Another Cubicle Wall

Daddy's flown across the ocean

Leaving just a memory

Snapshot in the family album

Daddy what else did you leave for me?

Daddy, what'd'ja leave behind for me?!?

All in all it was just another cubicle wall.

All in all it was all just another cubicle wall.

"You! Yes, you! Stand still laddy!"

We don't need no education

We don't need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the Division

Don leave them kids alone

Hey! Don! Leave them kids alone!

All in all it was just another cubicle wall.

All in all it was all just another cubicle wall.

"Wrong, Do it again!"

"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding.

How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"

"You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!"

I don't need no pals around me

And I don't need no drugs to calm me.

I have seen the writing on the wall.

Don't think I need anything at all.

No! Don't think I'll need anything at all.

All in all it was just another cubicle wall.

All in all it was all just another cubicle wall.

A little math on the value of compressed air cars

I am looking forward to trade my 1995 BMW740i for a compressed air car:
hopefully I will able to fulfill this dream soon when MDI will be offering their model in the USA market.


These cars will sell in Europe for about Euros 3,500 (about $5,000) and they will make 125 miles without recharge at a $1.5 cost, or in other words, with a conservative estimate for the cost of gas at $3/gallon, an equivalent fuel consumption of 250 miles/gallon. If we compare to the current 25 miles/gallon this is a tenfold increase in the efficiency.

So let's do a little math ... how many of these cars could have been introduced on the USA roads by using the $25 billions used in the car industry bailout money? Easy math

25,000,000,0000 / 5,000

or 5 million air compressed cars, i.e., 2.5% of all the cars currently running in the US (about 200 millions).

This figure is certainly very conservative as we did not include the gas saving costs that derive from the use of the car. At an average of 12,000 miles/annum and cost of gas at $3, a 25 miles/gallon car costs about $1,250 /annum in gas, whereas the equivalent gas cost for a compressed air car will around $50/annum.

Moreover, the bailout assumes that part of the efficiency increase of going from 25 to 35 miles/gallon (in year 2016!) will be transfer to the cost of the car, and the estimate has been given in $1,300 which I will have to pay anyways to run a car that is 10 times less efficient than what I can buy in 2009.
Moreover, given the relatively cheap cost of this air compressed car, it will be easier to introduce the already announced "guzzlers junk trade" incentive for buying new cars ... say I will be able to get $1,000 for my old BMW

So let's take these costs off

25,000,000,0000 / (5,000 - 1000 - 1300 -1250 + 50)

and we are at about 8.5% of the number of cars currently running in the US, which reduces directly in a 8.5% CO2 emission reduction from cars ... now, not in 2016!
Such a number of cars is no doubt more than sufficient to pass the psychological threshold of changing the use of the car from status symbol back to its original purpose, a mean of transportation. Obviously, the more people you see running these cars, the easier it will be for you to accept the change, not counting peer pressure.

So, what's wrong in Washington these days? Is the current Administration a little weak in math?

Odd, as President Obama hired a Noble Prize winner for Physics as the US Secretary of Energy, who is absolutely familiar with the math level used above. So, what's wrong President Obama?

Maybe your "no-lobbies" policy isn't working after all? Or maybe, you are not really serious about the climate change to consider negligible such a reduction in carbon emission? Or perhaps, it is not worth the reduction in oil import from hostile countries to the US?

Just a few open questions ...


June 1st, 2009, Addendum
With today's announcement of GM's bankruptcy, there it goes an additional $30B ... and uncontrolled rumors give the cash for clunkers incentive in the $4k range ... do you really want me to redo the math?

The largest Farmers Calendar in the world

After spending a few hours playing with the newly launched Wolframalpha "computational knowledge engine", I was rolling on the floor, laughing in tears. Here is a beautiful example to the query "What is C++?"

Of course, while it knows everything about itself, it does not know other more mundane facts such as "What is Fortran" or any other language for that matter, not to mention its commercial rival Matlab!

An interesting answer was returned also to the query "What is Blaise Pascal first name?"

In short, the parsing capabilities of this self-proclaimed "computational knowledge engine" appear to be extremely poor, even when compared to less ambitious projects such as trueknowledge or cyc and make it closer to just a large database.

But what troubles me the most and ultimately prompted me to write this post, is the process of facts selection (curing) for this glorified Farmer's calendar known as Wolframalpha.

Wikipedia has, for instance, such a democratic approach to information that our collective knowledge becomes what the majority decides the truth to be, whereas in WA, the truth is nothing but what the oracle of Stefan Wolfram decides it to be.

It is sad to remark how the majority of the people in the western world tends more and more to confuse information with knowledge.

While the origin of such confusion can be easily rooted in pure greed economy (information can be sold cheaper than knowledge, and it does not appear to be limited), it is as if we were given pig's pods to eat and not realizing it.
We need to come to our senses, realize our sin and ask forgiveness to Our Father, the true source of all knowledge.

In memoriam of Eluana Englaro

November 25, 1970 in Lecco (Italy) - February 9, 2009 in Udine (Italy)

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Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord.

And let perpetual light shine upon her.

May she rest in peace. Amen

May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, 

through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

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