Monthly Archives: November 2008
Character
Somebody told me recently how electric vehicles pose an unexpected problem for car manufacturers, The internal combustion engine is a capricious piece of technology, but it allows you to make many design choices which give it a specific character (number … Continue reading
Fun
Who says electric minicars cannot be fun to drive? Onelectriccars.com shows the video of a Tazzari Zero without body, really driven like a gocart. With a 140-150 km range it sounds like something you could really (ab)use.
The Story of Stuff
How to explain what economists call externalities? The costs not visible in the pricetag of the product you buy but incurred to another part of society? The Story of Stuff does a fantastic job with a narrator and simple and … Continue reading
Bypass
For all of you who think that you can monitor and control users on the Internet: don’t read on. For everybody else who thinks geekdom will always find a way around filters and blocks: check this site. It allows you … Continue reading
1,2, a lot
Big numbers lose their meaning quickly. The “kazillions” of euro’s and dollars that governments allocate to dampen the effect of the current credit crisis just sound like “a lot”. BoingBoing has put the bailout numbers in the USA in perspective … Continue reading
Electrifying
Today I had a discussion about ratio’s (numbers). A lot of people are searching for simple formula’s and ratio’s that give perspective to a new technology or idea. Like full electric vehicles. If we assume that battery technology will improve … Continue reading
Protection
Person-to-person lending (a kind of microfinancing) has grown fast with the growth of the Internet. Wikipedia defines it as lending that occurs directly between individuals (“peers”) without the intermediation/participation of a traditional financial institution. Person-to-person lending appears in two primary variations: … Continue reading
Quote du Jour
“Triple-A status with the A of Arrogance” Peter-Paul de Vries in the talkshow ” Pauw en Witteman”, on the behaviour of bankers testifying before the Dutch Parliament.
Grundlich (3)
Earlier posts have referred to the extensive study on the climate change investment opportunities in the context of the credit crisis. One of their conclusion is very clear. Prices of oil and gas will go up because demand outstrips supply, but the … Continue reading
Spin
Your brain interprets what you see. People with a dominant right side of their brain see a clockwise turning lady, left sided see counterclockwise turns. But it is the same animation. A trick to force your brain to see otherwise … Continue reading