Tech Policy

British nuclear review

Guardian Unlimited | Blair gives nod to nuclear review

The prime minister today put a new generation of domestic nuclear power stations at the centre of the government's energy review, saying there was now 'feverish rethinking' of energy policy around the world.

This is a step required (well, required might be too strong a word) by the Energy White Paper a few years ago.  Nuclear proponents in Britain were frustrated that the Energy White Paper did not include a recommendation on nuclear power.  Instead, the white paper punted and said that another review would have to occur before new nuclear could be built.  This announcement is the begining of that process.

Energy Research Council White Papers

As I keep tabs on the MIT Energy Research Council, I just came across (via an email from the MIT Energy Mailing list) an interesting site with White Papers submitted to the ERC.  I've only breezed through the papers but they seem worth a closer look.  The instructions describe the motivation behind the solicitation:

The MIT Energy Research Council solicits brief white papers describing major multidisciplinary research areas MIT should pursue in the short (5-10 years) and long term (10-30 years). The white papers should describe broad, multidisciplinary, multi-investigator large-scale initiatives that focus on significant challenges facing our nation and the entire world.

Sounds like a good place for TPP students to research RAs in energy and the environment.

Hardly a Flat World

Brad Setser asks us to read Stephen Roach, so I did. Roach is offering his critique of the current globalization model:

... the asymmetries of globalization have an equally profound effect on the other side of the ledger -- on workers in the rich, developed world.  Over the past five years, industrial world labor markets have suffered from both jobless and now wageless recoveries. The US, with the world’s most flexible labor market, has been on the leading edge of these trends. While hiring has picked up over the past 24 months, the private sector job count remains more than 10.5 million workers below the profile that would have been generated by a more typical hiring cycle. Moreover, the inflation-adjusted hourly pay rate is virtually unchanged over the 46 months of this recovery -- underscoring the rare confluence of surging productivity growth and stagnant real wages. At the same time, structural unemployment remains a serious problem elsewhere in the developed world -- especially in both Europe and Japan, And make no mistake -- workers in the developed world are far from pleased over this outcome and the global context in which it has arisen.

Brad also pointed to a NYT story about the fall out of Delphi and GM job losses in Michigan. Incidently, the times story is a part of a series titled Rewriting the Social Contract.
It is generally understood that current model of globalization has several advantages. It is also quite clear however,  that nobody really understands the secondary consequences of the current globalization model well, at least not yet. I keep looking for answers.

University Channel, and other Podcasts

I recently got turned onto the new world of Podcasts. A Podcast is an audio program syndicated by RSS feeds, same as blogs.

I got turned onto the "University Channel" recently, a forum for disseminating lectures run by the Woodrow Wilson School. Its got some great stuff, and its all free.

Does anyone have any other podcasts that they like?

On Science and Math Education

Saheli has some excellent, very excellent posts on science and math education. I often wonder about math and science types who show disregard for all things other than science and technology. I think that over time they will realize their folly. Many a times, I am bugged by the other side who have no inclination to know about S&T, and even worse have never been encouraged to look at science and math aspects of education. Saheli asks very pertinent questions:

Our budget is deeply out of balance, our climate is changing, we're fighting over teaching the basis of all modern biology in the public schools, and the current rage in the blogosphere is over the technical meaning of the chemical in chemical weapons. The American people have very little understanding of how income and poverty are distributed in this country, how common death and destruction are in Iraq, or how much more likely they themselves are to die by gunshot than by plane crash. What do you think tomorrow's citizens need to learn better?

I only skimmed the posts for now, but I am going to print these out and read them at leisure.

Hybrids, Nerds, and the Search for Truth

When it comes to cutting through all the bulls--t, there is no one better for the job than a nerd. With all the recent interest in hybrid cars due to the price of gasoline, I've heard a lot of chatter about the economics of owning a hybrid. NPR, Nightly Business Report (NBR?), Slate are a few amoung many new outlets talking about the savings (or lack thereof) when switching to hybrids. But who can really trust these media points whose conservative bias and liberal pandering cloud the analytic judgement as they slave for ratings. We really need to hear this from a nerd.

And the nerds have heeded our calls. Omninerd has posted what I perceive as the most thorough analysis of hybrid economics on the web today. Seriously good stuff here. I was always continuously frustrated by people comparing the Prius to a Corolla. The Corolla is a piece of s--t (I kinda like dashing out cuss words, as if you don't know what I'm saying) and one of the lightest cars on the road today, so of course it is cheap and gets better than average gas mileage... in my mind an unfair measuring stick. Omninerd compares multiple hybrids to regular cars across the board. They even consider the costs of loans, the economics of trade-ins, and driving habits for pete's sake (who's pete?) and really boil it down to what would it cost per month. Nice work all-in-all.

