So much for all the talk, money and effort put into hybrid cars. The LA Auto Show has awarded their Green Car of the Year award to a diesel for the second year in a row. If diesel engines are so “green”, why the effort to build expensive hybrids, with their expensive batteries, risks of …
Category Archive: Engineering
Nov 18
On Harper’s nuclear deal with India
This could be a very good plan, depending on how it plays out. Here are the reasons: The world wants to build more nuclear plants, but there is a problem – the availability of fuel (uranium) and enrichment capabilities may not grow as fast as demand, which could drive up the cost of nuclear …
Sep 02
One Way Ticket to Mars
Lawrence Krauss, the relatively well-known physicist and author of The Physics of Star Trek, has proposed in an op-ed piece in the Old Gray Lady that we change our mindset about sending people to Mars. He thinks that perhaps it should be a one-way trip. I think his proposal is perfectly valid. The fact is, …
Aug 14
On Carbon Sequestration
Lawrence Solomon has an excellent article in the National Post concerning the concept of carbon-capture and sequestration and the fact that the sequestration step is a problem that has not been shown to be particularly safe nor reliable. Admittedly, CO2 has been injected into oil fields around North America in significant quantities to enhance oil …
Aug 12
Book Review : Why new systems fail
While I am not involved in the specific field, I found the book “Why New Systems Fail: Theory and Practice Collide” educational. This brief text is written in a casual style that makes it easy to read, while at the same time seeming less “professional” and less likely to be taken seriously by senior executives …
Jul 10
On CO2 and the G8 “promise”
This week, the G8 promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mostly CO2) by 80% by 2050. Now they didn’t commit to what datum point in time is (1990? 2009?) and didn’t really sign anything that would penalize a nation for failing to do so. Which makes it kind of meaningless. Canada’s environment minister, Jim Prentice, …
Jul 10
On High Speed Rail
There has been much talk of late (again) about the potential for high-speed rail, à la France’s TGV or Spain’s Avé, being built between Calgary and Edmonton, or from Windsor to Quebec. In my opinion, neither of these makes a lot of sense, and doesn’t seem to me to be a good use of public money …
Jul 04
On the SW Calgary Ring Road
This past week, the members of the Tsuu T’ina Nation voted 60% to reject a plan put forward by the City of Calgary and Province of Alberta to trade land on the eastern edge of the reserve for other lands to be named later. The City wanted this land to build the southwest leg of …
May 28
Finally, they are selling it…
The government of Canada has finally come to an intelligent idea: selling the CANDU business of AECL. This is the right thing to do – because there is no reason for the government to be in the business of developing this technology, nor trying to sell and support the CANDU reactors around the world. Free-enterprise …
Mar 03
Where do they get their numbers?
In Tuesday’s National Post, Juliet O’Neill of Canwest News Service quotes the climate change campaign manager of the WWF Canada, Keith Stewart: The lack of reference to the oil sands was no accident, says Keith Stewart, manager of the climate change campaign at the World Wildlife Federation of Canada. The federation estimates that while it …