"Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."
- Mark Twain
I check the comments on this blog regularly. The idea is that we're going to have a conversation about the ideas I've presented. You should be aware of the fact that when someone emails me an interesting comment, the odds are good that I'll post that in the comments anonymously and reply to that comment on the blog rather than in email.
Sep 25, 2009
What are Honda Engineers doing with Their Spare Time?
Now that Honda has abandoned the Honda Hoot, the V-10 NSX supercar, clean diesels, and the AMA Superbike and Formula 1 racing programs, what are Honda engineers going to do with all that spare time?
3 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Build more Asimo robots? Try to sell their oversized Prius replicas?
The Diesel car was just an application of NOx trap technology - not new research.
I think of all that stuff as being "one legged table tech". Sure, you could build a battery-powered, inertially-stabilized one-legged table. But why would you do it? Not for a practical reason, but to excite comment. Just as presidents always get favorable reviews when they talk about "the hydrogen economy", even though there is no hydrogen in a chemically free state.
People speak vaguely of "alternative fuels", as if suddenly some person in one of those overhead door units will discover that sandstone burns. Yes, Mr. President, we already know we could stop all US food production and raise as corn/ethanol almost enough "bio-fuel" to power the nation's vehicles. Will we then eat the sandstone? Get real, people - there ARE no alternative fuels with any prospect of taking over even a small fraction of human energy needs - other than what we already know about - oil, gas, coal, farmland, solar, hydro, tidal, nuclear,geothermal. There aren't going to be giant solar reflectors in space because no one is going to build the lift capability to get it up there. No one shows much interest in paving over Arizona (which has been proposed so many times) with oil/algae farms, 25% efficient solar cells, &c because (1) the land already belongs to someone and (2) there isn't enough money or materials in the world to pave states with technologies.
Hand-waving self-deniers want us to voluntarily use less energy. What about previous campaigns to have fewer guns, drink no alcohol, not be pregnant, raise SAT scores, conquer cancer, reduce use of illegal drugs to zero? All have either failed outright or resulted in barely-detectable pimples of effect.
Oh, we'll put all the liberals in prison so then we can (1) drill the Bakken Formation (2) pull vast oil reserves from off Hermosa Beach, Calif (3) expose fraudulent USGS reports deliberately underestimating the oil under Alaska's northern tundra (4) make the Canadians give us the Athabasca Tar Sands AND divert Canadian rivers to the US Four Corners region so it can be used to process untold amounts of oil shale to result in a return of 1945-type total US dominance of everything. Finally, Oldsmobile returns to production and brings back the Vista Cruiser wagon. Sigh.
3 comments:
Build more Asimo robots? Try to sell their oversized Prius replicas?
The Diesel car was just an application of NOx trap technology - not new
research.
KC
I think of all that stuff as being "one legged table tech". Sure, you could build a battery-powered, inertially-stabilized one-legged table. But why would you do it? Not for a practical reason, but to excite comment. Just as presidents always get favorable reviews when they talk about "the hydrogen economy", even though there is no hydrogen in a chemically free state.
KC
People speak vaguely of "alternative fuels", as if suddenly some person in one of those overhead door units will discover that sandstone burns.
Yes, Mr. President, we already know we could stop all US food production and raise as corn/ethanol almost enough "bio-fuel" to power the nation's vehicles. Will we then eat the sandstone? Get real, people
- there ARE no alternative fuels with any prospect of taking over even a small fraction of human energy needs - other than what we already know about - oil, gas, coal, farmland, solar, hydro, tidal, nuclear,geothermal. There aren't going to be giant solar reflectors in space because no one is going to build the lift capability to get it up there. No one shows much interest in paving over Arizona (which has been proposed so many times) with oil/algae farms, 25% efficient solar cells, &c because (1) the land already belongs to someone and (2) there isn't enough money or materials in the world to pave states with technologies.
Hand-waving self-deniers want us to voluntarily use less energy. What about previous campaigns to have fewer guns, drink no alcohol, not be pregnant, raise SAT scores, conquer cancer, reduce use of illegal drugs to zero? All have either failed outright or resulted in barely-detectable pimples of effect.
Oh, we'll put all the liberals in prison so then we can (1) drill the Bakken Formation (2) pull vast oil reserves from off Hermosa Beach, Calif (3) expose fraudulent USGS reports deliberately underestimating the oil under Alaska's northern tundra (4) make the Canadians give us the Athabasca Tar Sands AND divert Canadian rivers to the US Four Corners region so it can be used to process untold amounts of oil shale to result in a return of 1945-type total US dominance of everything.
Finally, Oldsmobile returns to production and brings back the Vista Cruiser wagon. Sigh.
KC
Post a Comment