ranges from 17% to 42% (including social security). Sales tax is generally around 8%. Corporations pay 15-35%. The difference looks a little bigger when you look at taxes collected compared to GDP.

By the way, Holland is a region within The Netherlands. The people that live in The Netherlands should be called the Netherlanders, but they’re not. They’re called the Dutch. It’s confusing as hell to Americans, but they don’t seem to mind their whole country being called Holland once in a while. They’re pretty laid back about things like that.

This site has a lot of Dutch readers (ranked 4th this month after US, UK, and Austrailia). I’d like to know what you Netherlanders think about this documentary. Is it accurate? Is there a downside to living in the most liberal country?

In the mirror test, a spot is placed on an animal’s forehead. When the animal sees itself in a mirror, if it tries to remove the spot the animal is considered to be self-aware. The list of animals that have passed the test is surprisingly small:

1. bottlenose dolphins
2. Asian elephants (but not African)
3. orangutans
4. chimpanzees
5. humans > 18 months old

From a review of Douglas Hofstadter’s I am a Strange Loop

There’s a good summary of the elephant testing at Not Exactly Rocket Science.