A Slashdot post made the results sound like bad news for hybrid fans. My initial reaction to the post was of course hybrids are not economically justified on the gas mileage. If they were, car makers would be giving away the green premium they can charge for them. Hybrids will never be this way until the general public's willingness to pay (...okay the green public's willingness to pay) is based solely on MPG. (Incidentally, the Slashdot posting cause so much traffic to the Omninerd site that the nice graphics in the article were taken down for a period of time last week.)

However, after reading the article I see hope in the nerdy analysis. There are choices for which the hybrid is economically better. In this graphic, Omninerd does the data a disservice by showing the Net Monthly Savings as a negative number. One would have to read a bit to understand that he is comparing a 1999 already owned Accord to buying a new car. Looking closely you can see that if you were comparing a 2006 Toyota Camry with a 2006 Toyota Prius, the Prius is actually more economical. I understand that many would object to compaing these two different "classes" of cars, but to me this shows that the economic divide is not so large as some imply.  At any rate, hybrids will remain more expensive as long as people are willing to pay that much.

Now your job is to cut through my bulls--t and make your own conclusions.  Be secure that you are backed by a nerd.

Chuck Hagel Continues to Impress

Earlier in September, I noted that Chuck Hagel (R-NE) made some of the more interesting remarks at the Terrorism, Security, and America's Purpose conference. Yesterday, Hagel spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations on The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy. The Kansas speech referenced by Hagel was delivered at Kansas State Landon Lecture Series.
While I applaud Hagel's position on foreign policy issues, I know little about his domestic policies. Yet, while I dont know if he will make it, I feel that Hagel should be someone to watch closely on the road to White House in 2008.

Pot Holes in Bangalore

Bangalore has made a lot of news worldwide as the software Mecca of India. I had never been to Bangalore until last year, and one of the purpose of my visit was to check out the city from the point of view of livability. Apart from problems with erratic electricity supply, and not so uncommon water shortages, what stood out in that trip was the condition of roads in Bangalore. Now, some Bangalore residents have decided to develop a community response to the poor condition of roads in Bangalore. Check out Bangalore Pot Hole. As the web site says:

Through BangalorePotHole.com, citizens of Bangalore are allowed to share their experiences on the roads, especially with the pot holes. It also provides a valuable insight into inconveniences, accidents and other risks factors attached as result of poor maintenance of roads.
In an effort to facilitate this dialogue, we have put together together information on engineering facts of local street maintenance. We hope that based on this information you and other citizens in your community can become a positive and effective force in working with your local officials for better streets.

There is also an FAQ about Pot Holes and what citizens can do about them. It's high time Bangalore paid attention to it's infrastructure (or lack thereof).

MIT Energy Club Survey of Students on Energy Issues

The MIT Energy Club submitted a White Paper to the MIT Energy Research Council last month outlining actions they believe will enable MIT to maximize its impact on global challenges in energy and the environment.

As part of the effort, the Energy Club conducted a survey of MIT students.  The survey asked students to rank the biggest global energy issues and suggest research priorities for MIT in the energy domain.

I have not read the entire White Paper but it looks like it has some good ideas.  Lead among their recommendations is to "form a virtual energy center" - it will be interesting to see if anything comes of that given how difficult is seems to be to change web configurations at MIT.  I hope that the public are able to access it (or, at least, alumni).  [If this type of site already exists in some form, let me know.]

The survey results are also worth a skim.  Surprising things to me: that "resource depletion" ranks as high as "global warming" (the top two) when listing global energy issues where MIT should focus and that Nuclear Fusion is at the top of the list of technologies MIT should research (with hydrogen and fuel cells).  Batteries are much lower than I would have guessed - and clean coal is way low.  Prof. Tester is going to be pissed about geothermal.

TPP and ESD students appear in the credits of the White Paper - along with some Sloanies, MechEs, and DUSPies.  Nice work, folks.

... and I thought that the US believed in Market Economy

Frankly, I am sick of hearing how high the gasoline prices are (THEY AREN'T) and how much money oil companies are making (A LOT). James Hamilton has a snarky post titled Senate finds the facts about Big Oil, and Environmental Economics has more (althogh they were published in the reverse order).